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Local Accession Number: 2012.AAP.308
Title: Is polite society polite and other essays by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe
Creator/Contributor: Reed, Ethel, b. 1874 (artist)
Created/Published: Boston : Lamson, Wolffe & Co.
Date issued: 1895 (inferred)
Physical description: 1 print (poster) : lithograph ; 45 x 64 cm.
Summary: Flowers are on the background of the poster.
Genre: Book & magazine posters; Lithographs
Subjects: Flowers
Notes: Title from item.
Date note: Date from: American Art Posters of the 1890s in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Including the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.
Statement of responsibility: Ethel Reed
Collection: American Art Posters 1890-1920
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: No known restrictions.
File name: 08_05_000311
Title: Atlantic City. America's great all year resort
Creator/Contributor: Eggleston, Edward M., b. 1887 (artist)
Date issued: 1910-1959 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 print (poster) : color
Genre: Travel posters; Prints
Subjects: Resorts; Vacations; Pennsylvania Railroad
Notes: Title from item.
Statement of responsibility: Eggleston
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Rights status not evaluated
Esta madrugada iba en autobús desde Madrid hacia Granada. El coche que teníamos delante hizo un movimiento brusco en plena recta, y terminó atravesándose en la carretera y dando algunas vueltas de campana. Los pasajeros salieron por su propio pie, y afortunadamente, parece que no les pasó nada. El conductor iba completamente borracho. ¡¿¡A QUIEN COÑO SE LE OCURRE?!? Una decisión estúpida te puede destrozar la vida...
Tened cuidado... especialmente en noches como esta...
La foto no es que tenga una gran calidad óptica (Sin flash, ISO 1600, 85mm, 1/6 de exposición), pero creo que es lo de menos... No me importa añadir que una de las chicas que viajaba en el coche me pidió que no hiciera fotos, pero la verdad, me dio igual. Esa misma chica estaba gritando que por favor, NO llamáramos a la policía. En ocasiones con una sola imagen se puede denunciar más que con mil palabras.
What craziness is this, a day in that London on a weekday? Well, working one day last weekend, and another next weekend, meant I took a day in Lieu.
So there.
And top of my list of places to visit was St Magnus. This would be the fifth time I have tried to get inside, and the first since I wrote to the church asking whether they would be open a particular Saturday, and then any Saturday. Letters which were ignored
So, I walked out of Monument Station, down the hill there was St Magnus: would it be open?
It was, and inside it was a box, nay a treasure chest of delights.
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St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London,[1] is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Fulham.[2] It is a Grade I listed building.[3] The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector". [4]
St Magnus lies on the original alignment of London Bridge between the City and Southwark. The ancient parish was united with that of St Margaret, New Fish Street, in 1670 and with that of St Michael, Crooked Lane, in 1831.[5] The three united parishes retained separate vestries and churchwardens.[6] Parish clerks continue to be appointed for each of the three parishes.[7]
St Magnus is the guild church of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, and the ward church of the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without. It is also twinned with the Church of the Resurrection in New York City.[8]
Its prominent location and beauty has prompted many mentions in literature.[9] In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens notes how, as Nancy heads for her secret meeting with Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie on London Bridge, "the tower of old Saint Saviour's Church, and the spire of Saint Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancient bridge, were visible in the gloom". The church's spiritual and architectural importance is celebrated in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, who adds in a footnote that "the interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors".[10] One biographer of Eliot notes that at first he enjoyed St Magnus aesthetically for its "splendour"; later he appreciated its "utility" when he came there as a sinner.
The church is dedicated to St Magnus the Martyr, earl of Orkney, who died on 16 April in or around 1116 (the precise year is unknown).[12] He was executed on the island of Egilsay having been captured during a power struggle with his cousin, a political rival.[13] Magnus had a reputation for piety and gentleness and was canonised in 1135. St. Ronald, the son of Magnus's sister Gunhild Erlendsdotter, became Earl of Orkney in 1136 and in 1137 initiated the construction of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.[14] The story of St. Magnus has been retold in the 20th century in the chamber opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1976)[15] by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, based on George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus (1973).
he identity of the St Magnus referred to in the church's dedication was only confirmed by the Bishop of London in 1926.[16] Following this decision a patronal festival service was held on 16 April 1926.[17] In the 13th century the patronage was attributed to one of the several saints by the name of Magnus who share a feast day on 19 August, probably St Magnus of Anagni (bishop and martyr, who was slain in the persecution of the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3rd century).[18] However, by the early 18th century it was suggested that the church was either "dedicated to the memory of St Magnus or Magnes, who suffer'd under the Emperor Aurelian in 276 [see St Mammes of Caesarea, feast day 17 August], or else to a person of that name, who was the famous Apostle or Bishop of the Orcades."[19] For the next century historians followed the suggestion that the church was dedicated to the Roman saint of Cæsarea.[20] The famous Danish archaeologist Professor Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–85) promoted the attribution to St Magnus of Orkney during his visit to the British Isles in 1846-7, when he was formulating the concept of the 'Viking Age',[21] and a history of London written in 1901 concluded that "the Danes, on their second invasion ... added at least two churches with Danish names, Olaf and Magnus".[22] A guide to the City Churches published in 1917 reverted to the view that St Magnus was dedicated to a martyr of the third century,[23] but the discovery of St Magnus of Orkney's relics in 1919 renewed interest in a Scandinavian patron and this connection was encouraged by the Rector who arrived in 1921
A metropolitan bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 314, which indicates that there must have been a Christian community in Londinium by this date, and it has been suggested that a large aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill can be compared with the 4th-century Cathedral of St Tecla in Milan.[25] However, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that any of the mediaeval churches in the City of London had a Roman foundation.[26] A grant from William I in 1067 to Westminster Abbey, which refers to the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge ("lapidee eccle sci magni prope pontem"), is generally accepted to be 12th century forgery,[27] and it is possible that a charter of confirmation in 1108-16 might also be a later fabrication.[28] Nonetheless, these manuscripts may preserve valid evidence of a date of foundation in the 11th century.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area of the bridgehead was not occupied from the early 5th century until the early 10th century. Environmental evidence indicates that the area was waste ground during this period, colonised by elder and nettles. Following Alfred's decision to reoccupy the walled area of London in 886, new harbours were established at Queenhithe and Billingsgate. A bridge was in place by the early 11th century, a factor which would have encouraged the occupation of the bridgehead by craftsmen and traders.[30] A lane connecting Botolph's Wharf and Billingsgate to the rebuilt bridge may have developed by the mid-11th century. The waterfront at this time was a hive of activity, with the construction of embankments sloping down from the riverside wall to the river. Thames Street appeared in the second half of the 11th century immediately behind (north of) the old Roman riverside wall and in 1931 a piling from this was discovered during the excavation of the foundations of a nearby building. It now stands at the base of the church tower.[31] St Magnus was built to the south of Thames Street to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area[32] and was certainly in existence by 1128-33.[33]
The small ancient parish[34] extended about 110 yards along the waterfront either side of the old bridge, from 'Stepheneslane' (later Churchehawlane or Church Yard Alley) and 'Oystergate' (later called Water Lane or Gully Hole) on the West side to 'Retheresgate' (a southern extension of Pudding Lane) on the East side, and was centred on the crossroads formed by Fish Street Hill (originally Bridge Street, then New Fish Street) and Thames Street.[35] The mediaeval parish also included Drinkwater's Wharf (named after the owner, Thomas Drinkwater), which was located immediately West of the bridge, and Fish Wharf, which was to the South of the church. The latter was of considerable importance as the fishmongers had their shops on the wharf. The tenement was devised by Andrew Hunte to the Rector and Churchwardens in 1446.[36] The ancient parish was situated in the South East part of Bridge Ward, which had evolved in the 11th century between the embankments to either side of the bridge.[37]
In 1182 the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey agreed that the advowson of St Magnus should be divided equally between them. Later in the 1180s, on their presentation, the Archdeacon of London inducted his nephew as parson.
Between the late Saxon period and 1209 there was a series of wooden bridges across the Thames, but in that year a stone bridge was completed.[39] The work was overseen by Peter de Colechurch, a priest and head of the Fraternity of the Brethren of London Bridge. The Church had from early times encouraged the building of bridges and this activity was so important it was perceived to be an act of piety - a commitment to God which should be supported by the giving of alms. London’s citizens made gifts of land and money "to God and the Bridge".[40] The Bridge House Estates became part of the City's jurisdiction in 1282.
Until 1831 the bridge was aligned with Fish Street Hill, so the main entrance into the City from the south passed the West door of St Magnus on the north bank of the river.[41] The bridge included a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket[42] for the use of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury Cathedral to visit his tomb.[43] The chapel and about two thirds of the bridge were in the parish of St Magnus. After some years of rivalry a dispute arose between the church and the chapel over the offerings given to the chapel by the pilgrims. The matter was resolved by the brethren of the chapel making an annual contribution to St Magnus.[44] At the Reformation the chapel was turned into a house and later a warehouse, the latter being demolished in 1757-58.
The church grew in importance. On 21 November 1234 a grant of land was made to the parson of St Magnus for the enlargement of the church.[45] The London eyre of 1244 recorded that in 1238 "A thief named William of Ewelme of the county of Buckingham fled to the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, London, and there acknowledged the theft and abjured the realm. He had no chattels."[46] Another entry recorded that "The City answers saying that the church of ... St. Magnus the Martyr ... which [is] situated on the king's highway ... ought to belong to the king and be in his gift".[47] The church presumably jutted into the road running to the bridge, as it did in later times.[48] In 1276 it was recorded that "the church of St. Magnus the Martyr is worth £15 yearly and Master Geoffrey de la Wade now holds it by the grant of the prior of Bermundeseie and the abbot of Westminster to whom King Henry conferred the advowson by his charter.
In 1274 "came King Edward and his wife [Eleanor] from the Holy Land and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday next after the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady [15 August], being the Feast of Saint Magnus [19 August]; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the day with red wine and white wine to drink, for all such as wished."[50] Stow records that "in the year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I against the Scots, every citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but especially the fishmongers" whose solemn procession including a knight "representing St Magnus, because it was upon St Magnus' day".
An important religious guild, the Confraternity de Salve Regina, was in existence by 1343, having been founded by the "better sort of the Parish of St Magnus" to sing the anthem 'Salve Regina' every evening.[51] The Guild certificates of 1389 record that the Confraternity of Salve Regina and the guild of St Thomas the Martyr in the chapel on the bridge, whose members belonged to St Magnus parish, had determined to become one, to have the anthem of St Thomas after the Salve Regina and to devote their united resources to restoring and enlarging the church of St Magnus.[52] An Act of Parliament of 1437[53] provided that all incorporated fraternities and companies should register their charters and have their ordinances approved by the civic authorities.[54] Fear of enquiry into their privileges may have led established fraternities to seek a firm foundation for their rights. The letters patent of the fraternity of St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr of Salve Regina in St Magnus dated 26 May 1448 mention that the fraternity had petitioned for a charter on the grounds that the society was not duly founded.
In the mid-14th century the Pope was the Patron of the living and appointed five rectors to the benefice.[56]
Henry Yevele, the master mason whose work included the rebuilding of Westminster Hall and the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, was a parishioner and rebuilt the chapel on London Bridge between 1384 and 1397. He served as a warden of London Bridge and was buried at St Magnus on his death in 1400. His monument was extant in John Stow's time, but was probably destroyed by the fire of 1666.[57]
Yevele, as the King’s Mason, was overseen by Geoffrey Chaucer in his capacity as the Clerk of the King's Works. In The General Prologue of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales the five guildsmen "were clothed alle in o lyveree Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee"[58] and may be thought of as belonging to the guild in the parish of St Magnus, or one like it.[59] Chaucer's family home was near to the bridge in Thames Street.
n 1417 a dispute arose concerning who should take the place of honour amongst the rectors in the City churches at the Whit Monday procession, a place that had been claimed from time to time by the rectors of St Peter Cornhill, St Magnus the Martyr and St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The Mayor and Aldermen decided that the Rector of St Peter Cornhill should take precedence.[61]
St Magnus Corner at the north end of London Bridge was an important meeting place in mediaeval London, where notices were exhibited, proclamations read out and wrongdoers punished.[62] As it was conveniently close to the River Thames, the church was chosen by the Bishop between the 15th and 17th centuries as a convenient venue for general meetings of the clergy in his diocese.[63] Dr John Young, Bishop of Callipolis (rector of St Magnus 1514-15) pronounced judgement on 16 December 1514 (with the Bishop of London and in the presence of Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London) in the heresy case concerning Richard Hunne.[64]
In pictures from the mid-16th century the old church looks very similar to the present-day St Giles without Cripplegate in the Barbican.[65] According to the martyrologist John Foxe, a woman was imprisoned in the 'cage' on London Bridge in April 1555 and told to "cool herself there" for refusing to pray at St Magnus for the recently deceased Pope Julius III.[66]
Simon Lowe, a Member of Parliament and Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company during the reign of Queen Mary and one of the jurors who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554, was a parishioner.[67] He was a mourner at the funeral of Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester from 1554 to 1558 and Rector of St Magnus from 1537 to 1558, who was interred in the church on 30 November 1558 with much solemnity. In accordance with the Catholic church's desire to restore ecclesiastical pageantry in England, the funeral was a splendid affair, ending in a magnificent dinner.
Lowe was included in a return of recusants in the Diocese of Rochester in 1577,[69] but was buried at St Magnus on 6 February 1578.[70] Stow refers to his monument in the church. His eldest son, Timothy (died 1617), was knighted in 1603. His second son, Alderman Sir Thomas Lowe (1550–1623), was Master of the Haberdashers' Company on several occasions, Sheriff of London in 1595/96, Lord Mayor in 1604/05 and a Member of Parliament for London.[71] His youngest son, Blessed John Lowe (1553–1586), having originally been a Protestant minister, converted to Roman Catholicism, studied for the priesthood at Douay and Rome and returned to London as a missionary priest.[72] His absence had already been noted; a list of 1581 of "such persons of the Diocese of London as have any children ... beyond the seas" records "John Low son to Margaret Low of the Bridge, absent without licence four years". Having gained 500 converts to Catholicism between 1583 and 1586, he was arrested whilst walking with his mother near London Bridge, committed to The Clink and executed at Tyburn on 8 October 1586.[73] He was beatified in 1987 as one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.
Sir William Garrard, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman, Sheriff of London in 1553/53, Lord Mayor in 1555/56 and a Member of Parliament was born in the parish and buried at St Magnus in 1571.[74] Sir William Romney, merchant, philanthropist, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman for Bridge Within and Sheriff of London in 1603/04[75] was married at St Magnus in 1582. Ben Jonson is believed to have been married at St Magnus in 1594.[76]
The patronage of St Magnus, having previously been in the Abbots and Convents of Westminster and Bermondsey (who presented alternatively), fell to the Crown on the suppression of the monasteries. In 1553, Queen Mary, by letters patent, granted it to the Bishop of London and his successors.[77]
The church had a series of distinguished rectors in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century, including Myles Coverdale (Rector 1564-66), John Young (Rector 1566-92), Theophilus Aylmer (Rector 1592-1625), (Archdeacon of London and son of John Aylmer), and Cornelius Burges (Rector 1626-41). Coverdale was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, but when that church was pulled down in 1840 his remains were removed to St Magnus.[78]
On 5 November 1562 the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken, in two parts all the altar stones in the church.[79] Coverdale, an anti-vestiarian, was Rector at the peak of the vestments controversy. In March 1566 Archbishop Parker caused great consternation among many clergy by his edicts prescribing what was to be worn and by his summoning the London clergy to Lambeth to require their compliance. Coverdale excused himself from attending.[80] Stow records that a non-conforming Scot who normally preached at St Magnus twice a day precipitated a fight on Palm Sunday 1566 at Little All Hallows in Thames Street with his preaching against vestments.[81] Coverdale's resignation from St Magnus in summer 1566 may have been associated with these events. Separatist congregations started to emerge after 1566 and the first such, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord', was discovered close to St Magnus at Plumbers' Hall in Thames Street on 19 June 1567.
St Magnus narrowly escaped destruction in 1633. A later edition of Stow's Survey records that "On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; water then being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over."[83] Susannah Chambers "by her last will & testament bearing date 28th December 1640 gave the sum of Twenty-two shillings and Sixpence Yearly for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of February in every Year within the Church of Saint Magnus in commemoration of God's merciful preservation of the said Church of Saint Magnus from Ruin, by the late and terrible Fire on London Bridge. Likewise Annually to the Poor the sum of 17/6."[84] The tradition of a "Fire Sermon" was revived on 12 February 2004, when the first preacher was the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.
Parliamentarian rule and the more Protestant ethos of the 1640s led to the removal or destruction of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" images and fittings. Glass painters such as Baptista Sutton, who had previously installed "Laudian innovations", found new employment by repairing and replacing these to meet increasingly strict Protestant standards. In January 1642 Sutton replaced 93 feet of glass at St Magnus and in June 1644 he was called back to take down the "painted imagery glass" and replace it.[86] In June 1641 "rail riots" broke out at a number of churches. This was a time of high tension following the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford and rumours of army and popish plots were rife. The Protestation Oath, with its pledge to defend the true religion "against all Popery and popish innovation", triggered demands from parishioners for the removal of the rails as popish innovations which the Protestation had bound them to reform. The minister arranged a meeting between those for and against the pulling down of the rails, but was unsuccessful in reaching a compromise and it was feared that they would be demolished by force.[87] However, in 1663 the parish resumed Laudian practice and re-erected rails around its communion table.[88]
Joseph Caryl was incumbent from 1645 until his ejection in 1662. In 1663 he was reportedly living near London Bridge and preaching to an Independent congregation that met at various places in the City.[89]
During the Great Plague of 1665, the City authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Daniel Defoe's semi-fictictional, but highly realistic, work A Journal of the Plague Year records that one of these was "just by St Magnus Church"
Despite its escape in 1633, the church was one of the first buildings to be destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.[91] St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started. Farriner, a former churchwarden of St Magnus, was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 11 December 1670, perhaps within a temporary structure erected for holding services.[92]
The parish engaged the master mason George Dowdeswell to start the work of rebuilding in 1668. The work was carried forward between 1671 and 1687 under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, the body of the church being substantially complete by 1676.[93] At a cost of £9,579 19s 10d St Magnus was one of Wren's most expensive churches.[94] The church of St Margaret New Fish Street was not rebuilt after the fire and its parish was united to that of St Magnus.
The chancels of many of Wren’s city churches had chequered marble floors and the chancel of St Magnus is an example,[95] the parish agreeing after some debate to place the communion table on a marble ascent with steps[96] and to commission altar rails of Sussex wrought iron. The nave and aisles are paved with freestone flags. A steeple, closely modelled on one built between 1614 and 1624 by François d'Aguilon and Pieter Huyssens for the church of St Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp, was added between 1703 and 1706.[97] London's skyline was transformed by Wren's tall steeples and that of St Magnus is considered to be one his finest.[98]
The large clock projecting from the tower was a well-known landmark in the city as it hung over the roadway of Old London Bridge.[99] It was presented to the church in 1709 by Sir Charles Duncombe[100] (Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within and, in 1708/09, Lord Mayor of London). Tradition says "that it was erected in consequence of a vow made by the donor, who, in the earlier part of his life, had once to wait a considerable time in a cart upon London Bridge, without being able to learn the hour, when he made a promise, that if he ever became successful in the world, he would give to that Church a public clock ... that all passengers might see the time of day."[101] The maker was Langley Bradley, a clockmaker in Fenchurch Street, who had worked for Wren on many other projects, including the clock for the new St Paul's Cathedral. The sword rest in the church, designed to hold the Lord Mayor's sword and mace when he attended divine service "in state", dates from 1708.
Duncombe and his benefactions to St Magnus feature prominently in Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, a biting satire on critics of William III that went through several editions from 1700 (the year in which Duncombe was elected Sheriff).
Shortly before his death in 1711, Duncombe commissioned an organ for the church, the first to have a swell-box, by Abraham Jordan (father and son).[103] The Spectator announced that "Whereas Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have, with their own hands, joinery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next [14 February 1712], the performance by Mr John Robinson. The above-said Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said Church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it".[104]
The organ case, which remains in its original state, is looked upon as one of the finest existing examples of the Grinling Gibbons's school of wood carving.[105] The first organist of St Magnus was John Robinson (1682–1762), who served in that role for fifty years and in addition as organist of Westminster Abbey from 1727. Other organists have included the blind organist George Warne (1792–1868, organist 1820-26 until his appointment to the Temple Church), James Coward (1824–80, organist 1868-80 who was also organist to the Crystal Palace and renowned for his powers of improvisation) and George Frederick Smith FRCO (1856–1918, organist 1880-1918 and Professor of Music at the Guildhall School of Music).[106] The organ has been restored several times - in 1760, 1782, 1804, 1855, 1861, 1879, 1891, 1924, 1949 after wartime damage and 1997 - since it was first built.[107] Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of several patrons of the organ appeal in the mid-1990s[108] and John Scott gave an inaugural recital on 20 May 1998 following the completion of that restoration.[109] The instrument has an Historic Organ Certificate and full details are recorded in the National Pipe Organ Register.[110]
The hymn tune "St Magnus", usually sung at Ascensiontide to the text "The head that once was crowned with thorns", was written by Jeremiah Clarke in 1701 and named for the church.
Canaletto drew St Magnus and old London Bridge as they appeared in the late 1740s.[112] Between 1756 and 1762, under the London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756 (c. 40), the Corporation of London demolished the buildings on London Bridge to widen the roadway, ease traffic congestion and improve safety for pedestrians.[113] The churchwardens’ accounts of St Magnus list many payments to those injured on the Bridge and record that in 1752 a man was crushed to death between two carts.[114] After the House of Commons had resolved upon the alteration of London Bridge, the Rev Robert Gibson, Rector of St Magnus, applied to the House for relief; stating that 48l. 6s. 2d. per annum, part of his salary of 170l. per annum, was assessed upon houses on London Bridge; which he should utterly lose by their removal unless a clause in the bill about to be passed should provide a remedy.[115] Accordingly, Sections 18 and 19 of 1756 Act provided that the relevant amounts of tithe and poor rate should be a charge on the Bridge House Estates.[116]
A serious fire broke out on 18 April 1760 in an oil shop at the south east corner of the church, which consumed most of the church roof and did considerable damage to the fabric. The fire burnt warehouses to the south of the church and a number of houses on the northern end of London Bridge.
As part of the bridge improvements, overseen by the architect Sir Robert Taylor, a new pedestrian walkway was built along the eastern side of the bridge. With the other buildings gone St Magnus blocked the new walkway.[117] As a consequence it was necessary in 1762 to 1763 to remove the vestry rooms at the West end of the church and open up the side arches of the tower so that people could pass underneath the tower.[118] The tower’s lower storey thus became an external porch. Internally a lobby was created at the West end under the organ gallery and a screen with fine octagonal glazing inserted. A new Vestry was built to the South of the church.[119] The Act also provided that the land taken from the church for the widening was "to be considered ... as part of the cemetery of the said church ... but if the pavement thereof be broken up on account of the burying of any persons, the same shall be ... made good ... by the churchwardens"
Soldiers were stationed in the Vestry House of St Magnus during the Gordon Riots in June 1780.[121]
By 1782 the noise level from the activities of Billingsgate Fish Market had become unbearable and the large windows on the north side of the church were blocked up leaving only circular windows high up in the wall.[122] At some point between the 1760s and 1814 the present clerestory was constructed with its oval windows and fluted and coffered plasterwork.[123] J. M. W. Turner painted the church in the mid-1790s.[124]
The rector of St Magnus between 1792 and 1808, following the death of Robert Gibson on 28 July 1791,[125] was Thomas Rennell FRS. Rennell was President of Sion College in 1806/07. There is a monument to Thomas Leigh (Rector 1808-48 and President of Sion College 1829/30,[126] at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex.[127] Richard Hazard (1761–1837) was connected with the church as sexton, parish clerk and ward beadle for nearly 50 years[128] and served as Master of the Parish Clerks' Company in 1831/32.[129]
In 1825 the church was "repaired and beautified at a very considerable expense. During the reparation the east window, which had been closed, was restored, and the interior of the fabric conformed to the state in which it was left by its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The magnificent organ ... was taken down and rebuilt by Mr Parsons, and re-opened, with the church, on the 12th February, 1826".[130] Unfortunately, as a contemporary writer records, "On the night of the 31st of July, 1827, [the church's] safety was threatened by the great fire which consumed the adjacent warehouses, and it is perhaps owing to the strenuous and praiseworthy exertions of the firemen, that the structure exists at present. ... divine service was suspended and not resumed until the 20th January 1828. In the interval the church received such tasteful and elegant decorations, that it may now compete with any church in the metropolis.
In 1823 royal assent was given to ‘An Act for the Rebuilding of London Bridge’ and in 1825 John Garratt, Lord Mayor and Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Within, laid the first stone of the new London Bridge.[132] In 1831 Sir John Rennie’s new bridge was opened further upstream and the old bridge demolished. St Magnus ceased to be the gateway to London as it had been for over 600 years. Peter de Colechurch[133] had been buried in the crypt of the chapel on the bridge and his bones were unceremoniously dumped in the River Thames.[134] In 1921 two stones from Old London Bridge were discovered across the road from the church. They now stand in the churchyard.
Wren's church of St Michael Crooked Lane was demolished, the final service on Sunday 20 March 1831 having to be abandoned due to the effects of the building work. The Rector of St Michael preached a sermon the following Sunday at St Magnus lamenting the demolition of his church with its monuments and "the disturbance of the worship of his parishioners on the preceeding Sabbath".[135] The parish of St Michael Crooked Lane was united to that of St Magnus, which itself lost a burial ground in Church Yard Alley to the approach road for the new bridge.[136] However, in substitution it had restored to it the land taken for the widening of the old bridge in 1762 and was also given part of the approach lands to the east of the old bridge.[137] In 1838 the Committee for the London Bridge Approaches reported to Common Council that new burial grounds had been provided for the parishes of St Michael, Crooked Lane and St Magnus, London Bridge.
Depictions of St Magnus after the building of the new bridge, seen behind Fresh Wharf and the new London Bridge Wharf, include paintings by W. Fenoulhet in 1841 and by Charles Ginner in 1913.[139] This prospect was affected in 1924 by the building of Adelaide House to a design by John James Burnet,[140] The Times commenting that "the new ‘architectural Matterhorn’ ... conceals all but the tip of the church spire".[141] There was, however, an excellent view of the church for a few years between the demolition of Adelaide Buildings and the erection of its replacement.[142] Adelaide House is now listed.[143] Regis House, on the site of the abandoned King William Street terminus of the City & South London Railway (subsequently the Northern Line),[144] and the Steam Packet Inn, on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill,[145] were developed in 1931.
By the early 1960s traffic congestion had become a problem[147] and Lower Thames Street was widened over the next decade[148] to form part of a significant new east-west transport artery (the A3211).[149] The setting of the church was further affected by the construction of a new London Bridge between 1967 and 1973.[150] The New Fresh Wharf warehouse to the east of the church, built in 1939, was demolished in 1973-4 following the collapse of commercial traffic in the Pool of London[151] and, after an archaeological excavation,[152] St Magnus House was constructed on the site in 1978 to a design by R. Seifert & Partners.[153] This development now allows a clear view of the church from the east side.[154] The site to the south east of The Monument (between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane), formerly predominantly occupied by fish merchants,[155] was redeveloped as Centurion House and Gartmore (now Providian) House at the time of the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982.[156] A comprehensive redevelopment of Centurion House began in October 2011 with completion planned in 2013.[157] Regis House, to the south west of The Monument, was redeveloped by Land Securities PLC in 1998.[158]
The vista from The Monument south to the River Thames, over the roof of St Magnus, is protected under the City of London Unitary Development Plan,[159] although the South bank of the river is now dominated by The Shard. Since 2004 the City of London Corporation has been exploring ways of enhancing the Riverside Walk to the south of St Magnus.[160] Work on a new staircase to connect London Bridge to the Riverside Walk is due to commence in March 2013.[161] The story of St Magnus's relationship with London Bridge and an interview with the rector featured in the television programme The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank, first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 June 2012.[162] The City Corporation's 'Fenchurch and Monument Area Enhancement Strategy' of August 2012 recommended ways of reconnecting St Magnus and the riverside to the area north of Lower Thames Street.
A lectureship at St Michael Crooked Lane, which was transferred to St Magnus in 1831, was endowed by the wills of Thomas and Susannah Townsend in 1789 and 1812 respectively.[164] The Revd Henry Robert Huckin, Headmaster of Repton School from 1874 to 1882, was appointed Townsend Lecturer at St Magnus in 1871.[165]
St Magnus narrowly escaped damage from a major fire in Lower Thames Street in October 1849.
During the second half of the 19th century the rectors were Alexander McCaul, DD (1799–1863, Rector 1850-63), who coined the term 'Judaeo Christian' in a letter dated 17 October 1821,[167] and his son Alexander Israel McCaul (1835–1899, curate 1859-63, rector 1863-99). The Revd Alexander McCaul Sr[168] was a Christian missionary to the Polish Jews, who (having declined an offer to become the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem)[169] was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College, London in 1841. His daughter, Elizabeth Finn (1825–1921), a noted linguist, founded the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (now known as Elizabeth Finn Care).[170]
In 1890 it was reported that the Bishop of London was to hold an inquiry as to the desirability of uniting the benefices of St George Botolph Lane and St Magnus. The expectation was a fusion of the two livings, the demolition of St George’s and the pensioning of "William Gladstone’s favourite Canon", Malcolm MacColl. Although services ceased there, St George’s was not demolished until 1904. The parish was then merged with St Mary at Hill rather than St Magnus.[171]
The patronage of the living was acquired in the late 19th century by Sir Henry Peek Bt. DL MP, Senior Partner of Peek Brothers & Co of 20 Eastcheap, the country's largest firm of wholesale tea brokers and dealers, and Chairman of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Peek was a generous philanthropist who was instrumental in saving both Wimbledon Common and Burnham Beeches from development. His grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek Bt. DSO JP, presented a cousin, Richard Peek, as rector in 1904. Peek, an ardent Freemason, held the office of Grand Chaplain of England. The Times recorded that his memorial service in July 1920 "was of a semi-Masonic character, Mr Peek having been a prominent Freemason".[172] In June 1895 Peek had saved the life of a young French girl who jumped overboard from a ferry midway between Dinard and St Malo in Brittany and was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the Gold Medal 1st Class of the Sociâetâe Nationale de Sauvetage de France.[173]
In November 1898 a memorial service was held at St Magnus for Sir Stuart Knill Bt. (1824–1898), head of the firm of John Knill and Co, wharfingers, and formerly Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.[174] This was the first such service for a Roman Catholic taken in an Anglican church.[175] Sir Stuart's son, Sir John Knill Bt. (1856-1934), also served as Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.
Until 1922 the annual Fish Harvest Festival was celebrated at St Magnus.[176] The service moved in 1923 to St Dunstan in the East[177] and then to St Mary at Hill, but St Magnus retained close links with the local fish merchants until the closure of old Billingsgate Market. St Magnus, in the 1950s, was "buried in the stink of Billingsgate fish-market, against which incense was a welcome antidote".
A report in 1920 proposed the demolition of nineteen City churches, including St Magnus.[179] A general outcry from members of the public and parishioners alike prevented the execution of this plan.[180] The members of the City Livery Club passed a resolution that they regarded "with horror and indignation the proposed demolition of 19 City churches" and pledged the Club to do everything in its power to prevent such a catastrophe.[181] T. S. Eliot wrote that the threatened churches gave "to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced. ... the least precious redeems some vulgar street ... The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten."[182] The London County Council published a report concluding that St Magnus was "one of the most beautiful of all Wren's works" and "certainly one of the churches which should not be demolished without specially good reasons and after very full consideration."[183] Due to the uncertainty about the church's future, the patron decided to defer action to fill the vacancy in the benefice and a curate-in-charge temporarily took responsibility for the parish.[184] However, on 23 April 1921 it was announced that the Revd Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton would be the new Rector. The Times concluded that the appointment, with the Bishop’s approval, meant that the proposed demolition would not be carried out.[185] Fr Fynes-Clinton was inducted on 31 May 1921.[186]
The rectory, built by Robert Smirke in 1833-5, was at 39 King William Street.[187] A decision was taken in 1909 to sell the property, the intention being to purchase a new rectory in the suburbs, but the sale fell through and at the time of the 1910 Land Tax Valuations the building was being let out to a number of tenants. The rectory was sold by the diocese on 30 May 1921 for £8,000 to Ridgways Limited, which owned the adjoining premises.[188] The Vestry House adjoining the south west of the church, replacing the one built in the 1760s, may also have been by Smirke. Part of the burial ground of St Michael Crooked Lane, located between Fish Street Hill and King William Street, survived as an open space until 1987 when it was compulsorily purchased to facilitate the extension of the Docklands Light Railway into the City.[189] The bodies were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.
The interior of the church was restored by Martin Travers in 1924, in a neo-baroque style,[191] reflecting the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation[192] following the appointment of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton as Rector.[193] Fr Fynes, as he was often known, served as Rector of St Magnus from 31 May 1921 until his death on 4 December 1959 and substantially beautified the interior of the church.[194]
Fynes-Clinton held very strong Anglo-Catholic views, and proceeded to make St Magnus as much like a baroque Roman Catholic church as possible. However, "he was such a loveable character with an old-world courtesy which was irresistible, that it was difficult for anyone to be unpleasant to him, however much they might disapprove of his views".[195] He generally said the Roman Mass in Latin; and in personality was "grave, grand, well-connected and holy, with a laconic sense of humour".[196] To a Protestant who had come to see Coverdale's monument he is reported to have said "We have just had a service in the language out of which he translated the Bible".[197] The use of Latin in services was not, however, without grammatical danger. A response from his parishioners of "Ora pro nobis" after "Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli" in the Litany of the Saints would elicit a pause and the correction "No, Orate pro nobis."
In 1922 Fynes-Clinton refounded the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.[198] The Fraternity's badge[199] is shown in the stained glass window at the east end of the north wall of the church above the reredos of the Lady Chapel altar. He also erected a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and arranged pilgrimages to the Norfolk shrine, where he was one of the founding Guardians.[200] In 1928 the journal of the Catholic League reported that St Magnus had presented a votive candle to the Shrine at Walsingham "in token of our common Devotion and the mutual sympathy and prayers that are we hope a growing bond between the peaceful country shrine and the church in the heart of the hurrying City, from the Altar of which the Pilgrimages regularly start".[201]
Fynes-Clinton was General Secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union and its successor, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, from 1906 to 1920 and served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Eastern Churches Committee from 1920 to around 1924. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated at St Magnus in September 1921 for the late King Peter of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
At the midday service on 1 March 1922, J.A. Kensit, leader of the Protestant Truth Society, got up and protested against the form of worship.[202] The proposed changes to the church in 1924 led to a hearing in the Consistory Court of the Chancellor of the Diocese of London and an appeal to the Court of Arches.[203] Judgement was given by the latter Court in October 1924. The advowson was purchased in 1931, without the knowledge of the Rector and Parochial Church Council, by the evangelical Sir Charles King-Harman.[204] A number of such cases, including the purchase of the advowsons of Clapham and Hampstead Parish Churches by Sir Charles, led to the passage of the Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1933.[205] This allowed the parishioners of St Magnus to purchase the advowson from Sir Charles King-Harman for £1,300 in 1934 and transfer it to the Patronage Board.
St Magnus was one of the churches that held special services before the opening of the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923.[207] Fynes-Clinton[208] was the first incumbent to hold lunchtime services for City workers.[209] Pathé News filmed the Palm Sunday procession at St Magnus in 1935.[210] In The Towers of Trebizond, the novel by Rose Macauley published in 1956, Fr Chantry-Pigg's church is described as being several feet higher than St Mary’s Bourne Street and some inches above even St Magnus the Martyr.[211]
In July 1937 Fr Fynes-Clinton, with two members of his congregation, travelled to Kirkwall to be present at the 800th anniversary celebrations of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. During their stay they visited Egilsay and were shown the spot where St Magnus had been slain. Later Fr Fynes-Clinton was present at a service held at the roofless church of St Magnus on Egilsay, where he suggested to his host Mr Fryer, the minister of the Cathedral, that the congregations of Kirkwall and London should unite to erect a permanent stone memorial on the traditional site where Earl Magnus had been murdered. In 1938 a cairn was built of local stone on Egilsay. It stands 12 feet high and is 6 feet broad at its base. The memorial was dedicated on 7 September 1938 and a bronze inscription on the monument reads "erected by the Rector and Congregation of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge and the Minister and Congregation of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall to commemorate the traditional spot where Earl Magnus was slain, AD circa 1116 and to commemorate the Octocentenary of St Magnus Cathedral 1937"
A bomb which fell on London Bridge in 1940 during the Blitz of World War II blew out all the windows and damaged the plasterwork and the roof of the north aisle.[213] However, the church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950[214] and repaired in 1951, being re-opened for worship in June of that year by the Bishop of London, William Wand.[215] The architect was Laurence King.[216] Restoration and redecoration work has subsequently been carried out several times, including after a fire in the early hours of 4 November 1995.[217] Cleaning of the exterior stonework was completed in 2010.
Some minor changes were made to the parish boundary in 1954, including the transfer to St Magnus of an area between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane. The site of St Leonard Eastcheap, a church that was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, is therefore now in the parish of St Magnus despite being united to St Edmund the King.
Fr Fynes-Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of his priesthood in May 1952 with High Mass at St Magnus and lunch at Fishmongers' Hall.[218] On 20 September 1956 a solemn Mass was sung in St Magnus to commence the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Holy House at Walsingham in 1931. In the evening of that day a reception was held in the large chamber of Caxton Hall, when between three and four hundred guests assembled.[219]
Fr Fynes-Clinton was succeeded as rector in 1960 by Fr Colin Gill,[220] who remained as incumbent until his death in 1983.[221] Fr Gill was also closely connected with Walsingham and served as a Guardian between 1953 and 1983, including nine years as Master of the College of Guardians.[222] He celebrated the Mass at the first National Pilgrimage in 1959[223] and presided over the Jubilee celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shrine in 1981, having been present at the Holy House's opening.[224] A number of the congregation of St Stephen's Lewisham moved to St Magnus around 1960, following temporary changes in the form of worship there.
In 1994 the Templeman Commission proposed a radical restructuring of the churches in the City Deanery. St Magnus was identified as one of the 12 churches that would remain as either a parish or an 'active' church.[226] However, the proposals were dropped following a public outcry and the consecration of a new Bishop of London.
The parish priest since 2003 has been Fr Philip Warner, who was previously priest-in-charge of St Mary's Church, Belgrade (Diocese in Europe) and Apokrisiarios for the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since January 2004 there has been an annual Blessing of the Thames, with the congregations of St Magnus and Southwark Cathedral meeting in the middle of London Bridge.[227] On Sunday 3 July 2011, in anticipation of the feast of the translation of St Thomas Becket (7 July), a procession from St Magnus brought a relic of the saint to the middle of the bridge.[228]
David Pearson specially composed two new pieces, a communion anthem A Mhànais mo rùin (O Magnus of my love) and a hymn to St Magnus Nobilis, humilis, for performance at the church on the feast of St Magnus the Martyr, 16 April 2012.[229] St Magnus's organist, John Eady, has won composition competitions for new choral works at St Paul's Cathedral (a setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus first performed on 27 May 2012) and at Lincoln Cathedral (a setting of the Matin responsory for Advent first performed on 30 November 2013).[230]
In addition to liturgical music of a high standard, St Magnus is the venue for a wide range of musical events. The Clemens non Papa Consort, founded in 2005, performs in collaboration with the production team Concert Bites as the church's resident ensemble.[231] The church is used by The Esterhazy Singers for rehearsals and some concerts.[232] The band Mishaped Pearls performed at the church on 17 December 2011.[233] St Magnus featured in the television programme Jools Holland: London Calling, first broadcast on BBC2 on 9 June 2012.[234] The Platinum Consort made a promotional film at St Magnus for the release of their debut album In the Dark on 2 July 2012.[235]
The Friends of the City Churches had their office in the Vestry House of St Magnus until 2013.
Martin Travers modified the high altar reredos, adding paintings of Moses and Aaron and the Ten Commandments between the existing Corinthian columns and reconstructing the upper storey. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood.[237] In the centre of the reredos there is a carved gilded pelican (an early Christian symbol of self-sacrifice) and a roundel with Baroque-style angels. The glazed east window, which can be seen in an early photograph of the church, appears to have been filled in at this time. A new altar with console tables was installed and the communion rails moved outwards to extend the size of the sanctuary. Two old door frames were used to construct side chapels and placed at an angle across the north-east and south-east corners of the church. One, the Lady Chapel, was dedicated to the Rector's parents in 1925 and the other was dedicated to Christ the King. Originally, a baroque aumbry was used for Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, but later a tabernacle was installed on the Lady Chapel altar and the aumbry was used to house a relic of the True Cross.
The interior was made to look more European by the removal of the old box pews and the installation of new pews with cut-down ends. Two new columns were inserted in the nave to make the lines regular. The Wren-period pulpit by the joiner William Grey[238] was opened up and provided with a soundboard and crucifix. Travers also designed the statue of St Magnus of Orkney, which stands in the south aisle, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.[239]
On the north wall there is a Russian Orthodox icon, painted in 1908. The modern stations of the cross in honey-coloured Japanese oak are the work of Robert Randall and Ashley Sands.[240] One of the windows in the north wall dates from 1671 and came from Plumbers' Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which was demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street Railway Station.[241] A fireplace from the Hall was re-erected in the Vestry House. The other windows on the north side are by Alfred Wilkinson and date from 1952 to 1960. These show the arms of the Plumbers’, Fishmongers’ and Coopers’ Companies together with those of William Wand when Bishop of London and Geoffrey Fisher when Archbishop of Canterbury and (as noted above) the badge of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.
The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee and date from 1949 to 1955, represent lost churches associated with the parish: St Magnus and his ruined church of Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street (where the Monument to the Great Fire now stands), St Michael with his lost church of Crooked Lane (demolished to make way for the present King William Street) and St Thomas Becket with his chapel on Old London Bridge.[242]
The church possesses a fine model of Old London Bridge. One of the tiny figures on the bridge appears out of place in the mediaeval setting, wearing a policeman's uniform. This is a representation of the model-maker, David T. Aggett, who is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and was formerly in the police service.[243]
The Mischiefs by Fire Act 1708 and the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 placed a requirement on every parish to keep equipment to fight fires. The church owns two historic fire engines that belonged to the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane.[244] One of these is in storage at the Museum of London. The whereabouts of the other, which was misappropriated and sold at auction in 2003, is currently unknown.
In 1896 many bodies were disinterred from the crypt and reburied at the St Magnus's plot at Brookwood Cemetery, which remains the church's burial ground.
Prior to the Great Fire of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small saints bell and a clock bell.[246] 47 cwt of bell metal was recovered[247] which suggests that the tenor was 13 or 14 cwt. The metal was used to cast three new bells, by William Eldridge of Chertsey in 1672,[248] with a further saints bell cast that year by Hodson.[249] In the absence of a tower, the tenor and saints bell were hung in a free standing timber structure, whilst the others remained unhung.[250]
A new tower was completed in 1704 and it is likely that these bells were transferred to it. However, the tenor became cracked in 1713 and it was decided to replace the bells with a new ring of eight.[251] The new bells, with a tenor of 21 cwt, were cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 (the exact date of which is unknown), the ring was increased to ten with the addition of two trebles given by two former ringing Societies, the Eastern Youths and the British Scholars.[252] The first peal was rung on 15 February 1724 of Grandsire Caters by the Society of College Youths. The second bell had to be recast in 1748 by Robert Catlin, and the tenor was recast in 1831 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel,[253] just in time to ring for the opening of the new London Bridge. In 1843, the treble was said to be "worn out" and so was scrapped, together with the saints bell, while a new treble was cast by Thomas Mears.[254] A new clock bell was erected in the spire in 1846, provided by B R & J Moore, who had earlier purchased it from Thomas Mears.[255] This bell can still be seen in the tower from the street.
The 10 bells were removed for safe keeping in 1940 and stored in the churchyard. They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1951 whereupon it was discovered that four of them were cracked. After a long period of indecision, fuelled by lack of funds and interest, the bells were finally sold for scrap in 1976. The metal was used to cast many of the Bells of Congress that were then hung in the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.
A fund was set up on 19 September 2005, led by Dickon Love, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths, with a view to installing a new ring of 12 bells in the tower in a new frame. This was the first of three new rings of bells he has installed in the City of London (the others being at St Dunstan-in-the-West and St James Garlickhythe). The money was raised and the bells were cast during 2008/9 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor weighed 26cwt 3qtr 9 lbs (1360 kg) and the new bells were designed to be in the same key as the former ring of ten. They were consecrated by the Bishop of London on 3 March 2009 in the presence of the Lord Mayor[256] and the ringing dedicated on 26 October 2009 by the Archdeacon of London.[257] The bells are named (in order smallest to largest) Michael, Margaret, Thomas of Canterbury, Mary, Cedd, Edward the Confessor, Dunstan, John the Baptist, Erkenwald, Paul, Mellitus and Magnus.[258] The bells project is recorded by an inscription in the vestibule of the church.
The first peal on the twelve was rung on 29 November 2009 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus.[260] Notable other recent peals include a peal of Stedman Cinques on 16 April 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to the Plumbers' Company,[261] a peal of Cambridge Surprise Royal on 28 June 2011 when the Fishmongers' Company gave a dinner for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at their hall on the occasion of his 90th birthday[262] and a peal of Avon Delight Maximus on 24 July 2011 in solidarity with the people of Norway following the tragic massacre on Utoeya Island and in Oslo.[263] On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast. In 2012 peals were rung during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June and during each of the three Olympic/Paralympic marathons, on 5 and 12 August and 9 September.
The BBC television programme, Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells, broadcast on 14 December 2011, included an interview at St Magnus with the Tower Keeper, Dickon Love,[264] who was captain of the band that rang the "Royal Jubilee Bells" during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[265] Prior to this, he taught John Barrowman to handle a bell at St Magnus for the BBC coverage.
The bells are currently rung every Sunday around 12:15 (following the service) by the Guild of St Magnus.
Every other June, newly elected wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, accompanied by the Court, proceed on foot from Fishmongers' Hall[267] to St Magnus for an election service.[268] St Magnus is also the Guild Church of The Plumbers' Company. Two former rectors have served as master of the company,[269] which holds all its services at the church.[270] On 12 April 2011 a service was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the company's Royal Charter at which the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, gave the sermon and blessed the original Royal Charter. For many years the Cloker Service was held at St Magnus, attended by the Coopers' Company and Grocers' Company, at which the clerk of the Coopers' Company read the will of Henry Cloker dated 10 March 1573.[271]
St Magnus is also the ward church for the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without, which elects one of the city's aldermen. Between 1550 and 1978 there were separate aldermen for Bridge Within and Bridge Without, the former ward being north of the river and the latter representing the City's area of control in Southwark. The Bridge Ward Club was founded in 1930 to "promote social activities and discussion of topics of local and general interest and also to exchange Ward and parochial information" and holds its annual carol service at St Magnus.
Two children selling etrogs on the streets of Bnei Brak, a religious city in Israel.
Etrog (Hebrew: אֶתְרוֹג), a yellow citron is used in the Sukkot holiday customs as a part of the Four Species.
...it's easier to hide. It's even easier to be a failure. You just have to not even try.
--
Well this is convenient for a couple of reasons... first, I have a 2 day job tomorrow, so it kind of fits. Second, I skipped a week of the project... which kind of makes me feel bad, but I had some stuff to do.
Also, I might compensate with a 2-pic week. Or something like that.
Anyways, great week, peeps!
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Strobist info: sb-24 bounced on umbrella, camera right
"Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us."
~ H.H. the Dalai Lama
Lanercost Priory was founded by Robert de Vaux between 1165 and 1174, the most likely date being 1169, to house Augustinian canons. The priory is situated at the village of Lanercost, Cumbria, England, within sight of Naworth Castle, with which it had close connections. The Lanercost Chronicle, a thirteenth-century history of England and the Wars of Scottish Independence, was compiled by the monks of the priory.
It is now open to the public and in the guardianship of English Heritage.
The foundation date was traditionally 1169, but can only be dated definitely between 1165 and 1174 on the evidence of charters. The dedication is to Mary Magdalene, unusual in the region.
It would seem the arrangements for founding the Priory were well advanced by the time of the foundation charter, as opposed to the more gradual process at Wetheral and St Bees priories. Robert de Vaux gave the land of Lanercost "between the ancient wall and the Irthing and between Burth and Poltros, the vill of Walton by stated bounds, the church of that vill with the chapel of 'Treverman,' the churches of Irthington, Brampton, Carlaton and Farlam". The charter of foundation states that the benefaction was made for the sake of Henry II, and for the health of the souls of his father Hubert and his mother Grace.
Soon after the foundation of the house, Robert de Vaux granted to the canons the right of free election, so that when the lord prior died the person on whom the choice of the canons or the greater part of them fell should be elected in his place.
The bulk of the church building dates from the late 13th century, though there is evidence of earlier work. The Priory buildings were constructed, at least in part, from stones derived from Hadrian's Wall, including a number of Roman inscriptions that were built into its fabric.
The proximity to Scotland inevitably had an effect on the fortunes of the priory, and it was a target of Scots attacks in retaliation for English raids. This became acute after the outbreak of the Wars of Scottish Independence. In 1296 the Scottish army encamped at Lanercost after burning Hexham priory and Lambley nunnery. The Scots were interrupted before the damage could become great, and they retreated through Nicolforest, having burnt some houses of the monastery but not the church. Similar depredations under Wallace continued the next year and led to calls for reprisals from the English.
Edward I made several visits to the priory in the latter part of his reign. In the autumn of 1280 he visited in the company of Queen Eleanor on his way to Newcastle. The canons met him at the gate in their copes, and although staying only a few days, he found time to take 200 stags and hinds while hunting in Inglewood forest. In 1300, on his way to the siege of Caerlaverock Castle, Edward stayed at Lanercost for a short while.
Edward's last visit was in 1306, travelling in a horse litter owing to age and illness, and accompanied by Queen Margaret, his second wife. He arrived at Michaelmas and his stay extended until the following Easter, a duration of 6 months which put a huge burden upon the resources of the priory. It was while Edward was at Lanercost that the brothers of Robert de Brus and other Scottish captives were sent to Carlisle for execution by his order.
This last royal visit depleted the reserves of the priory, and the canons begged him for recompense, but a deal to acquire the church of 'Hautwyselle,' worth about 100 marks a year, fell through. However the king granted the appropriation of the churches of Mitford in Northumberland and Carlatton in Cumberland, for the relief of the Priory. In a letter to the Pope, Edward gave his reasons for generosity being the special devotion he felt to St Mary Magdalene, his long stay due to illness, and making good the damage of the Scots. Edward died shortly afterwards at Burgh by Sands in July 1307, whilst still campaigning against the Scots.
In August 1311, Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, came with his army and made it his headquarters for three days, "committing infinite evils" and imprisoning some canons, though later letting them free. By contrast in 1328, in fulfilment of the treaty between the Bruce and Edward III, a mutual interchange of good offices took place between the priory of Lanercost and Kelso Abbey in respect of their common revenues out of the church of Lazonby. Later though, in 1346, David II ransacked the conventual buildings and desecrated the church. Fresh from the overthrow of Liddel he "entered the holy place with haughtiness, threw out the vessels of the temple, stole the treasures, broke the doors, took the jewels, and destroyed everything they could lay hands on". As late as 1386, one of the priors was taken prisoner by the Scots and ransomed for a fixed sum of money and four score quarters of corn.
The fortunes of the priory were linked to the state of warfare and raids on the border. The priory was in relatively affluent circumstances before the outbreak of the war of Independence in 1296, and the annual revenue of the house was returned at £74 12s 6d in the 1291 valuation of Pope Nicholas IV. But by the taxation of 1318, the value had fallen almost to nothing.
Lanercost Priory was dissolved in 1538 by Henry VIII, and the conventual buildings were stripped of their roofs, excepting the church building which continued in use as the parish church. In the late 17th century, as the nave deteriorated, the congregation used just the north aisle which had been re-roofed.
In 1747, the nave was re-roofed, but by 1847 the Priory was in a state of disrepair to the extent that the east end roof collapsed. However, by 1849, The church was in use again after a major restoration by Anthony Salvin. In the 1870s, there was further restoration by the Carlisle architect C. J. Ferguson.
At the Dissolution, ownership had passed to the Dacre family, and then in the early 18th century to the Howards. In 1929, the Priory ruins were put into public ownership, and today they are managed by English Heritage.
The nave has an aisle to the north but a large wall to the south with no aisle, where it abuts the cloister. The impressive ruined chancel and crossing of ca. 1220–1230 are in a good state of preservation; as high as the eaves, and would only require a roof and windows to be restored to the original condition. The oldest masonry is in the south transept, and dates from the late 12th century. The cloister and monastic buildings have been largely dismantled, except for the west range, which was made into a house by Sir Thomas Dacre in the 16th century. The statue of St Mary Magdalene, given by King Edward I, still survives in a niche high up on the west front. A dossal – an embroidered wall hanging – designed by William Morris in 1881, underwent restoration before being replaced behind the priory altar in 2013–14.
The priory has an unusual medieval stone carving called the Lanercost Cross with an inscription dating back to 1214. Originally the cross was set just outside the entrance to the church. Today, the stump of the cross remains, but the main shaft is housed inside the priory. In the churchyard is the tomb of Thomas Addison, scientist and physician. In the nave is a memorial to the Reverend Henry Whitehead, former vicar of Lanercost, best known for his pioneering epidemiological work with John Snow on cholera.
Humphrey Dacre, 1st Baron Dacre, and his widow Mabel were both buried at the Priory in the 15th century, as is Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre.
Lanercost is a village in the northern part of Cumbria, England. The settlement is in the civil parish of Burtholme, in the City of Carlisle local government district. Lanercost is known for the presence of Lanercost Priory and its proximity to Hadrian's Wall.
History
Lanercost Priory was founded in 1165 as an Augustinian house of Canons.
Robert de Vaux, also known as Robert de Vallibus, (died c.1195), Baron of Gilsland, was a prominent 12th-century English noble, who served as Sheriff of Cumberland in 1175 and 1176.
Biography
Vaux was the eldest son of Hubert I de Vaux, Lord of Gilsland and his wife Grace. Robert succeeded his father in 1165, as a confirmation of Gilsland was given to him by King Henry II of England. He founded the Augustinian Lanercost Priory in c.1169. Robert was required to pay forty shillings for scutage, for not participating in the Norman invasion of Ireland by Henry II. Robert was appointed in Michelmas 1174 as the Sheriff of Cumberland and also served his last term from Michelmas 1183. In 1186 he was fined a hundred marks for a variety of offences including allowing prisoners to escape. He held Carlisle against the Scottish invasion of Cumberland in 1173 and 1174 by King William I of Scotland, surrendering the castle after a second siege in 1174. Robert was heir to his uncle Randolph, who died without issue.
Robert, married Ada, widow of Simon de Morville, the daughter and heiress of William de Engaine, died without surviving issue. Robert's son William died during his father's lifetime. Robert died circa 1195 and was succeeded by his brother Ranulf.
Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13th centuries:
Various congregations of Canons Regular also follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, embrace the evangelical counsels and lead a semi-monastic life, while remaining committed to pastoral care appropriate to their primary vocation as priests. They generally form one large community which might serve parishes in the vicinity, and are organized into autonomous congregations.
Several orders of friars who live a mixed religious life of contemplation and apostolic ministry. The largest and most familiar is the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA), founded in 1244 and originally known as the Hermits of Saint Augustine (OESA). They are commonly known as the Austin Friars in England. Two other orders, the Order of Augustinian Recollects and the Discalced Augustinians, were once part of the OSA under a single prior general. The Recollects, founded in 1588 as a reform movement in Spain, became autonomous in 1612. The Discalceds became an independent congregation in 1592, and were raised to the status of a separate mendicant order in 1610.
There are also some Anglican religious orders created in the 19th century that follow Augustine's rule. These are composed only of women in several different communities of Augustinian nuns.
Canon (Greek: κανονικός, romanized: kanonikós) is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule.
Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of or close to a cathedral or other major church and conducting his life according to the customary discipline or rules of the church. This way of life grew common (and is first documented) in the 8th century AD. In the 11th century, some churches required clergy thus living together to adopt the rule first proposed by Saint Augustine that they renounce private wealth. Those who embraced this change were known as Augustinians or Canons Regular, whilst those who did not were known as secular canons.
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage also manages the London blue plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings.
When originally formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government, officially titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage protection and managed a range of historic properties. It was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long period of state involvement in heritage protection. In 1999, the organisation merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the National Monuments Record, bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment.
On 1 April 2015, English Heritage was divided into two parts: Historic England, which inherited the statutory and protection functions of the old organisation, and the new English Heritage Trust, a charity that would operate the historic properties, and which took on the English Heritage operating name and logo. The British government gave the new charity an £80 million grant to help establish it as an independent trust, although the historic properties remain in the ownership of the state.
History
Non-departmental public body
Over the centuries, what is now called "heritage" has been the responsibility of a series of state departments. There was the "Kings Works" after the Norman Conquest, the Office of Works (1378–1832), the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues and Works (1832–1851), and the Ministry of Works (1851–1962). Responsibility subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works (1962–1970), then to the Department of the Environment (1970–1997), and it is now with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The state's legal responsibility for the historic environment goes back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. The central government subsequently developed several systems of heritage protection for different types of assets, introducing listing for buildings after World War II, and for conservation areas in the 1960s.
In 1983, Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine gave national responsibility for the historic environment to a semi‑autonomous agency (or "quango") to operate under ministerial guidelines and to government policy. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission was formed under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 on 1 April 1984. The 1983 Act also dissolved the bodies that had previously provided independent advice – the Ancient Monuments Board for England and the Historic Buildings Council for England – and incorporated those functions into the new body. Soon after, the commission was given the operating name of English Heritage by its first chairman, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
A national register of historic parks and gardens, (e.g. Rangers House, Greenwich) was set up in 1984, and a register for historic battlefields (e.g. the Battle of Tewkesbury) was created in March 1995. 'Registration' is a material consideration in the planning process. In April 1999 English Heritage merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) and the National Monuments Record (NMR), bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment. By adoption, that included responsibility for the national record of archaeological sites from the Ordnance Survey, the National Library of Aerial Photographs, and two million RAF and Ordnance Survey aerial photographs. Those, together with other nationally important external acquisitions, meant that English Heritage was one of the largest publicly accessible archives in the UK: 2.53 million records are available online, including more than 426,000 images. In 2010–11, it recorded 4.3 million unique online user sessions and over 110,000 people visited NMR exhibitions held around the country in 2009–10. In 2012, the section responsible for archive collections was renamed the English Heritage Archive.
As a result of the National Heritage Act 2002, English Heritage acquired administrative responsibility for historic wrecks and submerged landscapes within 12 miles (19 km) of the English coast. The administration of the listed building system was transferred from DCMS to English Heritage in 2006. However, actual listing decisions still remained the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who was required by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 to approve a list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest.
Following the Public Bodies Reform in 2010, English Heritage was confirmed as the government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, and the largest source of non-lottery grant funding for heritage assets. It was retained on grounds of "performing a technical function which should remain independent from Government". However, the department also suffered from budget cuts during the recession of the 2010s, resulting in a repairs deficit of £100 million
St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, is a Church of England cathedral church within St Albans, England. At 84 metres (276 ft), its nave is the longest of any cathedral in England. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it was formerly known as St Albans Abbey before it became a cathedral in 1877. It is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it "the abbey", although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.
The abbey church, although legally a cathedral church, differs in certain particulars from most of the other cathedrals in England: it is also used as a parish church, of which the dean is rector. He has the same powers, responsibilities and duties as the rector of any other parish.
Alban was a pagan living in the Roman city of Verulamium, now Verulamium Park, in St Albans, in Hertfordshire, England, about 22 miles (35 km) north of London along Watling Street. Before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, local Christians were being persecuted by the Romans. Alban sheltered their priest, Saint Amphibalus, in his home and was converted to the Christian faith by him. When the soldiers came to Alban's house looking for the priest, Alban exchanged cloaks with the priest and let himself be arrested in his place. Alban was taken before the magistrate, where he avowed his new Christian faith and was condemned for it. He was beheaded, according to legend, on the spot where the cathedral named after him now stands. The site is on a steep hill and legend has it that his head rolled down the hill after being cut off and that a well sprang up at the point where it stopped.
A well certainly exists today and the road up to the cathedral is named Holywell Hill. However the current well structure is no older than the late 19th century and it is thought that the name of the street derives from the "Halywell" river and "Halywell Bridge", not from the well.
The date of Alban's execution is a matter of some debate and is generally given as "circa 250"—scholars generally suggest dates of 209, 254 or 304.
History of the abbey and cathedral
A memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of Alban existed at the site from the mid-4th century (possibly earlier); Bedementions a church and Gildas a shrine. Bishop Germanus of Auxerre visited in 429 and took a portion of the apparently still bloody earth away. The style of this structure is unknown; the 13th century chronicler Matthew Paris (see below) claimed that the Saxons destroyed the building in 586.
Saxon buildings
Offa II of Mercia, who ruled in the 8th century, is said to have founded the Benedictine abbey and monastery at St Albans. All later religious structures are dated from the foundation of Offa's abbey in 793. The abbey was built on Holmhurst Hill—now Holywell Hill—across the River Ver from the ruins of Verulamium. Again there is no information to the form of the first abbey. The abbey was probably sacked by the Danes around 890 and, despite Paris's claims, the office of abbot remained empty from around 920 until the 970s when the efforts of Dunstanreached the town.
There was an intention to rebuild the abbey in 1005 when Abbot Ealdred was licensed to remove building material from Verulamium. With the town resting on clay and chalk the only tough stone is flint. This was used with a lime mortar and then either plastered over or left bare. With the great quantities of brick, tile and other stone in Verulamium the Roman site became a prime source of building material for the abbeys, and other projects in the area, up to the 18th century. Sections demanding worked stone used Lincolnshire limestone (Barnack stone) from Verulamium, later worked stones include Totternhoe freestone from Bedfordshire, Purbeck marble, and different limestones (Ancaster, Chilmark, Clipsham, etc.).
Renewed Viking raids from 1016 stalled the Saxon efforts and very little from the Saxon abbey was incorporated in the later forms.
The nave. The north wall (left) features a mix of Norman arches dating back to 1077 and arches in the Early English style of 1200.
Norman abbey
Much of the current layout and proportions of the structure date from the first Norman abbot, Paul of Caen (1077–1093). The 14th abbot, he was appointed by the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc.
Building work started in the year of Abbot Paul's arrival. The design and construction was overseen by the Norman Robert the Mason. The plan has very limited Anglo-Saxon elements and is clearly influenced by the French work at Cluny, Bernay, and Caen and shares a similar floor plan to Saint-Étienne and Lanfranc's Canterbury—although the poorer quality building material was a new challenge for Robert and he clearly borrowed some Roman techniques, learned while gathering material in Verulamium. To take maximum use of the hilltop the abbey was oriented to the south-east. The cruciform abbey was the largest built in England at that time, it had a chancel of four bays, a transept containing seven apses, and a nave of ten bays—fifteen bays long overall. Robert gave particular attention to solid foundations, running a continuous wall of layered bricks, flints and mortar below and pushing the foundations down to twelve feet to hit bedrock. Below the crossing tower special large stones were used.
The tower was a particular triumph—it is the only 11th century great crossing tower still standing in England. Robert began with special thick supporting walls and four massive brick piers. The four-level tower tapers at each stage with clasping buttresses on the three lower levels and circular buttresses on the fourth stage. The entire structure masses 5,000 tons and is 144 feet high. The tower was probably topped with a Norman pyramidal roof; the current roof is flat. The original ringing chamber had five bells—two paid for by the Abbot, two by a wealthy townsman, and one donated by the rector of Hoddesdon. None of these bells has survived.
There was a widespread belief that the abbey had two additional, smaller towers at the west end. No remains have been found.
The monastic abbey was completed in 1089 but not consecrated until Holy Innocents' Day, 1115, (28 Dec) by the Archbishop of Rouen. King Henry I attended as did many bishops and nobles.
A nunnery (Sopwell Priory) was founded nearby in 1140.
Internally the abbey was bare of sculpture, almost stark. The plaster walls were coloured and patterned in parts, with extensive tapestries adding colour. Sculptural decoration was added, mainly ornaments, as it became more fashionable in the 12th century—especially after the Gothic style arrived in England around 1170.
In the current structure the original Norman arches survive principally under the central tower and on the north side of the nave. The arches in the rest of the building are Gothic, following medieval rebuilding and extensions, and Victorian era restoration.
The abbey was extended in the 1190s by Abbot John de Cella (also known as John of Wallingford) (1195–1214); as the number of monks grew from fifty to over a hundred, the abbey was extended westwards with three bays added to the nave. The severe Norman west front was also rebuilt by Hugh de Goldclif—although how is uncertain, it was very costly but its 'rapid' weathering and later alterations have erased all but fragments. A more prominent shrine and altar to Saint Amphibalus were also added. The work was very slow under de Cella and was not completed until the time of Abbot William de Trumpington (1214–35). The low Norman tower roof was demolished and a new, much higher, broached spire was raised, sheathed in lead.
The St Albans Psalter (ca. 1130–45) is the best known of a number of important Romanesque illuminated manuscripts produced in the Abbey scriptorium. Later, Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans from 1217 until his death in 1259, was important both as a chronicler and an artist. Eighteen of his manuscripts survive and are a rich source of contemporary information for historians.
Nicholas Breakspear was born near St Albans and applied to be admitted to the abbey as a novice, but he was turned down. He eventually managed to be accepted into an abbey in France. In 1154 he was elected Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope there has ever been. The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England also in 1154.
13th to 15th centuries
An earthquake shook the abbey in 1250 and damaged the eastern end of the church. In 1257 the dangerously cracked sections were knocked down—three apses and two bays. The thick Presbytery wall supporting the tower was left. The rebuilding and updating was completed during the rule of Abbot Roger de Norton (1263–90).
On 10 October 1323 two piers on the south side of the nave collapsed dragging down much of the roof and wrecking five bays. Mason Henry Wy undertook the rebuilding, matching the Early English style of the rest of the bays but adding distinctly 14th century detailing and ornaments. The shrine to St Amphibalus had also been damaged and was remade.
Abbey Gateway, now part of St. Albans School.
Richard of Wallingford, abbot from 1297 to 1336 and a mathematician and astronomer, designed a celebrated clock, which was completed by William of Walsham after his death, but apparently destroyed during the reformation.
A new gateway, now called the Abbey Gateway, was built to the abbey grounds in 1365, which was the only part of the monastery buildings (besides the church) to survive the dissolution, later being used as a prison and now part of St Albans School. The other monastic buildings were located to the south of the gateway and church.
In the 15th century a large west window of nine main lights and a deep traced head was commissioned by John of Wheathampstead. The spire was reduced to a 'Hertfordshire spike', the roof pitch greatly reduced and battlements liberally added. Further new windows, at £50 each, were put in the transept by Abbot Wallingford (also known as William of Wallingford), who also had a new high altar screen made.
Dissolution and after
After the death of Abbot Ramryge in 1521 the abbey fell into debt and slow decay under three weak abbots. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and its surrender on 5 December 1539 the income was £2,100 annually. The abbot and remaining forty monks were pensioned off and then the buildings were looted. All gold, silver and gilt objects were carted away with all other valuables; stonework was broken and defaced and graves opened to burn the contents.
The abbey became part of the diocese of Lincoln in 1542 and was moved to the diocese of London in 1550. The buildings suffered—neglect, second-rate repairs, even active damage. Richard Lee purchased all the buildings, except the church and chapel and some other Crown premises, in 1550. Lee then began the systematic demolition for building material to improve Lee Hall at Sopwell. In 1551, with the stone removed, Lee returned the land to the abbot. The area was named Abbey Ruins for the next 200 years or so.
In 1553 the Lady chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.
The cost of upkeep fell upon the town, although in 1596 and at irregular intervals later the Archdeacon was allowed to collect money for repairs by Brief in the diocese. After James I visited in 1612 he authorised another Brief, which collected around £2,000—most of which went on roof repairs. The English Civil War slashed the monies spent on repairs, while the abbey was used to hold prisoners of war and suffered from their vandalism, as well as that of their guards. Most of the metal objects that had survived the Dissolution were also removed and other ornamental parts were damaged in Puritan sternness. Another round of fund-raising in 1681–84 was again spent on the roof, repairing the Presbytery vault. A royal grant from William and Mary in 1689 went on general maintenance, 'repairs' to conceal some of the unfashionable Gothic features, and on new internal fittings. There was a second royal grant from William in 1698.
By the end of the 17th century the dilapidation was sufficient for a number of writers to comment upon it.
In 1703, from 26 November to 1 December, the Great Storm raged across southern England; the abbey lost the south transept window which was replaced in wood at a cost of £40. The window was clear glass with five lights and three transoms in an early Gothic Revival style by John Hawgood. Other windows, although not damaged in the storm, were a constant drain on the abbey budget in the 18th century.
A brief in 1723–24, seeking £5,775, notes a great crack in the south wall, that the north wall was eighteen inches from vertical, and that the roof timbers were decayed to the point of danger. The money raised was spent on the nave roof over ten bays.
Another brief was not issued until 1764. Again the roof was rotting, as was the south transept window, walls were cracked or shattered in part and the south wall had subsided and now leant outwards. Despite a target of £2,500 a mere £600 was raised.
In the 1770s the abbey came close to demolition; the expense of repairs meant a scheme to destroy the abbey and erect a smaller church almost succeeded.
A storm in 1797 caused some subsidence, cracking open graves, scattering pavement tiles, flooding the church interior and leaving a few more arches off-vertical.
19th century
The Wallingford Screen of c. 1480—the statues are Victorian replacements (1884–89) of the originals, destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the screen itself was also damaged. Statues of St Alban and St Amphibalus stand on either side of the altar.
This century was marked with a number of repair schemes. The abbey received some money from the 1818 "Million Act", and in 1820 £450 was raised to buy an organ—a second-hand example made in 1670.
The major efforts to revive the abbey church came under four men—L. N. Cottingham, Rector H. J. B. Nicholson, and, especially, George Gilbert Scott and Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe.
In February 1832 a portion of the clerestory wall fell through the roof of the south aisle, leaving a hole almost thirty feet long. With the need for serious repair work evident the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was called in to survey the building. His Survey was presented in 1832 and was worrying reading: everywhere mortar was in a wretched condition and wooden beams were rotting and twisting. Cottingham recommended new beams throughout the roof and a new steeper pitch, removal of the spire and new timbers in the tower, new paving, ironwork to hold the west transept wall up, a new stone south transept window, new buttresses, a new drainage system for the roof, new ironwork on almost all the windows, and on and on. He estimated a cost of £14,000. A public subscription of £4,000 was raised, of which £1,700 vanished in expenses. With the limited funds the clerestory wall was rebuilt, the nave roof re-leaded, the tower spike removed, some forty blocked windows reopened and glazed, and the south window remade in stone.
Henry Nicholson, rector from 1835 to 1866, was also active in repairing the abbey church—as far as he could, and in uncovering lost or neglected Gothic features.
In 1856 repair efforts began again; £4,000 was raised and slow moves started to gain the abbey the status of cathedral. George Gilbert Scottwas appointed the project architect and oversaw a number of works from 1860 until his death in 1878.
Scott began by having the medieval floor restored, necessitating the removal of tons of earth, and fixing the north aisle roof. From 1872–77 the restored floors were re-tiled in matching stone and copies of old tile designs. A further 2,000 tons of earth were shifted in 1863 during work on the foundation and a new drainage system. In 1870 the tower piers were found to be badly weakened with many cracks and cavities. Huge timbers were inserted and the arches filled with brick as an emergency measure. Repair work took until May 1871 and cost over £2,000. The south wall of the nave was now far from straight; Scott reinforced the north wall and put in scaffolding to take the weight of the roof off the wall, then had it jacked straight in under three hours. The wall was then buttressed with five huge new masses and set right. Scott was lauded as "saviour of the Abbey." From 1870–75 around £20,000 was spent on the abbey.
In 1845 St Albans was transferred from the Diocese of Lincoln to the Diocese of Rochester. Then, in 1875, the Bishopric of St Albans Act was passed and on 30 April 1877 the See of St Albans was created, which comprises about 300 churches in the counties of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. The then Bishop of Rochester, the Right Revd Dr Thomas Legh Claughton, elected to take the northern division of his old diocese and on 12 June 1877 was enthroned first Bishop of St Albans, a position he held until 1890. He is buried in the churchyard on the north side of the nave.
George Gilbert Scott was working on the nave roof, vaulting and west bay when he died on 27 March 1878. His plans were partially completed by his son, John Oldrid Scott, but the remaining work fell into the hands of Lord Grimthorpe, whose efforts have attracted much controversy—Nikolaus Pevsner calling him a "pompous, righteous bully." However, he donated much of the immense sum of £130,000 the work cost.
Whereas Scott's work had clearly been in sympathy with the existing building, Grimthorpe's plans reflected the Victorian ideal. Indeed, he spent considerable time dismissing and criticising the work of Scott and the efforts of his son.
Grimthorpe first reinstated the original pitch of the roof, although the battlements added for the lower roof were retained. Completed in 1879, the roof was leaded, following on Scott's desires.
1805 engraving of the west front of the abbey showing the lost Wheathampstead window.
His second major project was the most controversial. The west front, with the great Wheathampstead window, was cracked and leaning, and Grimthorpe, never more than an amateur architect, designed the new front himself—attacked as dense, misproportioned and unsympathetic: "His impoverishment as a designer ... [is] evident"; "this man, so practical and ingenious, was utterly devoid of taste ... his great qualities were marred by arrogance ... and a lack of historic sense". Counter proposals were deliberately substituted by Grimthorpe for poorly drawn versions and Grimthorpe's design was accepted?. During building it was considerably reworked in order to fit the actual frontage and is not improved by the poor quality sculpture. Work began in 1880 and was completed in April 1883, having cost £20,000.
The Lady Chapel at the east end of the cathedral.
Grimthorpe was noted for his aversion to the Perpendicular—to the extent that he would have sections he disliked demolished as "too rotten" rather than remade. In his reconstruction, especially of windows, he commonly mixed architectural styles carelessly (see the south aisle, the south choir screen and vaulting). He spent £50,000 remaking the nave. Elsewhere he completely rebuilt the south wall cloisters, with new heavy buttresses, and removed the arcading of the east cloisters during rebuilding the south transept walls. In the south transept he completely remade the south face, completed in 1885, including the huge lancet window group—his proudest achievement—and the flanking turrets; a weighty new tiled roof was also made. In the north transept Grimthorpe had the Perpendicular window demolished and his design inserted—a rose window of circles, cusped circles and lozenges arrayed in five rings around the central light, sixty-four lights in total, each circle with a different glazing pattern.
Grimthorpe continued through the Presbytery in his own style, adapting the antechapel for Consistory Courts, and into the Lady Chapel. After a pointed lawsuit with Henry Hucks Gibbs, first Baron Aldenham over who should direct the restoration, Grimthorpe had the vault remade and reproportioned in stone, made the floor in black and white marble (1893), and had new Victorian arcading and sculpture put below the canopy work. Externally the buttresses were expanded to support the new roof, and the walls were refaced.
As early as 1897, Grimthorpe was having to return to previously renovated sections to make repairs. His use of over-strong cement led to cracking, while his fondness for ironwork in windows led to corrosion and damage to the surrounding stone.
Grimthorpe died in 1905 and was interred in the churchyard. He left a bequest for continuing work on the buildings.
During this century the name St Albans Abbey was given to one of the town's railway stations.
20th century
John Oldrid Scott (died 1913) (George Gilbert Scott's son), despite frequent clashes with Grimthorpe, had continued working within the cathedral. Scott was a steadfast supporter of the Gothic revival and designed the tomb of the first bishop; he had a new bishop's throne built (1903), together with commemorative stalls for Bishop Festing and two Archdeacons, and new choir stalls. He also repositioned and rebuilt the organ (1907). Further work was interrupted by the war.
A number of memorials to the war were added to the cathedral, notably the painting The Passing of Eleanor by Frank Salisbury (stolen 1973) and the reglazing of the main west window, dedicated in 1925.
Following the Enabling Act of 1919 control of the buildings passed to a Parochial Church Council (replaced by the Cathedral Council in 1968), who appointed the woodwork specialist John Rogers as Architect and Surveyor of the Fabric. He uncovered extensive death watch beetledamage in the presbytery vault and oversaw the repair (1930–31). He had four tons of rubbish removed from the crossing tower and the main timbers reinforced (1931–32), and invested in the extensive use of insecticide throughout the wood structures. In 1934, the eight bells were overhauled and four new bells added to be used in the celebration of George V's jubilee.
Cecil Brown was architect and surveyor from 1939 to 1962. At first he merely oversaw the lowering of the bells for the war and established a fire watch, with the pump in the slype. After the war, in the 1950s, the organ was removed, rebuilt and reinstalled and new pews added. His major work was on the crossing tower. Grimthorpe's cement was found to be damaging the Roman bricks: every brick in the tower was replaced as needed and reset in proper mortar by one man, Walter Barrett. The tower ceiling was renovated as were the nave murals. Brown established the Muniments Room to gather and hold all the church documents.
In 1972, to encourage a closer link between celebrant and congregation, the massive nine-ton pulpit along with the choir stalls and permanent pews was dismantled and removed. The altar space was enlarged and improved. New 'lighter' wood (limed oak) choir stalls were put in, and chairs replaced the pews. A new wooden pulpit was acquired from a Norfolk church and installed in 1974. External floodlighting was added in 1975.
A major survey in 1974 revealed new leaks, decay and other deterioration, and a ten-year restoration plan was agreed. Again the roofing required much work. The nave and clerestory roofs were repaired in four stages with new leading. The nave project was completed in 1984 at a total cost of £1.75 million. The clerestory windows were repaired with the corroded iron replaced with delta bronze and other Grimthorpe work on the clerestory was replaced. Seventy-two new heads for the corbel table were made. Grimthorpe's west front was cracking, again due to the use originally of too strong a mortar, and was repaired.
A new visitors' centre was proposed in 1970. Planning permission was sought in 1973; there was a public inquiry and approval was granted in 1977. Constructed to the south side of the cathedral close to the site of the original chapter house of the abbey, the new 'Chapter House' cost around £1 million and was officially opened on 8 June 1982 by Queen Elizabeth. The main building material was 500,000 replica Roman bricks.
Other late 20th-century works include the restoration of Alban's shrine, with a new embroidered canopy, and the stained glass designed by Alan Younger for Grimthorpe's north transept rose window, unveiled in 1989 by Diana, Princess of Wales.
Modern times
The Bishop is the Right Reverend Alan Smith, installed in September 2009. The Venerable Jonathan Smith is Archdeacon of St Albans, installed in October 2008. On 2 July 2004, the Very Reverend Canon Dr Jeffrey John became the ninth Dean of the Cathedral.
Robert Runcie, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was bishop of St Albans from 1970 to 1980 and returned to live in the city after his retirement; he is commemorated by a gargoyle on the Cathedral as well as being buried in the graveyard. Colin Slee, former Dean of Southwark Cathedral, was sub-dean at St Albans under Runcie and then Dean, Peter Moore. The bishop's house is in Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans, as is the house of the Bishop of Hertford. The Reverend Canon Eric James, Chaplain Extraordinary to HM the Queen, was Canon at St Albans for many years.
Aberystwyth University is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic faculties and 17 departments.
Founded in 1872 as University College Wales, Aberystwyth, it became a founder member of the University of Wales in 1894, and changed its name to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In the mid-1990s, the university again changed its name to become the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. On 1 September 2007, the University of Wales ceased to be a federal university and Aberystwyth University became independent again.
In 2019, it became the first university to be named "University of the year for teaching quality" by The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide for two consecutive years. It is the first university in the world to be awarded Plastic Free University status (for single-use plastic items).
In the middle of the 19th century, eminent Welsh people were advocating the establishment of a university in the principality. One of these, Thomas Nicholas, whose book, Middle and High Class Schools, and University Education for Wales (1863), is said to have "exerted great influence on educated Welshmen".
Funded through public and private subscriptions, and with five regional committees (London, Manchester, Liverpool, North and South Wales) guaranteeing funds for the first three years' running costs, the university opened in October 1872 with 26 students. Thomas Charles Edwards was the principal. In October 1875, chapels in Wales raised the next tranche of funds from over 70,000 contributors. Until 1893, when the college joined the University of Wales as a founder member, students applying to Aberystwyth sat the University of London's entrance exams. Women were admitted in 1884.
In 1885, a fire damaged what is now known as the Old College, Aberystwyth, and in 1897 the first 14 acres of what became the main Penglais campus were purchased. Incorporated by Royal Charter in 1893, the university installed the Prince of Wales as chancellor in 1896, the same year it awarded an honorary degree to the British prime minister, William Gladstone.
The university's coat of arms dates from the 1880s. The shield features two red dragons to symbolise Wales, and an open book to symbolise learning. The crest, an eagle or phoenix above a flaming tower, may signify the college's rebirth after the 1885 fire. The motto is Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth (a world without knowledge is no world at all).
In the early 1900s, the university added courses that included law, applied mathematics, pure mathematics and botany. The Department for International Politics, which Aberystwyth says is the oldest such department in the world, was founded in 1919. By 1977, the university's staff included eight Fellows of the Royal Society, such as Gwendolen Rees, the first Welsh woman to be elected an FRS.
The Department of Sports and Exercise Science was established in 2000. Joint honours psychology degrees were introduced in September 2007, and single honours psychology in 2009.
The chancellor of the university is The Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, who took up the position in January 2018. The visitor of the university is an appointment made by the Privy Council, under the Royal Charter of the university. Since July 2014, the holder of this office is Mr Justice Sir Roderick Evans KC.
In 2011, the university appointed a new vice chancellor under whom the academic departments were restructured as larger subject-themed institutes.
In 2022, the university celebrated its 150th anniversar,y being established in 1872 (known at the time as The University College of Wales).
Aberystwyth is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, Aberystwyth means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in Wales since the establishment of University College Wales in 1872.
The town is situated on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales, near the confluence of the River Ystwyth and Afon Rheidol. Following the reconstruction of the harbour, the Ystwyth skirts the town. The Rheidol passes through the town.
The seafront, with a pier, stretches from Constitution Hill at the north end of the Promenade to the harbour at the south. The beach is divided by the castle. The town is divided into five areas: Aberystwyth Town; Llanbadarn Fawr; Waunfawr; Llanbadarn; Trefechan; and the most populous, Penparcau.
In 2011 the population of the town was 13,040. This rises to nearly 19,000 for the larger conurbation of Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn Fawr.
Aberystwyth Bay from a 1748 survey by Lewis Morris (1701–1765)
The distance to Swansea is 55 miles (89 km); to Shrewsbury 60 miles (97 km); to Wrexham 63 miles (101 km); to Cardiff 76 miles (122 km); and to London 180 miles (290 km).
Aberystwyth is a university town and tourist destination, and forms a cultural link between North Wales and South Wales. Constitution Hill, scaled by the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, gives access to panoramic views and to other attractions at the summit, including a camera obscura. Scenic Mid Wales landscape within easy reach of the town includes the wilderness of the Cambrian Mountains, whose valleys contain forests and meadows which have changed little in centuries. A convenient way to access the interior is by the preserved narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway.
Although the town is relatively modern, there are a number of historic buildings, including the remains of the castle and the Old College of Aberystwyth University nearby. The Old College was originally built and opened in 1865 as a hotel, but after the owner's bankruptcy the shell of the building was sold to the university in 1867.
The new university campus overlooks Aberystwyth from Penglais Hill to the east of the town centre. The station, a terminus of the main railway, was built in 1924 in the typical style of the period, mainly in a mix of Gothic, Classical Revival, and Victorian architecture.
The town is the unofficial capital of Mid Wales, and several institutions have regional or national offices there. Public bodies located in the town include the National Library of Wales, which incorporates the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, one of six British regional film archives. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales maintains and curates the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), providing the public with information about the built heritage of Wales. Aberystwyth is also the home to the national offices of UCAC and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), and the site of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, the Welsh Books Council and the offices of the standard historical dictionary of Welsh, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. A purpose built Welsh Government office and an adjoining office of Ceredigion County Council are also located in the town.
At the 2001 census, the population of the town was 15,935. This reduced to 13,040 at the 2011 census. Including neighbouring Llanbadarn Fawr, the population was 16,420, and the greater Aberystwyth conurbation having a population of 18,749 in 2011
Aberystwyth experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. This is particularly pronounced due to its west coast location facing the Irish Sea. Air undergoes little land moderation and so temperatures closely reflect the sea temperature when winds are coming from the predominant onshore (westerly) direction. The nearest Met Office weather station is Gogerddan, 3 miles to the northeast, and at a similar elevation.
The absolute maximum temperature is 34.6 °C (94.3 °F), set during July 2006. This is also the July record maximum for all of Wales, suggesting that the area's low lying situation, aided by a possible föhn effect when winds are offshore can act to achieve high temperatures on occasion. Typically the warmest day will average 28.0 °C (82.4 °F) and 5.6 days will achieve a maximum of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.
The absolute minimum temperature is −13.5 °C (7.7 °F), set in January 2010. Typically 39.8 days will register an air frost.
Rainfall averages 1,112 mm (44 in) a year, with over 1mm recorded on 161 days. All averages refer to the 1981–2010 period.
There is evidence that during the Mesolithic Age the area of Tan-y-Bwlch at the foot of Pen Dinas (Penparcau) was used as a flint knapping floor for hunter-gatherers making weapons from flint that was deposited as the ice retreated.
The remains of a Celtic fortress on Pen Dinas (or more correctly 'Dinas Maelor'), a hill in Penparcau overlooking Aberystwyth, indicates that the site was inhabited before 700 BC. On a hill south of the present town, across the River Ystwyth, are the remains of a medieval ringfort believed to be the castle from which Princess Nest was abducted. This rare survival is now on private land and can only be accessed by arrangement.
The recorded history of Aberystwyth may be said to date from the building of a fortress in 1109 by Gilbert Fitz Richard (grandfather of Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, the Cambro-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland). Gilbert Fitz Richard was granted lands and the lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle. The fortress built in Aberystwyth was located about a mile and a half south of today's town, on a hill over the south bank of the Ystwyth River, thus giving the settlement of Aberystwyth its name. The location is now known as Tan-Y-Castell.
Aberystwyth was usually under the control of the princes of Deheubarth, but its position close to the border with Gwynedd and Powys left it vulnerable to attacks from the leaders of those polities. The town was attacked by Gwenwynwyn ab Owain in 1197, an assault in which Maelgwn ap Rhys was captured. Llywelyn the Great attacked and seized the town in late 1208, building a castle there before withdrawing.
Edward I replaced Strongbow's castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh. His castle was, however, built in a different location, at the current Castle Hill, the high point of the town. Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndŵr but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England). Shortly after this, the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile (1.6 km) inland. It is thus styled in a Royal charter granted by Henry VIII but, by Elizabeth I's time, the town was invariably named Aberystwyth in all documents.
From 1639 to 1642, silver coins were minted at Aberystwyth Castle on behalf of the Royal Mint, using silver from local mines. £10,500 in currency was produced, equivalent to 2.5 million silver pennies.
In 1649, Parliamentarian troops razed the castle, although portions of three towers still exist. In 1988, an excavation within the castle area revealed a complete male skeleton, deliberately buried. Though skeletons rarely survive in Wales' acidic soil, this skeleton was probably preserved by the addition of lime from the collapsed building. Affectionately known as "Charlie" and now housed in the Ceredigion Museum in the town, he probably dates from the English Civil War period, and is likely to have died during the Parliamentarian siege. His image is featured in one of nine mosaics created to adorn the castle's walls.
The development of Aberystwyth's Port contributed to the town’s economic development during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Port improvements were carried out in both 1780 and 1836, with a new Customs House constructed in 1828. Rural industries and craftsmen were also an important part of life in this country town. The local trade directory for 1830 shows that there were in Aberystwyth: Twenty boot makers, eight bakers, two corn millers, eleven carpenters and joiners, one cooper, seven tailors, two dressmakers, two straw hat makers, two hat makers, three curriers, four saddlers, two tinsmiths, six maltsters, two skinners, four tanners, eight stonemasons, one brewer, four lime burners, three shipwrights, three wheelwrights, five cabinet makers, one nail maker, one rope maker and one sail maker.
The Cambrian Railways line from Machynlleth reached Aberystwyth in 1864, closely followed by rail links to Carmarthen, which resulted in the construction of the town's impressive station. The Cambrian line opened on Good Friday 1869, the same day that the new 292 metres (958 ft) Royal Pier (designed by Eugenius Birch) opened, attracting 7,000 visitors.
The railway's arrival gave rise to something of a Victorian tourist boom, with Aberystwyth becoming a significant holiday destination for working and middle class families from South Wales in particular. The town was once even billed as the "Biarritz of Wales". During this time, a number of hotels and fine townhouses were built including the Queens Hotel, later renamed Swyddfa'r Sir (County Office) when used as offices by the town council, and most recently used as the external scenes of the police station in the television show Hinterland. One of the largest of these hotels, "The Castle Hotel", was never completed as a hotel but, following bankruptcy, was sold cheaply to the Welsh National University Committee, a group of people dedicated to the creation of a Welsh University. The University College of Wales (later to become Aberystwyth University) was founded in 1872 in this building.
Aberystwyth was a contributory parliamentary borough until the Third Reform Act, which merged its representation into that of the county in 1885.
In 1895, various businessmen who had been behind the Aberystwyth New Harbour Company formed the Aberystwyth Improvement Company (AIC) to take over the works of the defunct Bourne Engineering & Electrical. In 1896, the AIC completed three projects: the new landside pavilion for the Royal Pier; built the Cambria Hotel (later the United Theological College) and formed Constitution Hill Ltd, to develop a Victorian theme park. Chief engineer George Croydon Marks designed all the AIC developments, including the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient to a park and camera obscura.
Aberystwyth hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1865, 1916, 1952 and 1992.
On the night of Friday, 14 January 1938, a storm with estimated wind speeds of up to 90 mph (140 km/h) struck the town. Most of the promenade was destroyed, along with 200 feet (60 m) of the pier. Many properties on the seafront were damaged, with every property from the King's Hall north affected; those on Victoria Terrace suffered the greatest damage. Work commenced on a protective coffer dam which continued into 1940, with total costs of construction coming to £70,000 (equivalent to £2.5 million today).
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) held their historic first protest on Trefechan Bridge in Aberystwyth, on 2 February 1963. The first independent Welsh Evangelical Church was established in Aberystwyth (see Evangelical Movement of Wales).
On 1 March 2005, Aberystwyth was granted Fairtrade Town status.
In March 2009 mayor Sue Jones-Davies, who had played the role of Judith Iscariot in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), organised a charity screening of the film. Principal actors Terry Jones and Michael Palin also attended. There is a popular, but incorrect, urban myth that the town had banned the film (as some authorities did) when it was first released.
During the aftermath storms from Cyclone Dirk on Friday 3 January 2014, the town was one of the worst hit in Wales. Properties on the adjoining promenade were then evacuated for the next five days, including 250 students from the University. Ceredigion Council appealed to the Welsh Assembly Government for funds, whilst Natural Resources Wales undertook surveys and emergency preventative measures.
North Parade, Aberystwyth was reported to be the most expensive street in Wales in 2018, based on property prices.
Penglais Nature Park (Welsh: Parc Natur Penglais) is a woodland overlooking the town. The park was created in 1995 from a disused quarry and surrounding woodland that had formerly been part of the Richardes family estate. In spring a carpet of bluebells bloom, in common with the many other bluebell woods.
The park covers 27 acres (11 ha). It was the first Nature reserve to open in Ceredigion and is the only UNESCO Man and Biosphere urban reserve in Wales.
Aberystwyth's local government administration has a two-tier structure consisting of two separate councils. As local government is a devolved matter in Wales, the legislation for both Councils is a responsibility of the Senedd.
Aberystwyth Town Council is the first tier of local government, which is the closest to the general public; there are 19 elected town councillors from five wards. The last elections were held in 2022. The council is responsible for cycle paths, public footpaths, CCTV, public Wi-Fi, bus shelters, parks, gardens (including the castle grounds and the skateboard park) and allotments. The council is a statutory body which is consulted regarding planning decisions in the town area and makes recommendations to the planning authority, Ceredigion County Council. The Town Council is also involved in leisure, tourism, business (through providing more than half of Menter Aberystwyth's funding in grants), licence applications, wellbeing and environmental health, recycling and refuse collection.
A borough council existed in Aberystwyth from 1832 and the Aberystwyth School Board was established in 1870.
Ceredigion County Council is another statutory body incorporated by Act of Parliament. It is the second tier of local government in the area and is a unitary authority with a wide range of powers and responsibility. The Council deals with roads (except trunk roads), street lighting, some highways, social services, children and family care, schools and public libraries. Aberystwyth elects six of the 42 councillors in five separate wards (Bronglais, Central, North and Rheidol wards elect one councillor each while Penparcau ward elects two).
Aberystwyth has five Senedd members, one of whom (Elin Jones) was elected as a constituency MS for Ceredigion, and four who are elected on the regional list for Mid and West Wales.
The town is in the Ceredigion constituency for elections to the House of Commons. Since June 2017, Aberystwyth's MP has been Plaid Cymru's Ben Lake.
The first ever public library in Aberystwyth was opened in Compton House, Pier Street on 13 October 1874. In 1882 the library was moved to the Assembly Rooms which were leased to the council for 21 years. The lease expired in 1903 and the library returned to Pier Street, this time to the Old Banking Library at the corner with Eastgate Street, although this was short lived. A Carnegie library was built in Aberystwyth in 1905, with a grant of £3,000. Located in Corporation Street, it was designed by the architect Walter Payton of Birmingham, who was one of 48 who entered the competition to design the building. It was formally opened on 20 April 1906 by Mrs Vaughan Davies, wife of the local MP. The town library moved to Aberystwyth Town Hall, now known as Canolfan Alun R. Edwards, following the building's refurbishment in 2012.
The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales. Established in 1907, it is a Welsh Government sponsored body. According to Cyril Evans, the library's centenary events co-ordinator, "The library is considered to be one of the world's greatest libraries, and its international reputation is certainly something that all Welsh men and women are intensely ... proud of". Welsh is the main medium of communication within the organisation; it aims to deliver all public services in Welsh and English.
Aberystwyth Arts Centre is one of the largest and busiest arts centres in Wales. It encompasses a 312-seat theatre, 900-seat concert hall, 125-seat cinema, and has accompanied studio, galleries, plus public spaces which include cafes and a bar. Arad Goch is an Arts Council funded community theatre and art gallery based in the town. The premises holds a theatre, gallery, several art studios and meeting rooms, and a darkroom.
The town has three works by the Italian sculptor Mario Rutelli; the War Memorial on the promenade, the Tabernacle Chapel Memorial on Powell Street, and the statue of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales in the Old College. All are Grade II listed structures. Rutelli’s connection with the town came through Thomas Jenkins of Aberystwyth, who ran a shipping business. Jenkins was a frequent visitor to Italy where he admired Rutelli’s work. Jo Darke, in her work, The Monument Guide to England and Wales: A National Portrait in Bronze and Stone, describes Rutelli’s war memorial as “striking and rare” and suggests that the life-size statue of Edward VIII is the only recorded example.
Aberystwyth has a live music scene which has produced bands and artists such as: The Crocketts; The Hot Puppies; Murry the Hump; and The Lowland Hundred. The University Music Centre promotes a varied programme for instrumentalists, singers and listeners from the university and the wider community. The University chamber choir, The Elizabethan Madrigal Singers, have been singing in the town since 1950 and continue to hold a number of concerts throughout the year. Aberystwyth gives its name to a well known hymn tune composed by Joseph Parry.
Aberystwyth RFC is the local rugby union club and acts as a feeder club to professional side Scarlets. It was formed in 1947 and for the 2017/18 season played in the WRU Division One West. Aberystwyth Town F.C. is a semi-professional football club that was formed in 1884. The team currently compete in the Cymru Premier, Wales' top division. The town also has a cricket club which plays in local leagues, an athletics club (founded 1955), and boxing club in Penparcau. The town's golf course opened in 1911.
Ceredigion, the county in which Aberystwyth is located, is one of the four most Welsh-speaking counties in Wales and remained majority Welsh speaking until the 2011 census. Since the town's growth as a seaside resort in the Victorian era, it has been more anglicised than its hinterland and the rest of the county in general. The university has also attracted many English-speaking students from England, non-Welsh speaking parts of Wales and elsewhere. The 1891 census recorded that, of the 6635 inhabitants who completed the language section, 3482 (52.5%) were bilingual, 1751 (26.4%) were Welsh monoglots, and 1402 people (21.1%) were returned as English monoglots. Ceredigion (then named Cardiganshire) as a whole was 95.2% Welsh-speaking and 74.5% monoglot Welsh. Although the town remained majority Welsh-speaking for many more decades, English had already replaced Welsh in certain domains, such as entertainment and tourism. By 1961, only 50.0% of the town's population could speak Welsh, compared to 79.5% for Cardiganshire as a whole; by 1971, these numbers had fallen to 44.9% and 67.6% respectively. The 2001 census reported that, in the seven wards of Aberystwyth, 39% of the residents self-identified as able to speak or read or write Welsh. This is lower than Ceredigion as a whole (54%) but higher than Wales overall (19%).
Aberystwyth parish church is St Michael's and All Angels, located in Laura Place. The parish was a Rectoral Benefice until 2019, incorporating the Anglican churches of Holy Trinity, Santes Fair (services in Welsh) and Saint Anne's, Penparcau. The Rectoral Benefice has now been converted to a local ministry area (LMA). The church was built between 1886 and 1890, replacing an earlier church. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style and is a Grade II listed building.
In addition to the Anglican churches, there are many existing and former Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapels that have these days merged into Saint David's (United Reformed) and Capel y Morfa (Welsh language services). A former Calvinistic Methodist Sunday school house, Ysgoldy Tanycae, is now the meeting place of the Elim Pentecostal church. Meanwhile there is a Wesleyan Methodist church, Saint Paul's Methodist Centre, located in Bath Street. An Independent Baptist church is located in Alfred Place. In 2021, amid some controversy, Aberystwyth's Catholic church, Saint Winefride's, was closed and the congregation relocated to a new-build church located in Penparcau.
There are a number of other smaller congregations, and many former churches that have now been converted to alternative use, such as the Academy bar.
Aberystwyth has two comprehensive schools serving the town and a wide rural area: Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig and Ysgol Penglais School. Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig uses Welsh as the primary language of tuition; Ysgol Penglais School teaches in English and in Welsh as a subject.
There are currently three primary schools within the town limits, which are: Plascrug, Saint Padarns (Roman Catholic) and Ysgol Gymraeg. Ysgol Gymraeg was the first designated Welsh medium school in Wales, originally established as a private school in 1939 by Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards as Ysgol Gymraeg yr Urdd.
Aberystwyth is home to Aberystwyth University (Welsh: Prifysgol Aberystwyth) whose predecessor, University College Wales, was founded in 1872 and renamed the 'University of Wales, Aberystwyth' in the mid-1990s. Prior to the college's establishment, Wales had very limited academic-degree capability through St David's College, Lampeter (founded in 1822, now the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David).
As well as having two cinemas and a golf course, the town's attractions include:
The Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, a funicular railway
A Victorian camera obscura at the top of Constitution Hill.
The Vale of Rheidol steam railway (Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge)
Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
The Parc Penglais nature reserve
The Ystwyth Trail cycle path
National Library of Wales
Park Avenue. Football stadium home to Aberystwyth Town F.C.
The all organic dairy unit of Rachel's Organic is based in Glan yr Afon, and is the largest private sector employer in Aberystwyth.
The Cambrian News newspaper came to Aberystwyth from Bala in 1870, after it was purchased by Sir John Gibson. Printed in Oswestry, in May 1880 the paper integrated operations in a former Malthouse in Mill Street. Owned by the Read family from 1926, in 1993 printing was contracted out, enabling the move of editorial staff to the current open-plan offices on Llanbadarn Fawr Science Park. On the death of Henry Read, the paper was purchased in 1999 by Sir Ray Tindle, whose company owns more than 200 weekly newspapers in Britain. Now printed in tabloid format, Cambrian News is the second-largest weekly-print circulation newspaper in Wales, with 24,000 copies in six regional editorial versions, read by 60,000 weekly readers. The circulation area of mid, west and north Wales covers 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2).
Since the TV series Hinterland has been filmed in and around Aberystwyth, the area is being promoted as an opportunity for tourists to visit filming locations; many are well publicised.
Aberystwyth railway station is situated in the town centre and is the terminus of the scenic Cambrian Line. Transport for Wales Rail operate a mostly hourly service (with some two-hour intervals) to Shrewsbury via Machynlleth and Mid Wales, with nearly all trains continuing to Birmingham International. Connecting services from Dovey Junction provide a link to Gwynedd's west coast as far as Pwllheli, along the Cambrian Coast Line. There is no longer a southbound connection: the Carmarthen–Aberystwyth line was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts.
Aberystwyth station is also the terminus of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, a steam-operated narrow gauge heritage railway. Constructed between 1901 and 1902, it was intended to ship mineral cargo, primarily lead, from Devil's Bridge down to Aberystwyth for trans-shipment. By the time it was finished, lead mining was in a deep downturn and—thanks to the Aberystwyth Improvement Company—the railway came to rely largely on the tourist industry, opening for passengers in December 1902. It still remains open for the summer season, with a journey of 12 miles (19 km).
In 1896, the Aberystwyth Improvement Company formed Constitution Hill Ltd which, under the direction of chief engineer George Croydon Marks, developed the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient.
A TrawsCymru T1 service on the A4120 in Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a hub for the TrawsCymru bus network, with four routes serving the town:
T1 - hourly service to Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday) via Aberaeron and Lampeter - with one service a day (Monday-Saturday) extended to Cardiff
T1C - daily express coach service to Cardiff, via Aberaeron, Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday), Swansea (Sunday & Bank Holidays only), Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend
T2 - every 1–2 hours to Bangor via Machynlleth, Dolgellau (connects with T3 to Barmouth and Wrexham), Porthmadog and Caernarfon
T5 - hourly service to Haverfordwest via Aberaeron, New Quay, Cardigan and Fishguard
(TrawsCymru services run less-frequently on Sundays.)
There is a daily National Express coach, service 409 to London via Birmingham, along with local bus services within the town and into the surrounding area.
The A44 and A487 meet with much traffic between North Wales and South West Wales passing through the town. The A4120 links the A44 and A487 between Llanbadarn Fawr and Penparcau, allowing through traffic to bypass the town centre.
The B4574 mountain road linking the town to Rhayader is described by the AA as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world.
The port of Aberystwyth, although it is small and relatively inconsequential today, used to be an important Atlantic Ocean entryway. It was used to ship locally, to Ireland and as a transatlantic departure point. Commercially, the once important Cardiganshire lead mines exported from this location.
The importance of maritime trade in the 19th century is reflected in the fact that a lifeboat has been based at Aberystwyth since 1843, when a 27 ft (8.2 m) boat powered by six oars was funded by public subscription and placed under the control of the harbourmaster. The RNLI took over the service in 1861 and established Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station which celebrated 150 years in 2011. The station uses the Atlantic 85-class inshore lifeboat Spirit of Friendship.
The Owl Service by Alan Garner, a well-known and -loved multi-award-winning classic published 1967, is set in north Wales and has two of its core characters —Gwyn and his mam (mother) Nancy— recently arrived from Aberystwyth for 3 weeks' work, with Nancy repeatedly threatening to return there immediately. They and the Welsh locals refer to it as "Aber"; the English characters use its full name.
Aberystwyth (albeit an alternative universe version) is the setting for the cult Louie Knight series by Malcolm Pryce, which transfers Chandleresque "noir" stories and dialogue to this small seaside town. This alternative reality features many landmarks of Aberystwyth, such as the University and the National Library of Wales, but the social situation is radically altered to more closely resemble the pulp/noir stereotypical "Dirty Town" that the narrative plays off. Most of the humour in the books is derived from the almost seamless juxtaposition of the real Aberystwyth and the fictional, noir Aberystwyth. Various aspects of Welsh culture are reflections of what you might expect to see in reality, but with a pulp twist – for example, prostitutes wear Welsh stovepipe hats.
Stripping Penguins Bare, the book 2 of Michael Carson's Benson Trilogy of comic novels, is set in the town and university in the 1960s.
The local writer Niall Griffiths has set many of his novels here and reflects local slang, settings, and even individuals. Grits and Sheepshagger are set wholly in Aberystwyth, which also features prominently in his other novels such as Kelly and Victor and Stump. He portrays a more gritty side of Aberystwyth.
‘Cofiwch Aberystwyth’ by science fiction writer Val Nolan, is a near-future post-apocalyptic novelette about three young urban explorers visiting Aberystwyth years after a nuclear disaster on the west coast of Wales. It was originally published in Interzone (magazine) and later anthologised in Best of British Science Fiction 2020. The title references the Cofiwch Dryweryn graffiti outside nearby Llanrhystyd, Ceredigion.
Television
Y Gwyll (2013–2016), a Welsh-language television programme, and the English-language version Hinterland , broadcast on S4C, BBC One Wales, BBC Four, and syndicated around the world, is set in Aberystwyth. It is filmed in and around the town, often in rural locations.
Film
Y Llyfrgell (2017) is an award-winning Welsh language film set in and around the National Library, which was filmed on location in 2016. The 2009 book on which it was based was released in English in 2022.
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Aberystwyth.
Individuals
1912 – Sir John Williams
1912 – David Davies
1912 – Stuart Rendel
1922 – David Lloyd George
1923 – Lewis Pugh Evans
1923 – Matthew Vaughan-Davies
1923 – Sir Herbert Lewis
1928 – Stanley Baldwin
1936 – Sir David Charles Roberts
1936 – Ernest Vaughan
1951 – Winston Churchill
1956 – Sir David James
2011 – Fritz Pratschke
2015 – Jean Guezennec
Military Units
1955 – The Welsh Guards
Twinning
Arklow in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland Ireland
Kronberg im Taunus in Hesse Hesse, Germany Germany
Saint-Brieuc in Brittany Brittany, France France
Esquel in Patagonia, Argentina Argentina
U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (Feb. 9, 2013) The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) transits the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. John C. Stennis is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions for Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Abbate/Released)
The suspension bridge is the only footbridge to cross the River Dee in Chester apart from the footbridge attached to the railway bridge. It was originally built in 1852 at the instigation of Enoch Gerrard, Esq., the "projector and proprietor" of Queen's Park, the developing suburb across the river. According to Thomas Hughes, author of "The Stranger's Handbook to Chester":
The Suspension Bridge in 2014.
"It was 'a pretty object in the landscape. Though of such spider-like construction, its capabilities and strength have been fully tested".
Chester Corporation took on the responsibility for this bridge in the early 1920s and decided to demolish it, The demolition took place in August 1922. It was replaced by a new bridge designed by Charles Greenwood, City Engineer and Surveyor. The opening ceremony, conducted by the Mayor of Chester, Councillor S.R. Wall, took place on 18 April 1923. It was superbly restored in 1998 and again in 2012.
The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up. John C. Maxwell
Each with a number of hats and responsibilities within the family. Can't help but be jealous of the child between us.
He was in the building that houses a restored WW II B-17 bomber at Tucson's Pima Air and Space Museum, one of the best aviation museums in the U.S. (www.pimaair.org/explore/history) He was giving information to a couple of other visitors and it quickly became clear that he knew what he was talking about as he shared intimate details about the beautifully restored B-17 that was nearby. He was answering questions and his answers were coming from someone who had done more than read about the bombing missions over Germany during the war. They were told in first-person, in a very friendly tone and without any hint of bragging. He was telling it like it was and as I eavesdropped, it became clear that he had been the pilot and commander of a crew of 10 flyers on a plane just like the one we were standing near.
Meet Col. Richard Bushong, Ret., a retired Air Force pilot who had enlisted in the Army Air Force at the age of 19 during World War II. This was before the U.S. Air Force became a branch of the U.S. military after the war. Although he started his flying career as a 19 year old co-pilot of this menacing plane, by the age of 21 he was commanding the plane and crew on bombing missions over Germany.
He mentioned what it was like to fly this plane and its crew into an onslaught of German fighters, flak, and anti-aircraft fire. Many of his fellow pilots and crew did not return from these missions. On one occasion he was confined to the infirmary by illness and another pilot took over his plane for a mission. That pilot and Richard's crew did not return. Richard (he refers to himself as "Dick") flew in all 28 combat missions before the end of the war and later became a test pilot on the (then) new B-24 bomber and later flew F-4 jets in the Vietnam War.
Looking at this modest 92 year old airman, you would never guess he was a World War II hero. You could easily pass him in Wal-Mart and not give it a second thought. What was remarkable was his mental sharpness which went along with his great physical condition. i found out he wrote an autobiography titled "My Wars" which was on sale at the museum and which he would happily autograph with the message "Good luck. Richard Bushing, a very old and very lucky pilot." (www.amazon.ca/My-Wars-Richard-Bushong/dp/0615198325)
I had decided to invite Richard to be part of my 100 Strangers project but he was in the process of excusing himself because he had a speaking engagement with a Rotary Club group north of Tucson and had to hit the road (he drives himself). He offered to talk more if I wanted and said he would return in about 3 hours to complete his one day per week volunteer stint at the museum. He agreed, however, to delay his departure by a few minutes to pose for me in the walkway alongside the snack bar at the museum, one of the few nearby locations which was sheltered from the strong Arizona sun.
He invited me to meet him near the back door after he collected the projector he needed for his presentation. Outside he caught up with me and invited me to hop into the museum golf cart for the ride over to the main building. I told him if I'm lucky enough to live to 92 I'd feel lucky if I could still tie my shoes, not to mention recall the wealth of details from decades ago. He laughed and said "Well, tying my shoelaces is sometimes a problem for me too. After a well-timed pause he went on. I have a cat and he just loves to play with my laces when I'm putting on my shoes and it usually winds up a real tangle." We shared a laugh before getting off the golf cart and proceeding to the walkway for the photos which I took in just a minute or so after he removed his sunglasses. He approved the images and we exchanged contact information. When I commented on his youth during the war which was in contrast to his responsibility, he said "That's just the way it was. We were all kids but we did our best and helped win the war."
Richard wished me well and said to feel free to stop by the museum any Thursday which is his volunteer day. What a gracious and impressive fellow. After I made a few notes on my phone I returned to the building where we met and chatted with another volunteer, Finn, who said he finds Richard every bit the fascinating gentleman I found him to be and said that his memory is absolutely stunning. "Last week he told me '71 years ago yesterday we flew a mission over [German city]." I was told that Richard is a pleasure to work with and Finn then asked if I would like to go upstairs and see a photo of Richard and his crew taken during World War II. Are you kidding? I went upstairs with him and was shown the photo of the young men with the flying caps set at a jaunty angle posed as a group in front of their bomber. Richard had mentioned that he had flown seven different B-17s for his combat missions and when he researched the tail numbers he learned that only one of the planes he flew returned to the U.S. after the war. "That's how lucky I am" he said with a gentle smile.
You can read a newspaper item about Col. Bushing here: www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/031610_b17/soar-with-...
Thank you Richard for taking the time to meet and tell me about your wartime experiences and about the B-17 you flew. Thank you also for participating in 100 Strangers. You are #702 in Round 8 of my project. Clear skies and tailwinds.
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by the other photographers in our group at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
See Link
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cya-pBzdcqM&nohtml5=False
History
Thalidomide was created by Grünenthal in 1953 and was used in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a "wonder drug" to treat morning sickness, headaches, coughs, insomnia and colds. Thalidomide was marketed in the UK under the name Distaval in 1958, and advertisements emphasized the drug's complete safety, using phrases such as “non-toxic” and “no known toxicity”.
However, in 1961 an Australian doctor, William McBride, wrote to the Lancet after noticing an increase in deformed babies being born at his hospital – all to mothers who had taken Thalidomide.
Between 1958 and 1962 tens of thousands of women throughout Europe found that the baby they were carrying unaccountably miscarried, or, worse, after they gave birth were told it was stillborn. Thousands more discovered that their babies had severe birth defects, missing arms, legs, or with severe reductions to these limbs, or even worse, damage to their internal organs, brain, heart, kidneys, intestines, genitals, etc. During 1962 record keepers began to count all of the children living who were born damaged by the drug. The only complete records are of those who survived long enough to participate in the national compensation schemes, which were established in Germany, Britain, Japan, Sweden and Australia in the 1970s. The difficulty in uncovering the full toll of the disaster begins with the unknown numbers of miscarriages and stillbirths (possibly up to ten times the number of live births), and the widespread practice of infanticide.
The Thalidomide injuries did not stop once the babies were born. At the age of fifty, the Thalidomide Trust’s records show that around half of all survivors are coping with chronic pain – mainly from muscles and joints (musculo-skeletal pain), largely as a result of the challenges of living with missing or damaged limbs. For many, their bodies are deteriorating far faster than able-bodied people. Several have been told words to the effect “your body is getting the problems of someone in their seventies”, which at forty to fifty years of age is not good news. At least a quarter are coping with developing neurological problems, tingling, numbness, and pain in their affected limbs. This means that a person may be holding a cup, for instance, and the next thing they know is it has fallen to the floor and broken, because of the numbness in their hand. For these survivors, the disaster is still slowly unfolding in their day-to-day lives.
Grünenthal scientists were not only negligent in failing to withdraw the drug when reports of problems came in, or for failing to test it according to the standards of the time, but more than most companies they were very well placed to anticipate the possibility that Thalidomide would cause birth defects.
Grünenthal initially denied claims that the drug hadn’t been extensively tested according to the standards of the time, but once the scandal became undeniable, they sought to deflect blame and limit damage.
In 1961 Thalidomide was eventually withdrawn after being found to be a teratogan - a cause of birth defects. 12 years later, the UK company Distillers Biochemicals Limited (now Diageo) – which was responsible for distributing the drug in the UK – reached a compensation settlement following a legal battle by the families of those affected.
Based on incomplete medical evidence and unrealistic expectations of Thalidomide survivors future needs this settlement has turned out to be at an inadequate level. With all Thalidomide survivors in the UK now over the age of 50, it is no longer sufficient to deal with their rising cost of living, and the dramatic deterioration of their health.
To this day, Grünenthal have never accepted responsibility for the suffering caused by Thalidomide. On September 1st 2012, The Grünenthal Group released a statement containing an apology, stating that it "regrets" the consequences of the drug, which led to babies being born without limbs during the 1950s and 1960s. Although the statement was welcomed by some Thalidomide survivors, it is still not an acceptance of responsibility. They just want to live a comfortable life, and that means Grünenthal should be held accountable and pay for their mistake financially.
Spanish
Historia
La talidomida fue creado por Grünenthal en 1953 y fue utilizado a finales de 1950 y principios de 1960 como una "droga milagrosa" para el tratamiento de las náuseas, dolores de cabeza, tos, insomnio y resfriados. La talidomida fue comercializada en el Reino Unido bajo el nombre Distaval en 1958, y destacó los anuncios de seguridad completa del medicamento, utilizando frases como "no tóxico" y "no hay toxicidad conocida".
Sin embargo, en 1961 un médico australiano, William McBride, escribió a la revista The Lancet después de notar un aumento en los bebés que nacen deformes en su hospital - todo a las madres que habían tomado Talidomida.
Entre 1958 y 1962, decenas de miles de mujeres de toda Europa descubrieron que el bebé que llevaban inexplicablemente abortado, o, peor aún, después de dar a luz se les dijo que estaba muerto. Miles de personas descubrieron que sus bebés nacieron con defectos congénitos graves, los brazos, las piernas, que faltan o con reducciones severas a estos miembros, o peor aún, el daño a sus órganos internos, cerebro, corazón, riñones, intestinos, genitales, etc Durante 1962 guardianes de los registros empezó a contar toda la vida los niños que nacieron dañado por la droga. Los únicos registros completos son de los que sobrevivieron lo suficiente como para participar en los sistemas nacionales de indemnización, que se establecieron en Alemania, Gran Bretaña, Japón, Suecia y Australia en la década de 1970. La dificultad para descubrir el número de víctimas del desastre comienza con los números desconocidos de abortos involuntarios y mortinatos (posiblemente hasta diez veces el número de nacidos vivos), y la práctica generalizada del infanticidio.
Las lesiones de la talidomida no se detuvo una vez que los bebés nacieron. A la edad de cincuenta años, los registros de la confianza talidomida muestran que cerca de la mitad de todos los sobrevivientes están lidiando con el dolor crónico - principalmente de músculos y articulaciones (dolor musculoesquelético), en gran parte como resultado de los desafíos de vivir con la falta o ramas dañadas. Para muchos, sus cuerpos se deterioran mucho más rápido que las personas sanas. Algunos han dicho palabras en el sentido de "su cuerpo está recibiendo los problemas de alguien en los setenta", que a los cuarenta o cincuenta años de edad no es una buena noticia. Al menos una cuarta están lidiando con el desarrollo de problemas neurológicos, hormigueo, entumecimiento y dolor en las extremidades afectadas. Esto significa que una persona puede ser la celebración de una taza, por ejemplo, y lo siguiente que sé es que ha caído al suelo y se rompe, debido a la sensación de adormecimiento en la mano. Para estos sobrevivientes, el desastre está siendo poco a poco se desarrolla en su día a día.
Grünenthal científicos no sólo fueron negligentes al no haber retirado la droga cuando los informes de problemas de vino, o por no probarlo de acuerdo a los estándares de la época, pero más que la mayoría de las empresas que estaban muy bien situados para prever la posibilidad de que la talidomida haría causar defectos de nacimiento.
Grünenthal inicialmente negó las acusaciones de que el medicamento no ha sido ampliamente probado de acuerdo con los estándares de la época, pero una vez que el escándalo se hizo innegable, trataron de desviar la culpa y limitar el daño.
En 1961, la talidomida fue finalmente retirada después de haber sido encontrado para ser un teratogan - una de las causas de los defectos congénitos. 12 años después, el Reino Unido, Distillers Company Limited (ahora Bioquímicos Diageo) - encargada de la distribución de la droga en el Reino Unido - llegó a un acuerdo de compensación después de una batalla legal por las familias de los afectados.
Sobre la base de evidencia incompleta médica y expectativas poco realistas de la talidomida futuro sobrevivientes necesita esta solución ha resultado ser en un nivel adecuado. Con todos los sobrevivientes de la talidomida en el Reino Unido ahora más de 50 años de edad, ya no es suficiente para hacer frente a su creciente costo de vida, y el dramático deterioro de su salud.
A día de hoy, Grünenthal nunca ha aceptado la responsabilidad por el sufrimiento causado por la talidomida. El 1 de septiembre de 2012, el Grupo Grünenthal emitió una declaración que contenga una disculpa, diciendo que "lamenta" las consecuencias de la droga, lo que llevó a los bebés que nacen sin extremidades durante los años 1950 y 1960. Aunque la declaración fue bien recibida por algunos sobrevivientes de la talidomida, no es todavía una aceptación de responsabilidad. Ellos sólo quieren vivir una vida cómoda, y eso quiere decir Grünenthal deben rendir cuentas y pagar por su error financieramente.
Italian
Storia
La talidomide è stato creato da Grünenthal nel 1953 ed è stato utilizzato alla fine del 1950 e 1960 come un "farmaco miracoloso" per curare la malattia di mattina, mal di testa, tosse, insonnia e raffreddori. La talidomide è stato commercializzato nel Regno Unito con il nome di Distaval nel 1958, e la pubblicità ha sottolineato sicurezza del farmaco, con frasi come "non tossico" e "nessuna tossicità conosciuto".
Tuttavia, nel 1961 un medico australiano, William McBride, ha scritto al Lancet dopo aver notato un aumento delle nascite di bimbi malformati essendo nati a suo ospedale - tutti da madri che avevano assunto talidomide.
Tra il 1958 e il 1962 decine di migliaia di donne in tutta Europa ha scoperto che il bambino che portavano inspiegabilmente abortito, o, peggio, dopo che ha dato alla luce hanno detto che era morto. Altre migliaia hanno scoperto che i loro bambini hanno gravi difetti di nascita, braccia, gambe, mancanti o con gravi riduzioni a queste arti, o peggio ancora, danni ai loro organi interni, cervello, cuore, reni, intestino, genitali, ecc Nel 1962 custodi record cominciò a contare tutta la vita i bambini che sono nati danneggiati dal farmaco. Le uniche registrazioni complete sono di coloro che sono sopravvissuti abbastanza a lungo per partecipare ai sistemi di indennizzo nazionali, che sono stati stabiliti in Germania, Gran Bretagna, Giappone, Svezia e Australia nel 1970. La difficoltà nello scoprire il bilancio del disastro inizia con i numeri sconosciuti di aborti spontanei e nati morti (forse fino a dieci volte il numero di nati vivi), e la pratica diffusa di infanticidio.
Le lesioni Talidomide non si è fermata una volta che i bambini sono nati. All'età di 50, del Trust talidomide i tabulati mostrano che circa la metà di tutti i sopravvissuti stanno affrontando con dolore cronico - principalmente da muscoli e le articolazioni (il dolore muscoloscheletrico), soprattutto a causa delle sfide della vita con mancanti o arti danneggiati. Per molti, i loro corpi si stanno deteriorando molto più veloce di persone abili. Molti hanno detto parole per l'effetto "il tuo corpo è sempre il problema di qualcuno nei loro anni settanta", che a 40-50 anni di età non è una buona notizia. Almeno un quarto stanno affrontando con lo sviluppo di problemi neurologici, formicolio, intorpidimento e dolore a carico degli arti colpiti. Ciò significa che una persona può essere in possesso di un tazza, per esempio, e la prossima cosa che so è che è caduto a terra e rotto, a causa del torpore in mano. Per questi sopravvissuti, il disastro è ancora lentamente svolgendo nel loro giorno per giorno la vita.
Grünenthal scienziati non erano solo negligenza nel non ritirare il farmaco quando i report di problemi è venuto in, o per non aver testarlo secondo gli standard del tempo, ma più che la maggior parte delle aziende erano molto ben disposti ad anticipare la possibilità che Thalidomide avrebbe causare difetti di nascita.
Grünenthal inizialmente smentito che il farmaco non era stato ampiamente testati secondo gli standard del tempo, ma una volta che lo scandalo è diventata innegabile, hanno cercato di deviare la colpa e di limitare i danni.
Nel 1961 talidomide è stata infine ritirata dopo essere stato trovato per essere un teratogan - una causa di difetti di nascita. 12 anni dopo, i Distillers Company Limited, Regno Unito Biochemicals (ora Diageo) - incaricata di distribuire il farmaco nel Regno Unito - ha raggiunto un accordo di compensazione a seguito di una battaglia legale da parte delle famiglie delle persone colpite.
Sulla base di prove mediche incomplete e le aspettative non realistiche del futuro Thalidomide sopravvissuti ha bisogno di questa soluzione si è rivelata essere ad un livello insufficiente. Con tutti i sopravvissuti Talidomide nel Regno Unito ora di età superiore ai 50 anni, non è più sufficiente per affrontare la loro crescente costo della vita, e il drammatico deterioramento della loro salute.
Fino ad oggi, la Grünenthal non hanno mai accettato la responsabilità per la sofferenza causata dal talidomide. Il 1 ° settembre 2012, il Gruppo Grünenthal ha rilasciato una dichiarazione che contiene delle scuse, affermando che esso "deplora" le conseguenze della droga, che ha portato a bambini nati senza arti nel corso del 1950 e 1960. Anche se la dichiarazione è stata accolta da alcuni sopravvissuti talidomide, non è ancora una assunzione di responsabilità. Vogliono solo vivere una vita comoda, e questo significa che Grünenthal dovrebbero essere ritenuti responsabili e pagare per il loro errore finanziario.
More History
www.flickr.com/photos/duckwalk/sets/72157615944260359/
PHILIPPINE SEA (Sept. 25, 2014) A MH-60S "Knighthawk," from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Two One (HSC 21), prepares for evening flight operations aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5). Peleliu is the lead ship in the Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group, commanded by Rear Adm. Hugh Wetherald, and is conducting joint forces exercises in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Joshua Hammond/Released)
All rights reserved. Unauthorized usage is an offense punishable by law..
This photo has made it to explore! Rank #172 on 2008-09-02 .
The Aranthalawa Massacre was the massacre of 31 Buddhist monks by cadres of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization (the LTTE, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers) on June 2, 1987 close to the village of Aranthalawa, in the Ampara district of Eastern Sri Lanka. This massacre is considered one of the most notorious and devastating atrocities committed by the LTTE during the history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and continues to be commemorated 20 years on.
This unfortunate incident took place when a bus carrying Buddhist monks and a few unarmed civilians was ambushed by armed LTTE cadres near the village of Nuwerathanne. They then ordered the bus driver, which was carrying the monks on a pilgrimage, to drive into the nearby jungle. After the bus stopped, the LTTE cadres went on a rampage, brutally attacking the innocent monks with swords and machine guns.
Among the dead were 30 young novice monks, like the one in this picture, and their mentor, the Chief Priest of the Vidyananda Maha Pirivena, Hegoda Sri Indrasara Thero. Four civilians who were traveling in the bus were also among the dead.
Three monks who escaped the massacre sustaining critical injuries continue to require medical assistance. Another monk was permanently disabled.
The massacre remains one of the most brutal attacks carried out during the conflict in Sri Lanka and is considered one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lankan history
Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Gilpin thanks the people in his life who have helped in his career during a change of responsibility ceremony at Hoekstra Field, Caserma Ederle, Jan. 8. Gilpin assumes responsibility as USARAF’s senior enlisted Soldier. (U.S. Army Africa photo by Staff Sgt. Lance Pounds)
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
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I feel like this sometimes. I feel like the more that you try to hide from things, the faster they catch up with you.
After assuming responsibility for operation of the 17 Rochdale - Manchester service in March 2024, Stagecoach Manchester vehicles interwork with the 409 Rochdale - Oldham - Ashton service, on which some of the newly delivered AD Enviro 400EV are allocated. 80108 was pictured in Middleton as it heads out towards Manchester.
This image is copyright and must not be reproduced or downloaded without the permission of the photographer.
Please Contribute today. Even a small recurring monthly donation of INR. 150 or INR. 270 to Trinity Care Foundation project pages.razorpay.com/dentalcare will make a huge difference.
Please "share" in your timeline to provide curative Dental Health Care Services to the disadvantaged school students. More @ publichealthdentistry.blogspot.com/2015/02/why-school-hea...
“You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.”
|Antoine de Saint-Exupery|
Railroad : TX Logistik (Alpha Trains)
Locomotive Typ : Siemens Vectron MS
Locomotive Nr. : 91 80 6193 553-5 D-ATLU
Locomotive Name :
Location : Kufstein, Austria
Photo Date : 14.04.2018
Remarks : Responsibility Driven
“The God Delusion” ―Richard Dawkins, 2006
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.”
Sooner or later time comes when we all must become responsible adults and learn to give up what we want. So that we can choose what is right. Off course a life time of responsibility isn't easy. And as the years goes on its the burden that can become too heavy for some to bear. But still we try to do what is the best. What is good not only for ourselves but for those we love.
Yes, sooner or later, we must all become responsible adults. No one knows this better than the young.
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Zaur Shamba calls himself as Lavrentiy Beria (chief of soviet secret police apparatus under Stalin), has schizophrenia and tuberculosis. Mental Hospital in Dranda, populated by 70-80 people (depends on a season). Half of the patients in the hospital are men and half are women. Illnesses are common for a such place: schizophrenia, post-traumatic syndrome, different neuroses and 8 man of diminished responsibility were moved from prison. The worst is that some of them have HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis. Dranda is About 30km from Sukhumi, capital of Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative in Bangalore India by www.trinitycarefoundation.com/csr
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a bond of deep connection found in openness of truth telling through our decades in this •reversing responsibilities• adult son taking kind loving Father for a haircut - There is a softness a warming a strange beauty now being able and willing to just be with my Dad eighty eight years old - I remember and still look up to you my Father
Location: Location: Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Contax G2
Contax G Carl Zeiss Biogon 28mm f/2.8 T*
Rollei Retro 400s
Day Sixteen:
Oh god, this isn't supposed to happen to me. They said if I just pretended everything was fine then nothing could touch me. They said if I think of myself and only myself and kept doing everything I wanted to do then I would be fine. They said it was only the other people that this would happen to. The people who weren't like me. They said I'd be fine.
I can't touch things now. I always touched things even when they said we shouldn't. I touched that and that and hugged that and I let that touch me a few times especially in the places they said we could touch but only if we planned to touch forever. They said it would never happen to me. They said I'd be fine.
It's happened now. It's happened to me. It might happen to everything I touched because I didn't think anything would happen. It wasn't my responsibility to look after everyone else. It was them that should have kept out of harm's way. But it's happening to me. It's happening to everyone like me. But they said it would never happen to me. They said I'd be fine.
I have a tradition of reflecting upon another year of living with an (now) antiquated "blog" post that's part humor (in my mind), rememberance and heart-felt emotion. The older I get the easier it is to get lost in the could-haves, and memories — so that I don't forget who I am and who I still want to be.
I'm not sure I ever thought about what it would be like to be thirty nine years old when I was nine. It might have involved flying cars, or at the very least being driven around in some futuristic bubble car that made me money. I had no concept of adulthood. The burdens of owning things and paying for things and fixing things and wanting things and knowing things. The responsibility of earning money to pay for things, things that provide food and shelter for a wife and three kids. The trial of learning when to do with and do without, or saying yes and saying no, of admitting how completely lost you really are after thirty nine years. Nine doesn't seem so bad now.
Some people might fantasize about going back in time and telling their younger self's (with the voice of Morgan Freeman) to appreciate their time, enjoy every moment; but I know I would never listen, never grasp any of that at nine — nor should I. I scarcely know what it means to enjoy every moment now, "to take it all in".
And maybe that's what it means to get older. It means understanding that 82% of the problems in your life are caused (directly or indirectly) by you. Sure aging means medications and doctor's appointments, learning with every stretch, yawn and blink of your crumbling body, expanding stomachs and over-ripened skin. It means complaining being tired and fat and old and kids and drivers and politics and religion and entertainment and your neighbors and the impending gypsy/ killer bee/ Lyme disease/ SARS/ environmental disasters that will destroy this world. It means begrudgingly living with the image you've managed to cultivate for yourself, however true or untrue it is. It means never settling into who you think you, or who other's think you are. It means having perspective. That reflection and reminiscence aren't fanciful daydreams but history lessons. That wisdom isn't gained but earned. It means knowing the things you don't know far outweigh the things you do.
I'm thirty nine, and I'm still growing up.
This is one of our closest friends with her beautiful son... You can feel the love...
Taken with a Nikkor 50mmf1.4
With great power, comes great responsibility. Ben Parkar.
3rd in the series of 'Spiderman' couple of more to come ...
Nikon D90 @ Nikon 135mm f/2 dc - shot at f/2.8 defocus control in the middle @ SB 600 @ 85mm @ hand held @ opp the subject @ hitting the sky and not straight on the spiderman @ Triggered with on-camera Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 and a FlexTT5 on each flash.
Shot in a mill.