View allAll Photos Tagged Runs

LTC17 runs back to Albert Lea.

From last week (Thanksgiving) when I went out to my parents'. Bailey loves autumn and she loves to run and play. She is 11 years old (born in 2000).

The South Shore Freight Tues/Thrus job that runs from Michigan City to Dillon busts a large snowdrift left by plow trucks at Rt. 35. Northern Indiana got slammed by some lake effect snow on Friday and Saturday and this job was the first down the line in a close to two foot snow fall. Not to mention that the two GP38's were in the "South Shore Lines" paint too!

Sedona Arizona

Nikon D-7100

Shelley runs the University's Science Festival. She is one of the most colourful persons around:-)

 

One of the editors of Science magazine's Science Careers contacted me regarding an article they're doing on Shelley and requested permission to use an old portrait I'd taken. I found this portrait in my archives:-)

A late fall panorama of Edmonton and the river valley, captured from Cranleigh Towers along Saskatchewan Drive.

 

This panorama consists of 82 individual photos for a total file size of 1.7GB and measures 2.9metres on the long side! A perfect print for a downtown office.

 

View on my website here, www.mikeisaak.com/edmonton-skyline/a-river-runs-through/

...I'll be our light, your match, your burning sun,

I'll be the bright and black that's making you run.

I got my mind made up and I can't let go.

I'm killing every second 'til it sees my soul.

I'll be running, I'll be running,

'til the love runs out, 'til the love runs out.

And we'll start a fire, and we'll shut it down,

'til the love runs out, 'til the love runs out....

 

One Republic - Love Runs Out

 

Details: My Second Closet

This fence runs along the car park at Prestwick Golf Club separating the cars from the practice area.

 

Our Daily Challenge ~ Fence ...

 

Stay Safe and Healthy Everyone!

 

Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!

There was a hoard of safari vans observing the Cheetahs at Amboseli! Unfortunately the cheetahs were trying to cross the path onto the other side but couldn't because all of these vans were blocking the way! The cheetahs were quite agitated by the crowd and came very close to our van numerous times. It was on one of these occasions that I chanced upon the cheetah taking a turn as it ran! One of my favourite shots from the trip!

A meandering mountain waterfall river in Great Smoky Mountains National Park runs through the Tremont trails

Runs from the courthouse to jail

Along the Riverside Walk Trail @ Zion National Park...

 

Taken handheld... again... :)

47847 runs light engine at Preston R00493

 

Heidelberg - Heidelberger Schloss

 

Heidelberg Castle (German: Heidelberger Schloss) is a ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.

 

The castle has only been partially rebuilt since its demolition in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is located 80 metres (260 ft) up the northern part of the Königstuhl hillside, and thereby dominates the view of the old downtown. It is served by an intermediate station on the Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway that runs from Heidelberg's Kornmarkt to the summit of the Königstuhl.

 

The earliest castle structure was built before 1214 and later expanded into two castles circa 1294; however, in 1537, a lightning bolt destroyed the upper castle. The present structures had been expanded by 1650, before damage by later wars and fires. In 1764, another lightning bolt caused a fire which destroyed some rebuilt sections.

 

Before destruction

 

Early history

 

Heidelberg was first mentioned in 1196 as "Heidelberch". In 1155 Conrad of Hohenstaufen was made the Count Palatine by his half-brother Frederick Barbarossa, and the region became known as the Electoral Palatinate. The claim that Conrad's main residence was on the Schlossberg (Castle Hill), known as the Jettenbühl, cannot be substantiated. The name "Jettenbühl" comes from the soothsayer Jetta, who was said to have lived there. She is also associated with Wolfsbrunnen (Wolf's Spring) and the Heidenloch (Heathens' Well). The first mention of a castle in Heidelberg (Latin: "castrum in Heidelberg cum burgo ipsius castri") is in 1214, when Louis I, Duke of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach received it from Hohenstaufen Emperor Friedrich II. The last mention of a single castle is in 1294. In another document from 1303, two castles are mentioned for the first time:

 

The upper castle on Kleiner Gaisberg Mountain, near today's Hotel Molkenkur (destroyed in 1537);

The lower castle on the Jettenbühl (the present castle site).

 

All that is known about the founding of the lower castle is that it took place sometime between 1294 and 1303. The oldest documented references to Heidelberg Castle are found during the 1600s:

 

The Thesaurus Pictuarum of the Palatinate church counsel Markus zum Lamb (1559 to 1606);

The "Annales Academici Heidelbergenses" by the Heidelberg librarian and professor Pithopoeus (started in 1587);

The "Originum Palatinarum Commentarius" by Marquard Freher (1599);

The "Teutsche Reyssebuch" by Martin Zeiller (Strasbourg 1632, reprinted in 1674 as the "Itinerarium Germaniae").

 

All of these works are for the most part superficial and do not contain much information. In 1615, Merian's Topographia Palatinatus Rheni described Prince Elector Ludwig V as he "started building a new castle one hundred and more years ago". Most of the descriptions of the castle up until the 18th century are based on Merian's information. Under Ruprecht I, the court chapel was erected on the Jettenbühl.

 

Palace of kings

 

When Ruprecht became the King of Germany in 1401, the castle was so small that on his return from his coronation, he had to camp out in the Augustinians' monastery, on the site of today's University Square. What he desired was more space for his entourage and court and to impress his guests, but also additional defences to turn the castle into a fortress.

 

After Ruprecht's death in 1410, his land was divided between his four sons. The Palatinate, the heart of his territories, was given to the eldest son, Ludwig III. Ludwig was the representative of the emperor and the supreme judge, and it was in this capacity that he, after the Council of Constance in 1415 and at the behest of Emperor Sigismund, held the deposed Antipope John XXIII in custody before he was taken to Burg Eichelsheim (today Mannheim-Lindenhof).

 

On a visit to Heidelberg in 1838, the French author Victor Hugo took particular pleasure in strolling among the ruins of the castle. He summarised its history in this letter:

 

But let me talk of its castle. (This is absolutely essential, and I should actually have begun with it.) What times it has been through! Five hundred years long it has been victim to everything that has shaken Europe, and now it has collapsed under its weight. That is because this Heidelberg Castle, the residence of the counts Palatine, who were answerable only to kings, emperors, and popes, and was of too much significance to bend to their whims, but couldn't raise his head without coming into conflict with them, and that is because, in my opinion, that the Heidelberg Castle has always taken up some position of opposition towards the powerful. Circa 1300, the time of its founding, it starts with a Thebes analogy; in Count Rudolf and Emperor Ludwig, these degenerate brothers, it has its Eteocles and its Polynices [warring sons of Oedipus]. Then the prince elector begins to grow in power. In 1400 the Palatine Ruprecht II, supported by three Rhenish prince electors, deposes Emperor Wenceslaus and usurps his position; 120 years later in 1519, Count Palatine Frederick II was to create the young King Charles I of Spain Emperor Charles V.

 

Reformation and the Thirty Years Wars

 

It was during the reign of Louis V, Elector Palatine (1508–1544) that Martin Luther came to Heidelberg to defend one of his theses (Heidelberg Disputation) and paid a visit to the castle. He was shown around by Louis's younger brother, Wolfgang, Count Palatine, and in a letter to his friend George Spalatin praises the castle's beauty and its defenses.

 

In 1619, Protestants rebelling against the Holy Roman Empire offered the crown of Bohemia to Frederick V, Elector Palatine who accepted despite misgivings and in doing so triggered the outbreak of the Thirty Years War. It was during the Thirty Years War that arms were raised against the castle for the first time. This period marks the end of the castle's construction; the centuries to follow brought with them destruction and rebuilding.

 

Destruction

 

After his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620, Frederick V was on the run as an outlaw and had to release his troops prematurely, leaving the Palatinate undefended against General Tilly, the supreme commander of the Imperial and Holy Roman Empire's troops. On 26 August 1622, Tilly commenced his attack on Heidelberg, taking the town on 16 September, and the castle a few days later.

 

When the Swedes captured Heidelberg on 5 May 1633 and opened fire on the castle from the Königstuhl hill behind it, Tilly handed over the castle. The following year, the emperor's troops tried to recapture the castle, but it was not until July 1635 that they succeeded. It remained in their possession until the Peace of Westphalia ending the Thirty Years War was signed. The new ruler, Charles Louis (Karl Ludwig) and his family did not move into the ruined castle until 7 October 1649.

 

Victor Hugo summarized these and the following events:

 

In 1619, Frederick V, then a young man, took the crown of the kings of Bohemia, against the will of the emperor, and in 1687, Philip William, Count Palatine, by then an old man, assumes the title of prince-elector, against the will of the king of France. This was to cause Heidelberg battles and never-ending tribuluations, the Thirty Years War, Gustav Adolfs Ruhmesblatt and finally the War of the Grand Alliance, the Turennes mission. All of these terrible events have blighted the castle. Three emperors, Louis the Bavarian, Adolf of Nassau, and Leopold of Austria, have laid siege to it; Pio II condemned it; Louis XIV wreaked havoc on it.

— quoted from Victor Hugo: "Heidelberg"

 

Nine Years' War

 

After the death of Charles II, Elector Palatine, the last in line of the House of Palatinate-Simmern, Louis XIV of France demanded the surrender of the allodial title in favor of the Duchess of Orléans, Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine who he claimed was the rightful heir to the Simmern lands. On 29 September 1688, the French troops marched into the Palatinate of the Rhine and on 24 October moved into Heidelberg, which had been deserted by Philipp Wilhelm, the new Elector Palatine from the line of Palatinate-Neuburg. At war against the allied European powers, France's war council decided to destroy all fortifications and to lay waste to the Palatinate (Brûlez le Palatinat!), in order to prevent an enemy attack from this area. As the French withdrew from the castle on 2 March 1689, they set fire to it and blew the front off the Fat Tower. Portions of the town were also burned, but the mercy of a French general, René de Froulay de Tessé, who told the townspeople to set small fires in their homes to create smoke and the illusion of widespread burning, prevented wider destruction.

 

Immediately upon his accession in 1690, Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine had the walls and towers rebuilt. When the French again reached the gates of Heidelberg in 1691 and 1692, the town's defenses were so good that they did not gain entry. On 18 May 1693 the French were yet again at the town's gates and took it on 22 May. However, they did not attain control of the castle and destroyed the town in attempt to weaken the castle's main support base. The castle's occupants capitulated the next day. Now the French took the opportunity to finish off the work started in 1689, after their hurried exit from the town. The towers and walls that had survived the last wave of destruction, were blown up with mines.

 

Removal of the court to Mannheim

 

In 1697 the Treaty of Ryswick was signed, marking the end of the War of the Grand Alliance and finally bringing peace to the town. Plans were made to pull down the castle and to reuse parts of it for a new palace in the valley. When difficulties with this plan became apparent, the castle was patched up. At the same time, Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine played with the idea of completely redesigning the castle, but shelved the project due to lack of funds. He did, however, install his favorite court jester, Perkeo of Heidelberg to famously watch over the castle's wine stock. Perkeo later became the unofficial mascot of the city. In 1720, he came into conflict with the town's Protestants as a result of fully handing over the Church of the Holy Spirit to the Catholics (it had previously been split by a partition and used by both congregations), the Catholic prince-elector moved his court to Mannheim and lost all interest in the castle. When on 12 April 1720, Charles announced the removal of the court and all its administrative bodies to Mannheim, he wished that "Grass may grow on her streets".

 

The religious conflict was probably only one reason for the move to Mannheim. In addition, converting the old-fashioned hill-top castle into a Baroque palace would have been difficult and costly. By moving down into the plain, the prince-elector was able to construct a new palace, Mannheim Palace, that met his every wish.

 

Karl Phillip's successor Karl Theodor planned to move his court back to Heidelberg Castle. However, on 24 June 1764, lightning struck the Saalbau (court building) twice in a row, again setting the castle on fire, which he regarded as a sign from heaven and changed his plans. Victor Hugo, who had come to love the ruins of the castle, also saw it as a divine signal:

 

One could even say that the very heavens had intervened. On 23 June 1764, the day before Karl Theodor was to move into the castle and make it his seat (which, by the bye, would have been a great disaster, for if Karl Theodor had spent his thirty years there, these austere ruins which we today so admire would certainly have been decorated in the pompadour style); on this day, then, with the prince's furnishings already arrived and waiting in the Church of the Holy Spirit, fire from heaven hit the octagonal tower, set light to the roof, and destroyed this five-hundred-year-old castle in very few hours.

— Victor Hugo, Heidelberg

 

In the following decades, basic repairs were made, but Heidelberg Castle remained essentially a ruin.

 

Since destruction

 

Slow decay and Romantic enthusiasm

 

In 1777, Karl Theodor became ruler of Bavaria in addition to the Palatinate and removed his court from Mannheim to Munich. Heidelberg Castle receded even further from his thoughts and the rooms which had still had roofs were taken over by craftsmen. Even as early as 1767, the south wall was quarried for stone to build Schwetzingen Castle. In 1784, the vaults in the Ottoheinrich wing were filled in, and the castle used as a source of building materials.

 

As a result of the German mediatisation of 1803, Heidelberg and Mannheim became part of Baden. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden welcomed the addition to his territory, although he regarded Heidelberg Castle as an unwanted addition. The structure was decaying and the townsfolk were helping themselves to stone, wood, and iron from the castle to build their own houses. The statuary and ornaments were also fair game. August von Kotzebue expressed his indignation in 1803 at the government of Baden's intention to pull down the ruins. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the ruined castle had become a symbol for the patriotic movement against Napoleon.

 

Even before 1800, artists had come to see the river, the hills and the ruins of the castle as an ideal ensemble. The best depictions are those of England's J. M. W. Turner, who stayed in Heidelberg several times between 1817 and 1844, and painted Heidelberg and the castle many times. He and his fellow Romantic painters were not interested in faithful portrayals of the building and gave artistic licence free rein. For example, Turner's paintings of the castle show it perched far higher up on the hill than it actually is.

 

The saviour of the castle was the French count Charles de Graimberg. He fought the government of Baden, which viewed the castle as an "old ruin with a multitude of tasteless, crumbling ornaments", for the preservation of the building. Until 1822, he served as a voluntary castle warden, and lived for a while in the Glass Wing (Gläserner Saalbau), where he could keep an eye on the courtyard. Long before the origin of historic preservation in Germany, he was the first person to take an interest in the conservation and documentation of the castle, which may never have occurred to any of the Romantics. Graimberg asked Thomas A. Leger to prepare the first castle guide. With his pictures of the castle, of which many copies were produced, Graimberg promoted the castle ruins and drew many tourists to the town.

 

Planning and restoration

 

The question of whether the castle should be completely restored was discussed for a long time. In 1868, the poet Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter argued for a complete reconstruction, leading to a strong backlash in public meetings and in the press.

 

In 1883, the Grand Duchy of Baden established a "Castle field office", supervised by building director Josef Durm in Karlsruhe, district building supervisor Julius Koch and architect Fritz Seitz. The office made a detailed plan for preserving or repairing the main building. They completed their work in 1890, which led a commission of specialists from across Germany to decide that while a complete or partial rebuilding of the castle was not possible, it was possible to preserve it in its current condition. Only the Friedrich Building, whose interiors were fire damaged, but not ruined, would be restored. This reconstruction was done from 1897 to 1900 by Karl Schäfer at the enormous cost of 520,000 Marks.

 

Castle ruins and tourism

 

The oldest description of Heidelberg from 1465 mentions that the city is "frequented by strangers", but it did not really become a tourist attraction until the beginning of the 19th century. Count Graimberg made the castle a pervasive subject for pictures which became forerunners of the postcard. At the same time, the castle was also found on souvenir cups. Tourism received a big boost when Heidelberg was connected to the railway network in 1840.

 

Mark Twain, the American author, described the Heidelberg Castle in his 1880 travel book A Tramp Abroad:

 

A ruin must be rightly situated, to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. It stands upon a commanding elevation, it is buried in green woods, there is no level ground about it, but, on the contrary, there are wooded terraces upon terraces, and one looks down through shining leaves into profound chasms and abysses where twilight reigns and the sun cannot intrude. Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect. One of these old towers is split down the middle, and one half has tumbled aside. It tumbled in such a way as to establish itself in a picturesque attitude. Then all it lacked was a fitting drapery, and Nature has furnished that; she has robed the rugged mass in flowers and verdure, and made it a charm to the eye. The standing half exposes its arched and cavernous rooms to you, like open, toothless mouths; there, too, the vines and flowers have done their work of grace. The rear portion of the tower has not been neglected, either, but is clothed with a clinging garment of polished ivy which hides the wounds and stains of time. Even the top is not left bare, but is crowned with a flourishing group of trees & shrubs. Misfortune has done for this old tower what it has done for the human character sometimes – improved it.

— Mark Twain

 

In the 20th century, Americans spread Heidelberg's reputation outside Europe. Thus, Japanese also often visit the Heidelberg Castle during their trips to Europe. Heidelberg has, at the beginning of the 21st century, more than three million visitors a year and about 1,000,000 overnight stays. Most of the foreign visitors come either from the USA or Japan. The most important attraction, according to surveys by the Geographical Institute of the University of Heidelberg, is the castle with its observation terraces.

 

Chronology

 

Timeline of events for Heidelberg Castle:

 

1225: first documented mention as "Castrum".

1303: mention of two castles.

1537: destruction of the upper castle by lightning bolt.

1610: creation of the palace garden ("Hortus Palatinus").

1622: Tilly conquers city and castle in the Thirty Years War.

1642: renewal of the Castle plants.

1688/1689: destruction by French troops.

1693: renewed destruction in the Palatinate succession war.

1697: (start) reconstruction.

1720: transfer of the residence to Mannheim.

1742: (start) reconstruction.

1764: destruction by lightning bolt.

1810: Charles de Graimberg dedicates himself to the preservation of the Castle ruins.

1860: first Castle lighting.

1883: establishment of the "office of building of castles of Baden."

1890: stocktaking by Julius Koch and Fritz Seitz.

1900: (circa) restorations and historical development.

 

(Wikipedi)

 

Das Heidelberger Schloss ist eine der berühmtesten Ruinen Deutschlands und das Wahrzeichen der Stadt Heidelberg. Bis zu seiner Zerstörung im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg war es die Residenz der Kurfürsten von der Pfalz. Seit den Zerstörungen durch die Soldaten Ludwigs XIV. 1689 und der Sprengung durch französische Pioniere am 6. September 1693 wurde das Heidelberger Schloss nur teilweise restauriert. Nachdem am 24. Juni 1764 Blitze die teilweise renovierte Anlage in Brand gesetzt hatten, wurde die Wiederherstellung aufgegeben. Die Schlossruine aus rotem Neckartäler Sandstein erhebt sich 80 Meter über dem Talgrund am Nordhang des Königstuhls und dominiert von dort das Bild der Altstadt. Der Ottheinrichsbau, einer der Palastbauten des Schlosses, zählt zu den bedeutendsten Bauwerken des deutschen Manierismus. In der kulturgeschichtlichen Epoche der Romantik wurde die Schlossruine zu einem Inbegriff einer vergangenen und bewundernswerten Epoche stilisiert. Es zählt heute zu den meistbesuchten touristischen Sehenswürdigkeiten Europas.

 

Geschichte

 

Bis zu den Zerstörungen

 

Erste Erwähnungen

 

Um das Jahr 1182 verlegte Konrad der Staufer, Halbbruder von Kaiser Friedrich I. Barbarossa und seit 1156 Pfalzgraf bei Rhein, seine Hofhaltung von der Burg Stahleck bei Bacharach am Mittelrhein auf die Burg Heidelberg, seinem Sitz als Vogt des Klosters Schönau im Odenwald.

 

Die Stadt Heidelberg wird im Jahr 1196 zum ersten Mal in einer Urkunde genannt. Eine Burg in Heidelberg („castrum in Heidelberg cum burgo ipsius castri“) wird im Jahr 1225 erwähnt, als Ludwig der Kelheimer diese Burg vom Bischof Heinrich von Worms als Lehen erhielt. 1214 waren die Herzöge von Bayern aus dem Haus Wittelsbach mit der Pfalzgrafschaft belehnt worden.

 

Von einer Burg ist zuletzt im Jahr 1294 die Rede. In einer Urkunde des Jahres 1303 werden zum ersten Mal zwei Burgen aufgeführt: die obere Burg auf dem Kleinen Gaisberg bei der jetzigen Molkenkur und die untere Burg auf dem Jettenbühl. Lange Zeit hatte sich deshalb in der Forschung die Auffassung durchgesetzt, dass die Gründung der unteren Burg zwischen 1294 und 1303 entstanden sein müsse, zumal die vom Schlossbaubüro in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts akribisch durchgeführte Bauaufnahme zum Schluss gelangte, dass die Bausubstanz keine Datierung des Schlosses vor das 15. Jahrhundert gerechtfertigt habe. Aufgrund von Architekturfunden und neueren bauarchäologischen Untersuchungen wird in der jüngeren Forschung zum Heidelberger Schloss die Entstehung der unteren Burg dagegen mittlerweile auf die erste Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts datiert. Bereits 1897 wurde ein vermauertes spätromanisches Fenster in der Trennwand zwischen Gläsernem Saalbau und Friedrichsbau entdeckt. 1976 förderten Ausschachtungsarbeiten an der Nordostecke des Ruprechtbaues in einer um 1400 abgelagerten Schutt- und Abbruchschicht ein Fensterfragment in Form eines Kleeblattbogens zutage, wie es sich in ähnlicher Form in den Arkadenfenstern der Burg Wildenberg findet. Eine im Jahr 1999 im Bereich des Ludwigsbaus durchgeführte archäologische Untersuchung verdichtete die Hinweise auf eine Bebauung des Schlossareals in der ersten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts.

 

Die ältesten Werke, die das Heidelberger Schloss erwähnen, sind:

 

der Thesaurus Picturarum des pfälzischen Kirchenrats Markus zum Lamb (1559 bis 1606)

die Annales Academici Heidelbergenses des Heidelberger Bibliothekars und Professors Pithopoeus (1587 begonnen)

der Originum Palatinarum Commentarius von Marquard Freher (1599)

das Teutsche Reyssebuch von Martin Zeiller (Straßburg 1632, als Itinerarium Germaniae 1674 wieder abgedruckt)

 

Alle diese Werke sind meist oberflächlich und enthalten nichts Ernsthaftes. Anders verhält es sich mit Matthäus Merian Topographia Palatinatus Rheni aus dem Jahr 1615, in der Kurfürst Ludwig V. als derjenige genannt wird, der „vor hundert und etlichen Jahren hat ein neu Schloß angefangen zu bauen“. Auf Merians Angaben stützen sich die meisten Beschreibungen des Schlosses bis ins 18. Jahrhundert hinein. Das Bestreben, die Gründungszeit des Schlosses weiter rückwärts zu verlegen, führt später zu Hinweisen, dass bereits unter Ruprecht I. die berühmte Hofkapelle auf dem Jettenbühl errichtet worden sei.

Königsschloss und Papstgefängnis

 

Als Ruprecht III. im Jahr 1401 Deutscher König (Ruprecht I.) wurde, herrschte im Schloss so großer Raummangel, dass er bei seiner Rückkehr von der Königskrönung sein Hoflager im Augustinerkloster (heute: Universitätsplatz) aufschlagen musste. Jetzt galt es, Raum zur Repräsentation und zur Unterbringung des Beamten- und Hofstaates zu schaffen. Gleichzeitig musste die Burg zu einer Festung ausgebaut werden. Etwa aus der Zeit Ruprechts III. stammen die ältesten heute sichtbaren Teile des Schlosses.

 

Nach Ruprechts Tod im Jahr 1410 wurde der Herrschaftsbereich unter seinen vier Söhnen aufgeteilt. Die pfälzischen Stammlande gingen an den ältesten Sohn Ludwig III. Nach dem Konzil von Konstanz brachte dieser als Stellvertreter des Kaisers und oberster Richter im Jahr 1415 im Auftrag König Sigismunds den abgesetzten Papst Johannes XXIII. auf dem Schloss in Gewahrsam, bevor er auf Burg Eichelsheim (heute Mannheim-Lindenhof) gebracht wurde.

 

Der französische Dichter Victor Hugo besuchte 1838 Heidelberg und spazierte dabei besonders gerne in den Ruinen des Schlosses herum, dessen Geschichte er in einem Brief zusammenfasst:

 

„Lassen Sie mich nur von seinem Schloß sprechen. (Das ist absolut unerläßlich, und eigentlich hätte ich damit beginnen sollen). Was hat es nicht alles durchgemacht! Fünfhundert Jahre lang hat es die Rückwirkungen von allem hinnehmen müssen, was Europa erschüttert hat, und am Ende ist es darunter zusammengebrochen. Das liegt daran, daß dieses Heidelberger Schloß, die Residenz des Pfalzgrafen, der über sich nur Könige, Kaiser und Päpste hatte und zu bedeutend war, um sich unter deren Füßen zu krümmen, aber nicht den Kopf heben konnte, ohne mit ihnen aneinanderzugeraten, das liegt daran, meine ich, daß das Heidelberger Schloß immer irgendeine Oppositionshaltung gegenüber den Mächtigen eingenommen hat. Schon um 1300, der Zeit seiner Gründung, beginnt es mit einer Thebais; in dem Grafen Rudolf und dem Kaiser Ludwig, diesen beiden entarteten Brüdern, hat es seinen Eteokles und seinen Polyneikes. Darin nimmt der Kurfürst an Macht zu. Im Jahre 1400 setzt der Pfälzer Ruprecht II., unterstützt von drei rheinischen Kurfürsten, Kaiser Wenzeslaus ab und nimmt dessen Stelle ein; hundertzwanzig Jahre später, 1519, sollte Pfalzgraf Friedrich II. den jungen König Karl I. von Spanien zu Kaiser Karl V. machen.“

 

– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg

 

Badisch-Pfälzischer Krieg

 

Im Badisch-Pfälzischen Krieg 1462 setzte Kurfürst Friedrich I. von der Pfalz (der „Pfälzer Fritz“) den Markgrafen Karl I. von Baden, den Bischof Georg von Metz und den Grafen Ulrich V. von Württemberg auf dem Schloss fest. Friedrich ließ die Gefangenen bei harter Kost in Ketten legen, bis sie bereit waren, die geforderten Lösegeldzahlungen zu leisten. Markgraf Karl I. musste zur Freilassung 25.000 Gulden zahlen, seinen Anteil an der Grafschaft Sponheim als Pfand abgeben und Pforzheim zum pfälzischen Lehen erklären. Der Metzer Bischof musste 45.000 Gulden zahlen. Das Wichtigste war aber, dass Friedrich I. von der Pfalz seinen Anspruch als Kurfürst gesichert hatte. Die Sage berichtet, Friedrich habe seinen unfreiwilligen Gästen das Fehlen von Brot bei der Mahlzeit dadurch begreiflich gemacht, dass er sie durch das Fenster auf das verwüstete Land hinab blicken ließ. Dies wird in einem Gedicht von Gustav Schwab mit dem Titel „Das Mahl zu Heidelberg“ nacherzählt.

 

Reformation und Dreißigjähriger Krieg

 

Während der Regierung Ludwigs V. besichtigte Martin Luther, der zu einer Verteidigung seiner Thesen (Heidelberger Disputation) nach Heidelberg gekommen war, das Schloss. Er wurde dabei von Pfalzgraf Wolfgang, dem Bruder Ludwigs V., herumgeführt und lobte später in einem Brief an seinen Freund Georg Spalatin vom 18. Mai 1518 die Schönheit und kriegerische Ausrüstung des Schlosses.

 

Im Dreißigjährigen Krieg flogen zum ersten Mal Kugeln gegen das Heidelberger Schloss. Hiermit endet auch die eigentliche Geschichte des Schlossbaus. Die folgenden Jahrhunderte bringen hauptsächlich Zerstörungen und Wiederherstellungen.

 

Friedrich V. von der Pfalz nahm – trotz vieler Bedenken – die Königswürde von Böhmen an und löste damit eine Katastrophe aus. Nach der Schlacht am Weißen Berg war er als Geächteter auf der Flucht und hatte voreilig seine Truppen entlassen, so dass General Tilly, der Oberbefehlshaber der katholischen Liga-Truppen im Dienst des Kurfürsten von Bayern, eine unverteidigte Pfalz vor sich hatte. Am 26. August 1622 eröffnete er die Beschießung Heidelbergs und nahm am 16. September die Stadt und wenige Tage darauf das Schloss ein. Nachdem die Schweden am 5. Mai 1633 die Stadt Heidelberg eingenommen und vom Königstuhl aus das Feuer auf das Schloss eröffnet hatten, übergab der kaiserliche Kommandant am 26. Mai 1633 die Festung an die Schweden. Nach der schweren Niederlage der Schweden in der Schlacht bei Nördlingen im September 1634 besetzten Truppen des Kaisers erneut die Stadt. In der Absicht, das Schloss zu sprengen, wurden innerhalb von 14 Tagen 24 Tonnen Pulver in Stollen unter den Mauern des Schlosses deponiert. Das überraschende Erscheinen einer französischen Armee mit 30.000 Mann verhinderte die geplante Sprengung. Erst im Juli 1635 kam die Stadt erneut in die Gewalt der kaiserlichen Truppen, in der es dann bis zum Friedensschluss blieb. Erst am 7. Oktober 1649 zog der neue Herrscher wieder in das zerstörte Stammschloss seiner Familie ein.

 

Im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg

 

Der französische König Ludwig XIV. verlangte nach dem Tode des kinderlosen Kurfürsten Karl II., des letzten Fürsten der Linie Pfalz-Simmern, im Namen der Herzogin von Orléans die Herausgabe des pfälzischen Allodialgutes. Am 29. September 1688 rückten die französischen Heere im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg in die Pfalz und zogen am 24. Oktober in das von Philipp Wilhelm, dem neuen Kurfürsten aus der Linie Pfalz-Neuburg, verlassene Heidelberg ein.

 

Gegen die verbündeten europäischen Mächte beschloss der französische Kriegsrat, durch Zerstörung aller Festungswerke und durch Verwüstung des pfälzischen Landes dem Feinde die Möglichkeit des Angriffes von dieser Gegend her zu entziehen. Beim Ausrücken aus der Stadt am 2. März 1689 steckten die Franzosen das Schloss und auch die Stadt an vielen Ecken zugleich in Brand.

 

Johann Wilhelm ließ sofort nach seinem Einzug in die verwüstete Stadt die Mauern und Türme wiederherstellen. Als die Franzosen 1691 und 1692 erneut bis vor die Tore Heidelbergs gelangten, fanden sie die Stadt in einem so guten Verteidigungszustand vor, dass sie unverrichteter Dinge abziehen mussten. Am 18. Mai 1693 standen die Franzosen allerdings wieder vor der Stadt und nahmen sie am 22. Mai ein. Sie versuchten vermutlich, mit der Zerstörung der Stadt die Hauptoperationsbasis gegen das Schloss zu schaffen. Am folgenden Tage kapitulierte die Schlossbesatzung, und nun holten die Franzosen nach, was sie 1689 in der Eile ihres Abzugs nur unvollständig ausgeführt hatten: Sie sprengten nun durch Minen die Türme und Mauern, die beim letzten Mal der Zerstörung entgangen waren. Das Heidelberger Schloss wurde eine Ruine.

 

Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim

 

Der Frieden von Rijswijk, mit dem der Pfälzische Erbfolgekrieg beendet wurde, brachte im Jahr 1697 endlich etwas Ruhe. Es war geplant, das Schloss abzureißen und die brauchbaren Teile zur Errichtung eines neuen Palastes im Tal zu verwenden. Als sich aber der Durchführung dieses Planes Schwierigkeiten entgegenstellten, wurde das Schloss notdürftig wiederhergestellt. Gleichzeitig trug sich Karl Philipp mit dem Gedanken eines vollständigen Umbaues des Schlosses, aber der Mangel an finanziellen Mitteln schob dieses Projekt auf, und als der Kurfürst 1720 mit den Protestanten der Stadt wegen Überlassung der Heiliggeistkirche an die Katholiken in Streit geriet, der die Verlegung der Residenz nach Mannheim zur Folge hatte, endete das Interesse des Kurfürsten am Heidelberger Schloss. Seine Absicht war es, die Heiliggeistkirche zur katholischen Hofkirche umzuwidmen, was die Heidelberger Reformierten mit allen Mitteln zu verhindern suchten. Als er am 12. April 1720 die Verlegung seiner Residenz mit allen Behörden nach Mannheim verkündete, überließ der Kurfürst die alte Hauptstadt ihrem Schicksal und wünschte ihr, dass „Gras auf ihren Straßen wachsen“ solle. Der religiöse Konflikt war vermutlich aber nur der letzte Anstoß gewesen, das alte, schwer zu einer barocken Anlage umzubauende Bergschloss aufzugeben und in die Ebene zu ziehen, wo er eine ganz seinem Willen entspringende Neugründung vornehmen konnte.

 

Sein Nachfolger Karl Theodor plante vorübergehend, seinen Wohnsitz wieder ins Heidelberger Schloss zu verlegen. Er nahm davon allerdings wieder Abstand, als am 24. Juni 1764 der Blitz zweimal hintereinander in den Saalbau einschlug und das Schloss abermals brannte. Victor Hugo hielt dies später für einen Wink des Himmels:

 

„Man könnte sogar sagen, daß der Himmel sich eingemischt hat. Am 23. Juni 1764, einen Tag, bevor Karl-Theodor in das Schloß einziehen und es zu seiner Residenz machen sollte (was, nebenbei gesagt, ein großes Unglück gewesen wäre; denn wenn Karl-Theodor seine dreißig Jahre dort verbracht hätte, wäre die strenge Ruine, die wir heute bewundern, sicher mit einer schrecklichen Pompadour-Verzierung versehen worden), an diesem Vortag also, als die Möbel des Fürsten bereits vor der Tür, in der Heiliggeistkirche, standen, traf das Feuer des Himmels den achteckigen Turm, setzte das Dach in Brand und zerstörte in wenigen Stunden dieses fünfhundert Jahre alte Schloß.“

 

– Victor Hugo: Heidelberg.

 

In den folgenden Jahrzehnten wurden zwar noch notwendige Erneuerungen vorgenommen, aber das Heidelberger Schloss blieb von nun an hauptsächlich eine Ruine.

 

Seit den Zerstörungen

 

Langsamer Zerfall und romantische Begeisterung

 

Im Jahr 1777 verlegte Kurfürst Karl Theodor seine Residenz von Mannheim nach München. Damit verlor er das Heidelberger Schloss noch mehr aus den Augen. Die überdachten Räume wurden nun von Handwerksbetrieben genutzt. Schon 1767 hatte man begonnen, die Quader des Südwalles als Baumaterial für das Schwetzinger Schloss zu verwenden. Im Jahr 1784 wurden gar die Gewölbe im Erdgeschoss des Ottheinrichsbaus eingelegt und das Schloss als Steinbruch verwendet.

 

Durch den Reichsdeputationshauptschluss von 1803 gingen Heidelberg und Mannheim an Baden über. Der große Gebietszuwachs war Großherzog Karl Friedrich willkommen, das Heidelberger Schloss betrachtete er jedoch als unerwünschte Zugabe. Die Bauten verfielen, Heidelberger Bürger holten aus dem Schloss Steine, Holz und Eisen zum Bau ihrer Häuser. Auch Figuren und Verzierungen wurden abgeschlagen. August von Kotzebue äußerte sich 1803 voller Empörung über die Absicht der badischen Regierung, die Ruinen abtragen zu lassen. Das zerstörte Schloss wurde am Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts zum Sinnbild für die patriotische Gesinnung, die sich gegen die napoleonische Unterdrückung richtete.

 

Schon vor 1800 erkannten Maler und Zeichner in der Schlossruine und der bergigen Flusslandschaft ein idealtypisches Ensemble. Den Höhepunkt bilden die Gemälde des Engländers William Turner, der sich zwischen 1817 und 1844 mehrfach in Heidelberg aufhielt und etliche Gemälde von Heidelberg und dem Schloss anfertigte. Ihm und anderen Künstlern der Romantik ging es dabei nicht um eine detailgetreue Bauaufnahme. Sie pflegten eher einen recht freien Umgang mit der Wirklichkeit. So ist bei seinem Gemälde des Schlosses das Gelände mehrfach überhöht dargestellt.

 

Der Begriff Romantik wurde von dem Philosophen Friedrich Schlegel Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts zu einer Universalpoesie erklärt – ein literaturtheoretischer Begriff aus der Frühromantik. In ihr würden alle Künste und Gattungen zu einer Form verschmelzen. Jedoch wandelte sich dies im allgemeinen Verständnis zu einem verklärenden sentimentalen Gefühl der Sehnsucht. Diese Empfindung fand insbesondere in der sogenannten Heidelberger Romantik ihren Ausdruck. So zum Beispiel in Liedersammlungen der Autoren Achim von Arnim und Clemens Brentano, die sich oft in Heidelberg aufhielten. Landschaftsmaler machten die Schlossreste zum zentralen Motiv ihrer Gemälde, in denen häufig das Anmutige der umgebenden Landschaft in Kontrast gestellt wurde zum Feierlich-Düsteren der Ruine. Clemens Brentano dichtete:

 

„Und da ich um die Ecke bog, – ein kühles Lüftlein mir entgegen zog – Der Neckar rauscht aus grünen Hallen – Und giebt am Fels ein freudig Schallen, – Die Stadt streckt sich den Fluss hinunter, – Mit viel Geräusch und lärmt ganz munter, – Und drüber an grüner Berge Brust, – Ruht groß das Schloss und sieht die Lust.“

 

– Clemens Brentano: Lied von eines Studenten Ankunft in Heidelberg und seinem Traum auf der Brücke, worin ein schöner Dialogus zwischen Frau Pallas und Karl Theodor.

 

Die auf Poetik beruhenden Konzepte der Romantik wurden in brieflichen Diskussionen zwischen Achim und Jacob Grimm über das Verhältnis von Natur- und Kunstpoesie entwickelt. Abkehrend von den Elementen der Reflexion, Kritik und Rhetorik in der Kunstpoesie, beschäftigt sich die „Heidelberger Romantik“ mit der Naturpoesie. Im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde Heidelberg mit seinem Schloss und der heimischen Natur auch bei Reisenden und Wanderern zunehmend bekannt und beliebt. Stadt und Schloss wurden zum Inbegriff romantischer Stimmung.

 

Der Retter des Schlosses war der französische Graf Charles de Graimberg. Er kämpfte gegen Pläne der badischen Regierung, für die das Heidelberger Schloss das „alte Gemäuer mit seinen vielfältigen, geschmacklosen, ruinösen Verzierungen“ war, für die Erhaltung der Schlossruinen. Er versah bis 1822 das Amt eines freiwilligen Schlosswächters und wohnte eine Zeit lang im Vorbau des Gläsernen Saalbaues, von dem aus er den Schlosshof am besten übersehen konnte. Lange bevor es in Deutschland eine Denkmalpflege gab, war er der erste, der sich um den Erhalt und die Dokumentation des Schlosses kümmerte, als bei der romantischen Schwärmerei noch niemand daran dachte, den Verfall zu unterbinden. In Auftrag Graimbergs verfasste Thomas A. Leger den ersten Schlossführer. Mit seinen in hoher Auflage produzierten druckgraphischen Ansichten verhalf Graimberg der Schlossruine zu einem Bekanntheitsgrad, der den Tourismus nach Heidelberg lenkte.

 

Bestandsaufnahme und Restaurierung – der Heidelberger Schlossstreit

 

Die Frage, ob das Schloss vollständig wiederhergestellt werden solle, führte zu langen Diskussionen. Der Dichter Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter machte sich im Jahr 1868 für eine vollständige Erneuerung stark und rief damit heftige Reaktionen hervor, die in der Presse und in Versammlungen ausgetragen wurden. Aus dem Streit um den richtigen Umgang mit der Schlossruine entwickelte sich eine Grundsatzdiskussion über die Aufgaben der Denkmalpflege. Die Ergebnisse dieser Debatte, die als der „Heidelberger Schlossstreit“ in die Geschichte eingegangen sind, prägten die Prinzipien der Bewahrung historischer Bauwerke nachhaltig.

 

Die Großherzogliche badische Regierung errichtete im Jahr 1883 ein Schloßbaubüro, das unter Oberaufsicht des Baudirektors Josef Durm in Karlsruhe vom Bezirksbauinspektor Julius Koch und dem Architekten Fritz Seitz geleitet wurde. Aufgabe des Büros war es, eine möglichst genaue Bestandsaufnahme zu machen und zugleich Maßnahmen zur Erhaltung oder Instandsetzung der Hauptgebäude vorzuschlagen. Die Arbeiten dieses Büros endeten 1890 und bildeten die Grundlage für eine Kommission von Fachleuten aus ganz Deutschland. Die Kommission kam zu der einhelligen Überzeugung, dass eine völlige oder teilweise Wiederherstellung des Schlosses nicht in Betracht komme, dagegen eine Erhaltung des jetzigen Zustandes mit allen Mitteln zu erstreben sei. Nur der Friedrichsbau, dessen Innenräume zwar durch Feuer zerstört worden waren, der aber nie Ruine war, sollte wiederhergestellt werden. Diese Wiederherstellung geschah schließlich in der Zeit von 1897 bis 1900 durch Carl Schäfer mit dem enormen Kostenaufwand von 520.000 Mark. Im Jahr 2019 entspricht der Aufwand Inflationsbereinigt 3.700.000 €.

 

Schlossruine und Tourismus

 

Schon die älteste Beschreibung Heidelbergs aus dem Jahr 1465 erwähnt, dass die Stadt „vielbesucht von Fremden“ sei. Doch ein eigentlicher Städtetourismus setzte frühestens zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts ein. Graf Graimberg sorgte mit seinen Zeichnungen dafür, dass das Schloss als Bildmotiv eine große Verbreitung fand. Sie wurden praktisch zu Vorläufern der Postkarte. Zur gleichen Zeit gab es auch schon das Schloss als Souvenir auf Tassen. Den entscheidenden Schub erhielt der Tourismus aber erst mit dem Anschluss Heidelbergs ans Eisenbahnnetz im Jahr 1840.

 

Mark Twain beschrieb 1878 in seinem Buch Bummel durch Europa (A Tramp Abroad) das Heidelberger Schloss folgendermaßen:

 

„Um gut zu wirken, muss eine Ruine den richtigen Standort haben. Diese hier hätte nicht günstiger gelegen sein können. Sie steht auf einer die Umgebung beherrschenden Höhe, sie ist in grünen Wäldern verborgen, um sie herum gibt es keinen ebenen Grund, sondern im Gegenteil bewaldete Terrassen, man blickt durch glänzende Blätter in tiefe Klüfte und Abgründe hinab, wo Dämmer herrscht und die Sonne nicht eindringen kann. Die Natur versteht es, eine Ruine zu schmücken, um die beste Wirkung zu erzielen.“

 

– Mark Twain: Bummel durch Europa.

 

Bei einem am 18. Mai 1978 verübten Brandanschlag, der den Revolutionären Zellen zugerechnet wird, entstand ein Sachschaden von 97.000 DM am Schloss.

 

Im 20. Jahrhundert verfielen die US-Amerikaner noch mehr dem Heidelberg-Mythos und trugen ihn hinaus in die Welt. So kommt es, dass auch viele andere Nationalitäten das Heidelberger Schloss auf ihren Kurzreisen durch Europa zu den wenigen Zwischenstopps zählen.

 

Heidelberg hat zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts jährlich mehr als eine Million Besucher und etwa 900.000 Übernachtungen. Wichtigster Anlaufpunkt ist laut einer Befragung des geografischen Instituts der Universität Heidelberg das Schloss mit seinen Aussichtsterrassen.

 

Das Heidelberger Schloss zählt heute zu den landeseigenen Monumenten und wird von der Einrichtung „Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg“ betreut. Aus dem Landesinfrastrukturprogramm Baden-Württemberg wurden für den Neubau eines von Max Dudler entworfenen Besucherzentrums 3 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung gestellt. Es wurde 2012 eröffnet.

 

Zudem ist das Schloss nach Angaben der Schlösserverwaltung das größte Fledermaus-Winterquartier in Nordbaden. Wegen der dort überwinternden Zwergfledermaus sowie dem Großen Mausohr wurde im Jahr 2016 der im Stückgarten vor dem Schloss stattfindende Teil des Weihnachtsmarktes auf den Friedrich-Ebert-Platz verlegt.

 

(Wikipdia)

Class46 46008 runs slowly through Plymouth station with a St Erth to Acton milk train. 07/10/1975. 50014 as seen leaving for Penzance in the background.

image Kevin Connolly - All rights reserved so please do no use this without my explicit permission

 

#546 runs at track speed along the Chicago sub passing under the CN Freeport sub. Three units make easier work of this ethanol load, KCS4162,KCSM4567 and NS9702.

Hampshire Unit Dmu 1125 runs past a flowery bank near Ropley. As I type, this unit is ust coming to rest at the bottom of my garden, having worked all day over the Mid Hants Railway

Or rather a creek. This is Ashland Creek in Lithia Park. I got here after sunset so I had to crank up the ISO and hold my camera real still. (just kidding - that what the railings on bridges are for)

The CN runs behind the old Michigan Central depot in Detroit, but the passenger tracks are long out of service. A restoration of the depot comes with the hopes of a through train that will stop here.

...taken by the Kamares Aquaduct...

  

Larnaca, Cyprus...

Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire.

 

The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines and the valleys of the River Don with its four tributaries: the Loxley, the Porter Brook, the Rivelin and the Sheaf. Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park and is the fifth largest city in England. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees. The city is 29 miles (47 km) south of Leeds and 32 miles (51 km) east of Manchester.

 

Sheffield played a crucial role in the Industrial Revolution, with many significant inventions and technologies having developed in the city. In the 19th century, the city saw a huge expansion of its traditional cutlery trade, when stainless steel and crucible steel were developed locally, fuelling an almost tenfold increase in the population. Sheffield received its municipal charter in 1843, becoming the City of Sheffield in 1893. International competition in iron and steel caused a decline in these industries in the 1970s and 1980s, coinciding with the collapse of coal mining in the area. The Yorkshire ridings became counties in their own right in 1889, the West Riding of Yorkshire county was disbanded in 1974. The city then became part of the county of South Yorkshire; this has been made up of separately-governed unitary authorities since 1986. The 21st century has seen extensive redevelopment in Sheffield, consistent with other British cities. Sheffield's gross value added (GVA) has increased by 60% since 1997, standing at £11.3 billion in 2015. The economy has experienced steady growth, averaging around 5% annually, which is greater than that of the broader region of Yorkshire and the Humber.

 

Sheffield had a population of 556,500 at the 2021 census, making it the second largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The Sheffield Built-up Area, of which the Sheffield sub-division is the largest part, had a population of 685,369 also including the town of Rotherham. The district borough, governed from the city, had a population of 554,401 at the mid-2019 estimate, making it the 7th most populous district in England. It is one of eleven British cities that make up the Core Cities Group. In 2011, the unparished area had a population of 490,070.

 

The city has a long sporting heritage and is home both to the world's oldest football club, Sheffield F.C., and the world's oldest football ground, Sandygate. Matches between the two professional clubs, Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, are known as the Steel City derby. The city is also home to the World Snooker Championship and the Sheffield Steelers, the UK's first professional ice hockey team.

 

The history of Sheffield, a city in South Yorkshire, England, can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The area now known as Sheffield had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the Industrial Revolution.

 

Following the Norman conquest of England, Sheffield Castle was built to control the Saxon settlements and Sheffield developed into a small town, no larger than Sheffield City Centre. By the 14th century Sheffield was noted for the production of knives, and by 1600, overseen by the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire, it had become the second centre of cutlery production in England after London. In the 1740s the crucible steel process was improved by Sheffield resident Benjamin Huntsman, allowing a much better production quality. At about the same time, Sheffield plate, a form of silver plating, was invented. The associated industries led to the rapid growth of Sheffield; the town was incorporated as a borough in 1843 and granted a city charter in 1893.

 

Sheffield remained a major industrial city throughout the first half of the 20th century, but the downturn in world trade following the 1973 oil crisis, technological improvements and economies of scale, and a wide-reaching restructuring of steel production throughout the European Economic Community led to the closure of many of the steelworks from the early 1970s onward. Urban and economic regeneration schemes began in the late 1980s to diversify the city's economy. Sheffield is now a centre for banking and insurance functions with HSBC, Santander and Aviva having regional offices in the city. The city has also attracted digital start-ups, with 25,000 now employed in the digital sector.

 

Early history

Photograph showing a moorland view. The moor is covered in heather of varying shades of brown. Stones are scattered across the moor. In the middle distance there is a rock outcrop atop a small hill. Behind it is a larger hill with a flat top.

Carl Wark, an Iron Age hill fort in southwest Sheffield.

The earliest known evidence of human occupation in the Sheffield area was found at Creswell Crags in Derbyshire to the east of the city. Artefacts and rock art found in caves at this site have been dated by archaeologists to the late Upper Palaeolithic period, at least 12,800 years ago. Other prehistoric remains found in Sheffield include a Mesolithic "house"—a circle of stones in the shape of a hut-base dating to around 8000 BC, found at Deepcar, in the northern part of the city. This has been ascribed to the Maglemosian culture. (grid reference SK 2920 9812). The site's culture has similarities to Star Carr in North Yorkshire, but gives its name to unique "Deepcar type assemblages" of microliths in the archaeology literature. A cup and ring-marked stone was discovered in Ecclesall Woods in 1981, and has been dated to the late Neolithic or Bronze Age periods. It, and an area around it of 2 m diameter, is a scheduled ancient monument.

 

During the Bronze Age (about 1500 BC) tribes sometimes called the Urn people started to settle in the area. They built numerous stone circles, examples of which can be found on Ash Cabin Flat, Froggatt Edge and Hordron Edge (Hordron Edge stone circle). Two Early Bronze Age urns were found at Crookes in 1887, and three Middle Bronze Age barrows found at Lodge Moor (both suburbs of the modern city).

 

Iron Age

During the British Iron Age the area became the southernmost territory of the Pennine tribe called the Brigantes. It is this tribe who in around 500 BC are thought to have constructed the hill fort that stands on the summit of a steep hill above the River Don at Wincobank, in what is now northeastern Sheffield. Other Iron Age hill forts in the area are Carl Wark on Hathersage Moor to the southwest of Sheffield, and one at Scholes Wood, near Rotherham. The rivers Sheaf and Don may have formed the boundary between the territory of the Brigantes and that of a rival tribe called the Corieltauvi who inhabited a large area of the northeastern Midlands.

 

Roman Britain

The Roman invasion of Britain began in AD 43. By 51 the Brigantes had submitted to the clientship of Rome, eventually being placed under direct rule in the early 70s. Few Roman remains have been found in the Sheffield area. A minor Roman road linking the Roman forts at Templeborough and Navio at Brough-on-Noe possibly ran through the centre of the area covered by the modern city, and Icknield Street is thought to have skirted its boundaries. The routes of these roads within this area are mostly unknown, although sections of the former were thought, by Hunter and Leader, be visible between Redmires and Stanage on an ancient road known as the Long Causeway. In recent years some scholars have cast doubt on this, with an initial survey of Barber Fields, Ringinglow, suggesting the Roman Road took a route over Burbage Edge. The remains of a Roman road, possibly linked to the latter, were discovered in Brinsworth in 1949.

 

In April 1761, tablets or diplomas dating from the Roman period were found in the Rivelin Valley south of Stannington, close to what was possibly the course of the Templeborough to Brough-on-Noe road. These tablets included a grant of citizenship and land or money to a retiring Roman auxiliary of the Sunuci tribe of Belgium.

 

To . . . . . . . . the son of Albanus, of the tribe of the Sunuci, late a foot soldier in the first cohort of the Sunuci commanded by M. Junius Claudianus.

 

In addition there have been finds dating from the Roman period on Walkley Bank Road, which leads onto the valley bottom.

 

There have been small finds of Roman coins throughout the Sheffield area, for example 30 to 40 Roman coins were found near the Old Great Dam at Crookesmoor, 19 coins were found near Meadowhall in 1891, 13 in Pitsmoor in 1906, and ten coins were found at a site alongside Eckington cemetery in December 2008. Roman burial urns were also found at Bank Street near Sheffield Cathedral, which, along with the name of the old lane behind the church (Campo Lane[n 2]), has led to speculation that there may have been a Roman camp at this site. It is unlikely that the settlement that grew into Sheffield existed at this time. In 2011 excavations revealed remains of a substantial 1st or 2nd century AD Roman rural estate centre, or 'villa' on what is believed to be a pre-existing Brigantian farmstead site at Whirlow Hall Farm in South-west Sheffield.

 

Following the departure of the Romans, the Sheffield area may have been the southern part of the Celtic kingdom of Elmet, with the rivers Sheaf and Don forming part of the boundary between this kingdom and the kingdom of Mercia. Gradually, Anglian settlers pushed west from the kingdom of Deira. The Britons of Elmet delayed this English expansion into the early part of the 7th century. An enduring Celtic presence within this area is evidenced by the settlements called Wales and Waleswood close to Sheffield—the word Wales derives from the Germanic word Walha, and was originally used by the Anglo-Saxons to refer to the native Britons.

 

The origins of Sheffield

The name Sheffield is Old English in origin. It derives from the River Sheaf, whose name is a corruption of shed or sheth, meaning to divide or separate. Field is a generic suffix deriving from the Old English feld, meaning a forest clearing. It is likely then that the origin of the present-day city of Sheffield is an Anglo-Saxon settlement in a clearing beside the confluence of the rivers Sheaf and Don founded between the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in this region (roughly the 6th century) and the early 9th century.

 

The names of many of the other areas of Sheffield likely to have been established as settlements during this period end in ley, which signifies a clearing in the forest, or ton, which means an enclosed farmstead. These settlements include Heeley, Longley, Norton, Owlerton, Southey, Tinsley, Totley, Treeton, Wadsley, and Walkley.

 

The earliest evidence of this settlement is thought to be the shaft of a stone cross dating from the early 9th century that was found in Sheffield in the early 19th century. This shaft may be part of a cross removed from the church yard of the Sheffield parish church (now Sheffield Cathedral) in 1570. It is now kept in the British Museum.

 

A document from around the same time, an entry for the year 829 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, refers to the submission of King Eanred of Northumbria to King Egbert of Wessex at the hamlet of Dore (now a suburb of Sheffield): "Egbert led an army against the Northumbrians as far as Dore, where they met him, and offered terms of obedience and subjection, on the acceptance of which they returned home". This event made Egbert the first Saxon to claim to be king of all of England.

 

The latter part of the 9th century saw a wave of Norse (Viking) settlers and the subsequent establishment of the Danelaw. The names of hamlets established by these settlers often end in thorpe, which means a farmstead. Examples of such settlements in the Sheffield area are Grimesthorpe, Hackenthorpe, Jordanthorpe, Netherthorpe, Upperthorpe, Waterthorpe, and Woodthorpe. By 918 the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to Edward the Elder, and by 926 Northumbria was under the control of King Æthelstan.

 

In 937 the combined armies of Olaf Guthfrithson, Viking king of Dublin, Constantine, king of Scotland and Owain ap Dyfnwal, king of the Cumbrians, invaded England. The invading force was met and defeated by an army from Wessex and Mercia led by King Æthelstan at the Battle of Brunanburh. The location of Brunanburh is unknown, but some historians have suggested a location between Tinsley in Sheffield and Brinsworth in Rotherham, on the slopes of White Hill. After the death of King Athelstan in 939 Olaf Guthfrithson invaded again and took control of Northumbria and part of Mercia. Subsequently, the Anglo-Saxons, under Edmund, re-conquered the Midlands, as far as Dore, in 942, and captured Northumbria in 944.

 

The Domesday Book of 1086, which was compiled following the Norman Conquest of 1066, contains the earliest known reference to the districts around Sheffield as the manor of "Hallun" (or Hallam). This manor retained its Saxon lord, Waltheof, for some years after the conquest. The Domesday Book was ordered written by William the Conqueror so that the value of the townships and manors of England could be assessed. The entries in the Domesday Book are written in a Latin shorthand; the extract for this area begins:

 

TERRA ROGERII DE BVSLI

M. hi Hallvn, cu XVI bereuvitis sunt. XXIX. carucate trae

Ad gld. Ibi hb Walleff com aula...

Translated it reads:

 

LANDS OF ROGER DE BUSLI

Photograph showing an old stone church with a short wide tower. The view is taken from a graveyard, there is a large tomb stone in the foreground and the church is surrounded by trees.

 

The remains of Beauchief Abbey.

In Hallam, one manor with its sixteen hamlets, there are twenty-nine carucates [~14 km2] to be taxed. There Earl Waltheof had an "Aula" [hall or court]. There may have been about twenty ploughs. This land Roger de Busli holds of the Countess Judith. He has himself there two carucates [~1 km2] and thirty-three villeins hold twelve carucates and a half [~6 km2]. There are eight acres [32,000 m2] of meadow, and a pasturable wood, four leuvae in length and four in breadth [~10 km2]. The whole manor is ten leuvae in length and eight broad [207 km2]. In the time of Edward the Confessor it was valued at eight marks of silver [£5.33]; now at forty shillings [£2.00].

In Attercliffe and Sheffield, two manors, Sweyn had five carucates of land [~2.4 km2] to be taxed. There may have been about three ploughs. This land is said to have been inland, demesne [domain] land of the manor of Hallam.

The reference is to Roger de Busli, tenant-in-chief in Domesday and one of the greatest of the new wave of Norman magnates. Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria had been executed in 1076 for his part in an uprising against William I. He was the last of the Anglo-Saxon earls still remaining in England a full decade after the Norman conquest. His lands had passed to his wife, Judith of Normandy, niece to William the Conqueror. The lands were held on her behalf by Roger de Busli.

 

The Domesday Book refers to Sheffield twice, first as Escafeld, then later as Scafeld. Sheffield historian S. O. Addy suggests that the second form, pronounced Shaffeld, is the truer form, as the spelling Sefeld is found in a deed issued less than one hundred years after the completion of the survey. Addy comments that the E in the first form may have been mistakenly added by the Norman scribe.

 

Roger de Busli died around the end of the 11th century, and was succeeded by a son, who died without an heir. The manor of Hallamshire passed to William de Lovetot, the grandson of a Norman baron who had come over to England with the Conqueror. William de Lovetot founded the parish churches of St Mary at Handsworth, St Nicholas at High Bradfield and St. Mary's at Ecclesfield at the start of the 12th century in addition to Sheffield's own parish church. He also built the original wooden Sheffield Castle, which stimulated the growth of the town.

 

Also dating from this time is Beauchief Abbey, which was founded by Robert FitzRanulf de Alfreton. The abbey was dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Thomas Becket, who had been canonised in 1172. Thomas Tanner, writing in 1695, stated that it was founded in 1183. Samuel Pegge in his History of Beauchief Abbey notes that Albinas, the abbot of Derby, who was one of the witnesses to the charter of foundation, died in 1176, placing foundation before that date.

 

Medieval Sheffield

Following the death of William de Lovetot, the manor of Hallamshire passed to his son Richard de Lovetot and then his son William de Lovetot before being passed by marriage to Gerard de Furnival in about 1204. The de Furnivals held the manor for the next 180 years. The fourth Furnival lord, Thomas de Furnival, supported Simon de Montfort in the Second Barons' War. As a result of this, in 1266 a party of barons, led by John de Eyvill, marching from north Lincolnshire to Derbyshire passed through Sheffield and destroyed the town, burning the church and castle.

 

A new stone castle was constructed over the next four years and a new church was consecrated by William de Wickwane the Archbishop of York around 1280. In 1295 Thomas de Furnival's son (also Thomas) was the first lord of Hallamshire to be called to Parliament, thus taking the title Lord Furnivall. On 12 November 1296 Edward I granted a charter for a market to be held in Sheffield on Tuesday each week. This was followed on 10 August 1297 by a charter from Lord Furnival establishing Sheffield as a free borough.

 

The Sheffield Town Trust was established in the Charter to the Town of Sheffield, granted in 1297. De Furnival, granted land to the freeholders of Sheffield in return for an annual payment, and a Common Burgery administrated them. The Burgery originally consisted of public meetings of all the freeholders, who elected a Town Collector. Two more generations of Furnivals held Sheffield before it passed by marriage to Sir Thomas Nevil and then, in 1406, to John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury.

 

The Bishops' House.

In 1430 the 1280 Sheffield parish church building was pulled down and replaced. Parts of this new church still stand today and it is now Sheffield city centre's oldest surviving building, forming the core of Sheffield Cathedral. Other notable surviving buildings from this period include the Old Queen's Head pub in Pond Hill, which dates from around 1480, with its timber frame still intact, and Bishops' House and Broom Hall, both built around 1500.

 

Post-medieval Sheffield

The fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot took up residence in Sheffield, building the Manor Lodge outside the town in about 1510 and adding a chapel to the Parish Church c1520 to hold the family vault. Memorials to the fourth and sixth Earls of Shrewsbury can still be seen in the church. In 1569 George Talbot, the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, was given charge of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary was regarded as a threat by Elizabeth I, and had been held captive since her arrival in England in 1568.

 

Talbot brought Mary to Sheffield in 1570, and she spent most of the next 14 years imprisoned in Sheffield Castle and its dependent buildings. The castle park extended beyond the present Manor Lane, where the remains of Manor Lodge are to be found. Beside them is the Turret House, an Elizabethan building, which may have been built to accommodate the captive queen. A room, believed to have been the queen's, has an elaborate plaster ceiling and overmantel, with heraldic decorations.[58] During the English Civil War, Sheffield changed hands several times, finally falling to the Parliamentarians, who demolished (slighted) the castle in 1648.

 

The Industrial Revolution brought large-scale steel making to Sheffield in the 18th century. Much of the medieval town was gradually replaced by a mix of Georgian and Victorian buildings. Large areas of Sheffield's city centre have been rebuilt in recent years, but among the modern buildings, some old buildings have been retained.

 

Industrial Sheffield

Sheffield developed after the industrial revolution because of its geography.

 

Fast-flowing rivers, such as the Sheaf, the Don and the Loxley, made it an ideal location for water-powered industries to develop. Raw materials, like coal, iron ore, ganister and millstone grit for grindstones, found in the nearby hills, were used in cutlery and blade production.

 

As early as the 14th century, Sheffield was noted for the production of knives:

 

Ay by his belt he baar a long panade,

And of a swerd ful trenchant was the blade.

A joly poppere baar he in his pouche;

Ther was no man, for peril, dorste hym touche.

A Sheffeld thwitel baar he in his hose.

Round was his face, and camus was his nose;

 

— Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve's Tale from The Canterbury Tales

 

By 1600 Sheffield was the main centre of cutlery production in England outside London, and in 1624 The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was formed to oversee the trade. Examples of water-powered blade and cutlery workshops from around this time can be seen at the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and Shepherd Wheel museums in Sheffield.

 

Around a century later, Daniel Defoe in his book A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, wrote:

 

This town of Sheffield is very populous and large, the streets narrow, and the houses dark and black, occasioned by the continued smoke of the forges, which are always at work: Here they make all sorts of cutlery-ware, but especially that of edged-tools, knives, razors, axes, &. and nails; and here the only mill of the sort, which was in use in England for some time was set up, (viz.) for turning their grindstones, though now 'tis grown more common. Here is a very spacious church, with a very handsome and high spire; and the town is said to have at least as many, if not more people in it than the city of York.

 

Sheffield area.

In the 1740s Benjamin Huntsman, a clock maker in Handsworth, invented a form of the crucible steel process for making a better quality of steel than had previously been available. At around the same time Thomas Boulsover invented a technique for fusing a thin sheet of silver onto a copper ingot producing a form of silver plating that became known as Sheffield plate. Originally hand-rolled Old Sheffield Plate was used for making silver buttons. Then in 1751 Joseph Hancock, previously apprenticed to Boulsover's friend Thomas Mitchell, first used it to make kitchen and tableware. This prospered and in 1762–65 Hancock built the water-powered Old Park Silver Mills at the confluence of the Loxley and the Don, one of the earliest factories solely producing an industrial semi-manufacture. Eventually Old Sheffield Plate was supplanted by cheaper electroplate in the 1840s. In 1773 Sheffield was given a silver assay office. In the late 18th century, Britannia metal, a pewter-based alloy similar in appearance to silver, was invented in the town.

 

Huntsman's process was only made obsolete in 1856 by Henry Bessemer's invention of the Bessemer converter, but production of crucible steel continued until well into the 20th century for special uses, as Bessemer's steel was not of the same quality, in the main replacing wrought iron for such applications as rails. Bessemer had tried to induce steelmakers to take up his improved system, but met with general rebuffs, and finally was driven to undertake the exploitation of the process himself. To this end he erected steelworks in Sheffield. Gradually the scale of production was enlarged until the competition became effective, and steel traders generally became aware that the firm of Henry Bessemer & Co. was underselling them to the extent of £20 a ton. One of Bessemer's converters can still be seen at Sheffield's Kelham Island Museum.

 

Stainless steel was discovered by Harry Brearley in 1912, at the Brown Firth Laboratories in Sheffield. His successor as manager at Brown Firth, Dr William Hatfield, continued Brealey's work. In 1924 he patented '18-8 stainless steel', which to this day is probably the most common alloy of this type.

 

These innovations helped Sheffield to gain a worldwide recognition for the production of cutlery; utensils such as the bowie knife were mass-produced and shipped to the United States. The population of the town increased rapidly. In 1736 Sheffield and its surrounding hamlets held about 7000 people, in 1801 there were 60,000, and by 1901, the population had grown to 451,195.

 

This growth spurred the reorganisation of the governance of the town. Prior to 1818, the town was run by a mixture of bodies. The Sheffield Town Trust and the Church Burgesses, for example, divided responsibility for the improvement of streets and bridges. By the 19th century both organisations lacked funds and struggled even to maintain existing infrastructure.[52] The Church Burgesses organised a public meeting on 27 May 1805 and proposed to apply to Parliament for an act to pave, light and clean the city's streets. The proposal was defeated.

 

The idea of a Commission was revived in 1810, and later in the decade Sheffield finally followed the model adopted by several other towns in petitioning for an Act to establish an Improvement Commission. This eventually led to the Sheffield Improvement Act 1818, which established the Commission and included several other provisions. In 1832 the town gained political representation with the formation of a Parliamentary borough. A municipal borough was formed by an Act of Incorporation in 1843, and this borough was granted the style and title of "City" by letters patent in 1893.

 

In 1832 an outbreak of cholera killed 402 people, including John Blake, the Master Cutler. Another 1,000 residents were infected by the disease. A memorial to the victims stands in Clay Wood where the victims of the outbreak are buried.

 

From the mid-18th century, a succession of public buildings were erected in the town. St Paul's Church, now demolished, was among the first, while the old Town Hall and the present Cutlers' Hall were among the major works of the 19th century. The town's water supply was improved by the Sheffield Waterworks Company, who built reservoirs around the town. Parts of Sheffield were devastated when, following a five-year construction project, the Dale Dyke dam collapsed on Friday 11 March 1864, resulting in the Great Sheffield Flood.

 

Sheffield's transport infrastructure was also improved. In the 18th century turnpike roads were built connecting Sheffield with Barnsley, Buxton, Chesterfield, Glossop, Intake, Penistone, Tickhill, and Worksop. In 1774 a 2-mile (3.2 km) wooden tramway was laid at the Duke of Norfolk's Nunnery Colliery. The tramway was destroyed by rioters, who saw it as part of a plan to raise the price of coal. A replacement tramway that used L-shaped rails was laid by John Curr in 1776 and was one of the earliest cast-iron railways. The Sheffield Canal opened in 1819 allowing the large-scale transport of freight.

 

This was followed by the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway in 1838, the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway in 1845, and the Midland Railway in 1870. The Sheffield Tramway was started in 1873 with the construction of a horse tram route from Lady's Bridge to Attercliffe. This route was later extended to Brightside and Tinsley, and further routes were constructed to Hillsborough, Heeley, and Nether Edge. Due to the narrow medieval roads the tramways were initially banned from the town centre. An improvement scheme was passed in 1875; Pinstone Street and Leopold Street were constructed by 1879, and Fargate was widened in the 1880s. The 1875 plan also called for the widening of the High Street; disputes with property owners delayed this until 1895.

 

Steel production in the 19th century involved long working hours, in unpleasant conditions that offered little or no safety protection. Friedrich Engels in his The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 described the conditions prevalent in the city at that time:

 

In Sheffield wages are better, and the external state of the workers also. On the other hand, certain branches of work are to be noticed here, because of their extraordinarily injurious influence upon health. Certain operations require the constant pressure of tools against the chest, and engender consumption in many cases; others, file-cutting among them, retard the general development of the body and produce digestive disorders; bone-cutting for knife handles brings with it headache, biliousness, and among girls, of whom many are employed, anæmia. By far the most unwholesome work is the grinding of knife-blades and forks, which, especially when done with a dry stone, entails certain early death. The unwholesomeness of this work lies in part in the bent posture, in which chest and stomach are cramped; but especially in the quantity of sharp-edged metal dust particles freed in the cutting, which fill the atmosphere, and are necessarily inhaled. The dry grinders' average life is hardly thirty-five years, the wet grinders' rarely exceeds forty-five.

 

Sheffield became one of the main centres for trade union organisation and agitation in the UK. By the 1860s, the growing conflict between capital and labour provoked the so-called 'Sheffield Outrages', which culminated in a series of explosions and murders carried out by union militants. The Sheffield Trades Council organised a meeting in Sheffield in 1866 at which the United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades—a forerunner of the Trades Union Congress (TUC)—was founded.

 

The 20th century to the present

In 1914 Sheffield became a diocese of the Church of England, and the parish church became a cathedral. During the First World War the Sheffield City Battalion suffered heavy losses at the Somme and Sheffield itself was bombed by a German zeppelin.

 

The recession of the 1930s was only halted by the increasing tension as the Second World War loomed. The steel factories of Sheffield were set to work making weapons and ammunition for the war. As a result, once war was declared, the city once again became a target for bombing raids. In total there were 16 raids over Sheffield, but it was the heavy bombing over the nights of 12 and 15 December 1940 (now known as the Sheffield Blitz) when the most substantial damage occurred. More than 660 people died and numerous buildings were destroyed.

 

Following the war, the 1950s and 1960s saw many large scale developments in the city. The Sheffield Tramway was closed, and a new system of roads, including the Inner Ring Road, were laid out. Also at this time many of the old slums were cleared and replaced with housing schemes such as the Park Hill flats, and the Gleadless Valley estate.

 

In February 1962, the city was devastated by the Great Sheffield Gale. Extremely localised high winds across the city, reaching up to 97 mph (156 km/h), killed four people, injured more than 400, and damaged more than 150,000 houses across the city, leaving thousands homeless.

 

Sheffield's traditional manufacturing industries (along with those of many other areas in the UK), declined during the 20th century. In the 1980s, it was the setting for two films written by locally-born Barry Hines: Looks and Smiles, a 1981 film that portrayed the depression that the city was enduring, and Threads, a 1984 television film that simulated a nuclear winter in Sheffield after a warhead is dropped to the east of the city.

 

The building of the Meadowhall shopping centre on the site of a former steelworks in 1990 was a mixed blessing, creating much needed jobs but speeding the decline of the city centre. Attempts to regenerate the city were kick-started by the hosting of the 1991 World Student Games and the associated building of new sporting facilities such as the Sheffield Arena, Don Valley Stadium and the Ponds Forge complex. Sheffield began construction of a tram system in 1992, with the first section opening in 1994.

 

Starting in 1995, the Heart of the City Project has seen public works in the city centre: the Peace Gardens were renovated in 1998, the Millennium Gallery opened in April 2001, and a 1970s town hall extension was demolished in 2002 to make way for the Winter Garden, which opened on 22 May 2003. A series of other projects grouped under the title Sheffield One aim to regenerate the whole of the city centre.

 

Sheffield was particularly hard hit during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2010 'Big Freeze'. The 2007 flooding on 25 June caused millions of pounds worth of damage to buildings in the city and led to the loss of two lives. Many landmark buildings such as Meadowhall and the Hillsborough Stadium flooded due to being close to rivers that flow through the city. In 2010, 5,000 properties in Sheffield were identified as still being at risk of flooding. In 2012 the city narrowly escaped another flood, despite extensive work by the Environment Agency to clear local river channels since the 2007 event. In 2014 Sheffield Council's cabinet approved plans to further reduce the possibility of flooding by adopting plans to increase water catchment on tributaries of the River Don. Another flood hit the city in 2019, resulting in shoppers being contained in Meadowhall Shopping Centre.

 

Between 2014 and 2018, there were disputes between the city council and residents over the fate of the city's 36,000 highway trees. Around 4,000 highway trees have since been felled as part of the ‘Streets Ahead’ Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract signed in 2012 by the city council, Amey plc and the Department for Transport to maintain the city streets. The tree fellings have resulted in many arrests of residents and other protesters across the city even though most felled trees in the city have been replanted, including those historically felled and not previously replanted. The protests eventually stopped in 2018 after the council paused the tree felling programme as part of a new approach developed by the council for the maintenance of street trees in the city.

 

In July 2013 the Sevenstone project, which aimed to demolish and rebuild a large part of the city centre, and had been on hold since 2009, was further delayed and the company developing it was dropped. The city council is looking for partners to take a new version of the plan forwards. In April 2014 the council, together with Sheffield University, proposed a plan to reduce the blight of empty shops in the city centre by offering them free of charge to small businesses on a month-by-month basis.

 

In December 2022, thousands of homes in Hillsborough and Stannington were left without a gas supply for more than a week following a serious failure of the local network. Sheffield City Council declared a major incident as temperatures dropped below freezing in unheated homes, and aid was distributed to local residents.

Baby elephant born at the Zoo...testing her legs

More action from Yesterday's game Witham CC v Woolpit CC.

The Navajo call Antelope Canyon the place where water runs through rock, which is indeed what happens with flash flooding here. I really loved my experience visiting this place even though it's overcrowded in the summer months and you have surely seen many a picture of it before, so it's very hard to be original. Antelope Canyon is a wonderful, yet fragile place.

 

Canon 5d mark ii and a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM lens. 3 exposures blended in Photoshop with a Photomatix layer for rock texture.

 

For more, please visit merlune.com

Loads of beach fun are never too far for this bright yellow Volkswagen Super Beetle.

 

Zachary Willis is the proud owner of Sonshine.

 

Grab the beach ball...

 

Art on the Vine Meets the Classics, Whyte Horse Winery -- October 4th, 2009

58033 27/07/93 runs the reverse curves at Brotherton with empties off a drax gas wood local working even by this date the location was getting more difficult to keep clear

These pictures almost didn't happen.

 

I was on my way to work last night when I passed by this beauty. There was very little traffic, and I had PLENTY of time before I had to be at work. But for some strange reason, I just kept on going. As soon as I drove past I knew I had to drive back to snap some pics.

 

Getting back to this car took some doing, which didn't exactly make me happy. But I knew if I didn't go back I would be kicking myself for a very long time to come.

 

SO SO glad I did. The light couldn't have been much better. It was early evening, and most of the car was already covered in shadows, minimizing a lot of those pesky hot spots on the chrome. Near perfect shooting conditions. And all that yummy green reflected in the chrome — I didn't even know I had captured that until I sat down to look at all the pics I had snapped — some pretty tasty "icing" on an already delicious "cake"!

 

When it was all said and done, I had taken just over 200 photos in about half an hour. I was SO pleased with how a lot of them turned out. And here I almost didn't stop. What on earth was I thinking???!!!

 

Note to self:

If you have time STOP. If you don't have time, MAKE the time. Because you may never get another opportunity with the same conditions. I mean, that car more than likely would have been gone the next time I was in the area (which, as it turns out, wouldn't have been until a full week later).

 

This 1949 Buick Roadmaster, with only 95,000 miles on her, is selling for $8,600. The FOR SALE sign says "Runs Great". I thought that would make a good title. :-)

  

UPDATE:

Six days after seeing this car it is no longer there. Yep...ALWAYS stop.

  

○•. Taken with an iPhone 5s .•○

I'd say at least 7,000 vehicles were licensed in `45 Colorado. I grabbed a tighter shot of this implement at Mac. Last licensed in 1945, it surely is a clue as to why our US infrastructure, roads and bridges have been destroyed; well, that and the righties. I am using a McIntosh Ag Museum shot to finish a rust belt series by adding more rust and weeds. There is a lot more rust to come on this. This certainly is a fitting title for this image. This machinery is for the ages, the iron ages! This is some kind of wierd plowing implement, it must be an older iron implement and possibly horse-drawn but probably not in 1945. I see some rust on it. It had to be iron heavy in order to be able to "bite" into the soil. I ought to go again and figure out the exact function but who knows. I'd surely like to see some of the implements in operation. Some parts MAY be discombobulated.

 

This June found a return to hot temperatures. Wundermaps reported 101 degrees while I was out there. Whew! The direct sun blazed across the scene. I decided that I had missed some shots at McIntosh and went out in the baking sun. We are still here at the end of September waiting for autumn, cool temperatures denied by Fossilized climate destruction.

 

Highway #66 was overloaded with early summer travelers to the hills, probably not knowing summer might not arrive until July in the Rockies. They were still dumping a lot of snow into the rivers yet there are plenty of folks willing to jump in and drown. Fine by me although social news and media seems to whine!

  

never runs out on me.

being thankful for that simple fact is enough to bring me joy.

 

learning, falling, failing, thanking, praising, regretting, wandering, losing, finding, crying, laughing. it's been an up and down week. but in the end, it all leads me to the Maker of it all.

 

i am happy to keep taking honest photographs, they are so real, they are my life. they turn moments into memories. this is one of them.

  

--Weekly Explorer's Transmission--

--Log of Eagle-Eye Silver--

--12 Oktobrinali 3815--

 

After Kawashita spent some time mining Sector E11, a treaty was struck to share the awesomnium-rich asteroid field between Kawashita and Octan Corp. The sharing agreement gives Octan Corp. the opportunity to acquire the precious resource. I’ve been piloting an OT-14 Zelus dropship-style shuttle this past week making cargo runs between the large asteroids in the Fascini Cluster. It’s fairly menial work, confirming a different manifest a few times a day and running between asteroid and fleet endlessly. At least the Zelus is nimble and quick. The four Pegasus TFG thrusters are controlled independently by the flight control computer and that vectoring makes for impressive maneuverability for landing and docking as well as at high speed. There’re even rumors of Octan SpecOps modifying some of these shuttles for their use, and of course painting them black. After piloting this thing for a week, I can certainly see the appeal.

 

--End--

Writerz Blok. San Diego. CA.

sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it.

~ Miguel De Cervantes

 

*

 

O Love, what hours were thine and mine,

In lands of palm and southern pine;

In lands of palm, of orange-blossom,

Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine.

  

~ Alfred Tennyson

 

The North Delph which runs north of the River Witham close to Greetwell, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire.

 

The Greetwell Drainage District was formed by an Act of Parliment in 1861, it included the lowlands in Cherry Willingham, Barlings and Fiskerton.

 

The main drain was at first by a wind engine, this was replaced in 1862 with a pumping station connection the dyke with the River Witham. The pumping station cost £949, (£121,000 today), a year later an engine was added at the cost of £644 (£82,000).

 

After the drainage works were completed it was decided that the dyke would be maintained at the cost of cost £280 (£35,000) by the landowners, with a percentage of costs for each 20 acres of land. The drain maintenance each year.

 

The maintenance was managed by five commissioners, whose posts were chosen by an election every 3 years. Only those who owned at least 20 acres of land within the proximity of the Dyke could stand for election. Landowners were entitled to one vote for every 20 acres of land they owned. The commissioners held meetings in the Saracen’s Head public house in Lincoln on the 5th July every year.

 

Information Source:

A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire - accessed via books.google.co.uk/

 

A new element has been added to my runs Endomondo

 

Why would I take a Japanese starter with me?

 

I had happily (no resignedly) plodded along with no concept of time for many years, stopping and starting, not caring whether I was improving or not thinking, ‘I’m not competitive, I’m just doing this to be healthy.’

 

Once signed up for Endomondo or ‘world of endorphins’ (the phone app that tracks and times your run, announcing your progress at regular stages.) I went through a transformation.

 

Similar to facebook it announces what everyone is doing;

 

‘Lucy Naughton is running. So far she has tracked 4.97miles in 40mins’ . . . and then it shows the route you have taken/are currently taking.

 

Ordinarily what would be happening on one of my ‘private, un-timed’ runs:

 

‘Lucy has stopped to look at a heron.’

‘Lucy has slowed down to pull her knickers out of her crack.’

‘Lucy has sped up to look at what she thinks is a magnificent hare in the field.’

‘Lucy has slowed back down - it was a sticky up branch.’

‘Lucy is fiddling with her phone as the podcast she downloaded is incredibly dull and the woman’s voice is grating on her brain.’

 

From the very start of my first Endomondo tracked jog I ran differently, I was running as if someone was watching me, as if EVERYONE was watching me, from the entire Internet.

 

I was perpetually waiting for the woman to yell in my ear’ole the time for each km, the first km she yelled my time at me, “Oh how novel, most informative!” I thought.

 

The second km, “That was slower than the first km, why is that?”

 

The third km, “Right, I can’t let my time drop below 5 mins per km.”

 

Not competitive?! Pah!

 

Where once I would gaze around me looking for glamorous wildlife and amusingly shaped trees, now I was just staring hard, dead ahead, not blinking. My favourite copse full of red kites - a traditional stopping point loomed. As usual the kites soared and swooped and cawed in the way that normally stopped me in my tracks and made me grin inanely at the sky for minutes on end. Today I blasted right past. They looked at each other, perplexed.

 

I charged along my route like a woman being chased by age. I saw nothing, heard nothing but my timekeeper, and thought nothing but ‘For god's sake don’t slow down.’ There was no room for my loop of negative thought today.

 

On my way back past the copse the wake of kites had joined wings and were doing a formation display, spelling my name out in the sky, but I couldn’t stop to look or the Endomondo woman would shout in my ear that my lap time had gone down – all the people on Endomondo might mock me, how could I live with the shame?! So on I pressed without looking, the kites forming a giant one-fingered salute at my back.

 

Another gimmick on the app - people online can comment while you are out running and the Endo woman will announce it to you;

 

‘Right now I’m drinking an ice cold Lucozade.’

‘Your boobs don’t half bounce when you run.’

‘I didn’t know you had knock knees.’

‘I’m in the bushes waiting to flash you.’

‘CAMEL TOE!’

 

Endomondo is so informative and rich in ‘look what I’m doing’ features that it shows online the route you have run and when you ran it, it even tells everyone whilst you are on it. Screw the fitness aspect; this may just grow to be the biggest rapist and murderer’s resource ever.

 

‘Lucy is out running’

 

‘SerialkillerBob is hiding in a bush.’

 

‘Lucy is 200m from SerialkillerBob.’

 

‘SerialkillerBob is getting out his big knife.’

 

‘Lucy has stopped to help a nice man who seems to have lost his puppy.’

 

‘SerialkillerBob has updated his kill stats.’

  

Serial killer with an iPhone? Download ‘Deadomondo’ today!!

 

Share the best ambush spots with fellow killers.

 

Find out where your buddies are currently hiding.

 

Track where you buried your bodies, and monitor decomposition.

 

Let our cadaverator choose random burial spots that the police will never track.

    

Beautiful waterfall of Ouzoud from a high angle, the water wasn't clear but the brown color gives a nice touch on it.

covid 19 lock down local walking with Baby Grace and Jakob.

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CBRY's Magma turn runs east after interchanging with the UP earlier in the morning. I had gotten a call from a friend less than 5 minutes after waking up this morning, that the outbound train was to be 39 cars today. With 0 hesitation I was on my way to Magma less than 10 minutes later, and only beat the train's departure by about 5 minutes. A short chase ensued, ending here at this wooden bridge about 10 miles east of Florence. The smoky leader made the catch even more worth it

Common terns making their bomb runs on me. You can see them take off from that "Flat Top" across the mud slough. I have never seen such incredible aggressiveness to defend their base and I wasn't even close.

 

Camera: Nexus 6

The Salt Fork is a small river that generally runs from north to south near St. Joseph in the east-central part of the state. As it reaches the town of Sidney, it turns east-northeast eventually meeting with the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River near Danville. Much of the river north of St. Joseph has been channelized with little in the way of vegetation other than agricultural crops on either side. Yet as the river approaches St. Joseph, it takes on a more natural state. Towering trees enclose the river, and as the water passes the Heather Hills neighborhood, vast tracts of vegetation fill out the bend before reaching the Flatville Road bridge.

  

31406 runs onto the Heathfield branch with the Chipmans weedkilling train at Newton Abbot East on 23rd April 1987. I don't remember if it went all the way up the branch, or just did a run round at Hackney Yard, where a few 'Clay Hood' wagons can just be seen.

 

The first carriage is 99009, a former Maunsell BCK No.6699, built at Eastleigh in 1935, and withdrawn from weedkilling in 1989. It is now at Swanage awaiting restoration.

Oulton v Crofton Phoenix - Saturday 11th May 2024

An unidentified Berlin ADtranz GT6N tram runs down the central reservation of Berliner Straße in the Pankow district of the city, and approaches the Masurenstraße stop on routes 50 and M1. It appears to be a route 50 depot working.

 

The GT6N trams were built between 1994 and 2003, but from 2012 to 2017 had their electrical control and drive systems upgraded, being reclassified as GT6U (upgrades from 2011 to 2016) or GTNO (upgrades in 2016 and 2017) and renumbered from 10xx to 15xx or 12xx respectively (so at this stage, most had yet to be upgraded). Unfortunately, a closer view of this tram shows there is no fleet number in the usual place (the corner closest to the camera), so it's not possible to identify it.

 

This was taken on the last day of a five-day trip to Germany. I'd flown out from Stansted to Halle / Leipzig with a friend on the Friday, and we'd stayed two nights in Dresden for a railtour around the Wattenfall coal system on the Saturday. We went our separate ways on Sunday; I travelled by a roundabout route to Berlin (using a Schönes Wochenende Ticket), which included finishing the Frankfurt an der Oder tram system by travelling over a short section which had been closed when I'd visited a few months earlier (on my way back from the PTG Lithuania tour). On Monday I used a Brandenburg Land ticket to do some DB lines I needed, but I stayed in Berlin on the Tuesday as I was flying home on the mid-evening flight from Schönefeld.

 

It was a lovely day, and most of it was spent on the tram network. I attempted some photography of one elevated section of U-Bahn, but from the street below I felt too much of the trains were obscured by the ironwork of the viaducts. There were some lovely autumn colours, but I didn't alight for tram photography in what would have been the best place for that, and when I got here found I was already too late for the best sun angle. But with the tram in the distance, I think this one works better than all the others.

 

Visit Brian Carter's Non-Transport Pics to see my photos of landscapes, buildings, bridges, sunsets, rainbows and more.

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