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I was initially interested in aligning the crop lines in such a way that leads the eye to the windmill yet I was not interested in making the mill the dominant element. Once this was set up I waited for a suitable cloud formation that would draw the attention to the top right.
HK Airport Runway Approach Lighting
An approach lighting system, or ALS, is a lighting system installed on the approach end of an airport runway and consisting of a series of lightbars, strobe lights, or a combination of the two that extends outward from the runway end. ALS usually serves a runway that has an instrument approach procedure (IAP) associated with it and allows the pilot to visually identify the runway environment and align the aircraft with the runway upon arriving at a prescribed point on an approach.
1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers review the attack plan with Moldovan Soldiers before a situational training exercise at the Hohenfels Training Area, as part of exercise Combined Resolve III, Oct. 26, 2014. Combined Resolve III is a U.S Army Europe-directed multinational exercise at the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas, including more than 4,000 participants from NATO and partner nations. Combined Resolve III is designed to provide a complex training scenario that focuses on multinational unified land operations and reinforces the U.S commitment to NATO and Europe. The exercises features the U.S. Army’s Regionally Aligned Force for Europe-the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division-which supports the U.S. European Command during Operation Atlantic Resolve. For more photos, videos, and stories from Combined Resolve III, go to www.eur.army.mil/jmtc/CombinedResolveIII.html.
(U.S. Army photo by Sarah Tate, JMTC PAO )
5 planets align for the first time since 2005 mashable.com/2016/01/20/5-planets-align-sky/#Jyv01I31i05n via @mashable via #Zukul
The Michigan Marching Band (MMB) is the University of Michigan's marching band.
In 1896, Harry dePont invited musicians throughout campus to attend a meeting for the purpose of organizing a band. Two years later, the MMB became an indispensable part of the Michigan tradition by playing at the football games. After Michigan moved out of the Western Football Conference in 1911, J. Fred Lawton and Earl Vincent Moore composed the fight song 'Varsity', which became an immediate hit. George Olsen became the marching band's first drum major in 1914. The band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, was established to promote and serve the University bands in 1925. William D. Revelli succeeded Nicholas Falcone as director in 1935 requiring all male wind instrument majors to join the MMB and aligning the band with the School of Music in 1940. 1951 brought forth the MMB classics 'M Fanfare', 'Temptation' and 'Hawaiian War Chant', all arranged by Jerry Bilik. In 1970, Carl Grapentine became the "Voice of the Michigan Bands" and continues to hold that post today. Women were finally allowed to join the marching band in 1972. The MMB was the first band to win the Sudler Trophy in 1982, receiving the trophy at halftime of the 1983 Rose Bowl Game. Today, the MMB remains an integral part of the Michigan Football tradition.
The Michigan Marching Band has one drum major, commonly referred to as the "Man Up Front," for the entire 350+ member ensemble. Like in most Big Ten bands, the MMB drum major is not a conducting position. The drum major provides whistle commands to provide song tempos and parade instructions. While it is not required of the position, most drum majors perform twirling routines during the halftime show. The drum major is also responsible for teaching proper marching techniques during Band Week. The drum major is best known for the back bend performed during pregame.
The reserve members leave the parade formation, run down the tunnel onto the field and move into the stands to watch pregame. The remaining band members then enter the tunnel and arrange themselves into 'entry lines' for the start of the pregame performance. The drum major then proceeds to the lower mouth of the tunnel signaling to the stadium announcer that the band is ready. The Michigan Stadium and MMB announcer, Carl Grapentine, announces the entrance of the band in his signature baritone: "Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting the 235-member Michigan Marching Band! Baaaand, take the field!"
The band then 'pours' out of the tunnel onto the field to the Entry Cadence at 220+ BPM in entry lines which then fold out into the Fanfare M.
From the Fanfare M formation, the MMB plays the M Fanfare. The M Fanfare was composed by longtime Michigan Marching Band arranger and composer Jerry Bilik, consisting of portions of "The Victors," "Varsity," and "The Yellow and Blue."
At the climax of the M Fanfare, the drum major performs a signature move. The drum major moves from the middle of the band to the north end 20-yard line. He/she then takes off their hat, turns to face the south end zone, and bends backwards to touch his/her head to the ground. This is done every game. Originally, drum majors kept their hat on and touched its plume to the ground. The first drum major to do this was Mark Brown in the late 1960s. Brown was extremely flexible and could touch the plume to the ground between his heels.
During the pregame performance, the MMB appropriately plays the pregame version of "The Victors" while marching all the way to the north end zone. Before the trio starts, an added drum transition occurs for the band to change formations from sweep lines to the hollow block M. During the transition, Carl Grapentine announces, "All the Maize and Blue faithful join in a rousing chorus of the Victors!" These words have been spoken for the past 30 years. Prior to that, the announcer would say, "Let's all sing for today's big Michigan victory!". For the Ohio State game, he would add another "big" to the announcement. The trio of "The Victors" is then played while marching to the south end zone.
During "The Victors", the drum major marches down to the north end zone goal post and tosses his/her mace over the cross bar. Superstition says that if the drum major catches the mace without dropping it, the football team will win the game.
Immediately following "The Victors", the MMB plays the visitor's fight song to the south end zone. The upper section of the south end zone is where a large portion of the visiting fans sit. This is a strong tradition among all Big Ten marching bands (and thus copied by many Midwestern high school marching bands).
At the end, the band splits the M to allow room for the "Go Blue, M Club Supports You" banner to be raised for the team's entrance. The team runs onto the field as the band plays the trio of "The Victors" twice.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Marching_Band
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
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This photo has been published in the blue book, which is available for purchase through my online bookstore at blurb.com.
Many places like to wear their connections with Charles Dickens visibly, but I find it hard to believe anywhere does it more completely than Blundeston.
Blundeston is mentioned in David Copperfield, and there has been a strong movement by the local parish planners to ensure that most street names now have a Dicken connection. I know this a a colleague of mine resisted the overtures to name their new dwellings something Dickensian, but stuck with the family name after all.
I also have family connections with Blundeston, and indeed a distant relation is on the war memorial, but he is one of the branch that has an extra D in their name, the first one I have ever seen. My name is very mis-spelt, and the double D variation the most common.
Anyway, late one afternoon, I arrive in Blundeston to visit the church, and see, or notice the pound for the first time. Situated on a road junction, the brick-built circular enclosure was once used to corral livestock. It is a rare survivor, and the first time I had noticed it.
It is a fine round-towered church, with plenty of interest inside, and the medieval (I guess) glass in the porch the first of many. Some unusual tessellated tiling in the chancel, but the sanctuary is now a book shop and the altar brought forward.The font, at least to my eyes, looks Norman, and is impressive, as is the arts and crafts window, but I guess this is where Simon puts me right on many points.....
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"I was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk. There is nothing half so green as I know anywhere, as the grass of that churchyard; nothing half so shady as its trees; nothing half so quiet as its tombstones. The sheep are feeding there, when I kneel up to look out. Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed pew! With a window near it, out of which our house can be seen.
I look up at the monumental tablets on the wall, and try to think of Mr Bodgers late of this parish, and what the feelings of Mrs Bodgers must have been, when affliction sore, long time Mr Bodgers bore, and physicians were in vain. I look to the pulpit, and think what a good place it would be to play in, and what a castle it would make, with another boy coming up the stairs to attack it..."
- Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Blundeston is these days a very pleasant outer suburb of Lowestoft, although wise planners have kept a cordon sanitaire between it and the rampaging new estates of Oulton and Gunton. Everything here is very trim and polite, although St Mary itself has a rather more primitive air about it. Its narrow, tapering tower rises up sharply beside the steeply banked roof of its nave, for all the world like a Cornish tin mine or Derbyshire mill. This is an ancient building. The tower, at least the lower part, is clearly Saxon, and here inside there are some other ancient details.
You step into a church which is much bigger than it might appear from the outside, with a gentle High Church feel to it. The nave was widened in the late medieval period, and although there is no aisle or arcade, the tower has been left offset. The font dates from the 12th century, a plain, octagonal bowl set on 8 relief legs. The tower arch is earlier, and beside it there is a very curious detail. A circular squint hole, about 12 inches across, about 5 feet from the floor in the north-west corner. It is obviously intended to line up with something outside the church, but what, exactly? There is one exactly like it, in the same position, two miles away at Lound. They do not align with each other, though. Perhaps an outdoor Easter sepulchre? or to enable an internal sepulchre to be seen on Good Friday, when the church was out of use?
Above the south door, the arms of Charles II are very curious. They have been reused as a hatchment at some point, but the overpainting has faded to reveal the true origin. An altar against the north wall is dedicated to St Andrew, in memory of the nearby former church at Flixton, which was destroyed in a storm early in the 18th century. The font in the churchyard here comes from Flixton, too.
And the memorials? Well, I'm afraid there is no 'Mr Bodgers, late of this parish', and probably never was. The high-backed pews are all gone, and although the pulpit would certainly make an excellent castle, it post-dates Dickens's (and Copperfield's) time. The grass is still lush and green in the churchyard though, and much wilder than the neatly trimmed lawns of the very pleasant houses that surround it.
Simon Knott, June 2008
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Blundeston.htm
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Blundeston.
There are two manors here—those of Blundeston Hall, and Gonville's. The former was held by a family which took their name from the place, and retained it, with the patronage of the church, till the end of the reign of Edward III. In the ninth of Edward I., Robert de Blundeston was lord; (fn. 1) and in the twenty-third of Edward III., in the year 1348, there was a conveyance from Osbertus, Rector of the church of Blundeston, and Oliverus de Wysete, to William, the son of Robert de Blundeston, and the heirs of his body, of the manor of Blundeston, with all the lands and appurtenances in Blundeston, Oulton, and Flixton; together with the advowson of the church of the village of Blundeston, with the appurtenances; all which were formerly of Robert de Blundeston; to hold to the said William and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten. From this family the manor and advowson passed to that of Yarmouth; Henry Yarmouth, of Blundeston, presenting to the church in 1438. Humphrey Yarmouth, his descendant, on the 1st of December, 1570, conveyed to William Sydnor the manor of Blundeston, cum pertinentibus, and all other his manors, tenements, liberties, swanmarks, and hereditaments in Blundeston, Corton, Lound, Somerleyton, Flixton, Lowestoft, and Gunton, or elsewhere, and all other his manors and hereditaments, in the said towns, in fee. The manor, &c., and the messuages, were found to be holden of Sir John Heveningham, of his manor of South Leet, in soccage. (fn. 2) The said William Sydnor, by deed indented 6th of October, twenty-sixth of Elizabeth, 1584, in consideration of a jointure to Elizabeth, late wife of Henry Sydnor, his son, and heir apparent, did enfeoff John Read, and others, and their heirs, of a house called Gillam's, and 90 acres of land in Blundeston and Flixton; a meadow of 12 acres in Flixton; a marsh called Wrentham's, and 41 acres of land in Blundeston; two other messuages and 9 acres of land in Blundeston; a house called Chamber's, and 104 acres of land in Henstead. And of the manor called Blundeston; and the manor of Fritton with the appurtenances, to their uses; viz., as to the manor of Blundeston with the appurtenances, to the use of the said William for life; and after to the use of the said Henry, and his heirs male by the said Elizabeth, his wife; and after to the right heirs of the said William. The marriage between the aforesaid Henry Sydnor and Elizabeth was solemnized on the 1st of February, twenty-seventh of Elizabeth. He died during his father's lifetime, in December, 1611. William Sydnor, the father, died on the 26th of August, 1612. By his will, dated the 26th of March, in the same year, being "then of Christ's Church, but late of Blundeston," he gave to the poor of Blundeston, Henstead, Fritton, Belton, Conisford at the Gate (Norwich), Berstete St. John's, 20 shillings to each parish, and to Trowse on this side the Bridge 10 shillings. He desired "his body to be buried in the chauncell of the parishe church of Blundeston." He gave unto Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, £ 200 of lawful English money, some furniture, and £10 in gold, to be paid within fourteen days; a cup of silver with three feet, and a cover. To Alice Goldsmithe, his daughter, all her mother's apparell, and £10 in gold, &c. Among other bequests, he leaves to William Sydnor, his grandchild, some furniture, and a great carved chest which lately came from Blundeston, and his next best salt-cellar. After leaving annuities to his servants, he directed "that his house in Christ's Church in all things be mayntayned and kept as usually he did for the entertainment of his children; and such of his children and servants as would stay and live orderly, and do their service honestly, during the time of their stay; for which they were to have their wages. The charges of such housekeeping to be defrayed by his executors; and he desired that Dorothy Sydnor, his daughter, during the said month should have the government of the said house." (fn. 3)
By an inquisition, held the 30th of August, in the twelfth of James I., when the death of William Sydnor was returned, it was found that William, the son of Henry, his eldest son, then deceased, was his next heir, and of the age of 24 years and more. And that the said William, eldest, was seized in fee of the manor of Blunston, alias Blundeston, with the appurtenances in Blundeston, Corton, Gunton, Lowestoft, Oulton, Ashby, Flixton, Bradwell, Burgh, Fritton, Belton, Herringfleet, Lound, Somerleyton, Hopton, and Gorleston.
On the 13th of February, eleventh of James I., William Sydnor, the grandson, in consideration of a marriage with Anne Harborne, did covenant with William Harborne, her father, to convey to him, Sir Anthony Drury, and others, and their heirs, the manor of Fritton, with the appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, &c., of the said William, in Fritton, or in the towns adjoining, to the use of himself and his heirs until the marriage, and after the marriage to the use of himself and the said Anne, for jointure, and the heirs male of his body, with several remainders over to Robert, Thomas, and Henry, his brothers, Edmund, William, Francis, and Paul Sydnor, his uncles, and the heirs male of every of their several bodies. And after to the use of the right heirs of the said William Sydnor, the grandfather. And the manor of Blundeston, with the rights, members, and appurtenances, in Suffolk, and all lands, tenements, and other hereditaments, &c., of the said William Sydnor, the grandson, in Blundeston, or in the towns adjoining, or any of them, to and for the like uses, and estates, and remainders as before; omitting only the said Anne, and her estates, for life. In the following year a fine was levied in pursuance, by the said William Sydnor, his uncle, and the heirs of Sir Anthony, of the manors of Fritton and Blundeston, with the appurtenances. By the Office of the ninth of Charles I., after the death of William Sydnor, the grandson, it was found that he died, seized, on the 13th of June, eighth of Charles I., 1632, without issue male. By the same Office, Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia, were found to be the daughters and co-heiresses of the said William Sydnor, and that Elizabeth, the eldest, was, at her father's death, under eleven years of age, and all the rest under fourteen years of age. (fn. 4) On the 3rd of July, in the tenth of Charles I., the King, by ind're under the seal of the Court of Wards, granted to Anthony Bury, for a fine of 200 marks, the custody, wardship, and marriages of the said co-heiresses, to his own use. On the 2nd of July, tenth of Charles, the King, by another ind're, under the seal of the said Court, granted and leased to him, in consideration of £10, the manor of Henstead Pierpoind's, and two acres in Blundeston, during the minority of the said co-heiresses, at the yearly rent of £ 2. 6s. 8d. On the 20th of November, in the same year, this Anthony Bury, by ind're, assigned all his interests to Dr. Talbot, who married the said Anne, mother of the said co-heiresses, to his own use, for £330 paid, besides £100 for Bury, to the receiver of the Court of Wards, for leave of the King's fine. In Michaelmas Term, 1640, there was a decree in the Court of Wards, against Sir John Wentworth, who, in his answer to the information of the attorney of the wards on behalf of the said co-heiresses, denied they had the manor of Blundeston, but confessed they had the manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston, and that their father purchased that of one Jettor. But the Court decreed that the said co-heiresses had the manor of Blundeston, and also the manor of Gonville's. And such possession as the father of the said wards had in Blundeston great water, and fishing, is by the decree settled with the wards during their minority, and until livery sued. And Sir John desired not to fish in right of a tenement in Blundeston, which was his father's. As to the wards' suit as touching an hoorde, some lands in Fritton, and other matters, they are left to trial at law.
Elizabeth, Anne, Sarah, Mary, Hester, Susanna, Abigail, and Lydia Sydnor, the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, of Blundeston, by fine levied, and recovery suffered, and by deed dated the 19th of December, 1651, conveyed the said manors in Blundeston and Fritton to hold to William Heveningham, Esq., his heirs and assigns, for ever.
¶The family of Sydnor, from whom Blundeston thus passed, appears to have originated from — Sydnor, who married a daughter of Sir John Berney, of Reedham, in Norfolk. The following pedigree is derived from an abstract of the title of the estates, sold by the eight daughters and co-heiresses of William Sydnor, made in 1651; except the marriages of the eight daughters, which are added from the abstract continued to 1663, at which time Sarah was married to William Castleton. The other daughters had been all married before that date.
William Sydnor, the purchaser of Blundeston, as appears from bequests in his will, left three daughters, namely, Dorothy Sydnor, Alice Sydnor, who married Henry Goldsmith, and left issue Charles Goldsmith; and Elizabeth Sydnor, who married W. Doans, and left a son, William. Henry Sydnor, who died in his father's lifetime, left also three daughters, Elizabeth, Catharine, and Alice.
William Heveningham, Esq., who purchased the manors of Blundeston and Fritton of the Sydnors, was in the year 1661 convicted and attainted of high treason, as has been already shown under Mutford, &c. By letters patent, dated 28th September, thirteenth Charles II., the King did give unto Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Knights, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, Esqrs., among other manors and lands, the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton; to hold to them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., and their heirs, for ever. The said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., by their deed-poll, dated 3rd October, thirteenth Charles II., made between them, the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., George, Earl of Bristol, Henry, Earl of Dover, and Margaret Heveningham, wife of the said William Heveningham, which was also signed by His Majesty's sign manual, did declare the use of the aforesaid letters patent to be to the intent that the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, &c., should, either by perception of the profits or sale of the aforesaid manors of Blundeston and Fritton, amongst others, raise £11,000 for the said Earl of Bristol, and several other trusts therein comprised: the remainder to be for the use of the said Mary, wife of the said William. The said William Heveningham, and Mary his wife, in Michaelmas Term, thirteenth Charles II., levied a fine, and suffered a recovery of the said manors of Blundeston and Fritton, inter alia. And by indenture, dated 24th of October, thirteenth of Charles II., the said William and Mary declared that the said fine and recovery should be to the use of the said Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, and their heirs, for ever.
In the 10th and 11th of December, 1662, fourteenth of Charles II., appear a lease and release from the Earl of Bristol, Brian, Viscount Cullen, Sir Thomas Fanshaw, Sir Ralph Banks, Edward Pitt, and Charles Cornwallis, unto Sir John Tasburgh, of the manor of Blundeston, and the capital house called Blundeston Hall, and the manor of Fritton, alias Freton Paston's, and all that manor called Blundeston, alias Gunville's, alias Scroope Hall, alias Gunville's Blundeston, with all the rights, members, and appurtenances to the said manors belonging; and the advowson of the churches, rectories, and vicarages of Blundeston and Fritton aforesaid; and courts-leet and view of frank-pledge, &c., to hold to him and his heirs, for ever. Consideration, £4000 in hand, and £4000 to be paid as therein named. On the 27th of December, 1662, the said William Heveningham and Mary his wife did grant, release, and confirm all and every the said manors of Blundeston, Fritton, and Blundeston Gunville's, to the said John Tasburgh, and his heirs, for ever.
These estates next passed to the Allins; for, on the 20th July, 1668, are letters of attorney from Thomas Allin, of Lowestoft, Knt., to Richard London, &c., to receive livery of seizin of John Tasburgh, of Bodney, in Norfolk, Esq., of all his manors, messuages, lands and fruits, and hereditaments situated in Blundeston, Fritton, Corton, or any other town adjoining. Sir Thomas Allin held his first court baron for these manors on the 3rd of November, 1668. (fn. 5)
On the 9th of July, 1712, the trustees of Richard Allin, under a deed authorizing them to sell lands to satisfy his debts, sold a messuage and about 76 acres of land at Blundeston and Fritton, of the yearly rent of £39. 10s., to Gregory Clarke, for £663; and on the 30th of August following, two other pieces of land, containing 13 acres, of the yearly rent of £5. 10s., to the same Gregory Clarke, for £100. These estates were afterwards purchased by Sir Ashurst Allin, Bart., who resided there; and were by him devised to his daughter, Frances Allin, for life. On the 29th of September, 1714, Blundeston Hall-farm, lands and decoy, of the yearly rent of £217. 2s. 6d., were sold to William Luson, merchant, the consideration money being £3691. 2s. 6d., who devised them to Robert Luson, his son, who, by his will of the 1st of May, 1767, bequeathed them to his eldest daughter, Maria, in fee, who married George Nicholls, Esq., by whom this estate was sold to Robert Woods, who, by his will, dated July 4th, 1780, devised the same to his wife to sell, and in 1791, she conveyed it to Thomas Woods in fee. Other estates in Blundeston were by Robert Luson devised to his second daughter, Hephzibah, who married Nathaniel Rix, Esq. An estate at Blundeston, and Corton, and Lound, he devised to Elizabeth, his daughter, who afterwards married Cammant Money, by whom the second property was sold to J. B. Roe, and the first to J. Manship. (fn. 6) The Decoy farm, at Blundeston, was, by the executors of Robert Luson, under the powers in the will contained, sold to William Berners, Esq., of Woolverstone Hall, whose son, Charles, resold it to Thomas Morse, Esq. (fn. 7) The manor of Fritton, and an estate of the annual value of £173, were sold to Samuel Fuller, Esq., for £ 2660. (fn. 8)
The manors of Blundeston Hall and Gunville's united, as will be presently shown, remained with the Allins, and passed with their other estates to the family of Anguish. From the Anguishes they descended to Lord Sydney Osborne, who sold them, in 1844, to Samuel Morton Peto, Esq.
The Manor of Gonville's, in Blundeston,
¶was the lordship of John, the son of Nicholas de Gunville or Gonville, in the fourteenth of Edward III., in the month of March in which year is a "note of time" of this manor between the aforesaid John, who is styled the son of Nicholas Gonvyll, chyvaler, and Johan, his wife, complainants, and William de Gonvyll, parson of the church of Thelnethan, John Gonvyll, parson of the church of Lylyng, Osbert, parson of the church of Blundeston, and Thomas de Kalkhyll, deforcients, of 24 messuages, 332 acres of land, 16 acres of meadow, &c., in Gorleston, Louystoft, Barneby, Little Yarmouth, and Hopton, to John, son of Nicholas and Johan, and the heirs of their bodies; and remainder, after the decease of John and Johan, to the right heirs of John, the son of Nicholas. (fn. 9) The manor remained with this ancient line till it passed, in the early part of the fifteenth century, to Sir Robert Herling, Knt., who married Joan or Jane, the heiress of the Gonvilles, as the subjoined pedigree will show.
Sir Robert Herling, and Joan his wife, held the manor of Gonville's in 1420, as we learn from an inquisitio ad quod damnum, taken in that year. "Robtus Harlyng, miles, et Johanna, uxor ejus, tempore ultimi pascigii d'ni Henr. Regis nunc ad partes Norman: seiziti fuerunt de mn'o vocat Gunvilles manor: cum p'tin: in villis de Blundeston, Olton, et Flyxton, in d'mico suo ut de feodo." (fn. 10) Sir Robert Herling left a daughter and heiress, Anne, who was thrice married; first, to Sir William Chamberlain, Knight of the Garter; secondly, to Sir Robert Wingfield, Knt., who in 1474 settled, amongst divers manors and estates in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, the manors of Gnateshall, Corton, Newton, Lound, and Blundeston, with Lound advowson, in Suffolk, on themselves and their trustees. He died seized of these in 1480. In 1492, Anne, his widow, married, thirdly, John, Lord Scroop, of Bolton, who died in 1494. (fn. 11) On her death, without issue, the manor of Gonville's went to Margaret, her father's sister, the wife of Sir Robert Tuddenham, Knt. (fn. 12) On the 4th of April, sixth of James I., Robert Jettor conveyed to William Sydnor the site, manor, or member of a manor, called Blundeston, Gunvilles Blundeston, or Gunvilles cum pertin: and a close called Gunvilles, reputed the site of the said manor, containing six acres; another close called the Home-close, in Blundeston, and four several fish-ponds, with several waters and fishings in Blundeston and Flixton, and with covenant to levy a fine thereof to the use of the said William Sydnor, and his heirs. William Sydnor's eight daughters and co-heiresses conveyed it to William Heveningham. Both manors in this parish being thus united, were granted, with the advowson, to Lady Heveningham's trustees in 1661, as already shown.
Early in the seventeenth century, Sir Butts Bacon, created a Baronet on the 29th of July, 1627, possessed an estate and resided at Blundeston. He married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Warner, of Parham, in Suffolk, Knt., and widow of William, second son of Sir Henry Jermyn, Knt., by whom he had three sons, Charles and Clement, who died without issue, and Sir Henry Bacon, his successor. He had also two daughters, Anne, the wife of Henry Kitchingman, of Blundeston Hall, and Dorothy, who married William Peck, of Cove. Sir Butts died in 1661, and his widow in 1679. They lie buried in Blundeston church. Soon after the year 1700, the estate of the Bacons was sold to the Allins of Somerleyton; and in 1770 became the property of Frances, the daughter of the Rev. Ashurst Allin, of whose executors it was purchased by Nicholas Henry Bacon, Esq., the second surviving son of the late Sir Edmund Bacon, Bart., of Raveningham, in Norfolk, who sold it in 1832 to Charles Steward, Esq., an officer in the Honourable East India Company's service, who is the present possessor. He married his first-cousin, Harriet, the only daughter, by his first wife, of Ambrose Harbord Steward, Esq., of Stoke Park, near Ipswich, High Sheriff for Suffolk in 1822, by whom he has an only son, Charles John.
The mansion erected on this estate has been termed at different periods Sydnors, and Blundeston Villa, but is now designated Blundeston House. The spot is more celebrated for the loveliness of its scenery than the grandeur of the residence, which is simply a good substantial house, erected in a style of unpretending architecture. But its verdant lawns and ample sparkling lake bear testimony of a long subjection to the hand of taste, which evidently still controls. The domain was many years the residence of the late Rev. Norton Nicholls. Mr. Mathias, an author well known by his 'Observations on the Character and Writings of Gray,' in a letter to a friend, occasioned by the death of this "rare and gifted man," terms his villa here "an oasis." Speaking of what Mr. Nicholls had perfected at Blundeston, he says, "if barbarous taste should not improve it, or some more barbarous land-surveyor level with the soil its beauties and its glories, (it) will remain as one of the most finished scenes of cultivated sylvan delight which this island can offer to our view." An aged pollard oak, and a summer-house placed at the termination of the lake, are said to have been favourite haunts of Gray, who was an occasional guest of Mr. Nicholls at Blundeston. In 1799, this gentleman entertained here the gallant Admiral Duncan, soon after his return to Yarmouth, crowned with the laurels won at Camperdown. Mr. Nicholls died on the 22nd of November, 1809, aged 68, and was buried at Richmond church, in Surrey. The vicinity of Blundeston House, while tenanted by Dr. Saunders, was some years since the scene of an unfortunate accident, which deprived that gentleman of life. Being in the act of reloading his double-barrelled gun, a favourite dog fawning upon him, sprung the trigger of the second barrel, and discharged the contents into his master's body. Dr. Saunders's melancholy fate is recorded in the 'Suffolk Chronicle' of October the 15th, 1814.
¶The lake, or Blundeston Great Water, as it is called in ancient writings, was the subject of a dispute in the reign of James I., very similar to that recorded at Ashby, as we learn from the following "exemplification of interrogatories to be administered on the part and behalf of John Ufflet, Gent., Henry Winston, Henry Doughtie, and Anne his wife, Thomas Stares, and Anthony Thornwood, complainants, against William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., deforcients; and of depositions taken at Lowestoft, on the 15th of March, in the seventh of James I., before Anthony Shardelow, William Southwell, William Cuddon, and Benedict Campe, Gents., by virtue of His Majesty's commission out of the Court of Chancery, to them directed. Richard Burman deposed, inter alia, that he knew the great water in Blundeston, called the common fenne, or common water, and the piece of ground called Hempwater green, containing about three acres; that the said water contained about sixteen or seventeen acres. That the messuage wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was sometimes of Maister Yarmouth. That the water and green had always been reputed as common. That the inhabitants fished in the water; wetted their hemp therein, and dried it on the green, and fed their cattle thereon. William Pynne deposed, inter alia, that he did not know that the said William Sydnor or Humphrey Yarmouth had any manor in the said towne; nor that there were more manors therein than the manor of Mr. Jettor, called Gunvilles. Robert Jettor deposed that the water is called the common water of Blundeston in a court-roll of the manor of Blundeston Gonville, dated the thirty-first of Henry VIII., and that he did not know that Mr. Yarmouth, or the defendants, had any manor in Blundeston, or that there was any other manor therein than his, called Blundeston Gonvilles. John Wood deposed, inter alia, that the said William Sydnor had obtained the leases from divers owners of sundry messuages or dwelling-houses in Blundeston, of their interests of their fishing in the said great water about twenty years sithence, and that he had before that sued some of the inhabitants of the said towne for having fished therein. That he and another, then churchwardens of Blundeston, did sell the alders growing in or near the said water, and did convert the money to the reparations of the town-house, and that other inhabitants did take poles, splints, and other wood growing there, &c. That he had heard that Mr. Yarmouth did keep courts in Blundeston, and had tenants therein, and that this deponent did hold of Mr. Sydnor, who had Mr. Yarmouth's estate, three acres of land, &c., and that Mr. Jettor had a manor in Blundeston, &c. Interrogatories to be administered to the witnesses to be produced on the part and behalf of William Sydnor, Esq., and Henry Sydnor, Gent., complainants, against Henry Winston, &c., deforcients. Inter alia. Do you know that Humphrey Yarmouth, Esq., deceased, was seized of the manor of Blundeston in Blundeston, and of land covered with water, containing forty acres, and which, on his death, descended to Henry Yarmouth, his son, also dead; who sold the same to William Sydnor; and that they severally held courts-baron, &c. And whether Humphrey Yarmouth, and Henry Yarmouth, his son, and William Sydnor afterwards, did not present to the living on the death or resignation of the incumbents. If the house wherein Henry Sydnor then dwelt was not called Blundeston Hall in court-rolls and writings. Whether, in the twenty-eighth of Elizabeth, in a controversy between the said William Sydnor, lord of Blundeston, and owner of the water, with the inhabitants as to the same being common or not, the dispute was not referred to Sir Edward Coke, then Attorney-General, and afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and to Richard Godfrey, Esq. Whether in the thirty-first of Elizabeth there was not a similar dispute, and that it was amicably settled by the said Henry Winston and certain others of the inhabitants agreeing to release their rights of fishing in the water, and that they should have in lieu thereof, a certain driftway thereto from the highway, near the mansion of the said William Sydnor, and a certain piece of land at the end of the said water, containing three acres, for their use, and the feed thereof; and to wet hemp in the water, and dry the same on the said three acres of land, and might dig the soil and carry it away therefrom, and also from Mill Hill, in Belton Heath, and the timber, &c., growing on the said way for repairing the town-house; and whether the said agreement was not carried into execution; and if complainants did not for twelve years quietly enjoy the water, &c., after the execution of the releases. And whether, before the agreement, the inhabitants had a right to take the land, gravel, &c.; and if complainant did not clear the water, and make a bank, &c., for the fowl to breed, &c."
he Church at Blundeston,
which is a rectory dedicated to St. Mary, and now consolidated with the adjoining benefice of Flixton, is valued in the King's books at £13. 6s. 8d. It is a singular edifice, comprising a nave and chancel, with a remarkably high-pitched roof, covered with thatch. The tower, which is circular and small in diameter, rises but little above the ridge of the nave, and looks more like a chimney than a steeple. It exhibits decided marks of Norman erection, and was probably attached to an earlier edifice than the present church, which, apparently incorporating the north wall of the ancient nave, seems raised on a wider ground-plan, thereby bringing the apex of the western gable to the southward of the tower, and producing a very inharmonious effect. The masonry of both nave and chancel is composed of large squared flints, but the walls of the latter bulge outwards in a threatening angle, and foretell a speedy dissolution. The interior is lofty and effective, and very neatly kept; and a carved oaken screen beneath the chancel arch is well deserving of observation. The lower compartments of this screen were in olden days richly painted and gilt, as the accidental discovery of one portion, by the removal of some boards, fortunately evinces. This splendid example of ancient art forms an illustration to the present work, and has been engraved from the faithful pencil of the late Miss Dowson, of Yarmouth. St. Peter pointing to the keys of Heaven and Hell, and an angel with uplifted hands assuring us of our salvation through the passion of Christ, occupy the two compartments of a pointed arch, richly backed by a crimson ground, diapered with gold. There is a stiffness in the attitude of each figure, and a harshness of outline visible here, as in the works of more celebrated artists, even at a later period; but these paintings are, nevertheless, extremely interesting, as illustrating the success of art in England in the fifteenth century. There is a small piscina in the chancel, and some oaken benches in the body of the church of excellent workmanship, and an ancient benetura near the south door. In the tower hang two bells, one of which was brought from the ruinated church of the adjoining village of Flixton. The body of the church, which presents a far less fearful aspect than the chancel, has lately undergone considerable renovation, and is indebted to the zeal of Mr. Steward for the preservation of many of its ancient features.
Reginald Wynstone, by his last will, dated the 14th of April, 1438, leaves his body to be buried within the church of Blundeston, and constitutes William Wynstone and John Wynstone, his sons, his executors. In the Lansdowne MSS. (fn. 13) is a note, taken apparently about the year 1573, of several armorial cognizances which then ornamented the windows of this building. "In the chancel windows. Arg. a lion sable. FitzOsbert and Jerningham. Quarterly, arg. and b. quarterly indented, a bend gules. Arg. a cross engrailed gules. Bloundeville, or and b. quarterly, indented, a bend gules, sided with Gurney. Gules, 3 gemelles or, a canton ermine, billetted sable. Sable a cross sarsele or, betwixt four scallops arg. Sable, a chevron arg. between 3 cinquefoils or."—"In the church, gul. a lion argent. Arg. 3 buckles lozengy gules, Jernegan. Gu. and b. pale, on a fess wavy arg., 3 crescents sab. betwixt three crosses pale or. Blundeville and Inglos. Erm. on a chevron sab., 3 crescents or, syded with Nownton. Sir Ed. Jenney, erm. a bend gul. cotised or, quartering sab. a chevr. twyxt 3 buckles argent. Or and g. barre unde. Castell, gu., 3 castells arg. Sab. a chev. gules, droppe or, twixt 3 cinquefoils pserd ermine. Or and b. checke. Paston, Bolaine, Nawton, and Barney, Nawton and Howard. Or 3 chev. gu., on each 3 ermines arg. sided with Nawton. Sampson syded with Felbrig. Felbrig, on his shoulder a mullet arg. Bedingfeld quartering Tuddenham, and one of Knevett single."
Monuments.—There is an old floor-stone with a cross, but no other ancient memorials, in this church. Among the more modern are the following:
Robertus Snelling, Rector, obt. Sep. 12, 1690, æt. 65. Hic jacet Butts Bacon, Baronettus, Nicholai Bacon, Angliæ Baronetti primi filius septimus, qui obiit Maij 29, 1661. Dorothea Bacon, his widow, obt. Sep. 4, 1679. Arms. Bacon.
Elizabeth, daughter of John Burkin, of Burlingham, died Jan. 26, 1735. She was first married to the Rev. Mr. Gregory Clarke, and after his decease to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Carter.
¶Samuel Luson, died July 7, 1766, aged 33. Luson bears, quarterly, 1st and 4th, az. and gul., 3 sinister hands arg., 2nd and 3rd, erm., 3 roses. . . . Sarah Keziah Thurtell, died May 29th, 1833, aged 18 years. William Wales, died June 8, 1710, aged 63. Gregory Clarke, Christi minister, died 3 Ides of Jan. 1726, aged 45. William Sydnor, Esq., died 1613. Robert Brown, died Sep. 6, 1813, aged 52 years. Mary, his daughter, Aug. 18, 1812, aged 22 years. Sarah, wife of John Clark, widow of the above Robert Brown, died Nov. 16, 1818, aged 59. Elizabeth, second wife of James Thurtell, of Flixton, died June 15, 1823, aged 75 years. Elizabeth, wife of John Clark, died Jan. 28, 1801, aged 28 years. John Clark, died Oct. 7, 1826, aged 57 years. Stephen Saunders, M. D., born 17th Oct. 1777, died 1st Oct. 1814. Timothy Steward, of Great Yarmouth, died 25th of June, 1836. Mary, his wife, daughter of John Fowler, and Ann, his wife, died 22 Jan. 1837. Arms. Steward, quarterly, 1st and 4th. Or, a fess chequee arg. and az.; 2nd and 3rd, arg., a lion ramp. gules, debruised with a bendlet raguly or, impales Fowler, az. on a fess between 3 lions pass. guard, or, as many crosses patonce sable.
The registers of Blundeston commence in 1558. They contain several notices of monies collected by Brief in aid of sufferers by fire in distant parts of England. Among others, "To a loss by fire at ye head of ye Cannon-gate at Edinburgh, in North Britain, Jan. 13, 1708/9, 1s. 6d." The advowson of Blundeston with Flixton was sold in 1844, by Lord Sydney Osborne, to Thomas Morse, Esq., of Blundeston.
www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/suffolk-history-antiq...
I have just adjusted my stockings so both stocking tops should be perfectly aligned now. I can't really see that well from above though, so maybe you can be so kind as to confirm whether my stockings are looking okay or not. Feel free to do little adjustments as needed; after all I want my stockings to be perfect on my legs.
Kyrgyz authorities "surprised" the 10.000 demonstrators calling for a effective actions against criminality in central Bishkek by aligning female police officers with flowers along the demonstrations main route.
GOVERNOR TOMBLIN DELIVERS
FAREWELL ADDRESS TO STATE LEGISLATURE
CHARLESTON, W.VA. (January 11, 2017)-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today
delivered his farewell address to the West Virginia Legislature in the House Chamber at the State Capitol Complex after serving six years as governor and a total of 42 years in public service in the Mountain State.
Information on Gov. Tomblin's accomplishments during his six-year
administration can be found here.
See below for the speech as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the Board of Public Works, justices of
the Supreme Court of Appeals, members of the Legislature, distinguished guests, and my fellow West Virginians, I stand before you today, after six years in the Governor's office and 42 years in this grand statehouse, with a deep sense of gratitude and reflection and an equally profound hope for West Virginia's future.
Public service has anchored my life's work-from a young 22-year-old in this very House chamber, to a desk across the hall in the State Senate, the Senate President's podium for 17 years and now as your 35th Governor.
It has been the greatest honor-and the greatest reward-to serve the people of this state that we all love. Together, we have put West Virginia first and moved our state forward-even in the midst of tough times, including far-reaching economic shifts, budgetary challenges and historic natural disasters.
West Virginians are strongest in the toughest times. We come together. We lift each other up. And we don't just hope for a better future; we fight for it.
ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION & JOB CREATION
Working hard is exactly what we've done over the past six years to create new economic opportunities for the Mountain State.
We have all seen the dramatic impact of the coal industry's decline in our state. We've seen thousands of jobs lost. Families and communities struggling. People beginning to lose hope.
But I believe in-and have fought to reach-the light around the corner.
Shortly after becoming Governor, I pledged to go anywhere and meet with anyone to grow our state's economy. Across West Virginia, the country and the globe, we have succeeded.
Last year, global giant Procter & Gamble announced it would build its first U.S. manufacturing facility since the 1970s right here in West Virginia in the Eastern Panhandle. This will ultimately be a half-billion dollar investment in the Mountain State and result in hundreds of new jobs.
P&G chose our state after an exhaustive search of many others. And as numerous companies have discovered, I know they will find it to be the best decision they've ever made.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, has expanded continuously-nine times, in fact.
Today, Toyota employs more than 1,600 people. And the company has invested $1.4 billion since 1996.
Manufacturing jobs, like those at P&G in Martinsburg and Toyota in Buffalo, will be among the most critical to our state's economic future.
In my time as your Governor, I have fought for jobs like these and many more. From Amazon in Huntington and Macy's in Berkeley County, to Bombardier Aerospace manufacturing in Harrison County-which just in November announced an expansion of 150 jobs.
Companies are finding that when they invest in West Virginia, it pays off.
In fact, since 2011, West Virginia has seen more than $15 billion in new investments, spanning 275 projects. We have welcomed more than 60 new companies and secured 215 competitive expansion projects.
Over the past six years, investment projects have reached 22 industries and provided West Virginians with more than 12,000 good-paying jobs.
Right here in the Kanawha Valley, we have one of the best examples of that remarkable progress.
Gestamp has grown beyond the bounds of any of our expectations. Since opening in 2013, Gestamp has tripled production and more than doubled its workforce, now employing nearly 900 West Virginians.
I know that one of the fundamental reasons behind their growth has been our ability to transform workforce training in West Virginia for the better.
STRENGTHENING WORKFORCE TRAINING & EDUCATION
For example, the Learn and Earn program which we launched in 2012, gives our community and technical college students classroom instruction and hands-on work experience simultaneously. These students earn a competitive salary while giving employers a cost-effective way to recruit and train new employees.
Joe Atha is one of these students. A former coal miner, Joe is now a student at BridgeValley Community and Technical College where he is also supporting his family by earning a wage through the Learn and Earn program at Gestamp.
Joe is here today with his wife, Rita. Please stand to be recognized... along with Dr. Sarah Tucker, Chancellor of our Community and Technical College System.
Through forward-thinking programs like this, we can make a real, lasting difference for West Virginians.
That's why I personally convened the West Virginia Workforce Planning Council, which has helped us break down bureaucratic silos and better align classroom learning with the workforce needs of our businesses and industries.
We've even started that process in high schools through the Simulated Workplace program.
Today, our career technical education classrooms have been transformed into businesses. Medical classes are now clinics. Hospitality programs are now catering businesses and restaurants.
And instead of just going to a welding or carpentry class, our students are now part of a construction company, complete with job foremen and safety inspectors.
Just last month, we celebrated a heartwarming moment as a result of the hard work of more than 2,000 of these students from 12 high schools across the state.
Together with the Department of Education's Career Technical Education division, the West Virginia National Guard and our Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, we presented keys to tiny homes that were designed and built by these students for survivors of the historic floods that hit our state last June.
REBUILDING FROM NATURAL DISASTERS
Time and again, in the aftermath of this tragic flooding we have seen the selflessness of West Virginians make a difference for one another.
The "Big Hearts Give Tiny Homes" project was a shining example of that West Virginia spirit-one that made an overwhelming difference for 15 families impacted by the flooding, including Brenda Rivers from Nicholas County, whose home was a total loss in the flooding. Brenda now lives in a new tiny home built by students, including Chance Ballard from Spring Valley High School in Wayne County.
Please join me in welcoming Brenda and Chance ... along with Dr. Kathy D'Antoni ... whose visionary leadership at the Department of Education has made Simulated Workplace the success it is today.
Working hand-in-hand with the federal government and local officials, our immediate response to the flooding was quick and effective. We were able to expedite federal assistance to our communities and families in need. And over the past seven months, we have been able to shift our focus to long-term recovery.
Through a public-private approach, we launched the RISE West Virginia program, which in total has provided nearly $2 million to 230 small businesses in the flood-impacted counties-funding that is helping them reopen or continue operations and keep fueling our local economies.
I would like to thank, once again, West Virginia native and champion Brad Smith-the CEO of Intuit, one of the world's leading financial software companies-and his wife Alys for their family donation of $500,000, which gave the RISE program its first, needed boost.
West Virginia has experienced more than its share of disasters during my time as your Governor-this historic flooding, the Derecho, Hurricane Sandy, Winter Storms Thor and Jonas and the water crisis.
Through it all, we have grown stronger, we have improved our emergency response capabilities and we have strengthened public safety.
Adversity demands resilience. That's what we have shown in these challenges and many more-including one of the most trying epidemics I believe the Mountain State has ever faced-with the sharp rise in substance abuse and addiction.
FIGHTING SUBSTANCE ABUSE
That's why in 2011, I issued an Executive Order to create the Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse, made up of representatives of substance abuse prevention, behavioral medicine, law enforcement, child and adolescent psychology, the legal system, residential treatment facilities, the public school system, the faith community and health care.
My vision for this Council was a community-driven, ground-up approach to tackling this epidemic. Through community-based task forces in six regions across the state, we have made significant progress and enacted life-saving reforms.
We now look at substance abuse as an illness-not a crime.
We have decreased the number of meth labs across the state as the result of making it more difficult to obtain pseudoephedrine.
We have expanded access to the life-saving drug Narcan to first responders and family members of those struggling with addiction. Last year alone, hundreds of lives were saved as a result.
We have substance abuse prevention services in all 55 counties. We have expanded and improved community-based treatment options and recovery services. Across the state, we have 188 crisis detox beds in residential treatment facilities with more sites under development.
We have 118 beds designated for youth and postpartum treatment as well as short-term and long-term residential treatment. And we have over 1,000 beds for those seeking help and support through peer and provider recovery homes and facilities.
We are working closely with our prisons and correctional facilities to ensure all West Virginians are provided access to substance abuse rehabilitation.
In fact, the Division of Corrections operates nine residential substance abuse treatment units in correctional centers across the state and we have expanded this model to our regional jail facilities as well.
And-through Justice Reinvestment-we have successfully worked to address substance abuse, which is the root cause of many crimes.
Because of that work, we have expanded drug courts, substance abuse counseling and greater supervision after release.
And ultimately, we have better controlled incarceration rates, which prevented our state from having to build a new $200 million prison that was projected to be needed because of our previous rising prison population.
Just this week, we announced the news that West Virginia reached settlements with two additional drug wholesalers totaling $36 million, which resolves allegations by our state regarding the distribution of controlled substances in West Virginia.
This brings the total amount of drug settlement money paid to our state by drug wholesalers to $47 million, which will expand our efforts even further for more law enforcement diversion options, more treatment recovery services and many more efforts to fight this epidemic.
I am also deeply proud of the work we have done in creating the state's first 24-hour substance abuse call line, 844-HELP-4-WV, which has received nearly 8,500 calls since it launched in September 2015.
The help line provides referral support for those seeking help and recovery services. It's an opportunity for people who are struggling to talk with someone who cares, get connected to treatment options and begin the road to recovery.
No caller is ever placed on hold and they are immediately connected with treatment staff representing the best and most appropriate treatment options for them.
Administered by First Choice Health Systems of West Virginia, the help line is staffed by certified professionals, many who have overcome addiction themselves and want to help others turn their lives around as well.
One young gentleman I met did just that because he picked up the phone.
A.J. Walker, a recovering alcoholic and addict, was given the help line number by his brother.
A.J. said when he called, he was treated like a person-not like a drug addict-and he found hope. They got him into a detox facility and into recovery, and the help line staff called and checked in on him every step of the way.
Today, A.J. is employed by the treatment facility that helped him and he's in school studying to become a substance abuse counselor.
A.J. is here today with his brother, Andrew, and Vickie Jones ... Commissioner of our Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.
A.J. we are so proud of you. And today ... you are giving hope to so many.
When I hear stories like A.J.'s, I am incredibly optimistic for West Virginia's future. With economic changes, job losses and families struggling, we have to seize every opportunity before us to become stronger as individuals and as a state.
One such opportunity lies in Boone and Lincoln Counties, where I believe we have the chance to revitalize Southern West Virginia and make the Mountain State stronger.
EMBRACING THE FUTURE
It was here in this chamber, one year ago during my State of the State Address, where I announced plans for the largest development project in West Virginia's history at the former Hobet surface mine site.
Since last year at this time, we have worked every day and we have made tremendous progress on this project, which is now known as Rock Creek Development Park.
We have worked with local landowners, who are generously donating land that will result in more than 12,000 developable acres for Rock Creek, which is the size of the city of Huntington.
The West Virginia National Guard-Rock Creek's first tenant-is on the ground with newly-expanded operations for maintenance work and training.
And we have a long-term strategic plan now in place, which looks at demographics and market trends to help us identify the best investment opportunities for Rock Creek.
For generations, our coal miners, workers and their families have kept West Virginia strong. Now, it's our turn to help them.
By realizing the full potential of Rock Creek Development Park for job creation and economic diversification, we can build up a region of our state hard hit by the downturn in the coal industry.
My vision for Rock Creek started many years ago as I rode my four-wheeler around the hills of Southern West Virginia and saw the possibilities that such an enormous site-with such a great amount of flat land-could have.
Embracing opportunities like this takes careful thought and planning, and this public-private project will require some investment by the state. But I believe wholeheartedly that the returns will vastly exceed our investment.
That isn't something I say lightly.
Throughout my 42 years in public service, fiscal responsibility has been at the heart of every project I've undertaken, every policy I've fought for and every decision I've made.
GOVERNING RESPONSIBLY
As a result of much hard work, over the years we have decreased taxes, embraced responsible spending, made great progress toward paying off the state's unfunded liabilities and controlled growth of the state's budget.
We have realized milestone tax reforms, including progressive elimination of the food tax, saving West Virginians $162 million each year.
We have gradually eliminated the state's business franchise tax and decreased the corporate net income tax-changes that make West Virginia more attractive for business investments.
As a result of responsible reforms, last year the National Council on Compensation Insurance filed the 12th reduction in workers' compensation premiums in 12 years. And West Virginia employers have seen a savings of more than $352 million since we privatized the program in 2006.
We addressed our Other Post Employment Benefits by dedicating $30 million annually to pay off the $5 billion unfunded liability, which was caused by previous promises that became too expensive to maintain.
As I did last year, I present to you today a budget that is balanced, but a budget that requires difficult decisions and thinking about the next generation rather than the next election.
I continue to be proud of the fiscal responsibility we have shown not just for the past six years, but over the last generation. Our commitment to paying down our long-term liabilities has not wavered and we have responsibly reduced taxes on both our employers and our employees.
Because of our improved fiscal policies, we have been able to refinance bonds that pay for schools, water and sewer lines, college campus improvements and roads to save more than $100 million in the past six years.
So when people ask me why I'm so concerned with maintaining our Rainy Day Fund and our bond rating, that's why. It means more schools, more roads and more homes with clean water.
As part of tough decisions during tough economic times, we have cut more than $600 million from our budget in the past five years. While we all continue to hope that the coal industry will rebound, that hasn't happened quickly and it likely won't ever return to the levels that we once saw.
We continue to work to diversify our economy and I know the improvements we've made will pay long-term dividends in job growth and investment.
But we're not there yet, and part of being fiscally responsible means making sure that we can pay our bills without taking the Rainy Day Fund to dangerously low levels or cutting services to the point where we cannot care for our people or educate our students.
Therefore, the budget I present to you today includes a 1 percent increase in the consumer sales tax to raise $200 million and elimination of the current sales tax exemption on telecommunications services-a move that would make our system the same as 80 percent of the country.
I understand these taxes will not be easy, but asking people to pay a few dollars more now is a far better choice than seeing PEIA cards not accepted by medical providers or going back to the days when we couldn't finance school and road improvements, or even pay the gas bill at the Governor's Mansion.
I urge you to consider these responsible actions to balance the budget until the brighter economic picture that we all expect comes into focus.
CLOSING
I believe the thing that compelled each of us to public service is our love for West Virginia. And that is the very thing that should compel us to work together.
When I became your Governor, I said that we must put West Virginia first.
That's what we have done. And I encourage you to continue working together out of that deep devotion to our beloved state-in the coming year and beyond.
I am proud of the work that we have accomplished. I look forward to the leadership of Governor-elect Jim Justice and I thank all of you who have worked with me over the years.
I thank my cabinet members and agency directors. And I thank my dedicated staff members who have worked every day-not for me, but for the people of West Virginia.
It has been the honor of my life to be your Governor-to be West Virginia's Governor. Joanne and I thank the people of West Virginia for your abiding trust, counsel and support.
And we look forward-with the greatest hope and optimism-to an even stronger West Virginia.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the great state of West Virginia.
###
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
GOVERNOR TOMBLIN DELIVERS
FAREWELL ADDRESS TO STATE LEGISLATURE
CHARLESTON, W.VA. (January 11, 2017)-Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today
delivered his farewell address to the West Virginia Legislature in the House Chamber at the State Capitol Complex after serving six years as governor and a total of 42 years in public service in the Mountain State.
Information on Gov. Tomblin's accomplishments during his six-year
administration can be found here.
See below for the speech as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the Board of Public Works, justices of
the Supreme Court of Appeals, members of the Legislature, distinguished guests, and my fellow West Virginians, I stand before you today, after six years in the Governor's office and 42 years in this grand statehouse, with a deep sense of gratitude and reflection and an equally profound hope for West Virginia's future.
Public service has anchored my life's work-from a young 22-year-old in this very House chamber, to a desk across the hall in the State Senate, the Senate President's podium for 17 years and now as your 35th Governor.
It has been the greatest honor-and the greatest reward-to serve the people of this state that we all love. Together, we have put West Virginia first and moved our state forward-even in the midst of tough times, including far-reaching economic shifts, budgetary challenges and historic natural disasters.
West Virginians are strongest in the toughest times. We come together. We lift each other up. And we don't just hope for a better future; we fight for it.
ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION & JOB CREATION
Working hard is exactly what we've done over the past six years to create new economic opportunities for the Mountain State.
We have all seen the dramatic impact of the coal industry's decline in our state. We've seen thousands of jobs lost. Families and communities struggling. People beginning to lose hope.
But I believe in-and have fought to reach-the light around the corner.
Shortly after becoming Governor, I pledged to go anywhere and meet with anyone to grow our state's economy. Across West Virginia, the country and the globe, we have succeeded.
Last year, global giant Procter & Gamble announced it would build its first U.S. manufacturing facility since the 1970s right here in West Virginia in the Eastern Panhandle. This will ultimately be a half-billion dollar investment in the Mountain State and result in hundreds of new jobs.
P&G chose our state after an exhaustive search of many others. And as numerous companies have discovered, I know they will find it to be the best decision they've ever made.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, has expanded continuously-nine times, in fact.
Today, Toyota employs more than 1,600 people. And the company has invested $1.4 billion since 1996.
Manufacturing jobs, like those at P&G in Martinsburg and Toyota in Buffalo, will be among the most critical to our state's economic future.
In my time as your Governor, I have fought for jobs like these and many more. From Amazon in Huntington and Macy's in Berkeley County, to Bombardier Aerospace manufacturing in Harrison County-which just in November announced an expansion of 150 jobs.
Companies are finding that when they invest in West Virginia, it pays off.
In fact, since 2011, West Virginia has seen more than $15 billion in new investments, spanning 275 projects. We have welcomed more than 60 new companies and secured 215 competitive expansion projects.
Over the past six years, investment projects have reached 22 industries and provided West Virginians with more than 12,000 good-paying jobs.
Right here in the Kanawha Valley, we have one of the best examples of that remarkable progress.
Gestamp has grown beyond the bounds of any of our expectations. Since opening in 2013, Gestamp has tripled production and more than doubled its workforce, now employing nearly 900 West Virginians.
I know that one of the fundamental reasons behind their growth has been our ability to transform workforce training in West Virginia for the better.
STRENGTHENING WORKFORCE TRAINING & EDUCATION
For example, the Learn and Earn program which we launched in 2012, gives our community and technical college students classroom instruction and hands-on work experience simultaneously. These students earn a competitive salary while giving employers a cost-effective way to recruit and train new employees.
Joe Atha is one of these students. A former coal miner, Joe is now a student at BridgeValley Community and Technical College where he is also supporting his family by earning a wage through the Learn and Earn program at Gestamp.
Joe is here today with his wife, Rita. Please stand to be recognized... along with Dr. Sarah Tucker, Chancellor of our Community and Technical College System.
Through forward-thinking programs like this, we can make a real, lasting difference for West Virginians.
That's why I personally convened the West Virginia Workforce Planning Council, which has helped us break down bureaucratic silos and better align classroom learning with the workforce needs of our businesses and industries.
We've even started that process in high schools through the Simulated Workplace program.
Today, our career technical education classrooms have been transformed into businesses. Medical classes are now clinics. Hospitality programs are now catering businesses and restaurants.
And instead of just going to a welding or carpentry class, our students are now part of a construction company, complete with job foremen and safety inspectors.
Just last month, we celebrated a heartwarming moment as a result of the hard work of more than 2,000 of these students from 12 high schools across the state.
Together with the Department of Education's Career Technical Education division, the West Virginia National Guard and our Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, we presented keys to tiny homes that were designed and built by these students for survivors of the historic floods that hit our state last June.
REBUILDING FROM NATURAL DISASTERS
Time and again, in the aftermath of this tragic flooding we have seen the selflessness of West Virginians make a difference for one another.
The "Big Hearts Give Tiny Homes" project was a shining example of that West Virginia spirit-one that made an overwhelming difference for 15 families impacted by the flooding, including Brenda Rivers from Nicholas County, whose home was a total loss in the flooding. Brenda now lives in a new tiny home built by students, including Chance Ballard from Spring Valley High School in Wayne County.
Please join me in welcoming Brenda and Chance ... along with Dr. Kathy D'Antoni ... whose visionary leadership at the Department of Education has made Simulated Workplace the success it is today.
Working hand-in-hand with the federal government and local officials, our immediate response to the flooding was quick and effective. We were able to expedite federal assistance to our communities and families in need. And over the past seven months, we have been able to shift our focus to long-term recovery.
Through a public-private approach, we launched the RISE West Virginia program, which in total has provided nearly $2 million to 230 small businesses in the flood-impacted counties-funding that is helping them reopen or continue operations and keep fueling our local economies.
I would like to thank, once again, West Virginia native and champion Brad Smith-the CEO of Intuit, one of the world's leading financial software companies-and his wife Alys for their family donation of $500,000, which gave the RISE program its first, needed boost.
West Virginia has experienced more than its share of disasters during my time as your Governor-this historic flooding, the Derecho, Hurricane Sandy, Winter Storms Thor and Jonas and the water crisis.
Through it all, we have grown stronger, we have improved our emergency response capabilities and we have strengthened public safety.
Adversity demands resilience. That's what we have shown in these challenges and many more-including one of the most trying epidemics I believe the Mountain State has ever faced-with the sharp rise in substance abuse and addiction.
FIGHTING SUBSTANCE ABUSE
That's why in 2011, I issued an Executive Order to create the Governor's Advisory Council on Substance Abuse, made up of representatives of substance abuse prevention, behavioral medicine, law enforcement, child and adolescent psychology, the legal system, residential treatment facilities, the public school system, the faith community and health care.
My vision for this Council was a community-driven, ground-up approach to tackling this epidemic. Through community-based task forces in six regions across the state, we have made significant progress and enacted life-saving reforms.
We now look at substance abuse as an illness-not a crime.
We have decreased the number of meth labs across the state as the result of making it more difficult to obtain pseudoephedrine.
We have expanded access to the life-saving drug Narcan to first responders and family members of those struggling with addiction. Last year alone, hundreds of lives were saved as a result.
We have substance abuse prevention services in all 55 counties. We have expanded and improved community-based treatment options and recovery services. Across the state, we have 188 crisis detox beds in residential treatment facilities with more sites under development.
We have 118 beds designated for youth and postpartum treatment as well as short-term and long-term residential treatment. And we have over 1,000 beds for those seeking help and support through peer and provider recovery homes and facilities.
We are working closely with our prisons and correctional facilities to ensure all West Virginians are provided access to substance abuse rehabilitation.
In fact, the Division of Corrections operates nine residential substance abuse treatment units in correctional centers across the state and we have expanded this model to our regional jail facilities as well.
And-through Justice Reinvestment-we have successfully worked to address substance abuse, which is the root cause of many crimes.
Because of that work, we have expanded drug courts, substance abuse counseling and greater supervision after release.
And ultimately, we have better controlled incarceration rates, which prevented our state from having to build a new $200 million prison that was projected to be needed because of our previous rising prison population.
Just this week, we announced the news that West Virginia reached settlements with two additional drug wholesalers totaling $36 million, which resolves allegations by our state regarding the distribution of controlled substances in West Virginia.
This brings the total amount of drug settlement money paid to our state by drug wholesalers to $47 million, which will expand our efforts even further for more law enforcement diversion options, more treatment recovery services and many more efforts to fight this epidemic.
I am also deeply proud of the work we have done in creating the state's first 24-hour substance abuse call line, 844-HELP-4-WV, which has received nearly 8,500 calls since it launched in September 2015.
The help line provides referral support for those seeking help and recovery services. It's an opportunity for people who are struggling to talk with someone who cares, get connected to treatment options and begin the road to recovery.
No caller is ever placed on hold and they are immediately connected with treatment staff representing the best and most appropriate treatment options for them.
Administered by First Choice Health Systems of West Virginia, the help line is staffed by certified professionals, many who have overcome addiction themselves and want to help others turn their lives around as well.
One young gentleman I met did just that because he picked up the phone.
A.J. Walker, a recovering alcoholic and addict, was given the help line number by his brother.
A.J. said when he called, he was treated like a person-not like a drug addict-and he found hope. They got him into a detox facility and into recovery, and the help line staff called and checked in on him every step of the way.
Today, A.J. is employed by the treatment facility that helped him and he's in school studying to become a substance abuse counselor.
A.J. is here today with his brother, Andrew, and Vickie Jones ... Commissioner of our Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.
A.J. we are so proud of you. And today ... you are giving hope to so many.
When I hear stories like A.J.'s, I am incredibly optimistic for West Virginia's future. With economic changes, job losses and families struggling, we have to seize every opportunity before us to become stronger as individuals and as a state.
One such opportunity lies in Boone and Lincoln Counties, where I believe we have the chance to revitalize Southern West Virginia and make the Mountain State stronger.
EMBRACING THE FUTURE
It was here in this chamber, one year ago during my State of the State Address, where I announced plans for the largest development project in West Virginia's history at the former Hobet surface mine site.
Since last year at this time, we have worked every day and we have made tremendous progress on this project, which is now known as Rock Creek Development Park.
We have worked with local landowners, who are generously donating land that will result in more than 12,000 developable acres for Rock Creek, which is the size of the city of Huntington.
The West Virginia National Guard-Rock Creek's first tenant-is on the ground with newly-expanded operations for maintenance work and training.
And we have a long-term strategic plan now in place, which looks at demographics and market trends to help us identify the best investment opportunities for Rock Creek.
For generations, our coal miners, workers and their families have kept West Virginia strong. Now, it's our turn to help them.
By realizing the full potential of Rock Creek Development Park for job creation and economic diversification, we can build up a region of our state hard hit by the downturn in the coal industry.
My vision for Rock Creek started many years ago as I rode my four-wheeler around the hills of Southern West Virginia and saw the possibilities that such an enormous site-with such a great amount of flat land-could have.
Embracing opportunities like this takes careful thought and planning, and this public-private project will require some investment by the state. But I believe wholeheartedly that the returns will vastly exceed our investment.
That isn't something I say lightly.
Throughout my 42 years in public service, fiscal responsibility has been at the heart of every project I've undertaken, every policy I've fought for and every decision I've made.
GOVERNING RESPONSIBLY
As a result of much hard work, over the years we have decreased taxes, embraced responsible spending, made great progress toward paying off the state's unfunded liabilities and controlled growth of the state's budget.
We have realized milestone tax reforms, including progressive elimination of the food tax, saving West Virginians $162 million each year.
We have gradually eliminated the state's business franchise tax and decreased the corporate net income tax-changes that make West Virginia more attractive for business investments.
As a result of responsible reforms, last year the National Council on Compensation Insurance filed the 12th reduction in workers' compensation premiums in 12 years. And West Virginia employers have seen a savings of more than $352 million since we privatized the program in 2006.
We addressed our Other Post Employment Benefits by dedicating $30 million annually to pay off the $5 billion unfunded liability, which was caused by previous promises that became too expensive to maintain.
As I did last year, I present to you today a budget that is balanced, but a budget that requires difficult decisions and thinking about the next generation rather than the next election.
I continue to be proud of the fiscal responsibility we have shown not just for the past six years, but over the last generation. Our commitment to paying down our long-term liabilities has not wavered and we have responsibly reduced taxes on both our employers and our employees.
Because of our improved fiscal policies, we have been able to refinance bonds that pay for schools, water and sewer lines, college campus improvements and roads to save more than $100 million in the past six years.
So when people ask me why I'm so concerned with maintaining our Rainy Day Fund and our bond rating, that's why. It means more schools, more roads and more homes with clean water.
As part of tough decisions during tough economic times, we have cut more than $600 million from our budget in the past five years. While we all continue to hope that the coal industry will rebound, that hasn't happened quickly and it likely won't ever return to the levels that we once saw.
We continue to work to diversify our economy and I know the improvements we've made will pay long-term dividends in job growth and investment.
But we're not there yet, and part of being fiscally responsible means making sure that we can pay our bills without taking the Rainy Day Fund to dangerously low levels or cutting services to the point where we cannot care for our people or educate our students.
Therefore, the budget I present to you today includes a 1 percent increase in the consumer sales tax to raise $200 million and elimination of the current sales tax exemption on telecommunications services-a move that would make our system the same as 80 percent of the country.
I understand these taxes will not be easy, but asking people to pay a few dollars more now is a far better choice than seeing PEIA cards not accepted by medical providers or going back to the days when we couldn't finance school and road improvements, or even pay the gas bill at the Governor's Mansion.
I urge you to consider these responsible actions to balance the budget until the brighter economic picture that we all expect comes into focus.
CLOSING
I believe the thing that compelled each of us to public service is our love for West Virginia. And that is the very thing that should compel us to work together.
When I became your Governor, I said that we must put West Virginia first.
That's what we have done. And I encourage you to continue working together out of that deep devotion to our beloved state-in the coming year and beyond.
I am proud of the work that we have accomplished. I look forward to the leadership of Governor-elect Jim Justice and I thank all of you who have worked with me over the years.
I thank my cabinet members and agency directors. And I thank my dedicated staff members who have worked every day-not for me, but for the people of West Virginia.
It has been the honor of my life to be your Governor-to be West Virginia's Governor. Joanne and I thank the people of West Virginia for your abiding trust, counsel and support.
And we look forward-with the greatest hope and optimism-to an even stronger West Virginia.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the great state of West Virginia.
###
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
What craziness is this, a day in that London on a weekday? Well, working one day last weekend, and another next weekend, meant I took a day in Lieu.
So there.
And top of my list of places to visit was St Magnus. This would be the fifth time I have tried to get inside, and the first since I wrote to the church asking whether they would be open a particular Saturday, and then any Saturday. Letters which were ignored
So, I walked out of Monument Station, down the hill there was St Magnus: would it be open?
It was, and inside it was a box, nay a treasure chest of delights.
--------------------------------------------------------------
St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London,[1] is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Fulham.[2] It is a Grade I listed building.[3] The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector". [4]
St Magnus lies on the original alignment of London Bridge between the City and Southwark. The ancient parish was united with that of St Margaret, New Fish Street, in 1670 and with that of St Michael, Crooked Lane, in 1831.[5] The three united parishes retained separate vestries and churchwardens.[6] Parish clerks continue to be appointed for each of the three parishes.[7]
St Magnus is the guild church of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, and the ward church of the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without. It is also twinned with the Church of the Resurrection in New York City.[8]
Its prominent location and beauty has prompted many mentions in literature.[9] In Oliver Twist Charles Dickens notes how, as Nancy heads for her secret meeting with Mr. Brownlow and Rose Maylie on London Bridge, "the tower of old Saint Saviour's Church, and the spire of Saint Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancient bridge, were visible in the gloom". The church's spiritual and architectural importance is celebrated in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, who adds in a footnote that "the interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors".[10] One biographer of Eliot notes that at first he enjoyed St Magnus aesthetically for its "splendour"; later he appreciated its "utility" when he came there as a sinner.
The church is dedicated to St Magnus the Martyr, earl of Orkney, who died on 16 April in or around 1116 (the precise year is unknown).[12] He was executed on the island of Egilsay having been captured during a power struggle with his cousin, a political rival.[13] Magnus had a reputation for piety and gentleness and was canonised in 1135. St. Ronald, the son of Magnus's sister Gunhild Erlendsdotter, became Earl of Orkney in 1136 and in 1137 initiated the construction of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.[14] The story of St. Magnus has been retold in the 20th century in the chamber opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1976)[15] by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, based on George Mackay Brown's novel Magnus (1973).
he identity of the St Magnus referred to in the church's dedication was only confirmed by the Bishop of London in 1926.[16] Following this decision a patronal festival service was held on 16 April 1926.[17] In the 13th century the patronage was attributed to one of the several saints by the name of Magnus who share a feast day on 19 August, probably St Magnus of Anagni (bishop and martyr, who was slain in the persecution of the Emperor Decius in the middle of the 3rd century).[18] However, by the early 18th century it was suggested that the church was either "dedicated to the memory of St Magnus or Magnes, who suffer'd under the Emperor Aurelian in 276 [see St Mammes of Caesarea, feast day 17 August], or else to a person of that name, who was the famous Apostle or Bishop of the Orcades."[19] For the next century historians followed the suggestion that the church was dedicated to the Roman saint of Cæsarea.[20] The famous Danish archaeologist Professor Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–85) promoted the attribution to St Magnus of Orkney during his visit to the British Isles in 1846-7, when he was formulating the concept of the 'Viking Age',[21] and a history of London written in 1901 concluded that "the Danes, on their second invasion ... added at least two churches with Danish names, Olaf and Magnus".[22] A guide to the City Churches published in 1917 reverted to the view that St Magnus was dedicated to a martyr of the third century,[23] but the discovery of St Magnus of Orkney's relics in 1919 renewed interest in a Scandinavian patron and this connection was encouraged by the Rector who arrived in 1921
A metropolitan bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 314, which indicates that there must have been a Christian community in Londinium by this date, and it has been suggested that a large aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill can be compared with the 4th-century Cathedral of St Tecla in Milan.[25] However, there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that any of the mediaeval churches in the City of London had a Roman foundation.[26] A grant from William I in 1067 to Westminster Abbey, which refers to the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge ("lapidee eccle sci magni prope pontem"), is generally accepted to be 12th century forgery,[27] and it is possible that a charter of confirmation in 1108-16 might also be a later fabrication.[28] Nonetheless, these manuscripts may preserve valid evidence of a date of foundation in the 11th century.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the area of the bridgehead was not occupied from the early 5th century until the early 10th century. Environmental evidence indicates that the area was waste ground during this period, colonised by elder and nettles. Following Alfred's decision to reoccupy the walled area of London in 886, new harbours were established at Queenhithe and Billingsgate. A bridge was in place by the early 11th century, a factor which would have encouraged the occupation of the bridgehead by craftsmen and traders.[30] A lane connecting Botolph's Wharf and Billingsgate to the rebuilt bridge may have developed by the mid-11th century. The waterfront at this time was a hive of activity, with the construction of embankments sloping down from the riverside wall to the river. Thames Street appeared in the second half of the 11th century immediately behind (north of) the old Roman riverside wall and in 1931 a piling from this was discovered during the excavation of the foundations of a nearby building. It now stands at the base of the church tower.[31] St Magnus was built to the south of Thames Street to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area[32] and was certainly in existence by 1128-33.[33]
The small ancient parish[34] extended about 110 yards along the waterfront either side of the old bridge, from 'Stepheneslane' (later Churchehawlane or Church Yard Alley) and 'Oystergate' (later called Water Lane or Gully Hole) on the West side to 'Retheresgate' (a southern extension of Pudding Lane) on the East side, and was centred on the crossroads formed by Fish Street Hill (originally Bridge Street, then New Fish Street) and Thames Street.[35] The mediaeval parish also included Drinkwater's Wharf (named after the owner, Thomas Drinkwater), which was located immediately West of the bridge, and Fish Wharf, which was to the South of the church. The latter was of considerable importance as the fishmongers had their shops on the wharf. The tenement was devised by Andrew Hunte to the Rector and Churchwardens in 1446.[36] The ancient parish was situated in the South East part of Bridge Ward, which had evolved in the 11th century between the embankments to either side of the bridge.[37]
In 1182 the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey agreed that the advowson of St Magnus should be divided equally between them. Later in the 1180s, on their presentation, the Archdeacon of London inducted his nephew as parson.
Between the late Saxon period and 1209 there was a series of wooden bridges across the Thames, but in that year a stone bridge was completed.[39] The work was overseen by Peter de Colechurch, a priest and head of the Fraternity of the Brethren of London Bridge. The Church had from early times encouraged the building of bridges and this activity was so important it was perceived to be an act of piety - a commitment to God which should be supported by the giving of alms. London’s citizens made gifts of land and money "to God and the Bridge".[40] The Bridge House Estates became part of the City's jurisdiction in 1282.
Until 1831 the bridge was aligned with Fish Street Hill, so the main entrance into the City from the south passed the West door of St Magnus on the north bank of the river.[41] The bridge included a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket[42] for the use of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury Cathedral to visit his tomb.[43] The chapel and about two thirds of the bridge were in the parish of St Magnus. After some years of rivalry a dispute arose between the church and the chapel over the offerings given to the chapel by the pilgrims. The matter was resolved by the brethren of the chapel making an annual contribution to St Magnus.[44] At the Reformation the chapel was turned into a house and later a warehouse, the latter being demolished in 1757-58.
The church grew in importance. On 21 November 1234 a grant of land was made to the parson of St Magnus for the enlargement of the church.[45] The London eyre of 1244 recorded that in 1238 "A thief named William of Ewelme of the county of Buckingham fled to the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, London, and there acknowledged the theft and abjured the realm. He had no chattels."[46] Another entry recorded that "The City answers saying that the church of ... St. Magnus the Martyr ... which [is] situated on the king's highway ... ought to belong to the king and be in his gift".[47] The church presumably jutted into the road running to the bridge, as it did in later times.[48] In 1276 it was recorded that "the church of St. Magnus the Martyr is worth £15 yearly and Master Geoffrey de la Wade now holds it by the grant of the prior of Bermundeseie and the abbot of Westminster to whom King Henry conferred the advowson by his charter.
In 1274 "came King Edward and his wife [Eleanor] from the Holy Land and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday next after the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady [15 August], being the Feast of Saint Magnus [19 August]; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the day with red wine and white wine to drink, for all such as wished."[50] Stow records that "in the year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I against the Scots, every citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but especially the fishmongers" whose solemn procession including a knight "representing St Magnus, because it was upon St Magnus' day".
An important religious guild, the Confraternity de Salve Regina, was in existence by 1343, having been founded by the "better sort of the Parish of St Magnus" to sing the anthem 'Salve Regina' every evening.[51] The Guild certificates of 1389 record that the Confraternity of Salve Regina and the guild of St Thomas the Martyr in the chapel on the bridge, whose members belonged to St Magnus parish, had determined to become one, to have the anthem of St Thomas after the Salve Regina and to devote their united resources to restoring and enlarging the church of St Magnus.[52] An Act of Parliament of 1437[53] provided that all incorporated fraternities and companies should register their charters and have their ordinances approved by the civic authorities.[54] Fear of enquiry into their privileges may have led established fraternities to seek a firm foundation for their rights. The letters patent of the fraternity of St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr of Salve Regina in St Magnus dated 26 May 1448 mention that the fraternity had petitioned for a charter on the grounds that the society was not duly founded.
In the mid-14th century the Pope was the Patron of the living and appointed five rectors to the benefice.[56]
Henry Yevele, the master mason whose work included the rebuilding of Westminster Hall and the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral, was a parishioner and rebuilt the chapel on London Bridge between 1384 and 1397. He served as a warden of London Bridge and was buried at St Magnus on his death in 1400. His monument was extant in John Stow's time, but was probably destroyed by the fire of 1666.[57]
Yevele, as the King’s Mason, was overseen by Geoffrey Chaucer in his capacity as the Clerk of the King's Works. In The General Prologue of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales the five guildsmen "were clothed alle in o lyveree Of a solempne and a greet fraternitee"[58] and may be thought of as belonging to the guild in the parish of St Magnus, or one like it.[59] Chaucer's family home was near to the bridge in Thames Street.
n 1417 a dispute arose concerning who should take the place of honour amongst the rectors in the City churches at the Whit Monday procession, a place that had been claimed from time to time by the rectors of St Peter Cornhill, St Magnus the Martyr and St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The Mayor and Aldermen decided that the Rector of St Peter Cornhill should take precedence.[61]
St Magnus Corner at the north end of London Bridge was an important meeting place in mediaeval London, where notices were exhibited, proclamations read out and wrongdoers punished.[62] As it was conveniently close to the River Thames, the church was chosen by the Bishop between the 15th and 17th centuries as a convenient venue for general meetings of the clergy in his diocese.[63] Dr John Young, Bishop of Callipolis (rector of St Magnus 1514-15) pronounced judgement on 16 December 1514 (with the Bishop of London and in the presence of Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London) in the heresy case concerning Richard Hunne.[64]
In pictures from the mid-16th century the old church looks very similar to the present-day St Giles without Cripplegate in the Barbican.[65] According to the martyrologist John Foxe, a woman was imprisoned in the 'cage' on London Bridge in April 1555 and told to "cool herself there" for refusing to pray at St Magnus for the recently deceased Pope Julius III.[66]
Simon Lowe, a Member of Parliament and Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company during the reign of Queen Mary and one of the jurors who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554, was a parishioner.[67] He was a mourner at the funeral of Maurice Griffith, Bishop of Rochester from 1554 to 1558 and Rector of St Magnus from 1537 to 1558, who was interred in the church on 30 November 1558 with much solemnity. In accordance with the Catholic church's desire to restore ecclesiastical pageantry in England, the funeral was a splendid affair, ending in a magnificent dinner.
Lowe was included in a return of recusants in the Diocese of Rochester in 1577,[69] but was buried at St Magnus on 6 February 1578.[70] Stow refers to his monument in the church. His eldest son, Timothy (died 1617), was knighted in 1603. His second son, Alderman Sir Thomas Lowe (1550–1623), was Master of the Haberdashers' Company on several occasions, Sheriff of London in 1595/96, Lord Mayor in 1604/05 and a Member of Parliament for London.[71] His youngest son, Blessed John Lowe (1553–1586), having originally been a Protestant minister, converted to Roman Catholicism, studied for the priesthood at Douay and Rome and returned to London as a missionary priest.[72] His absence had already been noted; a list of 1581 of "such persons of the Diocese of London as have any children ... beyond the seas" records "John Low son to Margaret Low of the Bridge, absent without licence four years". Having gained 500 converts to Catholicism between 1583 and 1586, he was arrested whilst walking with his mother near London Bridge, committed to The Clink and executed at Tyburn on 8 October 1586.[73] He was beatified in 1987 as one of the eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales.
Sir William Garrard, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman, Sheriff of London in 1553/53, Lord Mayor in 1555/56 and a Member of Parliament was born in the parish and buried at St Magnus in 1571.[74] Sir William Romney, merchant, philanthropist, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman for Bridge Within and Sheriff of London in 1603/04[75] was married at St Magnus in 1582. Ben Jonson is believed to have been married at St Magnus in 1594.[76]
The patronage of St Magnus, having previously been in the Abbots and Convents of Westminster and Bermondsey (who presented alternatively), fell to the Crown on the suppression of the monasteries. In 1553, Queen Mary, by letters patent, granted it to the Bishop of London and his successors.[77]
The church had a series of distinguished rectors in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century, including Myles Coverdale (Rector 1564-66), John Young (Rector 1566-92), Theophilus Aylmer (Rector 1592-1625), (Archdeacon of London and son of John Aylmer), and Cornelius Burges (Rector 1626-41). Coverdale was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, but when that church was pulled down in 1840 his remains were removed to St Magnus.[78]
On 5 November 1562 the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken, in two parts all the altar stones in the church.[79] Coverdale, an anti-vestiarian, was Rector at the peak of the vestments controversy. In March 1566 Archbishop Parker caused great consternation among many clergy by his edicts prescribing what was to be worn and by his summoning the London clergy to Lambeth to require their compliance. Coverdale excused himself from attending.[80] Stow records that a non-conforming Scot who normally preached at St Magnus twice a day precipitated a fight on Palm Sunday 1566 at Little All Hallows in Thames Street with his preaching against vestments.[81] Coverdale's resignation from St Magnus in summer 1566 may have been associated with these events. Separatist congregations started to emerge after 1566 and the first such, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord', was discovered close to St Magnus at Plumbers' Hall in Thames Street on 19 June 1567.
St Magnus narrowly escaped destruction in 1633. A later edition of Stow's Survey records that "On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; water then being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over."[83] Susannah Chambers "by her last will & testament bearing date 28th December 1640 gave the sum of Twenty-two shillings and Sixpence Yearly for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of February in every Year within the Church of Saint Magnus in commemoration of God's merciful preservation of the said Church of Saint Magnus from Ruin, by the late and terrible Fire on London Bridge. Likewise Annually to the Poor the sum of 17/6."[84] The tradition of a "Fire Sermon" was revived on 12 February 2004, when the first preacher was the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.
Parliamentarian rule and the more Protestant ethos of the 1640s led to the removal or destruction of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" images and fittings. Glass painters such as Baptista Sutton, who had previously installed "Laudian innovations", found new employment by repairing and replacing these to meet increasingly strict Protestant standards. In January 1642 Sutton replaced 93 feet of glass at St Magnus and in June 1644 he was called back to take down the "painted imagery glass" and replace it.[86] In June 1641 "rail riots" broke out at a number of churches. This was a time of high tension following the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford and rumours of army and popish plots were rife. The Protestation Oath, with its pledge to defend the true religion "against all Popery and popish innovation", triggered demands from parishioners for the removal of the rails as popish innovations which the Protestation had bound them to reform. The minister arranged a meeting between those for and against the pulling down of the rails, but was unsuccessful in reaching a compromise and it was feared that they would be demolished by force.[87] However, in 1663 the parish resumed Laudian practice and re-erected rails around its communion table.[88]
Joseph Caryl was incumbent from 1645 until his ejection in 1662. In 1663 he was reportedly living near London Bridge and preaching to an Independent congregation that met at various places in the City.[89]
During the Great Plague of 1665, the City authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Daniel Defoe's semi-fictictional, but highly realistic, work A Journal of the Plague Year records that one of these was "just by St Magnus Church"
Despite its escape in 1633, the church was one of the first buildings to be destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.[91] St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started. Farriner, a former churchwarden of St Magnus, was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 11 December 1670, perhaps within a temporary structure erected for holding services.[92]
The parish engaged the master mason George Dowdeswell to start the work of rebuilding in 1668. The work was carried forward between 1671 and 1687 under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, the body of the church being substantially complete by 1676.[93] At a cost of £9,579 19s 10d St Magnus was one of Wren's most expensive churches.[94] The church of St Margaret New Fish Street was not rebuilt after the fire and its parish was united to that of St Magnus.
The chancels of many of Wren’s city churches had chequered marble floors and the chancel of St Magnus is an example,[95] the parish agreeing after some debate to place the communion table on a marble ascent with steps[96] and to commission altar rails of Sussex wrought iron. The nave and aisles are paved with freestone flags. A steeple, closely modelled on one built between 1614 and 1624 by François d'Aguilon and Pieter Huyssens for the church of St Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp, was added between 1703 and 1706.[97] London's skyline was transformed by Wren's tall steeples and that of St Magnus is considered to be one his finest.[98]
The large clock projecting from the tower was a well-known landmark in the city as it hung over the roadway of Old London Bridge.[99] It was presented to the church in 1709 by Sir Charles Duncombe[100] (Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within and, in 1708/09, Lord Mayor of London). Tradition says "that it was erected in consequence of a vow made by the donor, who, in the earlier part of his life, had once to wait a considerable time in a cart upon London Bridge, without being able to learn the hour, when he made a promise, that if he ever became successful in the world, he would give to that Church a public clock ... that all passengers might see the time of day."[101] The maker was Langley Bradley, a clockmaker in Fenchurch Street, who had worked for Wren on many other projects, including the clock for the new St Paul's Cathedral. The sword rest in the church, designed to hold the Lord Mayor's sword and mace when he attended divine service "in state", dates from 1708.
Duncombe and his benefactions to St Magnus feature prominently in Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, a biting satire on critics of William III that went through several editions from 1700 (the year in which Duncombe was elected Sheriff).
Shortly before his death in 1711, Duncombe commissioned an organ for the church, the first to have a swell-box, by Abraham Jordan (father and son).[103] The Spectator announced that "Whereas Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have, with their own hands, joinery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next [14 February 1712], the performance by Mr John Robinson. The above-said Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said Church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it".[104]
The organ case, which remains in its original state, is looked upon as one of the finest existing examples of the Grinling Gibbons's school of wood carving.[105] The first organist of St Magnus was John Robinson (1682–1762), who served in that role for fifty years and in addition as organist of Westminster Abbey from 1727. Other organists have included the blind organist George Warne (1792–1868, organist 1820-26 until his appointment to the Temple Church), James Coward (1824–80, organist 1868-80 who was also organist to the Crystal Palace and renowned for his powers of improvisation) and George Frederick Smith FRCO (1856–1918, organist 1880-1918 and Professor of Music at the Guildhall School of Music).[106] The organ has been restored several times - in 1760, 1782, 1804, 1855, 1861, 1879, 1891, 1924, 1949 after wartime damage and 1997 - since it was first built.[107] Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of several patrons of the organ appeal in the mid-1990s[108] and John Scott gave an inaugural recital on 20 May 1998 following the completion of that restoration.[109] The instrument has an Historic Organ Certificate and full details are recorded in the National Pipe Organ Register.[110]
The hymn tune "St Magnus", usually sung at Ascensiontide to the text "The head that once was crowned with thorns", was written by Jeremiah Clarke in 1701 and named for the church.
Canaletto drew St Magnus and old London Bridge as they appeared in the late 1740s.[112] Between 1756 and 1762, under the London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756 (c. 40), the Corporation of London demolished the buildings on London Bridge to widen the roadway, ease traffic congestion and improve safety for pedestrians.[113] The churchwardens’ accounts of St Magnus list many payments to those injured on the Bridge and record that in 1752 a man was crushed to death between two carts.[114] After the House of Commons had resolved upon the alteration of London Bridge, the Rev Robert Gibson, Rector of St Magnus, applied to the House for relief; stating that 48l. 6s. 2d. per annum, part of his salary of 170l. per annum, was assessed upon houses on London Bridge; which he should utterly lose by their removal unless a clause in the bill about to be passed should provide a remedy.[115] Accordingly, Sections 18 and 19 of 1756 Act provided that the relevant amounts of tithe and poor rate should be a charge on the Bridge House Estates.[116]
A serious fire broke out on 18 April 1760 in an oil shop at the south east corner of the church, which consumed most of the church roof and did considerable damage to the fabric. The fire burnt warehouses to the south of the church and a number of houses on the northern end of London Bridge.
As part of the bridge improvements, overseen by the architect Sir Robert Taylor, a new pedestrian walkway was built along the eastern side of the bridge. With the other buildings gone St Magnus blocked the new walkway.[117] As a consequence it was necessary in 1762 to 1763 to remove the vestry rooms at the West end of the church and open up the side arches of the tower so that people could pass underneath the tower.[118] The tower’s lower storey thus became an external porch. Internally a lobby was created at the West end under the organ gallery and a screen with fine octagonal glazing inserted. A new Vestry was built to the South of the church.[119] The Act also provided that the land taken from the church for the widening was "to be considered ... as part of the cemetery of the said church ... but if the pavement thereof be broken up on account of the burying of any persons, the same shall be ... made good ... by the churchwardens"
Soldiers were stationed in the Vestry House of St Magnus during the Gordon Riots in June 1780.[121]
By 1782 the noise level from the activities of Billingsgate Fish Market had become unbearable and the large windows on the north side of the church were blocked up leaving only circular windows high up in the wall.[122] At some point between the 1760s and 1814 the present clerestory was constructed with its oval windows and fluted and coffered plasterwork.[123] J. M. W. Turner painted the church in the mid-1790s.[124]
The rector of St Magnus between 1792 and 1808, following the death of Robert Gibson on 28 July 1791,[125] was Thomas Rennell FRS. Rennell was President of Sion College in 1806/07. There is a monument to Thomas Leigh (Rector 1808-48 and President of Sion College 1829/30,[126] at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex.[127] Richard Hazard (1761–1837) was connected with the church as sexton, parish clerk and ward beadle for nearly 50 years[128] and served as Master of the Parish Clerks' Company in 1831/32.[129]
In 1825 the church was "repaired and beautified at a very considerable expense. During the reparation the east window, which had been closed, was restored, and the interior of the fabric conformed to the state in which it was left by its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The magnificent organ ... was taken down and rebuilt by Mr Parsons, and re-opened, with the church, on the 12th February, 1826".[130] Unfortunately, as a contemporary writer records, "On the night of the 31st of July, 1827, [the church's] safety was threatened by the great fire which consumed the adjacent warehouses, and it is perhaps owing to the strenuous and praiseworthy exertions of the firemen, that the structure exists at present. ... divine service was suspended and not resumed until the 20th January 1828. In the interval the church received such tasteful and elegant decorations, that it may now compete with any church in the metropolis.
In 1823 royal assent was given to ‘An Act for the Rebuilding of London Bridge’ and in 1825 John Garratt, Lord Mayor and Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Within, laid the first stone of the new London Bridge.[132] In 1831 Sir John Rennie’s new bridge was opened further upstream and the old bridge demolished. St Magnus ceased to be the gateway to London as it had been for over 600 years. Peter de Colechurch[133] had been buried in the crypt of the chapel on the bridge and his bones were unceremoniously dumped in the River Thames.[134] In 1921 two stones from Old London Bridge were discovered across the road from the church. They now stand in the churchyard.
Wren's church of St Michael Crooked Lane was demolished, the final service on Sunday 20 March 1831 having to be abandoned due to the effects of the building work. The Rector of St Michael preached a sermon the following Sunday at St Magnus lamenting the demolition of his church with its monuments and "the disturbance of the worship of his parishioners on the preceeding Sabbath".[135] The parish of St Michael Crooked Lane was united to that of St Magnus, which itself lost a burial ground in Church Yard Alley to the approach road for the new bridge.[136] However, in substitution it had restored to it the land taken for the widening of the old bridge in 1762 and was also given part of the approach lands to the east of the old bridge.[137] In 1838 the Committee for the London Bridge Approaches reported to Common Council that new burial grounds had been provided for the parishes of St Michael, Crooked Lane and St Magnus, London Bridge.
Depictions of St Magnus after the building of the new bridge, seen behind Fresh Wharf and the new London Bridge Wharf, include paintings by W. Fenoulhet in 1841 and by Charles Ginner in 1913.[139] This prospect was affected in 1924 by the building of Adelaide House to a design by John James Burnet,[140] The Times commenting that "the new ‘architectural Matterhorn’ ... conceals all but the tip of the church spire".[141] There was, however, an excellent view of the church for a few years between the demolition of Adelaide Buildings and the erection of its replacement.[142] Adelaide House is now listed.[143] Regis House, on the site of the abandoned King William Street terminus of the City & South London Railway (subsequently the Northern Line),[144] and the Steam Packet Inn, on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill,[145] were developed in 1931.
By the early 1960s traffic congestion had become a problem[147] and Lower Thames Street was widened over the next decade[148] to form part of a significant new east-west transport artery (the A3211).[149] The setting of the church was further affected by the construction of a new London Bridge between 1967 and 1973.[150] The New Fresh Wharf warehouse to the east of the church, built in 1939, was demolished in 1973-4 following the collapse of commercial traffic in the Pool of London[151] and, after an archaeological excavation,[152] St Magnus House was constructed on the site in 1978 to a design by R. Seifert & Partners.[153] This development now allows a clear view of the church from the east side.[154] The site to the south east of The Monument (between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane), formerly predominantly occupied by fish merchants,[155] was redeveloped as Centurion House and Gartmore (now Providian) House at the time of the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982.[156] A comprehensive redevelopment of Centurion House began in October 2011 with completion planned in 2013.[157] Regis House, to the south west of The Monument, was redeveloped by Land Securities PLC in 1998.[158]
The vista from The Monument south to the River Thames, over the roof of St Magnus, is protected under the City of London Unitary Development Plan,[159] although the South bank of the river is now dominated by The Shard. Since 2004 the City of London Corporation has been exploring ways of enhancing the Riverside Walk to the south of St Magnus.[160] Work on a new staircase to connect London Bridge to the Riverside Walk is due to commence in March 2013.[161] The story of St Magnus's relationship with London Bridge and an interview with the rector featured in the television programme The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank, first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 June 2012.[162] The City Corporation's 'Fenchurch and Monument Area Enhancement Strategy' of August 2012 recommended ways of reconnecting St Magnus and the riverside to the area north of Lower Thames Street.
A lectureship at St Michael Crooked Lane, which was transferred to St Magnus in 1831, was endowed by the wills of Thomas and Susannah Townsend in 1789 and 1812 respectively.[164] The Revd Henry Robert Huckin, Headmaster of Repton School from 1874 to 1882, was appointed Townsend Lecturer at St Magnus in 1871.[165]
St Magnus narrowly escaped damage from a major fire in Lower Thames Street in October 1849.
During the second half of the 19th century the rectors were Alexander McCaul, DD (1799–1863, Rector 1850-63), who coined the term 'Judaeo Christian' in a letter dated 17 October 1821,[167] and his son Alexander Israel McCaul (1835–1899, curate 1859-63, rector 1863-99). The Revd Alexander McCaul Sr[168] was a Christian missionary to the Polish Jews, who (having declined an offer to become the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem)[169] was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College, London in 1841. His daughter, Elizabeth Finn (1825–1921), a noted linguist, founded the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (now known as Elizabeth Finn Care).[170]
In 1890 it was reported that the Bishop of London was to hold an inquiry as to the desirability of uniting the benefices of St George Botolph Lane and St Magnus. The expectation was a fusion of the two livings, the demolition of St George’s and the pensioning of "William Gladstone’s favourite Canon", Malcolm MacColl. Although services ceased there, St George’s was not demolished until 1904. The parish was then merged with St Mary at Hill rather than St Magnus.[171]
The patronage of the living was acquired in the late 19th century by Sir Henry Peek Bt. DL MP, Senior Partner of Peek Brothers & Co of 20 Eastcheap, the country's largest firm of wholesale tea brokers and dealers, and Chairman of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Peek was a generous philanthropist who was instrumental in saving both Wimbledon Common and Burnham Beeches from development. His grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek Bt. DSO JP, presented a cousin, Richard Peek, as rector in 1904. Peek, an ardent Freemason, held the office of Grand Chaplain of England. The Times recorded that his memorial service in July 1920 "was of a semi-Masonic character, Mr Peek having been a prominent Freemason".[172] In June 1895 Peek had saved the life of a young French girl who jumped overboard from a ferry midway between Dinard and St Malo in Brittany and was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the Gold Medal 1st Class of the Sociâetâe Nationale de Sauvetage de France.[173]
In November 1898 a memorial service was held at St Magnus for Sir Stuart Knill Bt. (1824–1898), head of the firm of John Knill and Co, wharfingers, and formerly Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.[174] This was the first such service for a Roman Catholic taken in an Anglican church.[175] Sir Stuart's son, Sir John Knill Bt. (1856-1934), also served as Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.
Until 1922 the annual Fish Harvest Festival was celebrated at St Magnus.[176] The service moved in 1923 to St Dunstan in the East[177] and then to St Mary at Hill, but St Magnus retained close links with the local fish merchants until the closure of old Billingsgate Market. St Magnus, in the 1950s, was "buried in the stink of Billingsgate fish-market, against which incense was a welcome antidote".
A report in 1920 proposed the demolition of nineteen City churches, including St Magnus.[179] A general outcry from members of the public and parishioners alike prevented the execution of this plan.[180] The members of the City Livery Club passed a resolution that they regarded "with horror and indignation the proposed demolition of 19 City churches" and pledged the Club to do everything in its power to prevent such a catastrophe.[181] T. S. Eliot wrote that the threatened churches gave "to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced. ... the least precious redeems some vulgar street ... The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten."[182] The London County Council published a report concluding that St Magnus was "one of the most beautiful of all Wren's works" and "certainly one of the churches which should not be demolished without specially good reasons and after very full consideration."[183] Due to the uncertainty about the church's future, the patron decided to defer action to fill the vacancy in the benefice and a curate-in-charge temporarily took responsibility for the parish.[184] However, on 23 April 1921 it was announced that the Revd Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton would be the new Rector. The Times concluded that the appointment, with the Bishop’s approval, meant that the proposed demolition would not be carried out.[185] Fr Fynes-Clinton was inducted on 31 May 1921.[186]
The rectory, built by Robert Smirke in 1833-5, was at 39 King William Street.[187] A decision was taken in 1909 to sell the property, the intention being to purchase a new rectory in the suburbs, but the sale fell through and at the time of the 1910 Land Tax Valuations the building was being let out to a number of tenants. The rectory was sold by the diocese on 30 May 1921 for £8,000 to Ridgways Limited, which owned the adjoining premises.[188] The Vestry House adjoining the south west of the church, replacing the one built in the 1760s, may also have been by Smirke. Part of the burial ground of St Michael Crooked Lane, located between Fish Street Hill and King William Street, survived as an open space until 1987 when it was compulsorily purchased to facilitate the extension of the Docklands Light Railway into the City.[189] The bodies were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.
The interior of the church was restored by Martin Travers in 1924, in a neo-baroque style,[191] reflecting the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation[192] following the appointment of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton as Rector.[193] Fr Fynes, as he was often known, served as Rector of St Magnus from 31 May 1921 until his death on 4 December 1959 and substantially beautified the interior of the church.[194]
Fynes-Clinton held very strong Anglo-Catholic views, and proceeded to make St Magnus as much like a baroque Roman Catholic church as possible. However, "he was such a loveable character with an old-world courtesy which was irresistible, that it was difficult for anyone to be unpleasant to him, however much they might disapprove of his views".[195] He generally said the Roman Mass in Latin; and in personality was "grave, grand, well-connected and holy, with a laconic sense of humour".[196] To a Protestant who had come to see Coverdale's monument he is reported to have said "We have just had a service in the language out of which he translated the Bible".[197] The use of Latin in services was not, however, without grammatical danger. A response from his parishioners of "Ora pro nobis" after "Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli" in the Litany of the Saints would elicit a pause and the correction "No, Orate pro nobis."
In 1922 Fynes-Clinton refounded the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.[198] The Fraternity's badge[199] is shown in the stained glass window at the east end of the north wall of the church above the reredos of the Lady Chapel altar. He also erected a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and arranged pilgrimages to the Norfolk shrine, where he was one of the founding Guardians.[200] In 1928 the journal of the Catholic League reported that St Magnus had presented a votive candle to the Shrine at Walsingham "in token of our common Devotion and the mutual sympathy and prayers that are we hope a growing bond between the peaceful country shrine and the church in the heart of the hurrying City, from the Altar of which the Pilgrimages regularly start".[201]
Fynes-Clinton was General Secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union and its successor, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, from 1906 to 1920 and served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Eastern Churches Committee from 1920 to around 1924. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated at St Magnus in September 1921 for the late King Peter of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
At the midday service on 1 March 1922, J.A. Kensit, leader of the Protestant Truth Society, got up and protested against the form of worship.[202] The proposed changes to the church in 1924 led to a hearing in the Consistory Court of the Chancellor of the Diocese of London and an appeal to the Court of Arches.[203] Judgement was given by the latter Court in October 1924. The advowson was purchased in 1931, without the knowledge of the Rector and Parochial Church Council, by the evangelical Sir Charles King-Harman.[204] A number of such cases, including the purchase of the advowsons of Clapham and Hampstead Parish Churches by Sir Charles, led to the passage of the Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1933.[205] This allowed the parishioners of St Magnus to purchase the advowson from Sir Charles King-Harman for £1,300 in 1934 and transfer it to the Patronage Board.
St Magnus was one of the churches that held special services before the opening of the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923.[207] Fynes-Clinton[208] was the first incumbent to hold lunchtime services for City workers.[209] Pathé News filmed the Palm Sunday procession at St Magnus in 1935.[210] In The Towers of Trebizond, the novel by Rose Macauley published in 1956, Fr Chantry-Pigg's church is described as being several feet higher than St Mary’s Bourne Street and some inches above even St Magnus the Martyr.[211]
In July 1937 Fr Fynes-Clinton, with two members of his congregation, travelled to Kirkwall to be present at the 800th anniversary celebrations of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. During their stay they visited Egilsay and were shown the spot where St Magnus had been slain. Later Fr Fynes-Clinton was present at a service held at the roofless church of St Magnus on Egilsay, where he suggested to his host Mr Fryer, the minister of the Cathedral, that the congregations of Kirkwall and London should unite to erect a permanent stone memorial on the traditional site where Earl Magnus had been murdered. In 1938 a cairn was built of local stone on Egilsay. It stands 12 feet high and is 6 feet broad at its base. The memorial was dedicated on 7 September 1938 and a bronze inscription on the monument reads "erected by the Rector and Congregation of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge and the Minister and Congregation of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall to commemorate the traditional spot where Earl Magnus was slain, AD circa 1116 and to commemorate the Octocentenary of St Magnus Cathedral 1937"
A bomb which fell on London Bridge in 1940 during the Blitz of World War II blew out all the windows and damaged the plasterwork and the roof of the north aisle.[213] However, the church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950[214] and repaired in 1951, being re-opened for worship in June of that year by the Bishop of London, William Wand.[215] The architect was Laurence King.[216] Restoration and redecoration work has subsequently been carried out several times, including after a fire in the early hours of 4 November 1995.[217] Cleaning of the exterior stonework was completed in 2010.
Some minor changes were made to the parish boundary in 1954, including the transfer to St Magnus of an area between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane. The site of St Leonard Eastcheap, a church that was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, is therefore now in the parish of St Magnus despite being united to St Edmund the King.
Fr Fynes-Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of his priesthood in May 1952 with High Mass at St Magnus and lunch at Fishmongers' Hall.[218] On 20 September 1956 a solemn Mass was sung in St Magnus to commence the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Holy House at Walsingham in 1931. In the evening of that day a reception was held in the large chamber of Caxton Hall, when between three and four hundred guests assembled.[219]
Fr Fynes-Clinton was succeeded as rector in 1960 by Fr Colin Gill,[220] who remained as incumbent until his death in 1983.[221] Fr Gill was also closely connected with Walsingham and served as a Guardian between 1953 and 1983, including nine years as Master of the College of Guardians.[222] He celebrated the Mass at the first National Pilgrimage in 1959[223] and presided over the Jubilee celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shrine in 1981, having been present at the Holy House's opening.[224] A number of the congregation of St Stephen's Lewisham moved to St Magnus around 1960, following temporary changes in the form of worship there.
In 1994 the Templeman Commission proposed a radical restructuring of the churches in the City Deanery. St Magnus was identified as one of the 12 churches that would remain as either a parish or an 'active' church.[226] However, the proposals were dropped following a public outcry and the consecration of a new Bishop of London.
The parish priest since 2003 has been Fr Philip Warner, who was previously priest-in-charge of St Mary's Church, Belgrade (Diocese in Europe) and Apokrisiarios for the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since January 2004 there has been an annual Blessing of the Thames, with the congregations of St Magnus and Southwark Cathedral meeting in the middle of London Bridge.[227] On Sunday 3 July 2011, in anticipation of the feast of the translation of St Thomas Becket (7 July), a procession from St Magnus brought a relic of the saint to the middle of the bridge.[228]
David Pearson specially composed two new pieces, a communion anthem A Mhànais mo rùin (O Magnus of my love) and a hymn to St Magnus Nobilis, humilis, for performance at the church on the feast of St Magnus the Martyr, 16 April 2012.[229] St Magnus's organist, John Eady, has won composition competitions for new choral works at St Paul's Cathedral (a setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus first performed on 27 May 2012) and at Lincoln Cathedral (a setting of the Matin responsory for Advent first performed on 30 November 2013).[230]
In addition to liturgical music of a high standard, St Magnus is the venue for a wide range of musical events. The Clemens non Papa Consort, founded in 2005, performs in collaboration with the production team Concert Bites as the church's resident ensemble.[231] The church is used by The Esterhazy Singers for rehearsals and some concerts.[232] The band Mishaped Pearls performed at the church on 17 December 2011.[233] St Magnus featured in the television programme Jools Holland: London Calling, first broadcast on BBC2 on 9 June 2012.[234] The Platinum Consort made a promotional film at St Magnus for the release of their debut album In the Dark on 2 July 2012.[235]
The Friends of the City Churches had their office in the Vestry House of St Magnus until 2013.
Martin Travers modified the high altar reredos, adding paintings of Moses and Aaron and the Ten Commandments between the existing Corinthian columns and reconstructing the upper storey. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood.[237] In the centre of the reredos there is a carved gilded pelican (an early Christian symbol of self-sacrifice) and a roundel with Baroque-style angels. The glazed east window, which can be seen in an early photograph of the church, appears to have been filled in at this time. A new altar with console tables was installed and the communion rails moved outwards to extend the size of the sanctuary. Two old door frames were used to construct side chapels and placed at an angle across the north-east and south-east corners of the church. One, the Lady Chapel, was dedicated to the Rector's parents in 1925 and the other was dedicated to Christ the King. Originally, a baroque aumbry was used for Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, but later a tabernacle was installed on the Lady Chapel altar and the aumbry was used to house a relic of the True Cross.
The interior was made to look more European by the removal of the old box pews and the installation of new pews with cut-down ends. Two new columns were inserted in the nave to make the lines regular. The Wren-period pulpit by the joiner William Grey[238] was opened up and provided with a soundboard and crucifix. Travers also designed the statue of St Magnus of Orkney, which stands in the south aisle, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.[239]
On the north wall there is a Russian Orthodox icon, painted in 1908. The modern stations of the cross in honey-coloured Japanese oak are the work of Robert Randall and Ashley Sands.[240] One of the windows in the north wall dates from 1671 and came from Plumbers' Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which was demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street Railway Station.[241] A fireplace from the Hall was re-erected in the Vestry House. The other windows on the north side are by Alfred Wilkinson and date from 1952 to 1960. These show the arms of the Plumbers’, Fishmongers’ and Coopers’ Companies together with those of William Wand when Bishop of London and Geoffrey Fisher when Archbishop of Canterbury and (as noted above) the badge of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.
The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee and date from 1949 to 1955, represent lost churches associated with the parish: St Magnus and his ruined church of Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street (where the Monument to the Great Fire now stands), St Michael with his lost church of Crooked Lane (demolished to make way for the present King William Street) and St Thomas Becket with his chapel on Old London Bridge.[242]
The church possesses a fine model of Old London Bridge. One of the tiny figures on the bridge appears out of place in the mediaeval setting, wearing a policeman's uniform. This is a representation of the model-maker, David T. Aggett, who is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and was formerly in the police service.[243]
The Mischiefs by Fire Act 1708 and the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 placed a requirement on every parish to keep equipment to fight fires. The church owns two historic fire engines that belonged to the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane.[244] One of these is in storage at the Museum of London. The whereabouts of the other, which was misappropriated and sold at auction in 2003, is currently unknown.
In 1896 many bodies were disinterred from the crypt and reburied at the St Magnus's plot at Brookwood Cemetery, which remains the church's burial ground.
Prior to the Great Fire of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small saints bell and a clock bell.[246] 47 cwt of bell metal was recovered[247] which suggests that the tenor was 13 or 14 cwt. The metal was used to cast three new bells, by William Eldridge of Chertsey in 1672,[248] with a further saints bell cast that year by Hodson.[249] In the absence of a tower, the tenor and saints bell were hung in a free standing timber structure, whilst the others remained unhung.[250]
A new tower was completed in 1704 and it is likely that these bells were transferred to it. However, the tenor became cracked in 1713 and it was decided to replace the bells with a new ring of eight.[251] The new bells, with a tenor of 21 cwt, were cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 (the exact date of which is unknown), the ring was increased to ten with the addition of two trebles given by two former ringing Societies, the Eastern Youths and the British Scholars.[252] The first peal was rung on 15 February 1724 of Grandsire Caters by the Society of College Youths. The second bell had to be recast in 1748 by Robert Catlin, and the tenor was recast in 1831 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel,[253] just in time to ring for the opening of the new London Bridge. In 1843, the treble was said to be "worn out" and so was scrapped, together with the saints bell, while a new treble was cast by Thomas Mears.[254] A new clock bell was erected in the spire in 1846, provided by B R & J Moore, who had earlier purchased it from Thomas Mears.[255] This bell can still be seen in the tower from the street.
The 10 bells were removed for safe keeping in 1940 and stored in the churchyard. They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1951 whereupon it was discovered that four of them were cracked. After a long period of indecision, fuelled by lack of funds and interest, the bells were finally sold for scrap in 1976. The metal was used to cast many of the Bells of Congress that were then hung in the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.
A fund was set up on 19 September 2005, led by Dickon Love, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths, with a view to installing a new ring of 12 bells in the tower in a new frame. This was the first of three new rings of bells he has installed in the City of London (the others being at St Dunstan-in-the-West and St James Garlickhythe). The money was raised and the bells were cast during 2008/9 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor weighed 26cwt 3qtr 9 lbs (1360 kg) and the new bells were designed to be in the same key as the former ring of ten. They were consecrated by the Bishop of London on 3 March 2009 in the presence of the Lord Mayor[256] and the ringing dedicated on 26 October 2009 by the Archdeacon of London.[257] The bells are named (in order smallest to largest) Michael, Margaret, Thomas of Canterbury, Mary, Cedd, Edward the Confessor, Dunstan, John the Baptist, Erkenwald, Paul, Mellitus and Magnus.[258] The bells project is recorded by an inscription in the vestibule of the church.
The first peal on the twelve was rung on 29 November 2009 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus.[260] Notable other recent peals include a peal of Stedman Cinques on 16 April 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to the Plumbers' Company,[261] a peal of Cambridge Surprise Royal on 28 June 2011 when the Fishmongers' Company gave a dinner for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at their hall on the occasion of his 90th birthday[262] and a peal of Avon Delight Maximus on 24 July 2011 in solidarity with the people of Norway following the tragic massacre on Utoeya Island and in Oslo.[263] On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast. In 2012 peals were rung during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June and during each of the three Olympic/Paralympic marathons, on 5 and 12 August and 9 September.
The BBC television programme, Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells, broadcast on 14 December 2011, included an interview at St Magnus with the Tower Keeper, Dickon Love,[264] who was captain of the band that rang the "Royal Jubilee Bells" during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[265] Prior to this, he taught John Barrowman to handle a bell at St Magnus for the BBC coverage.
The bells are currently rung every Sunday around 12:15 (following the service) by the Guild of St Magnus.
Every other June, newly elected wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, accompanied by the Court, proceed on foot from Fishmongers' Hall[267] to St Magnus for an election service.[268] St Magnus is also the Guild Church of The Plumbers' Company. Two former rectors have served as master of the company,[269] which holds all its services at the church.[270] On 12 April 2011 a service was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the company's Royal Charter at which the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, gave the sermon and blessed the original Royal Charter. For many years the Cloker Service was held at St Magnus, attended by the Coopers' Company and Grocers' Company, at which the clerk of the Coopers' Company read the will of Henry Cloker dated 10 March 1573.[271]
St Magnus is also the ward church for the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without, which elects one of the city's aldermen. Between 1550 and 1978 there were separate aldermen for Bridge Within and Bridge Without, the former ward being north of the river and the latter representing the City's area of control in Southwark. The Bridge Ward Club was founded in 1930 to "promote social activities and discussion of topics of local and general interest and also to exchange Ward and parochial information" and holds its annual carol service at St Magnus.
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Olympus Digital PEN E-P1
Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm f/4-5.8 ASPH
Aperture Priority Mode
f/4
ISO 200
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Metering: Matrix
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Like a scene from Star Wars.... Gaviota State Park train trestle. No Stormtroopers were killed while filming this.
The Hofstra University Masters in Public Health program and the Bioethics Center sponsored a breakfast lecture in December 2012 from Dr. George Thibault, President of the Josiah Macy Foundation. Dr. Thibault’s lecture, called “Aligning Public Health Education to Improve the Health of Society”, examined ways of integrating public health concerns and perspectives into the academic training of public health and medical professionals. His lecture was followed by a visit to the new Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine.
The yellow lines painted around the Cardiff Bay barrage are not random as you can see if you stand in the right place.
Lighting and shadow details as seen on Commissary Lane in Disney's Hollywood Studios.
Disney's Hollywood Studios | Commissary Lane
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Locality: Buckeye Hills, Arizona
Aligned inclusions of hematite and magnetite are seen in this magnified view of muscovite mica. This specimen is from one of the crystals in:
www.flickr.com/photos/usageology/52512272604/in/photostream/