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The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).
youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer
Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.
Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.
Synopsis
When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.
The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.
Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.
Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.
Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.
The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.
Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's
classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.
The Movie Club Annals … Review
The Lost World 1960
Introduction
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.
Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.
Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:
"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972
Review
A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.
The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.
Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl
She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.
By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.
Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.
Vitina, as Sarit
Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.
Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.
And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.
For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with
unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.
The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.
In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.
Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:
Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.
Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.
Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.
Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.
Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.
With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.
Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger
And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.
I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.
Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.
To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.
In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.
1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.
And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.
The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.
But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.
While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.
The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.
Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.
Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.
Carl R.
You can actually hold it, without it falling apart!! =D Watch the video! www.flickr.com/photos/59395264@N03/6903437765/in/photostr...
Brucewaynelego-Toyshansolo's Lego AR card. www.flickr.com/photos/brucewaynelego/5613927249/
Blogged at The Mobile Learning Blog. Here's my idea for a really cool mobile phone. A curved transparent OLED screen renders augmented reality data in front of the user's POV, using a camera mounted on one (or both) side(s). The OLED screen is touch sensitive on the *outside* to allow the user to touch the visor and interact with the device. The visor can be stowed over the head (like a headphone band) when not in use. Smaller, more streamlined earphones could make the phone lighter and sleeker. Information about the user's surroundings could be provided to the user in real time, as well as playing of related video or audio content.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The origins of the Saab 19 date back before the onset of WWII. At that time, the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet) was equipped with largely obsolete Gloster Gladiator (J 8) biplane fighters. To augment this, Sweden ordered 120 Seversky P-35 (J 9) and 144 P-66 Vanguard (J 10) aircraft from the United States.
However, on 18 June 1940, United States declared an embargo against exporting weapons to any nation other than Great Britain. As the result, the Flygvapnet suddenly faced a shortage of modern fighters.
Just in time, Saab had presented to the Ministry on Sep 4th 1939 a fighter that had been meant to replace the obsolete Gloster Gladiators. The aircraft carried the internal development code ‘L-12’ and had been designed in collaboration with US engineers in Sweden, who were to aid with license production of Northrop 8-A 1s and NA-16-4 Ms.
The L-12 looked very much like the contemporary, Japanese Mitsubishi A6M “Zero” (which had been seriously considered by the Flygvapnet, but import or license production turned out to be impractical). The aircraft was a very modern all-metal construction with fabric covered control surfaces. The L-12 was to be powered by a 1.065 hp Bristol Taurus and maximum speed was calculated to be 605 km/h. Its relatively heavy armament consisted of four wing-mounted 13.2mm guns and two synchronized 8 mm MGs on top of the engine, firing through the propeller arc.
The design was quickly approved and the new aircraft was to be introduced to the Flygvapnet as the ‘J 19A’. Production aircraft would be outfitted with a more powerful Bristol Taurus II, giving 1.400 hp with 100-octane fuel and pushing the top speed to 630 km/h. But the war’s outbreak spoiled these plans literally over night: the L-12 had to be stopped, as the intended engine and any import or license production option vanished. This was a severe problem, since production of the first airframes had already started at Trollhättan, in the same underground factory where the B 3 bomber (license-built Ju-86K of German origin with radial engines) was built. About 30 pre-production airframes were finished or under construction, but lacked an appropriate engine!
With only half of a promising aircraft at hand and the dire need for fighters, the Swedish government decided to outfit these initial aircraft with non-license-built Wright R-2600-6 Twin Cyclone radial engines with an output of 1.600 hp (1.194 kW). The fuselage-mounted machine guns were deleted, due to the lack of internal space and in order to save weight, and the modified machines were designated J 19B. This was only a stop-gap solution, though. P&W Twin Wasp engines had also been considered as a potential power plant (resulting in the J 19C), but the US didn't want to sell any engines at that time to Sweden and this variant never materialized.
An initial batch of 24 J 19B aircraft was eventually completed and delivered to F3 at Lidköping in late 1940, while airframe construction was kept up at small pace, but only seven more J 19Bs were completed with R-2600 engines. Uncompleted airframes were left in stock for spares, and further production was halted in mid 1941, since the engine question could not be solved sufficiently.
The J 19B proved to be a controversial aircraft, not only because of its dubious engine. While it was basically a fast and agile aircraft, the heavy R-2600 engine was rather cumbersome and not suited for a fighter. Handling in the air as well as on the ground was demanding, due to the concentration of weight at the aircraft’s front – several J 19Bs tipped over while landing. As a consequence, the J 19B simply could not live up to its potential and was no real match for modern and more agile fighters like the Bf 109 or the Spitfire – but the Swedish equipment shortages kept the machines in service throughout WWII, even though primarily in a ground attack role and fulfilling other secondary line duties.
Towards the end of WWII, the J 19’s intended role was eventually filled by the indigenous FFVS J 22 fighter – ironically, it was outfitted with a license-built P&W Twin Wasp. By that time, about forty J 19 airframes were more or less complete, just lacking a proper engine. Mounting the now available Twin Wasp to these had seriously been considered, but the aircraft’s performance would not suffice anymore. Consequently, a thorough modification program for the J 19 was started in late 1944, leading to the post-WWII J 19D.
The J 19D was another stopgap program, though, and the economical attempt to bring the fighter’s performance on par with contemporary fighters like the American P-47 or the P-51; both of these types had been tested and considered for procurement, and the P-51 was eventually ordered in early 1945 from US surplus stock as the J 26, even though deliveries were postponed until 1946. The J 19D was to bridge the time until the J 26 was fully introduced, and would later serve in the attack role.
Since the J 19 airframe could not take a large and powerful radial engine like the R-2800, Saab made a radical move and decided to integrate an inline engine – despite the need for some fundamental changes to the airframe. The choice fell on the Packard V-1650, the same engine that also powered the J 26 fighters, so that procurement, maintenance and logistics could be streamlined.
Integration of the very different engine necessitated a complete re-design of the engine attachment architecture, a new, streamlined cowling and the addition of a relatively large radiator bath under the fuselage. A new four blade propeller was introduced and enlarged, all-metal stabilizers were integrated, too, in order to compensate the changed aerodynamics induced by the new radiator arrangement (which made the aircraft pitch down in level flight). A new bubble canopy with minimal framing was introduced, too, offering a much better all-round field of view for the pilot.
Even though the inline engine had a lower nominal output than the J 19B’s heavy R-2600, performance of the J 19D improved appreciably and it became, thanks to improved aerodynamics, a better overall weight distribution, more agile – finally living up to its original design plans, even though its performance was still not outstanding.
Armament was upgraded, too: the inner pair of wing-mounted 13.2mm machine guns was replaced by 20mm Bofors cannons (license-built Hispano-Suiza HS.404), considerably improving weapon range and firepower. Under the outer wings, hardpoints could take a pair of 250 kg bombs, 300 l drop tanks or up to eight 50 kg bombs and/or unguided missiles.
After WWII, the J 19B survivors were kept in service and soldiered on until 1948, when all remaining aircraft were scrapped. Wright was also paid the overdue license fees for the originally unlicensed engines. The J 19D served together with the J 22 and J 26 fighters until 1950, when all of these piston engine fighters were gradually replaced by de Havilland Vampires (J 28) and the indigenous J 29 Tunnan, which rapidly brought the Swedish Air Force into the jet age. The last four J 19Ds, used as liaison aircraft at F 8 at Barkarby, were retired in 1954.
Saab J 19A General characteristics
Crew: One
Length: 9.68 m (31 ft 8 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 12.0 m (39 ft 4 in)
Height: 3.05 m (10 ft 0 in)
Wing area: 22.44 m² (241.5 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,630 kg (3,590 lb)
Loaded weight: 2,390 kg (5,264 lb)
Aspect ratio: 6.4
Powerplant:
1× Packard V-1650-7 liquid-cooled V-12, with a 2 stage intercooled supercharger,
rated at 1,490 hp (1,111 kW) at 3,000 rpm
Performance
Maximum speed: 640 km/h (397 mph) at 4.550 m (14.930 ft)
Cruise speed: 380 km/h (236 mph)
Landing speed: 140 km/h (90 mph)
Range: 1.500 km (930 mi; 810 nmi)
Service ceiling: 11.800 m (38.650 ft)
Rate of climb: 15.9 m/s (3,125 ft/min)
Armament:
2× 20 mm Bofors (Hispano-Suiza HS.404) cannons with 120 RPG
2× 13.2 mm (0.53 in) M/39A (Browning M2) machine guns with 500 RPG
Underwing hardpoints for an ordnance of 500 kg (1.100 lb), including a pair of 300 l drop tanks,
two 250 kg (550 lb) bombs, eight 50 kg (110 lb) bombs or eight unguided missiles.
The kit and its assembly
This is actually the second J 19 I have converted from a Hobby Boss A6M – and this build addresses two questions that probably nobody ever asked:
● What would a Mitsubishi Zero with an inline engine look like?
● Could the fictional Swedish aircraft have survived WWII, and in which form?
The Saab J 19 never saw the hardware stage, but it was a real life project that was eventually killed through the outbreak of WWII and the lack of engines mentioned in the background above. Anyway, it was/is called the “Swedish Zero” because it resembled the Japanese fighter VERY much – wing shape, fuselage, tail section, even the cockpit glazing!
This build/conversion was very similar to my first one, which ended up as a J 19B with an R-2600 engine from a Matchbox B-25 Mitchell bomber. However, due to the later time frame and different donor parts at hand things took a different route – this time, the key idea was the modernization/update of a rather outdated airframe, and the old J 19B model was the benchmark.
Again, much of the literally massive(!) Hobby Boss Zero was taken OOB, but changes this time included:
● The nose/cowling from a Matchbox P-51D
● A modified ventral radiator bath from a HUMA Me 309
● New horizontal stabilizers from a Griffon Spitfire
● A new propeller (Pavla resin parts for a post WWII P-51D/K with uncuffed blades)
● OOB main landing gear was inverted, so that the wheel discs face inwards
● New main wheels from an AZ Models Spitfire, IIRC
● New retractable tail wheel, from a Bf 109 G; the arrestor hook opening was closed
● A vacu canopy for a late mark Hawker Typhoon, plus some interior details behind the seat
In order to adapt the Mustang’s nose to the slender and circular A6M fuselage, a wedge plug was inserted between the fuselage halves from the Matchbox kit and a styrene tube added inside as a propeller mount. The latter, a resin piece, received a long metal axis and can spin freely.
For the new bubble canopy the cockpit opening and the basic interior was retained, but the dorsal section around the cockpit re-sculpted with putty. Took some time, but worked well and everything blends surprisingly well into each other – even though the aircraft, with its new engine, somehow reminds me of a Hawker Hurricane now? From certain angles the whole thing also has a P-39 touch? Weird!
Painting and markings
Again the dire question: how to paint this one? Once more I did not want to use a typical olive green/light blue Swedish livery, even though it would have been the most plausible option. I eventually settled for a pure natural metal finish, inspired by the post-WWII J 26/Mustangs in Swedish service, which furthermore carried only minimal tactical markings: roundels in six positions, the Flygflottilj number on the fuselage and a colored letter code on the tail, plus a spinner in the same color. Very simple and plain, but with more and more Swedish whiffs piling up, I am looking for as much camouflage/livery diversity as possible, and an NMF machine was still missing. :D
All interior surfaces were painted in RLM 02, and for the NMF I used my personal “recipe” with a basis of Revell 99 (Aluminum, acrylics) plus a black ink wash, followed by panel post-shading with Humbrol “Polished Aluminum” Metallizer (27002), rubbing/polishing with a soft cotton cloth and finally and a light rubbing treatment with grinded graphite for weathering effects and a worn, metallic shine of the surfaces.
Around the exhaust stubs, slightly darker panels were painted with Revell Acyrlics 91 (Iron) and ModelMaster Magnesium Metallizer. A black anti glare panel was added in front of the cockpit (P-51 style). The green propeller boss was painted with a mix of Humbrol 3 and 131 – emulating the color of the green code letter on the fin as good as possible.
The decals were puzzled together; the bright roundels belong to a Swedish Fiat CR.42, from a Sky Models sheet. The “8” on the fuselage comes from an early WWII Swedish Gloster Gladiator code (SBS Models), while the green “E” is an RAF code letter from a Heller Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI – actually a total print color disaster, since this deep green is supposed to be Sky!? For better contrast on the Aluminum the letter was placed on a white background, created from single decal strips (generic material from TL Modellbau).
After some soot stains around the exhaust stubs and the fuselage flanks with more graphite, as well as around the gun muzzles, the kit was sealed with a 4:1 mix of gloss and matt acrylic varnish, only the anti glare panel and the propeller blades became 100% matt. Some more matt varnish was also dabbed over the soot stains.
So, another J 19, and the “Zero with an inline engine” looks pretty strange – not as streamlined as other late WWII designs like the P-51 or Griffon-powered Spitfires, yet with a modern touch. The NMF livery looks a bit boring, but the unusual green code (used by liason J 26s from F 8 and some rare 4th or 5th divisions) is a nice contrast to the bright and large Swedish roundels, underlining the pretty elegant lines of the converted Zero!
Wherever we go, we stare at the screens of our smartphones. We're immersed in our personalised universes, which are invisible to people nearby. Being the driver of a car full of passengers, the feeling of being excluded from the world that really matters, is even more sad, because there's no escape, no screen to dive into. You need to keep watching the road. If you're the lucky owner of a pair of Google Glass (and not having the Google self driving car yet) then the "Autocue" app is what you, and your fellow passengers, need. It solves a practical problem, but it also disrupts the social situation in the car. No more smartphone staring in isolation, but lively dialogues instead. The multi-user autocue instructs each passenger to speak out lines from classic movie scenes staged inside cars. Instructions appear in sync across the smartphones and the Google Glass. A centralised system plays the scenes as an infinite loop, so you can enter any car in the world and join the conversation. If there's two people in the front seat of the car already, choose the back seat and click to contribute a matching soundtrack.
Sander Veenhof & Victor de Vries
It is funny how we forget things we have done.
Below, I state that this was my first visit to the cathedral as a churchcrawler.
When I began to post shots, I looked for the album to put the shots in, only to find there wasn't one.
A search of my photostream showed two visits to the cathedral, complete with interior shots from 2013 and the previous years.
I had no memories of these visits.
What else have I forgotten?
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Norwich is a fine city. Or so the signs say on every road into it. But, and there can be no denying it, it is a jewel in the Norfolk countryside.
For me it is “just” Norwich Where used to go for our important shopping, for football and later for concerts. We, and I, would take for granted its cobbled streets, Norman cathedral and medieval churches by the dozen. Also it’s a pub for every day, the ramshackle market, and the Norman castle keep looking down on the city sprawled around.
Just Norwich.
Later, it also became where I bought new records from Backs in Swan Lane, and searched for punk classics in the Record and Tape Exchange.
Norwich is lucky that the industrial revolution passed by the city leaving few changes, the character and history intact. World War II did damage, some churches were abandoned, some rebuilt, but many survived.
And Norwich is a friendly city. It sees warm and colourful, and on a hot summer’s day when the locals were in shorts and t-shirts, much white flesh was on display. I also take the football club for granted. I have supported it from nearly 49 years, and being away from the city means I get my news and views largely second hand, but I also forget how central the club is to the people.
Sadly, Norwich isn't really on the way to anywhere, well except Great Yarmouth and Cromer, so people don't come here by accident. So it remains something of a secret to most but locals.
Other cities would have children dressed in any one of a dozen Premier League club’s replica shirts. In Norwich yellow and green was the dominant colour, even after a chastening season that saw us finish rock bottom of the league. The local sports “superstore” has a Norwich Fan’s fanzone, and a third of the window is given to the home city club.
I knew the city like the back of my hand, so knew the route I wanted to take to provide me with views that would refresh those in my mind. I didn’t dally, pressed on to my two targets, the Anglican Cathedral and St Peter Mancroft.
This wasn’t the original plan; that was to meet two friends I used to go to the football with, Ian and Ali, but they both caught a bug in Manchester watching the women’s Euros, so couldn’t meet with me. But I had an alternative plan, maybe with a pub stop or two.
The trip happened as I got a mail offering a tempting 20% off the trip that had been selling poorly, I checked with Ian and Alison, they said they were free, but had yet to fall ill. So seats were booked, as Jools liked the sound of an afternoon in Norwich and meeting my friends.
Up at quarter to five so we could catch the first High Speed service out of Dover, so to be in London in time to catch the railtour to Norwich.
Sun had yet to light up Dover Priory when we arrived, but a few people milling around, including two still at the end of their night out.
Folkestone was light by the warm light of the rising sun, and well worth a shot as we passed over Foord Viaduct.
Later, I was hoping the calm morning meant the Medway would be a mirror, but a breeze disturbed the surface ruining the reflections I had hoped for.
Finally, emerging into Essex, the line climbs as the go over the Dartford Crossing, just enough time to grab a shot.
It was already hot in London, so we stayed in the shade of the undercroft at St Pancras, had a coffee and a pasty from Greggs before walking over to Kings Cross to see if our tour was already at the buffers.
We walked across the road to King's Cross, and find the station packed with milling passengers, all eyes trained on the departure boards waiting for platform confirmations.
Ours was due to be platform 3, and the rake of carriages was indeed there, top and tailed by class 66 freight locomotives.
We get on the train and find we had been allocated a pair of seats nearest the vestibule. This meant that they were a few inches less wide than others, meaning Jools and I were jammed in.
Almost straight away, Jools's back and Achilles began to ache, and the thought of four hours of this in the morning and another four in the evening was too much, and so she decided to get off at the first stop at Potters Bar.
In the end, a wise choice I think.
The guy in the seat opposite to us talked the whole journey. I mean filling any silence with anything: how much he paid for the components of his lunch, his cameras and then his job. In great detail. He also collected train numbers. I didn't know that was really a thin in the days of EMUs, but I helped out from time to time telling him units he had missed.
We had a twenty minute break at Peterborough because of pathing issues, so we all got out to stretch our legs and do some extra trainspotting.
An Azuma left from the next platform, and another came in on the fast line. I snapped them both.
From Peterborough, the train reversed, and after the 20 minute wait, we went out of the station southwards, taking the line towards Ely.
Now that we had done our last stop, the train could open up and we cruised across the Fens at 70mph, the flat landscape botted with wind turbines and church towers slipped by.
Instead of going into Ely station, we took the rarely used (for passenger trains) freight avoiding line, now a single track. Emerging crossing the main line, taking the line eastwards towards Thetford.
Again, the regulator was opened, and we rattled along. Even so, the journey was entering its fourth hour, and with my travelling colleague and without Jools, time was dragging.
We were now back in Norfolk, passing the STANTA training area, all warning signs on the fences telling the trainee soldiers that that was where the area ended. I saw no soldiers or tanks. My only thought was of the rare flowers that would be growing there, unseen.
And so for the final run into Norwich, familiar countryside now.
Under the southern bypass and the main line from London, slowing down where the two lines merged at Trowse before crossing the River Wensum, before the final bend into Norwich Thorpe.
At last I could get off the train and stretch my legs.
Many others were also getting off to board coaches to take them to Wroxham for a cruise on the Broads, or a ride on the Bure Valley Railway, while the rest would head to Yarmouth for four hours at the seaside.
I got off the train and walked through the station, out into the forecourt and over the main road, so I could walk down Riverside Road to the Bishop’s Bridge, then from there into the Cathedral Close.
The hustle and bustle of the station and roadworks were soon left behind, as the only noise was from a family messing about in a rowing boat in front of Pulls Ferry and a swan chasing an Egyptian Goose, so the occasional splash of water.
I reached the bridge and passed by the first pub, with already many folks sitting out in the beer garden, sipping wines and/or summer beers. I was already hot and would loved to have joined them, but I was on a mission.
In the meantime, Jools had texted me and said if I fancied getting a regular service back home, then I should. And a seed grew in my brain. Because, on the way back, departing at just gone five, the tour had to have a 50 minute layover in a goods siding at Peterborough, and would not get back to Kings Cross until half nine, and then I had to get back to Dover.
I could go to the cathedral the church, walk back to the station. Or get a taxi, and get a train back to London at four and still be home by eight.
Yes.
I walked past the Great Hospital, then into the Close via the swing gate, round to the entrance where there was no charge for entry and now no charge for photography. But I would make a donation, I said. And I did, a tenner.
I have been to the cathedral a few times, but not as a churchcrawler. So, I made my way round, taking shots, drinking in the details. But the walk up had got me hot and bothered, I always run with a hot engine, but in summer it can be pretty damp. I struggled to keep my glasses on my nose, and as I went round I knew I was in no mood to go round again with the wide angle, that could wait for another visit.
The church is pretty much as built by the Normans, roof excepted which has been replaced at least twice, but is poetry in stone. And for a cathedral, not many people around also enjoying the building and its history.
At one, bells chimed, and I think The Lord’s Prayer was read out, we were asked to be quiet. I always am when snapping.
In half an hour I was done, so walked out through the west door, through the gate and into Tombland. I was heading for the Market and St Peter which site on the opposite side to the Guildhall.
I powered on, ignoring how warm I felt, in fact not that warm at all. The heat and sweats would come when I stopped, I found out.
I walk up the side of the market and into the church, and into the middle of an organ recital.
Should I turn round and do something else, or should I stop and listen. I stopped and listened.
Everyone should hear an organ recital in a large church. There is nothing quite like it. The organ can make the most beautiful sounds, but at the same time, the bass pipes making noises so deep you can only feel it in your bones.
Tony Pinel knew his way round the organ, and via a video link we could see his hands and feet making the noises we could hear. It was wonderful, but quite how someone can play one tune with their feet and another with their hands, and pulling and pushing knobs and stoppers, is beyond me. But glad some people can.
It finished at quarter to two, and I photograph the font canopy and the 15th century glass in the south chapel. Font canopies are rare, there is only four in England, and one of the others is in Trunch 20 miles to the north. Much is a restoration, but it is an impressive sight when paired with the seven-sacrament font under it.
The glass is no-less spectacular, panels three feet by two, five wide and stretching to the vaulted roof. I can’t photograph them all, but I do over 50%.
I go to the market for a lunch of chips, for old times sake. I mean that was the treat whenever we went either to Norwich or Yarmouth; chips on the market. I was told they no longer did battered sausage, so had an un-battered one, and a can of pop. I stood and ate in the alleyway between stalls, people passing by and people buying chips and mushy peas of their own.
Once done, I had thought of getting a taxi back to the station, but the rank that has always been rammed with black cabs was empty, and two couples were shouting at each other as to who should have the one that was there. So I walked to the station, across Gentleman’s Walk, along to Back of the Inns, then up London Street to the top of Prince of Wales Road and then an easy time to the station across the bridge.
I got my ticket and saw a train to Liverpool Street was due to depart at 14:32. In three minutes.
I went through the barrier and got on the train, it was almost empty in the new, swish electric inter-city unit. I was sweating buckets, and needed a drink, but there appeared to be no buffet, instead just electric efficiency and silence as the train slid out of the station and went round past the football ground to the river, then taking the main line south.
In front of me, two oriental ladies talked for the whole journey. I listened to them, no idea what they talked about to fill 105 minutes.
I thought it would be nearly five when the train got in, but helped by only stopping at Diss, Ipswich, Manningtree and Colchester we got in, on time, at quarter past four.
I walked to the main concourse and down into the Circle Line platforms, getting a train in a couple of minutes the four stops to St Pancras. I knew there was a train soon leaving, and after checking the board and my watch I saw I had five minutes to get along the length of the station and up to the Southeastern platforms.
I tried. I did, but I reached the steps up to the platforms and I saw I had 45 seconds, no time to go up as they would have locked the doors. So, instead I went to the nearby pub and had a large, ice-cold bottle of Weiss beer.
That was better.
I was all hot and bothered again, but would have an hour to cool down, and the beer helped.
At ten past five, I went up and found the Dover train already in, I went through the barriers and took a seat in a carriage I thought would stop near the exit at Dover Priory. I called Jools to let her know I would be back at quarter to seven, and she confirmed she would pick me up.
She was there, people got off all out on a night on the town, dressed in shiny random pieces of fabric covering boobs and bottoms. I was young once, I thought.
Jools was there, she started the car and drove us home via Jubilee Way. Across the Channel France was a clear as anything, and four ferries were plying between the two shores. Take us home.
Once home, Jools had prepared Caprese. I sliced some bread and poured wine. On the wireless, Craig spun funk and soul. We ate.
Tired.
It was going to be a hot night, but I was tired enough to sleep through it. Or so I thought.
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Norwich has everything. Thus, the normally dry and undemonstrative Nikolaus Pevsner began his survey of the capital of Norfolk in his 1962 volume Buildings of England: Norwich and north-east Norfolk. And there is no doubt that this is one of the best cities of its size in northern Europe. Living in Ipswich as I do, I hear plenty of grumbles about Norwich; but really, although the two places have roughly the same population, Ipswich cannot even begin to compare with regard to its townscape. The only features which the capital of Suffolk can claim to hold above its beautiful northern neighbour are a large central park (Norwich's Chapelfield gardens is not a patch on Ipswich's Christchurch Park) and a large body of water in the heart of the town, perhaps Ipswich's most endearing feature and greatest saving grace.
But Norwich has everything else - to continue Pevsner's eulogy, a cathedral, a castle on a mound right in the middle, walls and towers, a medieval centre with winding streets and alleys, thirty-five medieval parish churches and a river with steamships. It even has hills...
I think it would be possible to visit Norwich and not even know this cathedral was there. The centre of the city is dominated by the castle, and the most familiar feature to visitors is the great market square widened by the clearances of the 1930s, and the fine City Hall built at that time which towers above it. In comparison, Norwich Cathedral sits down in a dip beside the river, walled in by its close, and is visible best from outside the city walls, especially from the east on the riverside, and to the north from Mousehold Heath. If you arrive by road from the south or west, you may not even catch a glimpse of it. The great spire is hidden by those winding streets and alleys, and many of the city's churches are more visible, especially St Giles, St Peter Mancroft in the Market Place, and the vast Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, on Grapes Hill. It is said that the nave floor of St John the Baptist is at the same height above sea level as the top of the crossing of the Anglican cathedral.
With the possible exception of Lincoln Cathedral, I think that Norwich Cathedral is my favourite cathedral in all England. Call this East of England chauvinism if you like, But Norwich Cathedral has everything you could possible want from a great medieval building. But there is more to it than that. It is also one of the most welcoming cathedrals in England. There is no charge for admission, and they positively encourage you to wander around through the daily business of the cathedral, in the continental manner. No boards saying Silence Please - Service in Progress here. Because of this, the Cathedral becomes an act of witness in itself, and you step into what feels like it probably really is the house of God on Earth. They even used to say the Lord's Prayer over the PA system once an hour, and invite you to stop and join in - I wish they'd go back to doing that. The three pounds you pay for a photography permit must be one of the bargains of the century so far.
Norwich Cathedral is unusual, in that this is the original building. It has been augmented over the centuries of course, but this is still essentially the very first cathedral on this site. This is because the see was only moved to Norwich after the Norman invasion. The Normans saw the wisdom of drawing together ecclesiastical and civil power, and one way in which this might be achieved was by siting the cathedrals in the hearts of important towns. At the time of the conquest, Bishop Herfast had his seat at Thetford, and it was decided to move the see to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. It had moved several times during the previous four centuries, from Walton in Suffolk to North Elmham in Norfolk before Thetford, where the first proper but simple stone building had been raised. But as well as an eye for efficient administration, the Normans brought the idea that Cathedrals should be glorified; already, vast edifices were being raised in Durham, London and Ely. and Bury St Edmunds, with its famous Abbey, was the obvious place for the Diocese of East Anglia to sit.
However, such a move would have removed the Abbey's independent direct line with Rome, and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Province of Canterbury. The Abbey community was determined that this would not happen, and Abbot Baldwin sent representations to the Pope that ensured the survival of St Edmundsbury Abbey's independence. Bishop Herfast would not be allowed to glorify his position in East Anglia in the way his colleagues were doing elsewhere. But his successor, Herbert de Losinga, was more determined - and, perhaps, steeled by his conscience. A Norman, he had bought the Bishopric from the King in 1091, an act of simony that required penance. Building a great cathedral could be seen as that act of penance. But where? Bury was a lost cause; instead, he chose to move the see to a thriving market town in the north-east of his Diocese; a smaller, more remote place than Bury, to be sure, but proximity to the Abbey of St Edmund was perhaps not such a good thing anyway. It tended to cast a rather heavy shadow. And so it was that the great medieval cathedral of the East Anglian bishops came to be built, instead, at Norwich.
Work began in 1094, and seems to have been complete by 1145. It is one of the great Romanesque buildings of northern Europe, its special character a result of responses to fires and collapses over the course of the next few centuries. At the Reformation in the sixteenth century, it became a protestant cathedral of the new Church of England, losing its role as a setting for ancient sacraments and devotions, but being maintained as the administrative seat of a Diocese which covered all of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the ceremonial church of its great city. In the 19th Century, the western part of the Norwich Diocese was transferred into that of Ely, and at the start of the 20th Century the southern parishes became part of the new Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Today, the Diocese of Norwich consists of north, south and east Norfolk, and the north-eastern tip of Suffolk.
The absence of this great church from the Norfolk Churches site has long been the elephant in the room, so to speak. And having it here at last is, I feel, a mark of how things have changed. When I first started the Norfolk and Suffolk sites back in 1999, I did not have a decent camera, and the earliest entries did not have any photographs at all. How the wheel has turned. Now, the photographs have become the sites, and with no apologies I don't intend to make this a wordy entry.
The perfection of Norwich is of distant views, the cloisters, and the interior. The exterior is hemmed in, and the most familiar part of the building, the west front, is a poor thing, the victim of barbarous restorations in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is almost a surprise to step through its mundanity into the soaring glory of the nave. Above, the famous vaulting is home to one of the largest collections of medieval bosses in the world. There are more in the beautiful cloisters.
The view to the east is of the great organ, looking very 17th Century but actually the work of Stephen Dykes Bower in the 1950s. Beyond is the intimacy of the quire and ambulatory with its radial chapels, the best of which is St Luke's chapel, containing the Despenser retable. Bishop Despenser is one of history's villains, putting down the Peasants Revolt in East Anglia with some enthusiasm. It is likely that this retable was made for the cathedral's high altar, possibly even to give thanks for the end of the Revolt. It was discovered upside down in use as a table in the 1840s. This chapel is, unusually, also a parish church; the parish of St Mary in the Marsh, the church of which was demolished at the Reformation, moved into the cathedral. They brought their seven sacrament font with them, and here it remains.
In the ambulatory there are many traces of medieval paint, almost certainly from the original building of the Cathedral. Two curiosities: at the back of the apse is the original Bishop's chair, and rising across the north side of the ambulatory like a bridge is a relic screen.
There is a good range of glass dating from the 14th to the 21st centuries. Highlights include the medieval panels in the north side of the ambulatory, Edward Burne-Jones's bold figures in the north transept, Moira Forsyth's spectacular Benedictine window of 1964 in a south chapel, and the millennium glass high in the north transept, which I think will in time become one of the defining features of the Cathedral. The figure of the Blessed Virgin with the Christ Child seated on her lap is the work of Norfolk-based artist John Hayward, who died recently, but the glass above is Hayward's reworking of Keith New's 1960s glass for St Stephen Walbrook in London, removed from there in the 1980s, and now reset here. Towards the west end of the nave are two sets of Stuart royal arms in glass, a rare survival.
I grew up in a city some sixty miles away from Norwich, but I didn't come here until I was in my mid-teens. I remember wandering around this building and being blown away by it, and I still get that feeling today. There is always something new to find here. My favourite time here is first thing in the morning on a winter Saturday. Often, I can be the only visitor, which only increases the awe. Another time I like to be here in winter is on a Saturday afternoon for choral evensong. Perhaps best of all, though, is to wander and wonder in the cloisters on a bright sunny day, gazing at fabulous bosses almost within arm's reach.
Several English cathedrals have good closes, but Norwich's is the only one in a major city, I think. It creates the sense of an ecclesiastical village at the heart of the city; and then, beyond, the lanes and alleys spread out, still hanging on despite German bombing and asinine redevelopment. And now I think perhaps it is part of the beauty of this building that it is tucked away by the river, a place to seek out and explore. Norwich has everything, says Pevsner. But really, I think this is the very best thing of all.
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichcathedral/norwichcathedr...
The East London Transit routes EL1 and EL2 were augmented significantly from 19th March, as more developments in the Thames Gateway regeneration area come on stream (which was always the intention).
Route EL2 was also rerouted at Barking to Becontree Heath, to finally address the lack of capacity which has been a bone of contention along this corridor since routes 5 and 87 were combined into one ten years ago. Its withdrawal between Barking and Ilford Station is partly compensated for by a significant frequency increase on the EL1, which is also justified by the ongoing redevelopment at the other end of the route in Barking Riverside.
Extra Volvo B7TL/Wright Gemini have been drafted in from Stockwell Garage, including WVL 473 which is seen on Friday 22nd April in the bus-only section of Ripple Road, Barking Town Centre that is used exclusively by the East London Transit routes. These vehicles are of a similar vintage to the existing ELT fleet although they have standard Go-Ahead moquette and lack the colourful vinyls. To release these vehicles older buses have been transferred into Stockwell for route 249, possibly as a temporary measure.
Shot from Bøllingsø of our Augmented Reality Android App "Digitale Tråde". The App is being developed for Museum Midtjylland in Herning, Denmark.
The App will be available from June 2012 and provides on-location discovery and augmentation of historic excavations. (www.digitaletraade.dk/getapp/)
Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion"; the 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".[3]
Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1914. An undistinguished pupil, he left school at 16 and became a journalist for a short time. Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager; however, it was the publication of "Light breaks where no sun shines," in 1934, that caught the attention of the literary world. While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara, whom he married in 1937. Their relationship was defined by alcoholism and was mutually destructive.[3] In the early part of their marriage, Thomas and his family lived hand-to-mouth, settling in the Welsh fishing village of Laugharne.
Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, and he found earning a living as a writer difficult. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940s brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as a populist voice of the literary scene.
Thomas first traveled to the United States in the 1950s. This is where his readings brought him a level of fame while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in America cemented Thomas's legend, however, and he went on to record to vinyl such works as A Child's Christmas in Wales. During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma, from which he never recovered. He died on 9 November 1953. His body was returned to Wales where he was interred at the village churchyard in Laugharne on 25 November 1953.
Though Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. Thomas's position as one of the great modern poets has been much discussed, and he remains popular with the public.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas
This blue plaque is affixed to 54 Delancey Street, Camden
Augmented reality explorations by Sander Veenhof: www.pinterest.com/sanderveenhof/augmented-reality-explora...
the library of the dutch city deventer asked fabrique to create a game for kids and teenagers. we used the augmented reality engine "layar" to create an exciting and fast game for the city and the library. these are the first impressions...
Aquesta imatge juga a Pels camins dels països catalans
Es tracta d'endevinar el lloc de la fotografia.
No contestes, si no estàs registrat en el joc!!!!.
Si desitges contestar, unix-te primer al grup! Moltes gràcies:-)
La veneració com a sant patró que Girona i l'augment de la devoció envers Sant Narcís es pot situar en dos moments històrics ben diferenciats: sobre l'any 1300, en que es promou la confraria de Sant Narcís i, posteriorment, la construcció del segon sepulcre del sant, i el segle XVII-XVIII, que donà com a conseqüència l'inici de la capella que li és dedicada i el tercer i definitiu sepulcre. En aquest article ens centrarem en els sepulcres que han contingut el cos del sant i en la capella que li és dedicada.
El sepulcre més antic, una arca de pedra coberta de fusta que va contenir les despulles del sant sembla que des del moment de trobar-se el seu cos (1022-1038) fins a la construcció del sepulcre gòtic, i va ser col·locat davant l'altar de Santa Afra. El canonge Dorca data el martiri de Sant Narcís i el seu diaca Feliu (no Sant Feliu l'Africà), el 307. A l'entorn del 1300, amb l'augment de la devoció al sant es va promoure la creació d'una confraria de Sant Narcís, que el 1307 va endegar, encapçalada pel canonge Guillem Socarrats, la construcció d'un nou sepulcre, aquest d'alabastre, encàrrec que es va fer al Mestre Joan de Tournai, qui va finalitzar l'obra el 29 d'octubre de 1328. Consta d'una estàtua jacent del sant, d'estil francès, al damunt d'una tapa de doble vessant, i escenes de la vida als laterals en sis registres emmarcats per arquitectures i vitrificats amb blau i vermell.
L'any 1782, amb la construcció de la nova capella, el sepulcre va ser col·locat en aquest indret. A les darreries del segle XVIII es va procedir a la construcció de l'actual capella Sant Narcís, d'estil neoclàssic amb una planta formada per dos el·lipsis que es tallen, d'uns 35 m de llarg, 15 d'amplada i 35 d'alçada, construïda amb jaspi de les muntanyes de Sant Miquel, llevat del de les columnes que va ser portat de les pedreres de la Font dels Lleons. La construcció d'aquesta capella va ser acceptada pel Capítol el 20 de març de 1782 i la primera pedra fou col·locada el 14 d'abril del mateix any pel bisbe Tomàs de Lorenzana; el 2 de setembre de 1792 s'hi va traslladar el cos del sant. "El ilustrísimo Sr. D. Tomas de Lorenzana y Butron dignísimo obispo de tan ilustre iglesia, puso el dia 14 de abril la primera piedra de una nueva y magnífica capilla que habia proyectado desde mucho antes" (José de La Canal España Sagrada).
Aquesta capella està situada al nord de l'església en l'espai que havien ocupats els claustres gòtics que foren enderrocats. Les obres foren dirigides per Agustí Cabot entre 1783 i 1785, seguint possiblement l'academicisme de Ventura Rodríguez. A les voltes, unes pintures realitzades per Francesc Tramulles representen el martiri del sant, i la representació del cel amb Sant Narcís davant de Déu, treballades per Mirabent i Ribó el 1858 i per Dario Vilás a finals del segle XIX sota la direcció de l'arquitecte Rafael Masó. Les pintures de l'arc toral d'entrada, que representaven les virtuts cardinals, varen ser substituïdes per imatges de Sant Feliu l'Africà, Sant Trobat, Santa Afra i Santa Hilaria, obra de Josep Mirabent i Josep Ribó.
En aquesta capella s'hi col·locà el nou sepulcre, de marbre recobert de xapa de plata cisellada, que guardà les restes del sant des de 1792 a 1936, darrera l'altar, obra de Josep Puig sobre 1800. Damunt el sepulcre s'hi veu una imatge de Sant Narcís obra de Josep Espelta, del 1940, que substitueix la que va ser destruïda el 1936. El sepulcre de Sant Narcís es va restaurar el 1889. A més d'aquest elements, a l'església de Sant Feliu també s'hi pot contemplar l'anomenat "Quadre de les mosques", que representa el miracle a que ens referim en aquest article, d'autor desconegut amb l'escut del bisbe Fageda a la part superior, donat per Josep Fageda a l'església l'any 1675.
La Història...
Girona, durant molts anys, per la seva posició estratègica, escollida pels romans en el moment de la seva fundació; bastida sobre un turó, era el pas obligat per a qualsevol exèrcit provinent del nord (els francesos) o del sud (els musulmans). Com recorda Christian Guilleré a Girona medieval. L'etapa d'apogeu 1285-1360, els Jurats de la ciutat, per recordar a la Corona els seus deures, solien emprar la fórmula clau, horca i tancament del regne.
La primavera de 1285 el rei en Pere (III de Catalunya i Aragó, dit el Gran) es trobava en una difícil situació; els fets de les Vespres Sicilanes havien fet que el papa Martí IV (Simó de Brion), favorable als Angevins, branca secundària dels Capets amb qui havia entra en conflicte el rei Pere, promulgués una croada contra el rei excomunicat, que es va posar en marxa dirigida pel rei de França Felip III l'Ardit. El propòsit del papa era desposseïr dels seus dominis el rei Pere i lliurar-los al fill del rei de França Carles de Valois. El rei Pere no compta amb cap recolzament, ni el del seu germà Jaume II de Mallorca, que estava disposat a deixar pas lliure als exèrcits de la croada. Tanmateix, a l'interior dels seus dominis hi havien dificultats per aplegar l'exèrcit (diferències polítiques amb els aragonesos, penes espirituals contra els opositors a la croada...). Quedava, per tant, preparar una aferrissada defensa des de terra, i Girona n'havia de ser puntera, i des de mar. Aquest darrer aspecte es salvà amb l'eficaç acció de l'almirall Roger de Llúria, qui a la batalla de les illes Formigues va destruir l'estol francès.
Felip III va aplegar un notable exèrcit que Bernat Desclot (Crònica)descriu: E ell d'altra part aparellà's de venir per terra ab lo major poder que de cent anys ençà la corona de França no havia ajustat. E entre cells que hac asoldats, foren bé set mil·lia hòmens a cavall, tots de paratge; e soldejà bé dihuyt mil·lia ballesters de peu, e altres hòmens de peu bé cent mil·lia o pus. E era tan gran l'aparellament, que quaix no és cosa que dega creure si hom no ho ha vist. E hac fet aportar per los dos anys passats vianda per mar e per terra, tanta quanta pogué, d'Alemanya ençà tro sus a Narbona e a Carcassona e a Tolosa, e en los llogars veïns del rei d'Aragó, ço és a saber prop Catalunya. E puix partí's de França ab tota aquella multitud de gents, e venc-se'n a Tolosa [...] (Bernat Desclot, Crònica, CXXXI).
L'entrada de l'exèrcit croat per l'Empordà es va saber de seguida a Girona. Perelada va ser abandonada al invasor, i els seus habitants feren cap a Girona, on s'aplegaven també els soldats cridats pel rei Pere, i els que s'havien retirat de Panissars. El 15 de juny, el rei arribà a Girona, després d'haver passat de Perelada a Castelló d'Empúries. Aprofitant l'alteració de la ciutat, els almogàvers saquejaren el Call jueu, fet que indignà el rei Pere. L'endemà va reunir els caps de les hosts, a qui va exposar la seva visió de com s'esdevindria l'enfrontament (segons Desclot, amb plena coincidència amb la realitat que succeïria més tard); els demanà la seva ajuda, bé en homes experimentats o en diners, i que partissin als seus llocs de procedència.
Al dia següent decidí, en reunió amb els seus cavallers i prohoms de la ciutat, que aquesta no seria abandonada, sinó que considerava convenient i aconsellable posar-la en situació de defensa. Els cavallers que es trobaven en el consell s'excusaren d'acceptar l'encàrrec de defensar la ciutat; només Ramon Folc vescomte de Cardona, com castellà de Girona, es manifestà disposat i obligat a fer-se'n càrrec.
Les tropes croades posaren setge a la ciutat el 26 de juny; el rei Felip s'instal·là al convent dels franciscans, des d'on dirigia les operacions. La part alta de la ciutat va ser la que va resistir, degut a les fortificacions i al condicionament de la Força com si fós un castell, amb poca població civil al seu interior. Ramon Folc havia fet enderrocar les construccions adossades a la muralla i totes aquelles que haguessin pogut ser d'utilitat per a les tropes invasores, excepte les de la part de l'església de Sant Feliu. Precisament va ser per aquest punt per on, a primers d'agost, els francesos venceren la resistència del redute gironí. Christian Guilleré esmenta, basat en documents de lèpoca (MHCG), que [...] quan en lo temps quels franceses assetjaren la ciutat de Gerona e fou esvassada la dita ciutat per los franceses per 1 loc del burg de Sen Feliu qui és dejús lo castel de Sobreporta, lo qual no era fort, ne ben deffençat, e per aquesta raon, can los franceses sen foren tornatz, los jurats e prohòmens de la dita ciutat pensans lo mal que daquella part era vengut, compraren e feeren deffer los alberchs qui eren en aquel loc e feeren hi fer val e pont levador qui ara comunamen sapela val e pont de na Clara [...].
Després d'una aferrissada defensa, el 15 d'agost el rei en Pere es va enfrontar a les tropes franceses en una batalla amb un resultat indecís; com a conseqüència, Felip va proposar la capitulació. És en aquest moment que se sitúa la intervenció miraculosa de les mosques de Sant Narcís. Signada la capitulació, les tropes de Ramon Folc evacuaren la ciutat, i entraren, el 5 de setembre, els francesos. Els croats no varen poder mantenir les posicions degut a la desfeta que els havia produït l'esquadra comandada per Roger de Llúria, que va privar-los de la seva intendència.
Les nefastes conseqüències del setge varen quedar gravades en la memòria col·lectiva dels gironins. Una part dels ciutadans abandonaren la ciutat, les pèrdues materials foren de molta consideració, i fins i tot s'atribueixen a aquest fet d'armes conseqüències que no tenen res a veure-hi: la tradició assegura que l'arxiu municipal va ser cremat en aquest episodi, quan la realitat és que es va perdre a causa d'una riuada posterior.
Les fonts documentals.
Bernat Desclot explica així la desfeta de les hosts franceses (Crònica, CLX, "De la pestilència que les mosques que Déus [sic] tramès sobre los francesos"): [...] e nostre Senyor d'altra part, qui tota vegada mantén los humils e puneix los ergullosos, tramès-los damunt en aquella host pestilències, e malalties, e fam e totes males ventures. Car primerament los tramès pestilències de mosques que hi hac tantes que el romanent del món no foren anc vistes tantes ensems; e eren mosques ben tan grosses e tan grans com una glan, e entraven per les narils als cavalls e davall per lo ses, que no hi valien mantes, ne tanques de cuir, ne nengun giny que fessen, que els ho poguéssen vedar; e mantinent que els eren entrades per un dels llocs damunt dits, no hi havia tan forts ne tan poderós cavall, que tantost no caigués a terra mort fred, així que bé en moriren en aquella host, per aquelles mosques, quatre milia cavalls de preu e ben vint milia d'altres, sens tot si, que anc la plaga que Déus donà en Egipte al rei Faraó no poc ésser major que aquesta. E anaprés Déu donà sobre les gents d'aquella host diverses malalties e mortaldats, així que el terç d'aquelles gents tan grans, e especialment dels comtes e dels barons, moriren de diverses malalties que Déus los donava, que no hi bastava hom a sebollir, tants ne morien tots dies. [...] e morí lo rei de França e els altres foren desbaratats e ahontats, segons que oirets.
Enric Mirambell esmenta que, pocs anys després, l'autor dels Gesta Comitum Barcinonensium, escrivia: Atacant l'església de Sant Feliu destruïren el cos de Sant Narcís, que era tingut en gran reverència pels habitants d'aquesta terra; i moltes altres reliquies de sants van ésser esmicolades i escampades amb gran irreverència; a causa d'aquests fets van ocórrer més tard infamants calamitats. Segons l'autor, aquestes injúries trobarien el càstig en la munió de mosques que descriu que eren en part negres, en part verdes i en certes parts del seus cos mostraven un color vermell. Eren tant verinoses que no podien tocar cap cavall o jument que no quedés mort a l'acte; perquè la major part dels cavalls de l'exèrcit morien víctimes d'aquesta plaga, així com infinitat de bèsties de bast. Eren tants els cadàvers d'animals i homes que l'aire quedà infectat de mal olor i de putrefacció; per causa d'una tal infecció molts nobles francesos, comtes i barons, altres cavallers i una infinitat d'homes d'infanteria causaren baixa a l'exèrcit per mort sobtada [...] Aquesta mateixa pestilència afectà també al rei francès.
Aquesta defensa del patró de la ciutat es repetiría segles més tard, amb la sortida d'unes mosques estranyes del sepulcre del sant. L'anomenat "miracle de les mosques" té un rerefons històric, tot i que no va ser com ho presenten alguns cronistes cronològicament allunyats dels fets, ni com la tradició popular ha volgut que fós.
...i la Llegenda.
La veu popular va voler que les mosques que havien empastifat les hosts franceses fins el punt de fer-les recular, deixant molts morts pel camí, procedissin del sepulcre del Sant patró de la ciutat, qui hauria deslliurat els gironins, els seus patrocinats, de la dominació dels francesos.
Així ho narrava Carles Vivó (Llegendes i Misteris de Girona, Diputació de Girona, 1989): El miracle de les mosques va succeir, diuen, el setembre de 1286, quan l'exèrcit del rei de França, Felip l'Ardit, va assetjar Girona, amb el rei Pere d'Aragó.
Encara que la ciutat va capitular sense lluita, els francesos, en entrar a la ciutat, es van portar de manera ignominiosa: van robar, insultar i oprimir els gironins; van assaltar esglésies tot fent riota dels objectes de culte i, finalment, van profanar el cos de Sant Narcís, guardat a la col·legiata de Sant Feliu, i li van trencar un braç.
Això va ser massa: del cos del sant varen començar a sortir unes mosques gegants que es varen posar a picar furiosament tant els soldats francesos com els seus cavalls. I tot seguit de ser picats, els enemics morien espeternegant.
Aquest suposat fet va ocasionar una multitud d'escrits, sermons i llegendes i va originar també la típica i tòpica iconografia gironina que lliga indissolublement la imatge de les mosques a la ciutat."...
Bibliografia:
# Crònica. Bernat Desclot. Edicions 62, 1982. ISBN 84-297-1840-O.
# El setge de Girona en temps de Pere el Gran. Enric Mirambell. Rafael Dalmau editors, 1963. B-17900-1963.
# Girona medieval. L'etapa d'apogeu. 1285-1360. Christian Guilleré. Ajuntament de Girona, 1991. ISBN 84-86812-25-9.
# La construcció de l'església de Sant Feliu de Girona al segle XIV. Els llibres d'obra. Miquel Àngel Chamorro (Tesi doctoral). Universitat de Girona, 2004. ISBN 84-688-8626
Concept art for an application I've got my development team working on. How can Augmented reality be used to serve NGOs, nonprofits and the developmental aid community.
In the image above, you see a mobile phone with a bunch of message windows covering an image. In augmented reality applications, there are two views: the real world video image, and an ‘overlay’ of data related to the things seen. This data is entered in the form of geo-cached notes. So, if you have a meeting with someone near a building and leave a geo-cached note, that note is tagged based on your exact latitude, longitude, elevation and orientation. Holding up an AR device while looking at that same spot a year later, I’d see a popup window wherever you dropped the note, time stamped for when you were there, along with whatever notes or files you uploaded to that spot. To make it even simpler, it’s like dropping pins on Google Maps, only in the real world, on real objects. This is why AR has been dubbed, ‘the web of things’ or ‘web squared’, because real-world objects are tracked, tagged and marked-up like a webpages.
Already people are recording audio, video, and blogging to keep donors abreast of their work in the field. Imagine making appointments for them to check in for realtime conversations to make sure everything is progressing as planned. Your phone would be a video/chatting device that would allow them to even participate in discussions on the ground in real time. In the image below you can see the AR view more clearly. The top left window has the coordinates of where you are along with the history of that location, and when your organization last visited the spot — all data that could be recorded without the field team ever even knowing it. In the top right you also have photo and video that was recorded by your team at that location at some point in the past, along with notes and files uploaded from that spot.
In the top left you have a ‘chat’ pane with images of people that represent donors, contacts at relevant organizations or other team members. The icons indicate that you can call, email or instant massage them while green dots indicate “presence”, if they happen to be online. You can see that one of that chat icons is glowing, indicating that someone has initiated communication. In the bottom right you can see the message they’ve sent and what needs to happen next. The person wants to send the user a file.
Below the chat pane, there is an area with numbers. These numbers indicate spending trends, what cash the organization or project as on hand, how much is being spent, and where it’s coming from. In some cases donors might add additional funding based on what they see, read or come to expect. Of course, this area could also show any type of data: tracking the shipment of resources, status updates from team members, emergency info.
In the center, a popup bubble has used facial recognition technology to pull up data bout a girl. We can see her bio (the notes someone has left about her and her family) along with her age, history of illness and life expectancy.
In the bottom left, we have a map showing our location with a bright red beacon pulsating to show our orientation and location in the country. The orange popup icon displays the name of the specific sub-region we’re located in, in this case the Kucikiro District of Rwanda.
Read more - appfrica.net/blog/2009/08/12/the-future-of-giving/
Poster print available at appfrica.net/blog/shop/
the library of the dutch city deventer asked fabrique to create a game for kids and teenagers. we used the augmented reality engine "layar" to create an exciting and fast game for the city and the library. these are the first impressions...
One of the new heros presented in StarWars Episode VII - 'The Force Awakens' is a character named Rey,
We meet Rey on a god-forsaken desert planet, searching for scrap technology in the ruins of old spacecraft. Like any good story, she is quickly caught up in events outside of her control and assures her place in StarWars mythology (one assumes).
Here ride of choice - a simple speeder, ridden somewhat like a motorcycle. I assume that it rains on Rey's world, as the paintwork of her speeder would be best described as 'rusty'.
For the conversion to a Lego build, it might have been easy to assume a direct relationship to a motorcycle of some sort, but the look of the speeder aligns much more closely to pre-war racing cars, with their long tall hoods. In fact, to make this model, I have used about 3/4 of the Lego 75099 Rey Speeder in tact, forming the front hood section, augmented by an aerodynamic tail with a reinterpretation of the speeder thrusters. Then, a traditional four wheels, spread to the corners for stability, and the pilot seat scaled to a miniland rider.
This Lego miniland scale Episode VII - Rey Speedster has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 98th Build Challenge, titled - 'The Star Wars Awakens' - a challenge to recreate, in Lego, a vehicle inspired by the StarWars movie franchise.
These days, St Laurence sits beside a busy double mini roundabout, surrounded by shots and take aways, it is a place you could easily miss.
I have had my eye on htis for some time, but there is always elsewhere to go to on Heritage weekend, so a second weekend of that this year meant that on the second Saturday we were parking the car outside.
The church is pretty enough from the outside, but the windows have wire mesh to protect them, but we received a warm welcome as we entered the porch.
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Very much a village church, set back from the road in the heart of this former agricultural settlement. Now a suburb of Ramsgate it is the original parish church for the later resort. Norman in date, with a fine crossing tower, it is well worth a visit if only for its monuments which record many military men (who passed through the parish during the Napoleonic Wars) and the wealthy eighteenth century visitors who came to Ramsgate for their health and died there. There is a fine Royal Arms of George II over the south door, whilst a twentieth century rood beam emphasises the height of the Norman crossing arch. The chancel is pleasantly empty, with a noble nineteenth century reredos of blank arcading. The south chapel contains an unusual memorial to Sarah Spencer who died in 1745. This poor lady has had so many later members of her family commemorated on her tablet, that there is no room left. Every flat surface has been utilised! Opposite is a little-known but eminently beautiful relief of Henrietta Ashley who died in 1874 carved by the Royal Academician Thomas Woolner. The collection of stained glass has recently been enriched by a window in the north aisle by the Cathedral Studios (1998) which depicts the nearby St Augustine's Cross. It is a simple, dignified and moving attempt to record the 1400th anniversary of the landing of St Augustine which occurred just a couple of miles away. Other stained glass can best be described as curious. The east window was erected as a memorial to Queen Victoria who, we are told, `worshipped in this church` when staying in the area. At the base is a series of panels recording the arrival of St Augustine. One shows the baptism of King Ethelbert in the font of St Martin's Church, Canterbury - a font which wasn't carved until 400 years later! The artist, Alfred Hemming, obviously felt that a font of authentic design would not have been worthy of the subject! The bizarre east window in the south chapel (1902) shows some very sleepy dead being woken at the Last Trump whilst St Peter swings his key impatiently at the gates of Heaven! Not to be missed!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=St+Lawrence
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ST. LAURENCE.
THE PARISH OF ST. LAURENCE lies the next southward from that of St. Peter last described, taking its name from the saint to which the church is dedicated. The ville Ramsgate, within this parish, is within the liberty of the cinque ports; but the rest of the parish is within the hundred of Ringslow and jurisdiction of the justices of the county.
The VILLAGE OF ST. LAURENCE, having the church on an hill on the west side of it, is neat and small, being pleasantly situated in the south-east part of this parish, and commands one of the most extensive prospects in this island, as well towards the sea as the neighbouring parts of the county. This parish is about three miles from east to west, and two miles from north to south. The lands in it are more enclosed than the more northern parishes before-described. It is very populous, and has in it several small hamlets, or knots of houses, besides those particularly mentioned before; among which, in the western part of it, are Manston-green, and Spratingstreet; (fn. 1) on the northern, Hains, and Lymington; on the eastern, Hallicandane, and Herson; and towards the south, Great and Little Cliffsend, Chilson, Courtstairs; and adjoining to the sea, Pegwell, alias Courtis a small manor, usually stiled Pegwell, alias Courtstairs, and is an appendage to that of Sheriffs court, in Minster, as has been taken notice of before, in the description of that estate.
Adjoining is Courtstairs, alias Pegwell bay, where the inhabitants catch shrimps, lobsters, soles, mullets, &c. and a delicious flat-fish, called a prill, much sought after. At Pegwell there is a neat villa, lately erected by William Garrow, esq. for his occasional residence, and between this place and Ramsgate is another, called Belmont, an elegant building in the gothic taste, late the residence of Joseph Ruse, esq.
¶From this bay to a place called Cliffs-end, instead of chalk, the ground next the sea is a sort of blueish earth, somewhat like Fuller's earth; it is about sixteen feet above the sand, and in it are seen strata of culver and other fish shells, lying in a confused manner, one on the top of the other. This earth has been carried away frequently by people, as Fuller's earth, in great quantities, to dispose of as such; but on a trial it was found very deficient, and not partaking of any quality belonging to it.
By the return made by archbishop Parker, in 1563, to the privy council, it appears that there were then here ninety-eight housholds; but this place, owing to the prosperity of Ramsgate, has greatly increased for many years past, insomuch that in 1773, here were in this parish, including Ramsgate, which contains more than two thirds of the houses and inhabitants of the whole parish, 699 houses, and 2726 inhabitants; and in 1792 there were found 825 houses and 3601 inhabitants; which is a great increase for so short a space as nineteen years. (fn. 2) A fair is held here yearly, on August 10, for toys, pedlary, &c.
In this parish lived one Joy, who in king William's reign had such a reputation for very extraordinary strength of body, that he was called the English Sampson, and the strong man of Kent, and was taken notice of by the king, royal family, and the nobility, before whom he performed his feats. In 1699 his picture was engraved, and round it several representations of his performances, as pulling against an extraordinary strong horse, breaking a rope, which would bear thirty-five hundred weight, and lifting a weight of 2240lb. He was drowned in 1734.
In the month of March, 1764, between Ramsgate and Pegwell in this parish, a part of the cliff, seventy feet high, on the surface of which was a corn field, gave way for about twenty yards in length, and five yards in breadth, and fell into the sea.
The VILLE AND TOWN OF RAMSGATE, so called from the way here which leads to the sea, through the chalk cliff; the inhabitants, of which like those of other places, are fond of having it famous for its antiquity, and have fancied the name of it to have been derived from Romans gate, that is, from its being used as a port, or landing place, by the Romans; but besides, that its name was never so written in antient writings, it may well be doubted, whether during the time of the Romans frequenting this island, there was here any way or gate at all to the sea; and it seems plain, that it was dug first through the cliff, as the rest of the sea gates were in this little island, for the conveniency of the fishery, no Roman coins, &c. have been known ever to have been found here, as they have at Bradstow, where the Romans, if they had any at all, might have a station in this island.
The PARISH OF ST. LAURENCE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Laurence, consists of three isles and three chancels, having a tower steeple in the middle of it, standing on four pillars, the capitals of which display the rude conceits of the artist. This tower, on the outside, is encircled with a string of very plain octagonal small pillars and semicircular arches, in the true Saxon taste. There are five bells in it. The church itself is a handsome building, of field stones, rough casted over, as the rest of the churches in this island are, and seems to have been built at several times; of the two side chancels the north one is said to have been built by the Manstons, of Manston-court, many of whom lie buried in it, though most of their monumental inscriptions are perished through length of time. Weever has however preserved two of them, being those of Roger Manston, and Julian his wife, and of Thomas St. Nicholas, who married Joane Manston, and had by her Thomas, entombed here likewise. There was likewise here a brass plate, having the effigies of a man, and these arms, quarterly, first and fourth, A fess, ermine, between three mullets; second and third, On a cross, engrailed, a cinquefoil, and underneath an inscription for Nicholas Manston, esq. obt. 1444. A brass plate, now torn off, for. . . Sayen Nicholas, esq. and Johane his wife; she died 1499; and just by, on a flat stone a brass with the effigies of a woman, and these arms, Ermine, a chief, quarterly; the inscription gone. A monument fixed against the north wall, for Frances, wife of Thomas Coppin, of Westminster, and daughter of Robert Brooke, esq. of Nacton, in Suffolk, who died during her stay here at Manston, in 1677; arms, Parted per pale, azure and gules, three boars heads, couped, or, a chief of the last. On a stone near this monument, and adjoining to that of Nicholas Sprackling, are four shields of arms, first, A cross engrailed, a rose in the centre; second, A cross engrailed; third, A fess, between three mullets, impaling the first coat; fourth, As the third, quartering the first. Part of this chancel is now made into a very handsome vestry. In the high chancel are several memorials in brass, with figures and inscriptions, for the family of Sprakeling. Below these is one having the figure scratched in the marble, of a man lying, with a pen in his hand, writing, Garde promesse fidelement; arms, Sable, a saltier, between four leopards faces, or, impaling or, a chevron, gules, between three bulls passant, sable. In this church is an antient grave-stone of one Umfry, but the arms are gone as well as the inscription, if it ever had any. In the body of the church there have been built several galleries, (which make a most unsightly appearance) to make as much room as possible for the numerous inhabitants of this parish, who had increased to four times the number that they were sixty or seventy years ago; but the inhabitants of Ramsgate are now accommodated with a chapel of of ease, lately built in that ville, as has been already noticed. Besides the above there are numerous monuments and memorials, of a more modern date, and among them, in the south chancel, a mural monument for Sarah, wife of Mr. Adam Spencer, obt. 1745, who with her three children were deposited in a vault near it; she had nine children, of whom four only survived; also for the aforesaid Mr. Adam Spencer, merchant, obt. 1757, who lies in the same vault with Sarah his wife, on it are these arms, Quarterly, first and fourth, Argent; second and third, Gules, a fret, or, over all, on a bend, sable, three escallops of the first, impaling barry of six, azure and gules, a chief, ermine. A mural monument for Capt. Martin Read, obt. 1792, and for Margaret his wife; arms, Gules, a saltier, or, between four leopards faces, proper. A mural monument for Capt. Martin Long, obt. 1751; for Elizabeth his sister, and for his sister Catharine, widow of Mr. William Abbott, arms, Sable, a lion rampant, argent.
In the south isle, among many others, a white tablet for Martha, widow of Darell Shorte, jun. esq. of Wadhurst, in Suffex, and daughter of Sir Robert Kemp, bart. late of Appeston, in Suffolk, obt. 1789; another for Dorothy, wife of Mr. William Abbott; she died 1728, and two of their daughters both named Dorothy, and their son Adam, obt. 1735, also the above mentioned Mr. William Abbott, obt. 1755, and for Dorothy his wife, and their children; and for the Holman's. In the great chancel, a memorial for Ann, relict of Capt. William Bookey, of the East-India Company's service, obt. 1770. In the vestry a black tablet for the Rev. Robert Tyler, A. M. twenty-six years vicar, obt. June 10, 1766.—In the north isle a white tablet to the memory of several of the Tomsons. A mural monument for the Tickners. A memorial for Peter Johnson, A. M. son of Henry Johnson, gent. and fellow of Corpus Christi college, Oxford, vicar of this church, obt. April 18, 1704; arms, Parted per fess, dancette, a vulture. On a plain stone, Capt. John Pettit, died; the rest is covered by the pews; arms, On a chevron, gules, three bezants, between three griffins heads, sable, crowned, or. A tablet in the south cross for Anna-Eliza, eldest daughter of the Rev. William-Worcester Wilson, D. D. obt. 1792. A memorial for the Rev. Peter James, M. A. late of Greenwich, and rector of Ight ham, obt. 1791. The following are plain slabs, mostly at the east end of the church; for Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly, daughter of Dr. Kelly, of Winchester, and sister of Dr. Kelly, regius professor, of Oxford; also Martha Kelly, sister to Elizabeth, wife of Lieutenant Charles Kelly, of the royal navy, obt. 1788; arms, A castle, between two lions rampant; for Matthew Brooke, A. M. fellow of king's college, and rector of Walton, in Hertfordshire, and vicar of this parish, obt. 1739; arms, On a fess, three martlets, a bordure engrailed, impaling a chevron, between three covered cups; for Matthew Bookey, son of M. and A. Bookey, obt. 1747. Memorials for several of the Gillows, Tomsons, Abbotts, Pamfleets, Harnets, Law, Joad, Moses, Parkers, Quince, Carraways, Redwood, Evers, Curling, Whites, Napletons, and Hoopers; for George Garrett, esq. obt. 1775. A mural monument, with inscription, that in a vault hereto adjoining, lie several of the family of Abbott, and their relatives; arms, A chevron, between three pears, impaling, on a pile, three griffins heads, erased.
In the church-yard are several monuments for the Stocks, Austens and Coxens; for Brotherly and Quince; for the Maxteds and Holmans; for Lithered and Joad. Two mural monuments, one for the Garretts, Casbys, and Browns, and their relatives; arms, Garrett, on a fess, a lion passant; the other for Mark Seller Garrett, obt. 1779. There are principal monuments and gravestones in this church and church-yard, the whole of which are by far too numerous to insert here.
Besides the high altar in this church, there were formerly others dedicated to St. James, St. Catherine, St. Thomas, and the Holy Trinity; besides which there were kept wax-lights, the expence of which was maintained by voluntary gifts and legacies. In the west window of the church were formerly painted the arms of Criol, who owned Upper-court, being Or, two chevrons, and a canton, gules. Septvans, Azure, three wheat skreens, or, an annulet for difference; the latter dwelt in this parish, and lies buried under a monument in Ash church. Of St. Nicholas, who married Jane Manstone, Ermine, a chief quarterly, or, and gules; in the first quarter, an annulet for difference Of Chiche, Azure, three lions rampant, argent, a bordure of the second; and of Manston, Gules, a fess, ermine, between three mullets.
At a small distance from the church to the eastward, are the remains of a small chapel, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, now converted into a cottage.—There was a chantry founded in it, for the support of which several lands hereabouts were given, which at the suppression of these chapels in king Edward VI.'s reign, came into the hands of the crown, and became a lay fee.
This church was one of the three chapels belonging to the church of Minster, and was very probably made parochial sometime after the year 1200, after that church, with its appendages, had been appropriated in 1128, to the monastery of St. Augustine; it was at the same time assigned with the three chapels, and all rents, tithes, and other things belonging to them, to the sacristy of the monastery; and it was further granted, that the abbot and convent should present to the archbishop, in the above-mentioned chapels, fit perpetual chaplains to the altarages of them; but that the vicar of the mother church should take and receive in right of his vicarage, the tenths of small tithes, of lambs and pigs, and all obventions arising from marriages and churchings which were forbid at the chapels, and were solemnized, &c. at the mother church only. (fn. 12)
In the year 1275, archbishop Robert consecrated the cemetery of this church, and granted it the right of sepulture, with the restrictions, that the tenants or occupiers of land, who were parishioners of this chapel, should be buried at their mother church of Minster, as the parishioners of this chapel had heretofore been; and that none of them should be buried here, without the express leave of the vicar of Minster, notwithstanding they, by their wills, or by any other means, ordered their burial to be in the burying-place of the chapel; but that children and poor people, who were parishioners of it, and not tenants or occupiers of land, might be buried here, with this proviso, that all obventions, oblations, or legacies arising, on account of such sepulture, in the yard of this chapel, should wholly be divided between the vicars of Minster and this chapel of St. Laurence; that no prejudice might be done to the mother church of Minster, as to marriages and churchings, which should be done for the future at the mother church, as they had been before.
These obventions, oblations and legacies, arising from funerals, were to be faithfully laid up and kept by the vicar of this chapel and his chaplains, till they should be equally divided between him and the vicar of Minster, which was to be done every month, unless they should be required of the vicar of Minster, or his chaplain or proctor, oftener. But a composition, we are told, was made between the patrons and several incumbents, which was confirmed by the archbishop, which was, that the incumbents of these chapels or dependant churches should pay only the tenth part of all their real profits to the incumbent of the mother church; which composition was, it is said, duly observed about the year 1370. (fn. 13)
Although the chaplains of these chapels were to receive no more than ten marcs of these altarages, yet they were not excluded the enjoyment of the manses and glebes given to these chapels when they were first consecrated, which made some addition to their income, and enabled them to keep a deacon to assist them. On the great and principal festivals, the inhabitants of the three chapelries, preceded by their priests, were accustomed to go in procession to Minster, in token of their subjection to their parochial or mother church.
In 1301, the abbot of St. Augustine ordained several new deanries, one of which, named the deanry of Minster, in which this church of St. Laurence was included; but this raising great contests between the abbot and the archbishop, and the pope deciding in favour of the latter, these new deanries were entirely dissolved. (fn. 14)
After this, the appropriation of the church of Minster, with its appendant chapels and the advowsons of the vicarages of them, continued with the abbot and convent till the dissolution of the monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when they were surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands.
¶After the dissolution of the monastery, and the change in the service of churches wrought by the reformation, this parochial chapel of St. Laurence became entirely separated from the mother church of Minster, the vicar of this parish having no further subjection to it in any shape whatever; but by the same change he was likewise deprived of several of those emoluments he had before enjoyed in the right of his vicarage; and all the tithes of corn and grain within this parish, being appropriated to the two granges, or parsonages of Newland and Ozingell, and the small tithes of it to that of Salmestone, as has been already mentioned before. The endowment of this vicarage consisted only of the yearly stipends of six pounds paid out of Newland grange, and of ten pounds paid out of Ozingell grange, a vicaragehouse, barn, and two acres of glebe. But this income, by reason of the increase of every necessary article of life, falling far short of a reasonable maintenance, archbishop Juxon, in conformity to the king's letters mandatory, in 1660, augmented this vicarage with the addition of 40l. to be paid yearly out of Newland grange. (fn. 15)
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at seven pounds, and the yearly tenths at fourteen shillings. In 1588 here were communicants six hundred and fifty-six, and it was valued at only twenty pounds. In 1640 here were six hundred and fifty communicants.
The advowson of this vicarage coming into the hands of the crown, on the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, continued there till Edward VI. in the first year of his reign, granted the advowson of the vicarage of Minster, with the three chapels appendant to it, one of which was this church of St. Laurence, among other premises, to the archbishop, since which this advowson has continued parcel of the possessious of that see, the archbishop being the present patron of it.
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