View allAll Photos Tagged bugbear
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
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Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
Distribution of new batch Matchbox is STILL a problem here in its spiritual birthplace of England though it has got a little better since ASDA started to stock them again recently. Back in July I managed to visit a Morrisons store which had THREE boxes full of new stuff and so I managed to nab quite a few of these new Ford Transit News Van models. An all plastic body was perhaps no surprise to most collectors and to be fair it doesn't really detract from the overall realism of the casting. My only bugbear really is that this model is destined to remain a news van because of the way certain features have been cast into the mold and not a normal civilian version which would have far more possibilities for new colours and liveries! Mint and boxed.
Eastbourne Motorshow - 11th July 2010
Mazda RX-8 - 2003-2012
1.3L 192 PS or 232 PS engine
2010 was the final year in Europe for Mazda's rotary engined sports car due to emissions regulations. By then Mazda was the only company using Felix Wankel's rotary engine concept, although Audi used a rotary engine as a range extender in the still born Audi A1 e-tron plug-in hybrid.
High emissions was one of the bugbears of the wankel engine which hurt the RX-8 under the 2001-2017 CO2-based car tax system. Ironically, under the 1998-2001 car tax system, the RX-8 would qualify for the cheap sub-1.5 car tax!
Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 Carbon Fibre Tripod with 804RC2 Head and 80mm Opticron Scope.
Last week I experienced yet another problem with my (third) Velbon Sherpa 750R tripod whilst out digiscoping, putting an early end to one of the few decent days we've had around here for several months now. I was so incensed that I finally decided to bite the bullet and shell out for a quality piece of kit! The two essential requirements were that the replacement had to be no heavier than the 750R and that it should still fit into my (Vango Trail 45) rucksack along with the rest of my digiscoping kit. The Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 seemed to fit the bill for the tripod legs, but I couldn't decide on a head unit. However, Wex Photographic were selling the Manfrotto 190CXPRO4 with a free Manfrotto 804RC2 head for £200. I'm usually pretty cynical about such "free" offers, but surprisingly I couldn't find a UK retailer selling the legs alone at a lower price - and so in this case free really did seem to mean free!
The tripod weighs in at 1.34kg and the head at 0.77kg, giving a total weight of 2.11kg, which is about 0.1kg less that the 750R.
My original idea was to keep the 804RC2 head as a spare and order a more sophisticated video head as my main unit, as recommended by most experienced digiscopers. However, after a couple of field trips I'm pretty happy with the 804RC2, and so as I have a strong aversion to spending money I think I'll stick with it for now (however, see comments below).
14 January 13
COMMENTS
Full specifications and comprehensive reviews for this tripod and head can no doubt be found elsewhere on the internet. These are merely a few notes based on my experience of using this kit for digiscoping with my Opticron 80mm scope and point-and-shoot digital camera over the past month or so (involving 16 field trips).
The only tripod I've used before is the relatively cheap Velbon Sherpa 750R (which comes with the PH-157Q head), and so this is my only point of comparison.
MANFROTTO 190CXPRO4 TRIPOD
The main problem I experienced with the Velbon tripod was the flimsy leg locks which were prone to shearing. The locks on the Manfrotto are considerably more substantial, and although more force is needed to close them, on balance, I think they should be prove to be more reliable. Replacement locks can in any case be bought for a tolerable price (currently £6.30 each), and presumably can be DIY fitted. My other relatively minor bugbear with the Velbon was the rubber feet which were frequently left behind in muddy terrain. The Manfrotto feet appear to be more securely fitted - they've certainly survived several lengthy sessions on sludgy Solway shores! Again, replacements can if necessary be bought at an acceptable price (currently £7 for a set of three - but see note added 22 May 13).
There are, however, two design features of the Manfrotto tripod that I'm not particularly happy with. Firstly, although the legs can be set at four different angles, in practice only the most acute angle is usable when in a standing position (unless the centre column is extended, which rather defeats the object) - and this angle is noticeably sharper than on the Velbon, which makes the tripod feel less stable. There's a hook near the top of the tripod to allow a weight to be suspended to increase stability under windy conditions. I gave this a go using a carrier bag holding a boulder weighing about 5kg, but there was no discernible improvement.
Secondly, unlike the Velbon, the centre column cannot be split, and the lowest practical position that can readily be achieved for digiscoping is about 38cm, as opposed to 16cm on the Velbon. Although it's possible to reduce the height further by rotating the tripod centre column horizontally (see photo 2 of 2) this involves a lot of fiddling about with both the scope and tripod and I don't think it's something I'd be happy to do in the field. A simpler option - where possible - would be to keep the centre column vertical and just dig a hole underneath it! (Incidentally, I found Manfrotto's instruction on how to return the centre column from the horizontal to the vertical position unfathomable, and I ended up just reversing the original procedure - which apparently you're not supposed to do for health and safety reasons!)
As I don't believe that either of the above "deficiencies" would have a significant effect on the quality of my digiscoped photos, I'm happy enough with this tripod.
MANFROTTO 804RC2 TRIPOD HEAD
As noted earlier, this 3-way photo-head came free with the tripod. It's certainly not the type of design favoured by most digiscopers; in fact the phrase "avoid like the plague" was used by one reviewer! However, as can be seen from my photostream from 12 January to 8 February, it's certainly feasible to use this head for digiscoping, and over this period I don't think I've missed a single photo-opportunity due to its limitations - touch wood! Having said that though, it does have some obvious and significant deficiencies, which should be borne in mind if anyone is thinking of buying this head for digiscoping purposes.
On the positive side, the ability to lock pan and tilt movements independently is a major improvement on my previous tripod head (Velbon PH-157Q). In practice, this means that in many circumstances there's no need to lock either function immediately prior to taking a shot. For example, if trying to photograph a wader making its way along the shoreline, the tilt can be locked at an appropriate angle (with periodic adjustments) and the bird followed just by panning; shots can then be taken without needing to lock the pan, as there's sufficient stiction to keep the scope steady enough for photos. (This will be obvious to more knowledgeable digiscopers, but it was a revelation to me!)
Another good feature is that the head can be locked solidly enough to carry the scope and tripod over the shoulder without the scope flopping down, as sometimes used to happen with the Velbon. Over the past month or so I must have carried my kit this way for several kilometres in total without any problems.
Now the bad news...
There are a number of irritating - but not critical - design features which I think are worth mentioning:
1 The roll function, which allows a camera to be rotated from landscape to portrait mode is redundant for digiscoping, but adds several cm to the length and several hundred grams to the weight of the head. Also, the design is such that the associated control lever must be kept in place to keep the top of the head level and so it can't be removed to save weight.
2 The head is an extremely awkward shape for carrying in a rucksack. Although all three levers can be unscrewed to make it easier to pack, this is not a practicable option for a digiscoper on the move. The best that can be done is to swap around the short pan and longer roll levers (as shown in the photo), and then perhaps dispense with the pan lever altogether, to save weight and bulk.
3 The QRP has to be fitted across the line of the scope as opposed to along the line, which reduces the area of contact, and so increases the chance of it unscrewing from the base of the scope.
4 The upward tilt angle is limited to 30 degrees. If a higher angle is needed then the QRP must be rotated through 180 degrees and the scope fitted to the head backwards.
5 The pan and and tilt levers are not long enough to allow fine control over the movement of the scope, which is more easily done via the scope eyepiece.
But by far the biggest problem is that there is so much stiction on the tilt movement, even when the control lever is fully unscrewed, that it can be very difficult to frame a shot at high magnification. Although I had a similar problem with the Velbon, it's even worse with the Manfrotto. For this reason, I've just upgraded to a Manfrotto 701HDV Video Head which I'm hoping will be more digiscoper-friendly:
www.flickr.com/photos/8453647@N05/8465667815/in/photostream
9 February 13
Note added 22 May 13: I lost my first rubber foot from the tripod today in a muddy field. Adding VAT and the cheapest P&P option the cost for a set of three replacements items from manfrottospares.com was £12.60.
Been a Mac user since 2003, but am suitably impressed with Windows 7. I was part of the extensive beta test that Microsoft ran over the last several months, and was more than happy enough to follow up with a superbly priced pre-order.
7 isn't revolutionary, and there's no way it's going to become my OS of choice over OS X. However, one of my biggest bugbears about life within Windows - the infernal taskbar - has been supremely improved with the new one in 7, which is similar to OS X's dock but in my view feels superior.
It is still Windows, and I still feel that non-gaming home users should give a Mac a go, but for PC users running Vista, or with a newish computer running XP, I urge you to give 7 a try. It is refined, it feels like it was designed with care, and is the antithesis of everything I hated about Microsoft at its height of arrogance, which was exemplified with the catastrophic Windows ME.
Installs and runs like a dream on my Early 2008 MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM, incidentally. :)
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
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Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
Psa 10:1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Psa 10:1-11 -
David, in these verses, discovers,
I. A very great affection to God and his favour; for, in the time of trouble, that which he complains of most feelingly is God's withdrawing his gracious presence (Psa_10:1): “Why standest thou afar off, as one unconcerned in the indignities done to thy name and the injuries done to the people?” Note, God's withdrawings are very grievous to his people at any time, but especially in times of trouble. Outward deliverance is afar off and is hidden from us, and then we think God is afar off and we therefore want inward comfort; but that is our own fault; it is because we judge by outward appearance; we stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then we complain that God stands afar off from us.
II. A very great indignation against sin, the sins that made the times perilous, 2Ti_3:1. he beholds the transgressors and is grieved, is amazed, and brings to his heavenly Father their evil report, not in a way of vain-glory, boasting before God that he was not as these publicans (Luk_18:11), much less venting any personal resentments, piques, or passions, of his own; but as one that laid to he art that which is offensive to God and all good men, and earnestly desired a reformation of manners. passionate and satirical invectives against bad men do more hurt than good; if we will speak of their badness, let it be to God in prayer, for he alone can make them better. This long representation of the wickedness of the wicked is here summed up in the first words of it (Psa_10:2), The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor, where two things are laid to their charge, pride and persecution, the former the cause of the latter. Proud men will have all about them to be of their mind, of their religion, to say as they say, to submit to their dominion, and acquiesce in their dictates; and those that either eclipse them or will not yield to them they malign and hate with an inveterate hatred. Tyranny, both in state and church, owes its origin to pride. The psalmist, having begun this description, presently inserts a short prayer, a prayer in a parenthesis, which is an advantage and no prejudice to the sense: Let them be taken, as proud people often are, in the devices that they have imagined, Psa_10:2. Let their counsels be turned headlong, and let them fall headlong by them. These two heads of the charge are here enlarged upon.
1. They are proud, very proud, and extremely conceited of themselves; justly therefore did he wonder that God did not speedily appear against them, for he hates pride, and resists the proud. (1.) The sinner proudly glories in his power and success. He boasts of his heart's desire, boasts that he can do what he pleases (as if God himself could not control him) and that he has all he wished for and has carried his point. Ephraim said, I have become rich, I have found me out substance, Hos_12:8. “Now, Lord, is it for thy glory to suffer a sinful man thus to pretend to the sovereignty and felicity of a God?” (2.) He proudly contradicts the judgment of God, which, we are sure, is according to truth; for he blesses the covetous, whom the Lord abhors. See how God and men differ in their sentiments of persons: God abhors covetous worldlings, who make money their God and idolize is; he looks upon them as his enemies, and will have no communion with them. The friendship of the world is enmity to God. But proud persecutors bless them, and approve their sayings, Psa_49:13. They applaud those as wise whom God pronounces foolish (Luk_12:20); they justify those as innocent whom God condemns as deeply guilty before him; and they admire those as happy, in having their portion in this life, whom God declares, upon that account, truly miserable. Thou, in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things. (3.) He proudly casts off the thoughts of God, and all dependence upon him and devotion to him (Psa_10:4): The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, that pride of his heart which appears in his very countenance (Pro_6:17), will not seek after God, nor entertain the thoughts of him. God is not in all his thoughts, not in any of them. All his thoughts are that there is not God. See here, [1.] The nature of impiety and irreligion; it is not seeking after God and not having him in our thoughts. There is no enquiry made after him (Job_35:10, Jer_2:6), no desire towards him, no communion with him, but a secret wish to have no dependence upon him and not to be beholden to him. Wicked people will not seek after God (that is, will not call upon him); they live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many thoughts, many projects and devices, but no eye to God in any of them, no submission to his will nor aim at his glory. [2.] The cause of this impiety and irreligion; and that is pride. Men will not seek after God because they think they have no need of him, their own hands are sufficient for them; they think it a thing below them to be religious, because religious people are few, and mean, and despised, and the restraints of religion will be a disparagement to them. (4.) He proudly makes light of God's commandments and judgments (Psa_10:5): His wings are always grievous; he is very daring and resolute in his sinful courses; he will have his way, though ever so tiresome to himself and vexatious to others; he travails with pain in his wicked courses, and yet his pride makes him wilful and obstinate in them. God's judgments (what he commands and what he threatens for the breach of his commands) are far above out of his sight; he is not sensible of his duty by the law of God nor of his danger by the wrath and curse of God. Tell him of God's authority over him, he turns it off with this, that he never saw God and therefore does not know that there is a God, he is in the height of heaven, and quae supra nos nihil ad nos - we have nothing to do with things above us. Tell him of God's judgments which will be executed upon those that go on still in their trespasses, and he will not be convinced that there is any reality in them; they are far above out of his sight, and therefore he thinks they are mere bugbears. (5.) He proudly despises all his enemies, and looks upon them with the utmost disdain; he puffs at those whom God is preparing to be a scourge and ruin to him, as if he could baffle them all, and was able to make his part good with them. But, as it is impolitic to despise an enemy, so it is impious to despise any instrument of God's wrath. (6.) He proudly sets trouble at defiance and is confident of the continuance of his own prosperity (Psa_10:6): He hath said in his heart, and pleased himself with the thought, I shall not be moved, my goods are laid up for many years, and I shall never be in adversity; like Babylon, that said, I shall be a lady for ever, Isa_47:7; Rev_18:7. Those are nearest ruin who thus set it furthest from them.
2. They are persecutors, cruel persecutors. For the gratifying of their pride and covetousness, and in opposition to God and religion, they are very oppressive to all within their reach. Observe, concerning these persecutors, (1.) That they are very bitter and malicious (Psa_10:7): His mouth is full of cursing. Those he cannot do a real mischief to, yet he will spit his venom at, and breathe out the slaughter which he cannot execute. Thus have God's faithful worshippers been anathematized and cursed, with bell, book, and candle. Where there is a heart full of malice there is commonly a mouth full of curses. (2.) They are very false and treacherous. There is mischief designed, but it is hidden under the tongue, not to be discerned, for his mouth is full of deceit and vanity. He has learned of the devil to deceive, and so to destroy; with this his hatred is covered, Pro_26:26. He cares not what lies he tells, not what oaths he breaks, nor what arts of dissimulation he uses, to compass his ends. (3.) That they are very cunning and crafty in carrying on their designs. They have ways and means to concert what they intend, that they may the more effectually accomplish it. Like Esau, that cunning hunter, he sits in the lurking places, in the secret places, and his eyes are privily set to do mischief (Psa_10:8), not because he is ashamed of what he does (if he blushed, there were some hopes he would repent), not because he is afraid of the wrath of God, for he imagines God will never call him to an account (Psa_10:11), but because he is afraid lest the discovery of his designs should be the breaking of them. Perhaps it refers particularly to robbers and highwaymen, who lie in wait for honest travellers, to make a prey of them and what they have. (4.) That they are very cruel and barbarous. Their malice is against the innocent, who never provoked them - against the poor, who cannot resist them and over whom it will be no glory to triumph. Those are perfectly lost to all honesty and honour against whose mischievous designs neither innocence nor poverty will be any man's security. Those that have power ought to protect the innocent and provide for the poor; yet these will be the destroyers of those whose guardians they ought to be. And what do they aim at? It is to catch the poor, and draw them into their net, that is, get them into their power, not to strip them only, but to murder them. They hunt for the precious life. It is God's poor people that they are persecuting, against whom they bear a mortal hatred for his sake whose they are and whose image they bear, and therefore they lie in wait to murder them: He lies in wait as a lion that thirsts after blood, and feeds with pleasure upon the prey. The devil, whose agent he is, is compared to a roaring lion that seeks not what, but whom, he may devour. (5.) That they are base and hypocritical (Psa_10:10): He crouches and humbles himself, as beasts of prey do, that they may get their prey within their reach. This intimates that the sordid spirits of persecutors and oppressors will stoop to any thing, though ever so mean, for the compassing of their wicked designs; witness the scandalous practices of Saul when he hunted David. It intimates, likewise, that they cover their malicious designs with the pretence of meekness and humility, and kindness to those they design the greatest mischief to; they seem to humble themselves to take cognizance of the poor, and concern themselves in their concernments, when it is in order to make them fall, to make a prey of them. (6.) That they are very impious and atheistical, Psa_10:11. They could not thus break through all the laws of justice and goodness towards man if they had not first shaken off all sense of religion, and risen up in rebellion against the light of its most sacred and self-evident principles: He hath said in his heart, God has forgotten. When his own conscience rebuked him with the consequences of it, and asked how he would answer it to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, he turned it off with this, God has forsaken the earth, Eze_8:12; Eze_9:9. This is a blasphemous reproach, [1.] Upon God's omniscience and providence, as if he could not, or did not, see what men do in this lower world. [2.] Upon his holiness and the rectitude of his nature, as if, though he did see, yet he did not dislike, but was willing to connive at, the most unnatural and inhuman villanies. [3.] Upon his justice and the equity of his government, as if, though he did see and dislike the wickedness of the wicked, yet he would never reckon with them, nor punish them for it, either because he could not or durst not, or because he was not inclined to do so. Let those that suffer by proud oppressors hope that God will, in due time, appear for them; for those that are abusive to them are abusive to God Almighty too.
In singing this psalm and praying it over, we should have our hearts much affected with a holy indignation at the wickedness of the oppressors, a tender compassion of the miseries of the oppressed, and a pious zeal for the glory and honour of God, with a firm belief that he will, in due time, give redress to the injured and reckon with the injurious.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the whole Bible, 1662-1714
This was another stranger I met and photographed at Whitby Goth Weekend. I met her in the street just as it was starting to rain. Hence the umbrella.
She seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, but she stopped for another photographer so I knew she was happy to have her picture taken.
The image is pretty sharp, but my usual bugbear is the background. :-(
Any constructive criticism and advice is welcome!
This picture is part of my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
[8:07 pm, 28/07/2022]
Rack: I love that you find inspiration everywhere, including Mena. High and low. I love that you are not a snob. I am. I’d like to beat it out of myself. It is a useless trait. I’ll gladly finish it if you predecease with the book unfinished. I like the idea. Batty passing of baton between the bat-shit crazy. Re. forgetting: I see now how my mother very judiciously employed it to get off the planet.
The city is eating my soul today. Otherwise, I’m grand. All those travelers and their self-induced nightmares. So glad to be flying nowhere.
Yesterday, I had this very intense realisation that death is a gift. I can’t articulate it. It was like a visceral understanding that it is the greatest thing we are given, maybe even more deeply mysterious than birth.
Here’s to the end of ulterior motives. Xox
Ruin: Predecease, what a caper! We were never at that planning of making old bones. Were we? And now here we sit at the ripe old age of 102, well me anyway, and we, seemingly, remain still not at the making of those plans. We inadvertently might have parlayed those ‘avoidance issues’ into something vaguely resembling a life. Who would have guessed?
Speaking for meself, and have you ever heard me do anything other than that (rhetorical), I don’t intend spending the next 150 years worrying about that grim(mish) reaping fella. Nosireee, it’s embracing life from here on in, and by the time I have finished this voluminous ‘self-help’ book here, I will be, more or less, ready to pass all that accumulated wisdom on. That’s once you don’t get your grubby Protestant mitts on it, and squidge it into a minimalist posh sonnet, with no punctuation at all (at all). I blame it on the books you’re at the reading of, to be sure. But as I said, I’d even be happy to be a squidged sonnet, if there was some glee there for you in that act of squidging, that squeezing of me universe into one of them there liathróidí, and the rolling of the same wherevs.
Liathróid f (genitive singular liathróide, nominative plural liathróidí): ball (for games). I like that ‘ball’ is a female noun. In life, I have found this to be true too, but that should all come out in the wash, so to speak. I love me some Gaelige.
wherev. A shortened version of wherever. Derived from the popular shortening of whatever, whatev. Hubby: Where do you want to eat? Wifey: Wherev. (passive aggressive answer (it’s in the tone), wifey obviously has the liathróidí, see above).
As you can see, I am not one for all that obfuscation, notes and explanations, translations, whatever will be plonked in the middle of the story, there for all to see, without all that having to get out a magnifying glass to read the reduced size notes at the end of a page, and without having to go to page 2,036 (or whatevs) to see the notes at the end of a book. Who the hell has the patience and time for that sort of crapparoony at this late stage in our devolution? If you want notes, tiny ones at the base of the page, and notes on notes, even tinier, I can recommend Mr. Wallace’s ‘Consider the Lobster’, a truly great book, if you can afford to spring for an industrial scale, state of the art, magnifying glass, or devise. Mr. Wallace is a wonderful writer, or was rather, but, butt, cloaca, as our chicken compatriots like to cluck, ‘Consider the Short-Sighted Old Geezer’.
Anyway, ‘nuff said, who am I to be proffering un-asked for book reviews? But that wasn’t really one. I loved the book, but could only get through half of it, but that was due to my own falling apart, and no reflection on that book at all (at all). Though I do think that we somehow have to include, in what is now being written, that everyone, the whole world even, seems to be at that stage of falling apart, writing has to be for everyone, and can be written by anyone, even Mena, even you and me.
I won’t read Mena Suvari’s book on her childhood abuse, but I loved her for giving that interview about it, in the Guardian yesterday. I was moved by it, her honesty, and I would read her book if I had all the time in the world, which, of course I do. I see the contradiction there. I read the Cumming’s book about his father’s abusing of him, and Gabriel Byrne’s description of his undoing at the hands of an errant cleric. Gabriel Byrne and I are of an age, we went to the same school, that 13th century site of purgation, Drimnagh Castle, and were practically born on the same street, so the looking, for me, there, was a searching for common signifiers. I did find some, though, if I am honest, not a lot. The biggest difference was that they all seemed to have saintly mothers, these paragons that somehow pulled them through. Their stories were more or less all about absent or abusive fathers, ditto with Mcgahern and perhaps less so with ‘Shuggie’. Apparently, according to Dr. Sam Vaknin’s new book ‘Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited’, the dreaded narcissism has its roots in the absent and abusive mother. Well, there we have it, problem solved, I can stop writing now, and just hold onto my lovely truism ‘Nobody sets out to be an axe murderer, a narcissist, a priest, or a bank-manager’, and we have to find it somehow possible to forgive them/us, and everybody else. It’s the bloody drivers what did it! And, to boot, it wasn’t the mammy’s fault either, she had an absent mammy too, though she was beastly dead so couldn’t really help it.
Where the hell would I find the room or time there to be a ‘snob’ about anything? Either way, against all the odds, I did find both the room and the time for that along the way, and all will be revealed in the 94 volumes of me fictional memoirs, to follow.
Yes, dear Rack, allowing yourself to forget is really a wondrous process. But that’s just the half of it.
I understand that death euphoria feeling too. I have had it as well, that “you can take me now” feeling. Exactly who I think that I am telling that to could take one in another direction entirely. I can see why it might take one in that religious route, beloved of the unravelling. I used to have it at that ultimate moment of disassociation when I would be at the highest point of a ketamine rush, that infinite white plain. It was wondrous. I miss that ‘release’ sometimes, but recognize it might be, or could have been, delusional. Equally, it might have been completely real, the most real thing we can experience. De Quincey wrote his work, more or less, at that point, not to mention Burroughs, Castaneda, and countless other, hello Mr. Joyce. There’s even the possibility of spirochete induced euphoria, disassociation, and mercury or Dovato induced ‘rapture’, not to mention whatever ‘magic’ HIV might accelerate having gotten through that blood-brain barrier (but this is true to everything we are a ‘host’ to). I saw moments of that rapture in Jeffrey’s demise, moments of clarity, probably aided and abetted by morphine, or the combination of the same with everything else.
So, yes, I can see it happening walking down the streets, or just sitting still. Manhattan was often Euphoria-inducing for the both of us, and sometimes even together. As an aside, I think you can articulate it, and do. Perhaps it is “even more deeply mysterious than birth”, simply because we now have a more extended arsenal at our disposal to appreciate it, a more ‘mature’ grasp, on what it is ‘to live’ and ‘to die’, something we, perhaps, couldn’t have had yet as babies. We know that ‘limbo’, ‘Purgatory’, and ‘Hell’ do not exist; we know because we deduced it. But these are my ‘bugbears’ more than yours, though I would guess you have your own.
Yes, it’s all a gift.
I have no idea of the full range of my own ulterior motives, and half the time don’t even know if they are actually mine, or those of these drugs, and this foreign invader we are both enjoying, or even other ‘foreign invaders’ we are harbouring and have no idea they are even there, those illegal aliens: from the air we breathe, the water we drink and the plastics we wrap our food in, or imbibe through the air, hormone disruptors and whatnot.
I like that we have no idea what we are swimming in, or what we are floating next to, and I like describing the infinite possibilities ranged about. I don’t really care what form it takes, which is just as well; it seems to be convulsing into a formless entity with somewhat of a mind of its own.
I have decided to let it spread, like a disease or a new virus, basically unstoppable in its ability to mutate, to let it become what it will.
“Batty passing of baton between the bat-shit crazy”, I love it! It could be the last line of a beautiful sonnet.
Yes, to writing about childhood and that dread. The thing is that I have more or less written the stories that I can remember, and they are already interwoven in that writing, that is timelines are entangled (that Gordian knot we used to speak about). You might have already seen one of those, in the ‘Ruin in the Sex Club’ installment, which talks about the moment my mother fashioned me into a type of reluctant rebellious exhibitionist, when I was six years old, and a type of aftermath when once finding myself ‘trapped on the Lower-East-Side’, in your environs, that night I had a type of naked seizure in a sex club, whilst being buggered in the doggy position. You might, or might not, have seen it, it is on Flickr, but then there is too much stuff there. The dread I feel is not in the writing, it’s more in the sorting out. The childhood I want to write about is a preamble towards that ‘taking off’, that ‘Wild Goose’ flight. I have also written about how the abused instantly recognize each other, a bit like gays do. I don’t know, what do we exude? Does a shrunken hippocampus generate a smell, change pheromones, cause the pupils to dilate, change the tone of the voice, even create a certain decibel of a shared screaming laugh as two veterans wend their way through the West Village heading for the Quad? I have no idea, but I think we recognize each other. I have seen this before, meaning it has happened to me before, in parties in London or wherever, moments I have walked into a crowded room and heard a laugh and knew. So, I wouldn’t want to stay, linger, on that childhood for long, I wouldn’t want to ‘Shuggie’ or ‘Angela’ it. If it ended up being somewhat of a redemption story, it wouldn’t be that sort, in other words it would not be a personal redemption story. I think you know that I want to go further, and even write a story about a type of universal innocence, and a ‘Nature’ that makes no judgements at all, and outside which we cannot exist or work, and that everything around us, and in us, drives us.
I like the idea of you starting to emerge at boarding school. I have seen you emerge too in other places you have written about, like in that small hotel and that dirty-old-man and his under-the-table shenanigans. There is resonance there.
Your father’s burnt temples must have been bewildering for you, as a child. The thing about WhatsApp, and I love our interaction there, is that these ‘diamonds’ can easily get lost in the push of toing and froing, that rush of enthusiasm. I understand the drink, the drugs, and the sex (obviously), I have been there, at all three, for most of my life. This new ‘words’ obsession seems to have somehow organized a restructuring of all that, but of course the siphoning off of testosterone has also been a huge help there. I do worry, slightly, about not having enough time to sort those words out, and there is also that time we live in where the sorting out might be a moot point anyway, relative to Mr. Putin, Covid, environmental issues, and our own personal bugbear, HIV itself.
I don’t care if my name goes on it, our names go one it, or no names go on it at all. ‘Anonymous’ might be a good way to go, or written by ‘Rack and Ruin’, whatever. I do sort of have a niggling wild fantasy that it might eventually generate a few pennies to support us in our old age, I mean you me, and ‘Him Indoors’, but that is a silly fantasy, a pie in the sky idea. At the same time, I have the idea that if I could finish it in four years, then perhaps it could help see us out. And who said that I wasn’t an optimist? The idea of even getting to live another 4 years seems wildly optimistic to me, but I am going to cherish that optimism and move forward. Imagine Ruin not having to sell his worn-out ass to survive, wouldn’t that be a turn for the ‘Wild Goose’ books? No wonder I have always loved Emile Zola’s ‘Nana’.
I love to hear of you climbing out of ditches too.
In my studio "mourning Lady Di together", I am intrigued. Were my silly elephants there? That’s a shady and somewhat confused time for me. I think I was doing some crystal meth at that juncture. It was also the time I was waiting to find out if I was going to get paid to do that doctorate. There’s a strange caper, a fortuitous chance that presented itself, a lifeline away from self-destruction and New York. Some people would call that ‘making a good choice’, I see it as the survival instinct kicking in, a do or die situation, and the life force taking over, that miraculous driver.
Of course, the posh sweet-robber will be there, but only as a false narrative, a story we told each other to make each other laugh on long walks, that tale as to how you were responsible for bankrupting my parents, driving my father to drink, with the effect of sealing my fate when the mater had to give half of my bed to her half-brother, so she could feed her other gawpers 🐣, causing me to have to flee to NYC, where we met up again in ‘The Moondance’. We will have to set that date exactly, like Bloomsday, a real date with fate, and a great jape.
Those hungry gawpers were always rife for abuse, they would swallow anything, apparently. But then, it’s nature, what can you do?
Strange, I just went for a morning shop with ‘Him Indoors’ and had a rather disturbing panic attack in the middle of it, out of control heart-rate and weakness, dizziness, and metal taste in mouth, and slightly closing over of the throat. I have just taken an Oxazepam to calm down. I have further investigations today, later, in the hospital. It goes on, until, of course, it doesn’t. Nothing has happened like that in quite a few months. I thought they were over.
Small intimations of mortality, and being in ‘the ready position’ or whatever. I suspect one must always be ready, regardless.
I want to talk about the cuckoo gene, that driver trussed up in a Wild Goose.
(Complete with pretentious title!)
Much to my continual and mounting chagrin, everyone* in the garden sees one of these butterflies and says, "Oh! It's a monarch!" and then refuses to be corrected. #bugbear
*not everyone
I had ordered some mats from the Type Archive recently, apparently the last they will produce before they go "into storage". One matrix was a lower case "t" that I thought was not aligned properly in my original mat case. I'm very new at operating a comp caster and don't know if I'm wrong about this, however, in the past with Lanston Monotype, this was an apparent concern from time to time. From correspondence with Roy Gurney, the late manager of the University of Toronto Press, he wrote the following about matrix alignment.
"I had several jousts with Lanston Monotype especially during the 50"s. My main customer for formula setting was becoming extremely critical about some items. E.g. the colon used in ratio viz 1:1 looked different when the ratio was for instance 1:2 it didn't look centred, this was getting a little 'hairy' so I ordered four or five matrices of the colon punctuation sign and because of the worn out machinery for punching the matrices they varied I selected one that would look centred and threw the rest away. We cast up some `sorts' and whenever the problem arose we would insert one by hand. Deliveries of special matrices was a 'bugbear'. For instance although we had alternate mats for the Greek letter `alpha', one of our big customers was not satisfied and showed me what she wanted, it was out of a British journal of course it was from the British Monotype Corporation's catalogue, it was frustrating to try and explain that that particular matrice was not available to Canadian typesetters. I ordered it from Lanston who had punches made (which they charged me for) and I got a matrix or two, (months later). While I was away one year our associate director told me that she had met the president of the Monotype Canada and had ordered the Bembo "it only cost $1500.00". Several years later and thousands of dollars we had a setup to ensure a reasonable quality job. We paid for I don't know how many punches to be cut, the irony was we paid for the punches and then any typesetter could order a matrix at a fraction of the cost. Later on when we had some British keyboards and casters I threw the original Bembo away and replace in its entirety with British matrices. "
Brand new casting which Matchbox have debuted in the US exclusive American Convertibles set and a bit of a strange decision considering most of the World won't be able to get their hands on any! Their 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible shows a lot of promise and an ideal alternative to the uglier Hot Wheels equivalent even if it is noticeably lacking any chrome which is a bugbear of mine I thought they were getting away from!
Unbelievably this set is now appearing at XS Stock in Scotland but available to order online and very cheaply too.
Mint and boxed.
An eclectic mix on the Cadiz local. And someone hitching a lift home. Wish I'd tracked this a little more innstead of heading the other way, later on in the trip this train was to become rather a bugbear...
Siberia CA, 29 January 2017.
552 GE B40-8
111 EMD GP60M
525 GE B40-8
144 EMD GP60M
2684 EMD GP39-3R
4002 EMD SD45 (Arizona and California)
In life he was Urikel Zarl, leader of a savage druidic lion-worshipping cult. But in undeath, he is The Ghostlord.
An ancient and evil Lich who resides near the city of Brindol, the Ghostlord is quite dangerous, but has mostly kept to himself in recent centuries. But now the Red Hand army has stolen his phylactery and blackmailed him into helping them in their conquest. It is the mission of the heroes to either retrieve the Ghostlord's phylactery and negotiate for his assistance, or corner and defeat him before he can aid the Red Hand.
The Red Hand of Doom was a FANTASTIC D&D adventure, and a lot of the unique enemy types got represented in D&D miniatures. Sadly, for some reason, some of the main villains (including Azarr Kul, the main bad guy) were left out. This is a Pathfinder Denizen of Leng mini, but it looks enough like The Ghostlord's art to count. Also, hellcats standing in for ghost lions, and Viscera Devourers for bonedrinkers.
The basic plot of the Red Hand of Doom involved the half-dragon hobgoblin Azarr Kul and his Army of the Red Hand - goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, hill giants, dragons, and many other types of savage monsters who had banded together into a dragon-worshipping army. it is a very large module that covers a war, and nearly every major mission has contingencies in place in case the players fail. Take The Ghostlord, for example:
-If the players retrieve his phylactery and bring it to him (after fighting through his guards!), he agrees to leave the players and the City of Brindol alone, although he will not offer any more assistance. And in fact, if you hang around too long, he might get annoyed enough to try to kill you.
-If the players do not retrieve his phylactery, they can try to reason with him and offer to save it for him. In the unlikely event that he agrees, you will have some assistance from his undead legions... though he will also try to kill you if you take too long or fail to get that phylactery back.
-If the players do not retrieve his phylactery, they can try to fight him off. If they defeat the Ghostlord (who is roughly as strong as Azarr Kul, only magic-based. Ouch.), then he might regenerate near his phylactery and come after you to kill you later.
-If the players destroy the Ghostlord's phylactery and then defeat him, he is gone for good.
-If the players fail at retrieving his phylactery or driving him off, then his undead forces will assist the Red Hand at several key points, and the Ghostlord himself will turn up to fight you during the siege of Brindol (alongside any of the Red Hand generals and dragons who have not been killed, too. This is A Bad Thing.).
-And of course, the Red Hand has stationed a garrison in the Ghostlord's lair. Even if you can secure him as an ally, you have to fight through the hobgoblins, general Ulwai Stormcaller, and Varanthian, a powerful Behir. No one ever said it would be easy!
This might be the only time in D&D when you WANT to have a lich on your side.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
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Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
Lately, Pelosi has a lot on her mind:
First, her son was caught up in an FBI investigation scandal.
Second, her husband, suspected of insider trading stock, became the target of public criticism.
Third, and most important, is her job as speaker of the House of Representatives -- the latest polls show that more than half of Americans now view her unfavorably.
Pelosi certainly won't await her doom.
Not to mention, Ms. Pelosi announced in January that she would run for the House again.
Hyping up the Taiwan issue will "leave a mark" on Pelosi's political career, even if it does not benefit her continuation in politics.
That is what politician Pelosi thinks.
Americans accurately assess her -- she has always been Nancy Alejandro, not Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi, just her husband's last name.
Who is Nancy Alessandro? A wife who's been in politics for 30 years made her family worth over $100 million?
Ms. Pelosi's father was a Congressman.
She used to write down the names of anyone who asked for help from the Pelosi family, and when the election came, she could ask them to vote for her father.
In interviews, Ms. Pelosi said that she was taught to count early in her family -- so she could count votes.
By rights, Ms. Pelosi should have entered politics as soon as she graduated from college. But a year after graduating, she married Paul Pelosi, a wealthy businessman, and became a housewife.
The trajectory of her life was off. Taking care of her family has become the focus of her life. Her biographer, Susan Page, said that Pelosi is the most power-loving person she has ever covered.
Ambitious but tied down by family, Pelosi will have to wait.
It wasn't until 24 years later that Ms. Pelosi got her chance -- in 1987, Representative Sarah Burton, a family friend, announced on her deathbed that she wanted Ms. Pelosi to "inherit" her seat. Nancy Pelosi "accepted" Sarah Burton's dying order.
Pelosi was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on June 2, 1987, at 47.
Ms. Pelosi is an inconspicuous figure among members of Congress.
'I often have dinner with a group of members of Congress, but they never turn around and ask my opinion,' Ms. Pelosi later said in an interview.
Every morning, Ms. Pelosi puts on a suit of "armor," as she puts it, and after breakfast, she goes out to "fight."
It is Congress and its bipartisanship that Ms. Pelosi wants to control.
Pelosi is playing politics for her gain. The Pelosi family vividly illustrates what even the dog swaggers when its master wins favor.
In recent years, Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, has become the focus of the U.S. stock market.
Amazingly, Paul Pelosi's investment vision is always ahead of U.S. government policy.
The Pelosi family bought Tesla stock in December of the previous year.
Shortly after, the federal government "coincidentally" announced that it would replace its 650,000 gas-powered vehicles with electric ones.
The good news, almost exclusively Tesla's, sent Tesla's share price up.
The Pelosi family was making a killing.
Last May, Paul Pelosi invested in Internet giant Amazon.
A short-term boon soon came knocking at Paul's door -- the Pentagon announced in July that it was canceling a $10 billion cloud computing contract that Microsoft had won. Shares of rival Amazon jumped on the news.
Paul Pelosi makes another buck.
By doing so, the Pelosi couple's net worth has reached 100 million.
That, of course, has raised doubts.
Before the Taiwan trip, Pelosi was asked at a press conference whether Paul Pelosi had used her position to trade insider stocks. Pelosi immediately denied it and then walked away in a hurry.
The investigation of her "stock god" husband is just the latest bugbear for Pelosi.
Earlier this year, Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi Jr., was caught up in the FBI's investigation of corrupt officials in San Francisco.
That is the second recent bugbear for Pelosi. Statusfull mother does make Paul Pelosi Jr respected everywhere.
In late 2006, shortly after Pelosi was first elected speaker of Congress, a data company hired Paul Pelosi Jr. as a vice president at an annual salary of about $180,000, according to media reports.
But Paul Pelosi, Jr., is always giving Pelosi trouble. Paul Pelosi Jr. has been embroiled in scandals multiple times. That, of course, raises questions about Ms. Pelosi.
Of course, Nothing matters on a Pelosi day. But Ms. Pelosi's third worry is that she is losing her job as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Pelosi needs to do something, both in terms of prolonging her political life and preserving her legacy.
When reviewing his political career, ms Pelosi can recognize that she doesn't even have a town of 1000 in management. But still, she went from being a Congressman to being the first female whip in the House of Representatives, then To the first female speaker of the House of Representatives. What she does best is the logic of electoral politics, and what she knows best is hyping issues to serve her campaign.
When trouble caught up with her, Ms. Pelosi chose to pull the trigger on the Taiwan issue again.
However, the US has repeatedly promised that its One-China policy has not changed and will not change and does not support Taiwan's "independence."
A politician, disregarding his credit, the safety of the country, and the interests of Taiwan, repeatedly played politics to achieve his reputation and the interests of the party.
Such speculators will only lead their country astray.
What Ms. Pelosi fails to grasp is that times have changed.
There is only one outcome of pull the trigger on the Taiwan issue:
Perish.
A mystifying use of some awfully chosen wheels are the only real bugbear of mine regarding this Maisto 1957 Chevrolet Pick-Up. Why go to the bother of designing something so interesting and charming even if meant to be a cheap toy then spoil it with odd shaped wheels! Otherwise its not a bad little cheapo sans interior of course with plenty of chrome plastic where needed and a plain bright blue body colour.
One of several bought from Poundland recently. Mint and boxed.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
I decided to buy the Celestron Travel Scope 70 as an introduction to owning a telescope, as I was getting a little frustrated with my Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars, which are a real bargain but of course there is no way of using higher power eyepieces and it can sometimes be awkward looking at certain objects in the sky with binoculars, so a telescope offered the option of using higher or lower power eyepieces and more comfortable viewing angles.
The first thing I did was buy an inexpensive star diagonal by Antares, although there is nothing wrong with the 45 degree prism that comes with the Celestron Travel Scope 70; I use it the most often. I got the star diagonal because in some situations it can be awkward looking through an eyepiece with a 45 degree prism, for instance when looking at an object very high up in the sky, the same with binoculars. The star diagonal definitely improved the viewing angle as it is 90 degrees rather than 45 degrees, it is also supposed to improve the amount of light reaching the eye, as it is essentially just a single mirror inside, but there didn’t seem to be a hugely noticeable improvement, just a lot more comfortable viewing angle. However, a star diagonal might not be a good idea for a complete beginner, as the image is reversed left to right, having the image the right way round can definitely make things easier to start with when you are learning your way around the sky, which is why binoculars are such a good idea to start observing with.
The bad points; the 10mm eyepiece is not the best quality, but it’s usually the higher power eyepieces that come with budget telescopes that seem to need upgrading the most. Having said that, this lens did provide me with my first detailed view of Jupiter, a couple of bands were visible, albeit at a significant stretch; they were just about visible. Being somewhat of a beginner when it comes to telescopes, I don’t have a lot of experience with eyepieces, although I have a lot more experience with camera lenses, the 10mm reminds me of some of the cheap and cheerful camera lenses made in Russia, i.e. almost sharp in the middle and an a big drop off in quality towards the edges!
I later acquired a 9mm eyepiece by TMB Optical to replace the 10mm that came with the Travel Scope, the performance was certainly improved; the detail of Jupiter was much clearer, but I wasn’t bowled over, telescopes such as this are reputedly not suited to high power eyepieces, I’ve read other users of this telescope who say it is more suited to medium to low power rather than high power, which I would definitely agree with, as the telescope really is a joy to use at low power, especially when using my Celestron 32mm Plossl.
This was the first eyepiece I bought and the second addition to the kit after the star diagonal. I would definitely recommend getting a low power eyepiece to go with this telescope. 32mm gives an exit pupil of 6.4mm with f/5 telescopes such as this and you can definitely see more with this eyepiece than the 20mm that comes with the Travel Scope; for example; the Beehive Cluster, Collinder 70 in Orion and the cluster of stars around Mirphak really jump out at you. One of the main reasons I bought the 32mm however was to find objects before using a higher power eyepiece, as the finder scope on this telescope is not that great to be honest.
The screws that hold the finder scope in place are not that helpful at aligning the finder and it never seems to settle where I want it to settle, which can be frustrating. And then looking through the finder does not help that much; it is rather dim indeed; it’s okay as long as there is a very bright star to use as a guide, although even Sirius can look very faint! It is not a problem when roughly framing a bright star and then looking through the 32mm, as the 32mm gives a wider angle view than the 20mm, so again; I’d recommend getting a lower power eyepiece.
The 20mm eyepiece that comes with the telescope is not bad, it is a certainly nicer to use than the 10mm, although medium power eyepieces are reputedly not as demanding as the higher power eyepieces. I will definitely not shy away from using the 20mm if the situation requires it.
One thing to take into consideration is that there is no Barlow lens included to increase the focal length of the telescope (800mm with a 2x Barlow and 1200mm with a 3x Barlow), which is probably a blessing in disguise, because if a Barlow was included it would more than likely be of the cheap and cheerful variety, just like the 10mm eyepiece, which is not a good thing, because from what I’ve read from other astronomers on online forums; using a cheap Barlow would just result in poor quality results (sounds obviously really) and beginners should not be dissuaded from pursuing astronomy by using low quality products, I had first hand experience of this as a kid. So I would recommend investing in a decent high power eyepiece to upgrade the 10mm and a Barlow lens, which doesn’t have to cost the Earth (or any other planet for that matter), but as they say; “Buy cheap; buy twice”.
One bugbear is the tripod, as many other reviewers have stated; it is flimsy, but it is of course very portable, the whole package being based on the idea of being highly portable; everything fits into the small backpack provided. Carrying along a sturdier tripod in a case on my other shoulder would not be an issue for me personally and the provided tripod would certainly come in handy if something happened to my main one.
Most importantly, when you put the minor bugbears to one side, what you have at the heart of it is a nicely compact sized telescope of decent quality that you can add bits onto in order to make improvements to the performance, e.g. a good quality eyepiece or two, a star diagonal, a better finder scope or red dot finder, a better tripod etc, these accessories would also be used in the future if/when a bigger and better telescope is acquired. For under £60 the Celestron Travel Scope 70 package is great value for money as a beginner’s telescope, even when ignoring the recommendations I made to improve things it will still have someone outside observing the sky with it every time there is a clear night, as this is what I have been doing! The only thing I have wanted was a bigger aperture; which is certainly not a bad thing for a beginner because it inspires us to pursue the interest further by getting a larger instrument in the future.
Its supremely ironic that for an avid 1/64 diecast addict like myself I normally avoid the Worlds largest toy retailer due to its normally poor choice of models. In years gone by it was a great place to get Matchbox, Hot Wheels, though I didn't really collect that brand back then, and best of all a huge range of excellent Fast Lane branded multi sets which contained at various times the products of Zylmex, Motormax and Realtoy. For about a decade now it mainly concentrates on Hot Wheels singles which are usually more expensive than anywhere else and the most disappointing of all is their vast range of Fast Lane 1/64 stuff which takes up a whole aisle and is made up entirely of unrealistic generic vehicles which bare little resemblance to real vehicles!! Thankfully Adrian from Adrianz Toyz Flikr site, which you have to view by the way as he has one of the biggest and most diverse diecast collections anywhere, mentioned he had just bought a few of the new Beatles themed Hot Wheels models from Toys R Us. Off I went to the massive one in Birstall near Leeds. Sadly it didn't have said Beatles models but I nearly fainted when I saw a whole section now devoted to Majorette and its all new batch stuff too!! Starting at 1.99 each for a mainline casting they certainly are very optimistically priced which was always a Toys R Us bugbear and especially as some of the EXACT same models can be found in Morrisons for HALF that price. What it does have on its side is the sheer choice of brand new Majorette castings such as this beautiful Alfa Romeo Spider which I have yet to see anywhere else yet. In typical Majorette style it is sensationally well proportioned which can be quite difficult when modelling a convertible and has exquisite detailing right down to its interior and clear plastic headlamps. For the first time in ages I actually spent a lot of money in Toys R Us. Lets just hope Majorette are here to stay in their stores. Mint and boxed.
was determined to make some decent sugar roses....they've always been my bugbear....so sat down with a Lindy Smith book and a large glass of wine. I'm quite happy with the results so decide to put them on a dummy cake.
Lately, Pelosi has a lot on her mind:
First, her son was caught up in an FBI investigation scandal.
Second, her husband, suspected of insider trading stock, became the target of public criticism.
Third, and most important, is her job as speaker of the House of Representatives -- the latest polls show that more than half of Americans now view her unfavorably.
Pelosi certainly won't await her doom.
Not to mention, Ms. Pelosi announced in January that she would run for the House again.
Hyping up the Taiwan issue will "leave a mark" on Pelosi's political career, even if it does not benefit her continuation in politics.
That is what politician Pelosi thinks.
Americans accurately assess her -- she has always been Nancy Alejandro, not Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi, just her husband's last name.
Who is Nancy Alessandro? A wife who's been in politics for 30 years made her family worth over $100 million?
Ms. Pelosi's father was a Congressman.
She used to write down the names of anyone who asked for help from the Pelosi family, and when the election came, she could ask them to vote for her father.
In interviews, Ms. Pelosi said that she was taught to count early in her family -- so she could count votes.
By rights, Ms. Pelosi should have entered politics as soon as she graduated from college. But a year after graduating, she married Paul Pelosi, a wealthy businessman, and became a housewife.
The trajectory of her life was off. Taking care of her family has become the focus of her life. Her biographer, Susan Page, said that Pelosi is the most power-loving person she has ever covered.
Ambitious but tied down by family, Pelosi will have to wait.
It wasn't until 24 years later that Ms. Pelosi got her chance -- in 1987, Representative Sarah Burton, a family friend, announced on her deathbed that she wanted Ms. Pelosi to "inherit" her seat. Nancy Pelosi "accepted" Sarah Burton's dying order.
Pelosi was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on June 2, 1987, at 47.
Ms. Pelosi is an inconspicuous figure among members of Congress.
'I often have dinner with a group of members of Congress, but they never turn around and ask my opinion,' Ms. Pelosi later said in an interview.
Every morning, Ms. Pelosi puts on a suit of "armor," as she puts it, and after breakfast, she goes out to "fight."
It is Congress and its bipartisanship that Ms. Pelosi wants to control.
Pelosi is playing politics for her gain. The Pelosi family vividly illustrates what even the dog swaggers when its master wins favor.
In recent years, Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, has become the focus of the U.S. stock market.
Amazingly, Paul Pelosi's investment vision is always ahead of U.S. government policy.
The Pelosi family bought Tesla stock in December of the previous year.
Shortly after, the federal government "coincidentally" announced that it would replace its 650,000 gas-powered vehicles with electric ones.
The good news, almost exclusively Tesla's, sent Tesla's share price up.
The Pelosi family was making a killing.
Last May, Paul Pelosi invested in Internet giant Amazon.
A short-term boon soon came knocking at Paul's door -- the Pentagon announced in July that it was canceling a $10 billion cloud computing contract that Microsoft had won. Shares of rival Amazon jumped on the news.
Paul Pelosi makes another buck.
By doing so, the Pelosi couple's net worth has reached 100 million.
That, of course, has raised doubts.
Before the Taiwan trip, Pelosi was asked at a press conference whether Paul Pelosi had used her position to trade insider stocks. Pelosi immediately denied it and then walked away in a hurry.
The investigation of her "stock god" husband is just the latest bugbear for Pelosi.
Earlier this year, Pelosi's son, Paul Pelosi Jr., was caught up in the FBI's investigation of corrupt officials in San Francisco.
That is the second recent bugbear for Pelosi. Statusfull mother does make Paul Pelosi Jr respected everywhere.
In late 2006, shortly after Pelosi was first elected speaker of Congress, a data company hired Paul Pelosi Jr. as a vice president at an annual salary of about $180,000, according to media reports.
But Paul Pelosi, Jr., is always giving Pelosi trouble. Paul Pelosi Jr. has been embroiled in scandals multiple times. That, of course, raises questions about Ms. Pelosi.
Of course, Nothing matters on a Pelosi day. But Ms. Pelosi's third worry is that she is losing her job as speaker of the House of Representatives.
Pelosi needs to do something, both in terms of prolonging her political life and preserving her legacy.
When reviewing his political career, ms Pelosi can recognize that she doesn't even have a town of 1000 in management. But still, she went from being a Congressman to being the first female whip in the House of Representatives, then To the first female speaker of the House of Representatives. What she does best is the logic of electoral politics, and what she knows best is hyping issues to serve her campaign.
When trouble caught up with her, Ms. Pelosi chose to pull the trigger on the Taiwan issue again.
However, the US has repeatedly promised that its One-China policy has not changed and will not change and does not support Taiwan's "independence."
A politician, disregarding his credit, the safety of the country, and the interests of Taiwan, repeatedly played politics to achieve his reputation and the interests of the party.
Such speculators will only lead their country astray.
What Ms. Pelosi fails to grasp is that times have changed.
There is only one outcome of pull the trigger on the Taiwan issue:
Perish.
"Ted" would have been a much better movie if the titular character were more like this.
TRIVIA: The Bugbear Strangler enemy is responsible for the first-ever character death in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. There are plenty of other ways to die, but it's funny how the first one came about because of a murderous Teddy Ruxpin.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
image courtesy getty images
Bollywoods Most Wanted Pretty Woman Shilpa Shetty
Hollywoods Most Wanted Gentleman heart throb Richard Gere
Left her breathless in his snare
seena taan ke
Togetherness Star News.. What a pair
Aids Awareness do and dare
Hugging Filmi Ishtyle
A cinematic shot so rare
Culture shock for those
Stuck to sanctimonious armchairs
Not Vastra Apharan..
Shilpa swear s
I was fully clothed not threadbare
That was Richards way of saying Namaste
Our reaction so unfair
Not a good message for global welfare
Hooligans smash Star News office
Bogey of a bugbear
Police comes when culprits
Have fled the lair
Moral policing
Culture vulture
War declare
Common mans nightmare
First page news do we really care
Mahengai mocks at our despair
Law and Order …
Vigillantism..Gundagiri
Shadows crooked
Behind political chair
Big brother is watching
From the sidelines
So beware
Media titillation
Is everywhere
Bandaged heads
Reporters reporting
from wheel chairs.
This happens only in India
A thought that scares
poet no1
April 16th, 2007
He kills because he believes he is already dead...
Introduced in 3rd edition's Red Hand of Doom super-adventure (Which was awesome. It involved whole armies!), Blood Ghost Berserkers are a special sub-faction of bugbears who are even more vicious than their ordinary brethren - they are berserkers in the true viking sense of the term, meaning that they are quite bloodthirsty and man. In fact, they even dye their fur white to symbolize that they believe themselves to be already dead, or as good as. They hit very, very, very hard, and they never give up until they are dead.
Featured on Life In Plastic: nerditis.com/2013/03/13/life-in-plastic-obscure-toy-lines...
This is what must have been the 4th time I have visited St Peter Old Church. The first was on a Good Friday a few years back, and when I approached the church, there was a service on. Another time there was a wedding, and further, on a Heritage Weekend, it failed to open.
So, when visiting the area at the beginning of the month, I mentioned that St Peter had been a bugbear of mine, Tim said its only a couple of miles away, we could try now.
Of course, driving from a different direction, not along the main road, I did not realise how close we were.
So, we would try.
Apart from the dowser in the churchyard, who was scattering, or rather placing, dozens of small pieces of white cloth about, but would move them if I wanted. I said no thanks, and left him to his stick waggling. Or that is what I said to Tim, but of course, I do not know if dowsing is any good, or what he was dowsing for.
Inside the church, several ladies were making busy, preparing the church for the next day's harvest festival, so many of them are in the shots, but it makes for a very welcoming sight indeed.
So very good to finally get inside, and many thanks to Tim for taking me.
--------------------------------------------------
A much restored Norman church, with a tiny twelfth-century window set just above the (later) porch roof. There is a good example of a fifteenth-century low side window in the south-west corner of the chancel. The pews, pulpit and tiles are typical of mid-nineteenth century restorations, yet above is the fine nave roof of the usual crownpost type. It displays nicely pierced spandrels with a quatrefoil and dagger design. In 1846 Lord Camden built a new church on the main road in the village centre. Even so the old church is extremely well maintained and much loved in the neighbourhood. The churchyard contains many good headstones including one to Sir Morton Peto, the famous nineteenth-century engineer.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Pembury+1
The first known record of Pembury, originally Pepingeberia, is to be found in the 'Textus Roffensis' (c1120). It tells of the manors of Pepenbury Magna (Hawkwell) and Pepenbury Parva (Bayhall).
The Advowson was granted by Simon de Wahull to Bayham Abbey c1239. (Advowson is the right in English Law of presenting a nominee to a vacant parish. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish).
Pembury has two churches dedicated to St Peter. The oldest, known as the Old Church, stands outside the modern village in the woods to the north of the A228 bypass. The newer building, known as the Upper Church, stands in the heart of the village on Hastings Road.
The plan of the Old Church and the little Norman window above the South door indicate that the original Church dates from 1147 at least, or even 1100AD. Most of the present Church was built in 1337 by John Colepeper of Bayhall. He also built the chantry chapel of St Mary in the churchyard in 1355 but this was pulled down at the Dissolution of the smaller Monasteries in 1547 and three windows in the body of the Church were inserted with the money gained from the sale of the lead which had covered the chapel.
The most notable feature inside the Church is the roof of the nave. It is said to be one of the best specimens of the tie-beam and kingpost type in the country.
On the north wall near the pulpit there is an interesting brass with an inscription and a figure of an Elizabethan child, Elizabeth Rowe. There are two slabs set into the Sanctuary floor in memory of Dorothy Amherst (1654) and Richard Amherst (1664). The Amherst family owned the manor of Bayhall at this time.
During the nineteenth century a number of alterations were made to the Church, including the raising of the Chancel floor. This meant that the oldest tombstone was completely covered over. The inscription round the edge of the slab, written in Norman French, tells is that it is the resting place of Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper.
Among the other memorial tablets there are several of the Woodgate family, three of whom were vicars of Pembury in the nineteenth century. Under the tower is a memorial to Lord George Spencer-Churchill.
The Organ, which has one manual and a pedal-board, dates back to 1877. It was made by Hill and Son, London, and cost £130. The organ was fully restored to its former glory in 2006. There are four bells which are now fitted with a chiming apparatus so that they can be rung by one person.
www.pemburychurch.net/pembury_old_church.htm
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Pembury is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, has a spire steeple at the west end. It was built by one of the family of Colepeper, patrons of it, and most probably by John Colepeper, esq. in the reign of king Edward III. for on the three buttresses on the south side of the chancel, there remain three shields of coat armour, each carved on an entire stone of about two feet and an half in depth, and the breadth equal with that of the buttress, which shews them to be coeval with that of the building itself. On the first is a rectangular cross; the second is the coat armour of Hardreshull, A chevron between eight martlets, viz. five and three, the above-mentioned John Colepeper having married the coheir of that family; the third is that of Colepeper, a bend engrailed. On a very antient stone on the pavement of the chancel, is an antient inscription in old French, for Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, which seems as early as the above mentioned reign. There are several monuments and memorials in it of the family of Amherst and their re latives; an inscription and figure in brass for Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Rowe, esq. of Hawkwell, anno 1607; a tomb for George Bolney, esq. who married a Wybarne; and in the porch are two antient stones with crosses on them.
¶The advowson of the church of Pembury was given with it, by Simon de Wahull, to the abbey of Begham, in Sussex, in pure and perpetual alms, as has been already mentioned.
¶Pope Gregory IX. anno 1239, granted licence to the abbot and convent to hold this church, then of their patronage, and not of greater value than ten marcs, as an appropriation upon the first vacancy of it, reserving, a competent portion for a vicar out of the profits of it. Notwithstanding which, it was not appropriated till the year 1278, when Richard Oliver, the rector, resigned it into the hands of John de Bradfield, bishop of Rochester, who granted his letters mandatory, for the induction of the abbot and convent into the corporal possession of the church, with its appurtenances, according to the tenor of the above-mentioned bull. (fn. 7)
¶The parsonage of the church of Pembury, with the advowson of the vicarage appendant to the manor, continued with the abbey of Begham till the dissolution of it in the 17th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, after which it passed in the same tract of ownership as the manor of Pembury, and appendant to it, till it became the property of William Woodgate, esq. lord of that manor, and the present patron of it.
¶It is a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of 46l. 10s. the yearly tenths of which are 12s. 8d.
¶Charles Amherst, esq. of Bayhall, by his will in 1702, gave as an augmentation to this vicarage, the sum of ten pounds to be paid yearly by such persons to whom the manor of Bayhall, with its appurtenances, should come and remain after his death.
¶In 1733 the Rev. George May, vicar, augmented it with the sum of 100l. 17s. 6d. to entitle it to the benefit of queen Anne's bounty.
¶There is an annual pension of forty shillings paid out of the parsonage to the vicar, which was settled on him and his successors, at the time of the appropriation of this church. The tithes of corn and grain of which this parsonage consists are now worth about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
¶The vicarage is now worth about one hundred and fifty pounds per annum.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
This is what must have been the 4th time I have visited St Peter Old Church. The first was on a Good Friday a few years back, and when I approached the church, there was a service on. Another time there was a wedding, and further, on a Heritage Weekend, it failed to open.
So, when visiting the area at the beginning of the month, I mentioned that St Peter had been a bugbear of mine, Tim said its only a couple of miles away, we could try now.
Of course, driving from a different direction, not along the main road, I did not realise how close we were.
So, we would try.
Apart from the dowser in the churchyard, who was scattering, or rather placing, dozens of small pieces of white cloth about, but would move them if I wanted. I said no thanks, and left him to his stick waggling. Or that is what I said to Tim, but of course, I do not know if dowsing is any good, or what he was dowsing for.
Inside the church, several ladies were making busy, preparing the church for the next day's harvest festival, so many of them are in the shots, but it makes for a very welcoming sight indeed.
So very good to finally get inside, and many thanks to Tim for taking me.
--------------------------------------------------
A much restored Norman church, with a tiny twelfth-century window set just above the (later) porch roof. There is a good example of a fifteenth-century low side window in the south-west corner of the chancel. The pews, pulpit and tiles are typical of mid-nineteenth century restorations, yet above is the fine nave roof of the usual crownpost type. It displays nicely pierced spandrels with a quatrefoil and dagger design. In 1846 Lord Camden built a new church on the main road in the village centre. Even so the old church is extremely well maintained and much loved in the neighbourhood. The churchyard contains many good headstones including one to Sir Morton Peto, the famous nineteenth-century engineer.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Pembury+1
The first known record of Pembury, originally Pepingeberia, is to be found in the 'Textus Roffensis' (c1120). It tells of the manors of Pepenbury Magna (Hawkwell) and Pepenbury Parva (Bayhall).
The Advowson was granted by Simon de Wahull to Bayham Abbey c1239. (Advowson is the right in English Law of presenting a nominee to a vacant parish. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish).
Pembury has two churches dedicated to St Peter. The oldest, known as the Old Church, stands outside the modern village in the woods to the north of the A228 bypass. The newer building, known as the Upper Church, stands in the heart of the village on Hastings Road.
The plan of the Old Church and the little Norman window above the South door indicate that the original Church dates from 1147 at least, or even 1100AD. Most of the present Church was built in 1337 by John Colepeper of Bayhall. He also built the chantry chapel of St Mary in the churchyard in 1355 but this was pulled down at the Dissolution of the smaller Monasteries in 1547 and three windows in the body of the Church were inserted with the money gained from the sale of the lead which had covered the chapel.
The most notable feature inside the Church is the roof of the nave. It is said to be one of the best specimens of the tie-beam and kingpost type in the country.
On the north wall near the pulpit there is an interesting brass with an inscription and a figure of an Elizabethan child, Elizabeth Rowe. There are two slabs set into the Sanctuary floor in memory of Dorothy Amherst (1654) and Richard Amherst (1664). The Amherst family owned the manor of Bayhall at this time.
During the nineteenth century a number of alterations were made to the Church, including the raising of the Chancel floor. This meant that the oldest tombstone was completely covered over. The inscription round the edge of the slab, written in Norman French, tells is that it is the resting place of Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper.
Among the other memorial tablets there are several of the Woodgate family, three of whom were vicars of Pembury in the nineteenth century. Under the tower is a memorial to Lord George Spencer-Churchill.
The Organ, which has one manual and a pedal-board, dates back to 1877. It was made by Hill and Son, London, and cost £130. The organ was fully restored to its former glory in 2006. There are four bells which are now fitted with a chiming apparatus so that they can be rung by one person.
www.pemburychurch.net/pembury_old_church.htm
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Pembury is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, has a spire steeple at the west end. It was built by one of the family of Colepeper, patrons of it, and most probably by John Colepeper, esq. in the reign of king Edward III. for on the three buttresses on the south side of the chancel, there remain three shields of coat armour, each carved on an entire stone of about two feet and an half in depth, and the breadth equal with that of the buttress, which shews them to be coeval with that of the building itself. On the first is a rectangular cross; the second is the coat armour of Hardreshull, A chevron between eight martlets, viz. five and three, the above-mentioned John Colepeper having married the coheir of that family; the third is that of Colepeper, a bend engrailed. On a very antient stone on the pavement of the chancel, is an antient inscription in old French, for Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, which seems as early as the above mentioned reign. There are several monuments and memorials in it of the family of Amherst and their re latives; an inscription and figure in brass for Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Rowe, esq. of Hawkwell, anno 1607; a tomb for George Bolney, esq. who married a Wybarne; and in the porch are two antient stones with crosses on them.
¶The advowson of the church of Pembury was given with it, by Simon de Wahull, to the abbey of Begham, in Sussex, in pure and perpetual alms, as has been already mentioned.
¶Pope Gregory IX. anno 1239, granted licence to the abbot and convent to hold this church, then of their patronage, and not of greater value than ten marcs, as an appropriation upon the first vacancy of it, reserving, a competent portion for a vicar out of the profits of it. Notwithstanding which, it was not appropriated till the year 1278, when Richard Oliver, the rector, resigned it into the hands of John de Bradfield, bishop of Rochester, who granted his letters mandatory, for the induction of the abbot and convent into the corporal possession of the church, with its appurtenances, according to the tenor of the above-mentioned bull. (fn. 7)
¶The parsonage of the church of Pembury, with the advowson of the vicarage appendant to the manor, continued with the abbey of Begham till the dissolution of it in the 17th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, after which it passed in the same tract of ownership as the manor of Pembury, and appendant to it, till it became the property of William Woodgate, esq. lord of that manor, and the present patron of it.
¶It is a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of 46l. 10s. the yearly tenths of which are 12s. 8d.
¶Charles Amherst, esq. of Bayhall, by his will in 1702, gave as an augmentation to this vicarage, the sum of ten pounds to be paid yearly by such persons to whom the manor of Bayhall, with its appurtenances, should come and remain after his death.
¶In 1733 the Rev. George May, vicar, augmented it with the sum of 100l. 17s. 6d. to entitle it to the benefit of queen Anne's bounty.
¶There is an annual pension of forty shillings paid out of the parsonage to the vicar, which was settled on him and his successors, at the time of the appropriation of this church. The tithes of corn and grain of which this parsonage consists are now worth about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
¶The vicarage is now worth about one hundred and fifty pounds per annum.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
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Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
When I said on my uploads that getting into Tilmanstone was a bugbear, how then to describe my frustration about St Anthony, as this is a church I see each time we travel up or down the Alkham valley to Folkestone.
St Anthony sits on a bluff overlooking the village and the main road, and so seems impressively tall. But up close, one finds the tower to appear short and squat.
I had driven over from Tilmanstone, I had decided to give Eythorne a miss as I really wanted to make sure I got to Alkham and the next church on the list, Acrise, before the day faded and I would lose the chance for another year.
Parking in the village is problematic, so I leave the car opposite the village hall beside the cricket pitch, which now looks like it would be perfect for a few overs. How different from the late winter, when the Drellingore was in full flood and the pitch was under a good foot of water, and houses down the hill had water bubbling up between the plants in their gardens borders.
And looking at the Drellingore itself, reveals it to be the dried up bed it always was, with just the occasional pool of still wet mud showing where once the torrent flowed.
It is quite a steep climb back to the main road and then along to the old village pub, The Marquess of Granby, now sadly rebranded as a gastropub and called simply "The Marquess".
Up beside the pub, past a pretty row of cottages and into the churchyard. My, I was puffing well, but after stopping to take a shot of the outside of the church, I walk to the porch to find both the outer and inner doors open, and the interior glowing with sunlight refracted by Victorian stained glass.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Picturesquely situated on a quiet bluff high above the main road, the simple flint exterior of Alkham church hides a remarkable surprise. From the south the building looks little different to many others in the region, but inside it immediately presents its trump card - a north aisle/chapel built in the thirteenth century which contains the finest blank wall arcading in any Kent church. This should be compared with the contemporary chancel arcading at Cooling and Woodchurch - in each designed to emphasise the importance of the (recently rebuilt) chancel. Here it served an altogether different purpose, competing with the nearby commandery of the Knights Hospitallers at Swingfield. At the west end of the nave, filling the tower arch, is a rather heavy but fine, wooden nineteenth century screen. The east window contains some fine nineteenth century glass. West tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Alkham
ALKHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Dover.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Anthony the Martyr, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and two chancels, having a tower steeple, with a low pointed turret on it, in which hang three bells. The north isle is shut out by boarding from the rest of the church, and made no use of at present, to which the school now kept in the chancel might be removed, and have no kind of communication with that part of the church appropriated for divine service, which would prevent that unseemly and indecent resort which it is at present subject to. In the chancel are several memorials for the Slaters, lessees of the parsonage; and on the south side, against the wall, is an antient tomb of Bethersden marble.
The church of Alkham, with the chapel of Mauregge, or Capell as it is now called, belonging to it, was given by Hamon de Crevequer to the abbot and convent of St. Radigund, together with the advowson of it, to hold in free, pure, and perpetual alms. It was appropriated to that abbey about the 43d year of king Henry III. anno 1258, and was afterwards, anno 8 Richard II. valued among the temporalities of the abbey at fourteen pounds. In which state this church and advowson remained till the dissolution of the abbey, which happened in the 27th year of king Henry VIII. when it was suppressed by the act of that year, as being under the clear yearly value of two hundred pounds, and their lands and possessions given to the king, who granted the scite of it, with the whole of its possessions, that year, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange for other lands, who in the same year exchanged them back again with the king, being enabled so to do by an act then specially passed for that purpose; but in the deed of exchange, among other exceptions, was that of all churches and advowsons of vicarages; by virtue of which, the appropriation of the church of Alkham, together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, as they do at this time, his grace the archbishop of Canterbury being now entitled to them.
The vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Ferne, alias Capell, annexed to it, is valued in the king's books at eleven pounds, and the yearly tenths at Il.2s. per annum. (fn. 4) It is now of the clear yearly certified value of 53l. 9s. 6d. In 1588 here were communicants eighty; in 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds. The vicar of it is inducted into the vicarage of Alkham, with the chapel of Capell le Ferne, alias St.Mary le Merge, annexed to it. There are three acres of glebe land belonging to the vicarage.
The great tithes of Evering ward, in this parish and Swingfield ward, part of the parsonage of Alkham, are held of the archbishop for three lives, at the yearly rent of 1l. 6s. 8d. and the parsonage for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of twelve pounds.
This is what must have been the 4th time I have visited St Peter Old Church. The first was on a Good Friday a few years back, and when I approached the church, there was a service on. Another time there was a wedding, and further, on a Heritage Weekend, it failed to open.
So, when visiting the area at the beginning of the month, I mentioned that St Peter had been a bugbear of mine, Tim said its only a couple of miles away, we could try now.
Of course, driving from a different direction, not along the main road, I did not realise how close we were.
So, we would try.
Apart from the dowser in the churchyard, who was scattering, or rather placing, dozens of small pieces of white cloth about, but would move them if I wanted. I said no thanks, and left him to his stick waggling. Or that is what I said to Tim, but of course, I do not know if dowsing is any good, or what he was dowsing for.
Inside the church, several ladies were making busy, preparing the church for the next day's harvest festival, so many of them are in the shots, but it makes for a very welcoming sight indeed.
So very good to finally get inside, and many thanks to Tim for taking me.
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A much restored Norman church, with a tiny twelfth-century window set just above the (later) porch roof. There is a good example of a fifteenth-century low side window in the south-west corner of the chancel. The pews, pulpit and tiles are typical of mid-nineteenth century restorations, yet above is the fine nave roof of the usual crownpost type. It displays nicely pierced spandrels with a quatrefoil and dagger design. In 1846 Lord Camden built a new church on the main road in the village centre. Even so the old church is extremely well maintained and much loved in the neighbourhood. The churchyard contains many good headstones including one to Sir Morton Peto, the famous nineteenth-century engineer.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Pembury+1
The first known record of Pembury, originally Pepingeberia, is to be found in the 'Textus Roffensis' (c1120). It tells of the manors of Pepenbury Magna (Hawkwell) and Pepenbury Parva (Bayhall).
The Advowson was granted by Simon de Wahull to Bayham Abbey c1239. (Advowson is the right in English Law of presenting a nominee to a vacant parish. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish).
Pembury has two churches dedicated to St Peter. The oldest, known as the Old Church, stands outside the modern village in the woods to the north of the A228 bypass. The newer building, known as the Upper Church, stands in the heart of the village on Hastings Road.
The plan of the Old Church and the little Norman window above the South door indicate that the original Church dates from 1147 at least, or even 1100AD. Most of the present Church was built in 1337 by John Colepeper of Bayhall. He also built the chantry chapel of St Mary in the churchyard in 1355 but this was pulled down at the Dissolution of the smaller Monasteries in 1547 and three windows in the body of the Church were inserted with the money gained from the sale of the lead which had covered the chapel.
The most notable feature inside the Church is the roof of the nave. It is said to be one of the best specimens of the tie-beam and kingpost type in the country.
On the north wall near the pulpit there is an interesting brass with an inscription and a figure of an Elizabethan child, Elizabeth Rowe. There are two slabs set into the Sanctuary floor in memory of Dorothy Amherst (1654) and Richard Amherst (1664). The Amherst family owned the manor of Bayhall at this time.
During the nineteenth century a number of alterations were made to the Church, including the raising of the Chancel floor. This meant that the oldest tombstone was completely covered over. The inscription round the edge of the slab, written in Norman French, tells is that it is the resting place of Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper.
Among the other memorial tablets there are several of the Woodgate family, three of whom were vicars of Pembury in the nineteenth century. Under the tower is a memorial to Lord George Spencer-Churchill.
The Organ, which has one manual and a pedal-board, dates back to 1877. It was made by Hill and Son, London, and cost £130. The organ was fully restored to its former glory in 2006. There are four bells which are now fitted with a chiming apparatus so that they can be rung by one person.
www.pemburychurch.net/pembury_old_church.htm
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Pembury is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester and deanry of Malling.
¶The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, has a spire steeple at the west end. It was built by one of the family of Colepeper, patrons of it, and most probably by John Colepeper, esq. in the reign of king Edward III. for on the three buttresses on the south side of the chancel, there remain three shields of coat armour, each carved on an entire stone of about two feet and an half in depth, and the breadth equal with that of the buttress, which shews them to be coeval with that of the building itself. On the first is a rectangular cross; the second is the coat armour of Hardreshull, A chevron between eight martlets, viz. five and three, the above-mentioned John Colepeper having married the coheir of that family; the third is that of Colepeper, a bend engrailed. On a very antient stone on the pavement of the chancel, is an antient inscription in old French, for Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas Colepeper, which seems as early as the above mentioned reign. There are several monuments and memorials in it of the family of Amherst and their re latives; an inscription and figure in brass for Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Rowe, esq. of Hawkwell, anno 1607; a tomb for George Bolney, esq. who married a Wybarne; and in the porch are two antient stones with crosses on them.
¶The advowson of the church of Pembury was given with it, by Simon de Wahull, to the abbey of Begham, in Sussex, in pure and perpetual alms, as has been already mentioned.
¶Pope Gregory IX. anno 1239, granted licence to the abbot and convent to hold this church, then of their patronage, and not of greater value than ten marcs, as an appropriation upon the first vacancy of it, reserving, a competent portion for a vicar out of the profits of it. Notwithstanding which, it was not appropriated till the year 1278, when Richard Oliver, the rector, resigned it into the hands of John de Bradfield, bishop of Rochester, who granted his letters mandatory, for the induction of the abbot and convent into the corporal possession of the church, with its appurtenances, according to the tenor of the above-mentioned bull. (fn. 7)
¶The parsonage of the church of Pembury, with the advowson of the vicarage appendant to the manor, continued with the abbey of Begham till the dissolution of it in the 17th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, after which it passed in the same tract of ownership as the manor of Pembury, and appendant to it, till it became the property of William Woodgate, esq. lord of that manor, and the present patron of it.
¶It is a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of 46l. 10s. the yearly tenths of which are 12s. 8d.
¶Charles Amherst, esq. of Bayhall, by his will in 1702, gave as an augmentation to this vicarage, the sum of ten pounds to be paid yearly by such persons to whom the manor of Bayhall, with its appurtenances, should come and remain after his death.
¶In 1733 the Rev. George May, vicar, augmented it with the sum of 100l. 17s. 6d. to entitle it to the benefit of queen Anne's bounty.
¶There is an annual pension of forty shillings paid out of the parsonage to the vicar, which was settled on him and his successors, at the time of the appropriation of this church. The tithes of corn and grain of which this parsonage consists are now worth about one hundred and twenty pounds per annum.
¶The vicarage is now worth about one hundred and fifty pounds per annum.