You may view more of my images of Ickworth House, Park and gardens, by clicking "here" !

 

With over 1,800 acres of parkland designed by Capability Brown, the house and its grounds were created as an homage to Italy, the country so beloved by Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol. The Earl-Bishop spent his life travelling the continent, gathering together a vast collection of paintings, sculpture and artefacts. Already possessed of several houses, he conceived Ickworth primarily as a museum for his treasures. At his death only the Rotunda - the giant circular structure at the centre of the two wings, described by Hervey's wife as 'a stupendous moment of Folly' - was nearing completion. The house was eventually finished by his son. Although Hervey's treasures, confiscated during the French invasion of Italy, were destined never to occupy Ickworth, his descendants made it their life's work to rebuild what has become an exceptional collection of art and silver. Paintings housed in the galleries include works by Velázquez, Titian and Poussin, while the collection of 18th-century portraits of the family is exceptionally fine, featuring canvases by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Vigée-Lebrun and Hogarth. In addition to one of the very best British collections of Georgian Huguenot silver, Ickworth is also home to an impressive array of Regency furniture, porcelain, and domestic objects. More made a career of producing idealised Italian landscapes. His Landscape with Classical Figures, Cicero at his Villa, painted in 1780 and funded in 1993, is a typical work, the misty soft-focus and pastel light adding to its appeal. Hugh Douglas Hamilton's The Earl Bishop of Bristol and Derry Seated before the Prospect of Rome shows Hervey seated at what is thought to be the southern tip of the Borghese Gardens.

Ickworth's parklands and gardens can provide a day's activity in their own right. The south gardens are modelled on the formal Italian style, while the gardens to the west of the house are more informal. Visitors can walk or cycle out into the park itself and up to the Fairy Lake. Bright and modern, The West Wing Restaurant overlooks the gardens and can be guaranteed to catch any sunlight on offer. It serves everything from hot meals to snacks, and at weekends the restaurant is open for breakfast. If you're after something rather more formal, try Frederick's restaurant at Ickworth Hotel in the grounds.

 

Sold for £3,249,500 inc. premium

Fully restored by Works Service,1960 Aston Martin DB4GT 'Jet' Coupé Chassis no. 0201L Engine no. 370/0201/GT

 

Day 137 of my 365 day photo challenge.

 

A visit to the auction at the Aston Martin Works, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire.

 

Footnotes

 

Coachbuilt examples of the DB4/5/6 family of Aston Martins are extremely rare, making the unique Bertone-bodied car offered here all the more precious and desirable. '0201L' is the last DB4GT chassis completed in period (a further six 'Sanction II/III' DB4GT Zagatos were built in the late 1980s/early 1990s) and was first displayed on Bertone's stand at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show, which was followed by an appearance at Turin that same year. Its designer was none other than Giorgetto Giugiaro, one of the 20th Century's foremost automotive stylists and then only 22 years of age, who would go on to create some of the Italian coachbuilder's most memorable designs before leaving to join Carrozzeria Ghia. By the time he left Ghia to found Italdesign in 1968, Giugiaro had been responsible for such sublime creations as the Maserati Ghibli and De Tomaso Mangusta.

 

It was only appropriate that Aston Martin's top-of-the range and most expensive production model, the DB4GT, should have been selected for this very special project. As its nomenclature suggests, the DB4GT was a competition variant of the DB4 sports saloon. Launched at the London Motor Show in 1958, the Aston Martin DB4 had emphatically demonstrated that a British manufacturer could better the Italians at their own game when it came to constructing the ultimate Gran Turismo. Its specification included a completely new steel platform chassis with disc brakes all round, and a race-developed twin-cam six-cylinder 3.7-litre engine, all clothed in a perfectly proportioned aluminium body designed by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan. Overall, the DB4 was state-of-the-art for its time, a masterpiece of robust British engineering combined with exquisite Italian styling.

 

Engineered under the watchful eye of Harold Beech, the immensely strong platform-type chassis replaced the DB2/4's multi-tubular spaceframe, the latter being considered incompatible with Touring's Superleggera body construction that employed its own lightweight tubular structure to support the hand-formed aluminium-alloy body panels. The trailing-link independent front suspension of the DB2/4 gave way to unequal-length wishbones while at the rear the DB4 sported a live axle located by Watts linkage instead of its predecessor's Panhard rod.

 

The new car's competition potential had been recognised from the outset and the factory lost no time in developing a lightweight version suitable for racing, the resulting DB4GT debuting at the 1959 London Motor Show. The model had already been proven in competition earlier that year when the prototype driven by Stirling Moss ('DP/199') won its first race at Silverstone. Extensive modifications to the standard car took 5" out of the wheelbase and replaced the rear seats with a luggage platform on all but a small number of cars. Together with lighter, 18-gauge bodywork, these changes reduced the car's weight by around 200lb (91kg).

 

The GT used a tuned engine which, equipped with a twin-plug cylinder head and triple Weber 45DCOE carburettors, produced a claimed 302bhp at 6,000rpm, a useful increase over the standard car's claimed 240bhp. Maximum speed, of course, depended on overall gearing but 153mph was achieved during testing with a 0-60mph time of 6.1 seconds recorded. The DB4 was also one of the first cars to go from standstill to 100mph and then brake to a dead stop on under 20 seconds, a tribute, in part, to its up-rated Girling brakes as used on Aston Martin's sports racers of the era.

 

Viewed from the front, the GT was readily distinguishable by its faired-in headlamps with Perspex covers, a feature later made standard on the DB5 and DB6. The rear screen and quarter windows were Perspex on many examples; bumper over-riders were deleted and the wind-down windows were frame-less within the doors. Twin Monza quick-release competition fuel fillers were added atop the rear wings, leading to a large-capacity fuel tank mounted flat in the boot. GTs were fitted as standard with lightweight Borrani 42-spoke wire wheels with alloy rims and three-ear 'knock-offs'. Trimmed to full Aston Martin road car specification, the interior boasted fine Connolly leather upholstery and deep-pile Wilton carpeting, while the GT benefited from the addition of an oil temperature gauge to the standard complement.

 

The DB4GT offered a strong challenge to the prevailing Ferrari dominance in GT racing, with examples entered by the works and John Ogier's Essex Racing Stable enjoying numerous victories. Driven by the likes of Roy Salvadori, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Innes Ireland, the DB4GT earned its stripes every weekend on the racing circuit. In December 1959, at the Bahamas Speed Week, Stirling Moss won driving a standard customer DB4GT 'borrowed' by the works following the demise of Moss's intended DBR2! The DB4GT was indeed a true dual-purpose car, equally at ease on both the circuit and Grand Tour. Only 30 were produced in left-hand drive configuration.

 

Originally finished in light green with contrasting grey interior, the 'Jet', as it became known, was lavishly trimmed in the best Aston Martin tradition, contrasting with the less well appointed, though lighter, Zagatos. Reminiscent of some Bertone creations on Ferrari chassis, this svelte notchback coupé is unique among DB4GTs as the only example bodied in steel, and would surely have made more of an impact had its Geneva debut not coincided with that of the Jaguar E-Type. A case of unfortunate timing if ever there was one, not that Bertone could be blamed for that. Giugiaro would body only one other Aston Martin, the DB7 Vantage-based 'Twenty Twenty' concept car of 2001, while a few years later Bertone revived the original idea with its 'Jet 2' on the Vanquish V12 platform.

 

'0201L' is known to have spent some time in Beirut before relocating to the USA, remaining there for several years before being rediscovered by Aston Martin Chairman, Victor Gauntlett, in the 1980s and shipped back to the factory. Quoted in Classic & Sports Car magazine's May 2013 edition, Kingsley Riding-Felce, currently Managing Director Aston Martin Works, recalled: 'The car was in a pretty sad state. It had suffered an engine fire... The bonnet was badly burnt and rust had taken hold in the steel bodywork. Only the sills plus the front and rear aprons are aluminium. Everything else is steel so Bertone must have made tooling, which suggests that it was hoping for a production series.'

 

Its late owner, Hans-Peter Weidmann, bought '0201L' from Victor Gauntlett while the car was undergoing total restoration to concours condition at Newport Pagnell under Kinglsey's supervision. He recalled some of the problems for C&SC: 'It was a big job because we had to make new door skins and fabricate replacement bumpers out of brass. It was quite a challenge configuring them to the body and getting the clearances right, but we wanted to keep it as original as possible. The instruments had to be redone and searching out missing switchgear in Italy proved quite a task. The Jet was very well made and clearly built to be driven. The styling isn't very Aston Martin but we never tired of looking at it.'

 

The car has been regularly maintained by the factory since the rebuild's completion in 1988 and comes with a comprehensively illustrated album of photographs recording the restoration, together with Swiss registration papers.

 

Following its total restoration at Works Service, the 'Jet' went on to amass an enviable collection of concours d'élegance awards including 1st in the Italian Coachwork class at Pebble Beach (1989) and 'Best in Show' at Villa D'Este and RAID Basle (both in 2001). Bertone's 'Jet' is one of very few cars summoned back to Pebble Beach, reappearing there in 1997 as part a special tribute to Aston Martin. Further 1stin- class awards have been garnered at the Hurlingham Club, AMOC Silverstone, Bagatelle Paris, Düsseldorf, Schloss Schwetzingen and New York, the most recent being awarded at Het Loo in 2007 (the Trophies from these concours successes are offered with the Car).

 

In recent years Hans-Peter Weidmann spent more time driving this unique Gran Turismo as its maker intended. Interviewed by Octane magazine for a feature on the Aston Martin DB4 (November 2005 edition) he declared: 'It was intended to be a grand tourer and that's just what I use it for.' By that time he had driven some 35,000 miles in the car including a marathon trip from San Francisco to Vancouver, covering the 950 miles in one night! Only one fuel stop would have been necessary as the oversize (37-gallon/168-litre) tank all but fills the boot, making this a car with true continent-crossing

capability. Indeed, Octane found that, compared with the other DB4 variants, the steel-bodied Jet 'rides more smoothly, in keeping with its Continental image.'

 

The year 2013 marks Bonhams' 14th annual auction at Works Service and we are immensely proud to have been entrusted with the sale of this most important Aston Martin. The DB4GT 'Jet', most significantly, has the unique cachet of being a one-off design by Bertone, and also is uniquely entwined with Aston Martin Works Service, which undertook its concours restoration with no expense spared. Concluding the C&SC article, Kingsley Riding-Felce said: 'Hans-Peter wouldn't want the Jet to go into storage, and we hope that the new owner will take part in this year's centenary events.'

 

Offered for sale for the first time on almost 30 years, '0201L' embodies the precious assets of rarity, continuous history, versatile usability and superb running condition. Arguably the most desirable Aston Martin currently available, it is the perfect acquisition with which to celebrate the marque's centenary in 2013.

Should the vehicle remain in the UK, local import taxes of 5% will be applied to the purchase price.

£2,800,000 - 3,800,000

3,300,000 - 4,500,000

  

Concours d'elegance

Aston Martin DB4GT Bertone Jet

1989 Pebble Beach, 1st in Class Italian Coachwork

1991 London, Hurlingham Club, 1st in Class

1991 Silverstone, Aston Martin Owners Club -1st in Class and overall winner

1992 Paris, Bagatelle, 1st in Class

1997 Pebble Beach, Second Invitation

2001 Villa D'Este, 1st in Class and Best in Show

2001 Dusseldorf, 1st in Class and Best in Show

2001 Schloss, Schwetzingen, 1st in Class

2001 RAID, Basel, Best in Show

2005 New York, 1st in Class

2007 Pebble Beach, Third Invitation

2007 Holland, Het Loo, 1st in Class

 

As usual, one BrickLink order from completion; needs two orange minifig hands and a little more orange tubing. Preorder yours here: brickmodelrailroader.com/index.php/product/western-maryla...

Taken during warmer weather when the mural on the front was nearing completion. They actually had an ice wall to climb recently in January

Aerial photograph of the Southwick Yard of Austin & Pickersgill Ltd, early May 1960 (TWAM ref. 3396/24229B). This shows the cargo ship ‘Willowbank’ in the foreground being fitted out, shortly after her launch on 26 April 1960 by William Doxford & Sons Ltd. Meanwhile the bulk carrier ‘Iron Barque’, towards the centre of the image, nears completion at the Southwick shipyard of Austin & Pickersgill Ltd.

 

Tyne & Wear Archives is proud to present a selection of images from its Sunderland shipbuilding collections. The set has been produced to celebrate Sunderland History Fair on 7 June 2014. It's a reminder of the thousands of vessels launched on the River Wear and the many outstanding achievements of Sunderland’s shipyards and their workers.

 

These photographs reflect Sunderland’s history of innovation in shipbuilding and marine engineering from the development of turret ships in the 1890s through to the design for SD14s in the 1960s. The Sunderland shipbuilding collections are full of fascinating stories. Some of these are represented in this set, such as the ‘Rondefjell’, launched in two halves on the River Wear by John Crown & Sons Ltd and then joined together on the River Tyne.

 

The set also shows the vital part that Sunderland’s shipbuilding industry played during the First World War. William Doxford & Sons Ltd built Royal Naval destroyers such as HMS Opal, which served in the Battle of Jutland, while other yards constructed cargo ships to help keep these shores supplied.

 

(Copyright) We're happy for you to share these digital images within the spirit of The Commons. Please cite 'Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email archives@twmuseums.org.uk

 

My bungalow in Saanichton, BC, Canada (Greater Victoria) #yyj

A touch of old hollywood meets modern chic. This home came with extra personality in each space. We had fun creating her vision and the results were nothing short of Glamorous!

Master Bedroom II

"Until the completion of the kai awase (shell-matching) game and kai-oke (large lacquer boxes use to store the shells) on display at NGV International n Golden Shells and the Gentle Mastery of Japanese Lacquer, a historically accurate version of this ancient Japanese game had not been produced since the latter half of the nineteenth century when Japan ended its policy of seclusion and became a modern nation. This is the first overseas exhibition to display a complete set of kai-awase and kai-oke, which are rarely seen even in Japan.

Commissioned by Dr Pauline Gandel AC, the set was created between 2013 and 2015 by the master lacquer artist Unryuan Kitamura Tatsuo and forty six artisans who worked on the production of both the shells and the boxes in the town of Wajima, opn the Noto Peninsula. It comprises 720 clam shells (360 pairs) decorated with gold leaf and painted with floral motifs, and two kai-oke shell boxes decorated in black and gold maki-e lacquerwork depicting chrysanthemums in full bloom".

NGV Magazine:Issue 30.

  

completion dated 20.Mai 1424 ; from the Barfüßerkirche in Göttingen ; tempera on oak ; the square panels about 1m square ; most recently restored 1999-2005 ; the lowest 2 panels of the shutter

Hanover Street Now becoming a food hub of the city centre after the completion of Liverpool One.

 

Liverpool City Centre. 135/365

meanwhile in the workshop the line's polish usa type 0-6-0t nears completion

Eclipseのカッコの設定

Heres information about central florida broadcast stations

 

Broadcast Tower,WFTT-TV is the Telefutura affiliate for Tampa Bay, owned by Univision and operated by Entravision, owners of WVEA-TV. The station, which broadcasts on UHF channel 50, is based at WVEA's studios on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, and transmits from Riverview. WFTT can be seen on cable throughout the Bay Area on Bright House channel 5, and on Comcast in Sarasota County on channel 23.

 

With the completion of the 442.550 repeater in Riverview at 805ft in January, the western pointing antenna on the 442.825 repeater caused a expected overlap that was unnecessary. Since 442.550 now blankets Hillsborough County, we have as of April 11th taken the antenna off the west leg of the Pebbledale tower site at 800ft and moved it to the east leg of the tower. What does mean for users? The tower has a 7 foot wide face, which creates a null that is created behind the antenna. This null used to face a huge portion of Polk County. By moving this antenna to the east, the null is now facing essentially Brandon/Riverview, where 442.550 is now located at 805ft. So far we have gotten incredible results from users in eastern Polk County. Some users in Sebring reporting almost full scale signal, and mobile users with hand helds on 27 at 5 watts can use 442.825 now. None of this was previously possible. So with this move, expect to hear more Polk, Osceola and I-4 corridor area users making it into the network.

 

A nother tower WVEA (channel 62) is Tampa Bay, Florida's first Spanish-language TV station, which had its start in the early-1980s as low-powered W50AC ch.50, which offered programming from the Spanish International Network (SIN), the forerunner of today's Univision. In 1988, to make way for new HSN flagship WBHS (now WFTT-TV), the station relocated to channel 61 and became W61BL. In the mid-1990s, the station was re-called "WVEA-LP". In 2000, WVEA's parent company, Entravision, acquired Sarasota English independent WBSV channel 62, with the intent of moving the transmitter from Venice to the antenna farm at Riverview. WBSV signed on May 3, 1991 as the Sarasota area's own independent station, designed to compete against WWSB and the other stations in the Tampa Bay and nearby Ft. Myers markets. Licensed to Venice, Florida the call letters stood for Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice, the three cities it primarily served. WBSV had a variety of syndicated and local programming, plus infomercials and home shopping programs. early on, they also had its own newscast. But, WBSV was eternally in red ink, and relied more on home shopping and infomercials to keep the station afloat....

 

And then,WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsdiary of the News Corporation. WTVT's studios are located in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

 

Overall the WUSF (89.7 FM) is an NPR-member radio station licensed to Tampa, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by the University of South Florida. WUSF signed on in 1963, seven years after USF's founding in 1956.

 

WOPX channel 56 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, USA. An affiliate of the ION Television network, it transmits its analog signal on UHF channel 56 and its digital signal on UHF channel 48, both from a transmitter located near Holopaw. The station signed on the air in 1986.

 

WIWA (1160 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Christian format. Licensed to St. Cloud, Florida, USA, it serves the greater Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Centro De La Familia Cristiana Inc.

 

WAFZ-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Immokalee, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Glades Media Company LLC. WAFZ's programming is also heard on WAFZ AM 1490 in Immokalee.

 

WTVY or WTVY News 4 is a CBS-affiliated television station broadcasting on channel 4 in Dothan, Alabama, owned by Gray Television. The station's signal, originating from a transmitter in Holmes County, Florida, reaches large portions of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. WTVY is also the designated CBS affiliate for the Panama City, Florida market, where Gray also owns that city's NBC affiliate, WJHG-TV. In exchange, WJHG is available in Dothan on cable since Dothan does not have its own NBC affiliate. In fact, WTVY's transmitter is located within the Panama City market. WTVY-DT uses digital subchannels to operate MyNetworkTV affiliate My 4 and CW affiliate Dothan's CW.

 

WJED (91.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Dogwood Lakes Estate, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by Bethany Bible College.

 

WTVJ, channel 6, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station for South Florida, licensed to Miami. Its analog transmitter is located in Redland. The station's digital transmitter is located near Dolphin Stadium in north Miami-Dade County. Owned by NBC Universal, the station is sister to South Florida's Telemundo owned-and-operated station, WSCV. The two share studios at Peacock Plaza in Miramar.

 

WOIR (1430 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish News/Talk format. Licensed to Homestead, Florida, USA, the station serves the Miami area. The station is currently owned by Amanecer Christian Network, Inc..

 

WTLH is a Fox television affiliate licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia and serves the Tallahassee, Florida television market. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 49 and its digital signal on UHF channel 50. The station began operations on November 25, 1989. Its transmitter is located in Metcalf, Georgia. The Station is owned by CP Media, LLC. The station runs a duopoly with WFXU, The CW station in Tallahassee. WTLH programming is also seen on a low-powered, Class-A repeater, WBVJ-LP channel 35 in Valdosta.

 

WTXL-TV is the ABC affiliate station for Tallahassee, Florida, Thomasville, Georgia, and Valdosta, Georgia, broadcasting on channel 27. The station is owned by Calkins Media, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based mass media company that owns several small newspapers in Pennsylvania and two other television stations: WWSB in Sarasota and WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama. It was previously owned by Media Ventures Management, and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to an outsourcing agreement (See: [1]), the first of its kind in the United States. This agreement merged virtually all of WTXL-TV's operations with that of Sinclair's NBC affiliate WTWC. Denis LeClair, General Manager of WTXL-TV and WBXT-TV at the time, was made General Manager for WTXL, WBXT and WTWC under this agreement. He would be followed by Chris Butterick and then Bob Franklin. Eventually, Kim Urbuteit (who was fired in May, 2007) would be named General Manager of WTXL only as Bob Franklin (now in Mobile, AL) oversaw WTWC. Gary Wordlaw is the current General Manager of WTXL-TV.

 

WFSU is the callsign (or variations thereon) for public radio stations operated by Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. WFSU also operates 3 radio stations that serve northern Florida: * WFSU-FM 88.9 FM: Tallahassee-based news/talk/public affairs station carrying several NPR programs and overnight BBC World Service programming. Also heard on these low-powered repeaters: * 97.1 - Carrabelle * 106.1 - Marianna * 96.7 - Apalachicola * 93.7 - Downtown Tallahassee (necessary because the main WFSU transmitter must conform its signal to protect WTSU in Troy, Alabama) * WFSQ-FM 91.5 FM: Tallahassee-based classical music station. Also heard on WFSL-FM 90.7 in Thomasville, Georgia, and on low-powered 92.7 FM in the northeast portion of the city of Tallahassee. * WFSW-FM 89.1 FM: Panama City-based news/talk/public affairs station. Offers many of the same programs as WFSU. Also heard on low-powered 91.1 FM in the Port St. Joe area along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as 94.5 FM in Fort Walton Beach.

 

WESH is the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television along with the area's CW affiliate, WKCF. WESH's transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida. The tower is the tallest man-made structure in Florida, at 1,740 feet (530 m). The station also serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Gainesville market, and can be seen on the fringes of the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville markets. WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. The primary news anchors at WESH are Martha Sugalski and Jim Payne....

 

WOMX is a radio station located in the Orlando, Florida area and broadcasts at 105.1. WOMX 105.1 plays the "Best MIX of the 80s, 90s and Today," though the station programming focuses mostly on rock and modern rock music from the 90's and 2000's. Every Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., Mix 105.1 presents Friday Night 80's. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" airs every Saturday night from 7 p.m. to midnight. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" replaced the Orlando heritage show "Seventies Saturday Night" in 2005.

 

WOTF-TV Channel 43 is the TeleFutura station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by Univision and managed by Entravision which owns Univision affiliate WVEN-TV 26 and radio station WNUE 98.1 FM and offers a Spanish language entertainment format featuring movies, dramas, comedy shows, and kids shows. The studios are located in Altamonte Springs which is also shared by WVEN.

 

WOFL, "Fox 35", is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 35, and its digital signal on UHF channel 22. Its transmitter is located in Bithlo, Florida. Its Digital TV transmitter has a power of 1,000 kW. Its Analog TV transmitter has a power of 2,570 kW. WOFL and sister station WTVT of the bordering Tampa market commonly share reporters and footage, as other station groups do.

 

WFTV channel 9 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, affiliated with the ABC network. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter located in Bithlo, Florida, and its digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter located in Christmas, Florida. It is owned by Cox Enterprises along with independent station WRDQ TV 27. The primary news anchors at WFTV are Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt. They anchored the main afternoon newscasts from 1984 through 1994, when Ms. Salt transferred to WFTS, a TV station in Tampa (where she was known as "Martie Tucker"). She returned to anchor WFTV's news again with Opsahl in 2003. Opsahl is one of the longest-serving (at one station) local news anchors in Florida. Barbara West, a 20 year veteran at WFTV and the station's medical reporter is paired with Opsahl at 5:30. Marla Weech, a former anchor for WFTV, was paired up with Bob Opsahl during most of Salt's absence. Weech currently works for WKMG. Tom Terry is the "Chief Meteorologist". WFTV's Severe Weather Center 9 includes WFTV's own doppler weather radar station located at Joint Venture TV Tower Bithlo. Its radar has features that are...

 

WRBW-TV is the MyNetworkTV owned and operated station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group, along with Fox station WOFL Channel 35. Known on-air as "My65", the station offers sitcoms, cartoons, court shows, and talk/reality shows. Its transmitter is located in Christmas, Florida.

 

WNTF (1580 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Bithlo, Florida, USA, it serves the Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Rama Communications, Inc.

 

WBCC is an educational television station serving the Orlando television market. It broadcasts on UHF channel 68, with a digital signal on channel 30. It is one of the Orlando market's PBS member stations. WBCC's digital signal, on channel 30, offers programming from the University of Central Florida (channel 68.2) and BPS-TV from Brevard Public Schools (channel 68.3), in addition to WBCC's standard programming.

 

WRDQ, channel 27, is an independent television station in Orlando, Florida. Its analog transmitter is located in northeastern Osceola County. The station's digital transmitter is located in Christmas. Onwed by Cox Enterprises, WRDQ is sister to ABC affiliate WFTV. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando. WRDQ offers the Retro Television Network on its second digital subchannel. It can also be seen on Bright House digital channel 1028. Syndicated programming on WRDQ includes: South Park, Scrubs, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, Oprah, According to Jim, and George Lopez. The station can be considered an alternate ABC affiliate. As such, it may take on the responsibility of airing ABC programs whenever WFTV may not be able to do so as in a news-related emergency.

 

WXPX is a television station licensed to Bradenton, Florida. Operating on channel 66, it is an ION Television affiliate, owned and operated by ION Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications), which has owned the station since its founding in 1994. Current programming on WXPX is virtually the same as other ION affiliates -- infomercials throughout the day and during the overnights, plus ION programming in the evenings. WXPX also shows Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, Orlando Magic basketball, some college football and Tampa Bay Rays baseball, though most of these games are in the evenings only, as WXPX tend to reserve non-prime-time hours for infomercials. Rays games air in high definition on WXPX in the 720p format, the same format as FSN Florida, the producers of the games (See: [1]). The only local programming on WXPX is i on Tampa (public affairs) and the aforementioned Rays and Magic games. The station once aired Miccosukee Magazine along with WPXM Miami and WPXP West Palm Beach, but no longer airs the program. (the latter two stations still do, along with WOPX Orlando) WXPX started in 1994 as WFCT, which featured infomercials at all hours under...

 

Wesh News Cast Bay News 9 Cast Weather Channel

Kristina

 

Abernathy

 

Stephanie

 

Abrams

 

Natalie

 

Allen

 

Tetiana

 

Anderson

 

Adam

 

Berg

 

Mike

 

Bettes

 

Vivian

 

Brown

 

Jim

 

Cantore

 

Jennifer

 

Carfagno

 

Kelly

 

Cass

 

Betty

 

Davis

 

Kristin

 

Dodd

 

Jorma

 

Duran

 

Dr Marcus

 

Eriksen

 

Paul

 

Goodloe

 

Ryan

 

Goswick

 

Rich

 

Johnson

 

Bill

 

Keneely

 

Danny

 

Lipford

 

Warren

 

Madden

 

Mark

 

Mancuso

 

Dr Anna

 

Marie

 

Julie

 

Martin

 

Jeff

 

Mielcarz

 

Jarod

 

Miller

 

Nicole

 

Mitchell

 

Samantha

 

Mohr

 

Jeff

 

Morrow

 

Carl

 

Parker

 

Kim

 

Perez

 

Sharon

 

Resultan

 

Kevin

 

Robinson

 

Marshall

 

Seese

 

Mike

 

Seidel

 

Alexandra

 

Steele

 

Heather

 

Tesch

 

Nick

 

Walker

 

Alex

 

Wallace

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St. Stephen 's Church ( Bratislava )

Coordinates 49 ° 8'43 " S 17 ° 6'19 " W

Architect Ignatius Feigler ml .

Neo-Romanesque style

Completion 1860 - 1861

Roman Catholic Church

Consecration St. Stephen

Address : Župné Square

Church of St Stephen of the Capuchin monastery is a sacral building located on a County Square in Bratislava, in the historic Old Town.

Capuchin complex in Bratislava is one of the important architectural monuments. Interesting is its history, unique architectural form and interior furnishings, reflecting ordinal habits, as well as works of art, their copyright and iconographic contexts.

History

In July 1676 came from Vienna to the then capital of Hungary members of the Order of Capuchins. Their first posting was at the chapel today on Michalska Street. Next thirty-five years here were held worship and other spiritual activities. As preachers were active in addition Brothers of Mercy, in uršulíniek and in other parishes; self-sacrificing service held during the plague epidemics.

The gain in 1698 buying land on the east side of the castle of Baroness Ghillányiovej that next year a gift of land from neighboring countess Czobor considerably widened. Thanks dobrodinstvu (open-handed) Eleanor Theresa, Countess de Strattmann and Payerbach, construction of Capuchin church and monastery on today's spot could start (in the chorus you can now notice a commemorative plaque with the German inscription - in translation: "Pray for the accidented founder Eleanor Teresa 1709"). The foundation stone of the monastery was laid 17 December 1708 and by the end of September of the following year it was ready chorus with a small tower, sacristy and adjacent oratory. 3 October 1709 was held the first Mass, which serves Hungarian Cardinal-Primate of Christian August of Saxony. Construction, led by religious Father John Damasceno (real name Johann Wers, died 04.25.1744 in Vienna) of the Vienna New Town, continued until 1712, when the monastery moved to our new friar.

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 20 decembra 1711. In 1717 the church was finished and 6 June consecrated it bishop of Nitra Ladislav Adam Erdödy.

In 1727 the monastery extended towards the skin street and Palffy Garden. The sacristy to briefly library hall. Outbuildings financed directly by Imrich Esterházy, a big supporter of the Capuchin Order.

In 1735 the church was about to happen, because allowed the basics (for it was the muddy soil). Therefore, let the archbishop Imrich Esterházy, at their own expense from the ground renovate church on the condition that the Capuchins take over management of the chapel of St. John the Merciful in the cathedral of St. Martin. Capuchins part of the church demolished and mandated military engineer Felice Donata Allia the rebuilding, which in the years 1736 - 1737 the building structurally secured and church went hand in hand with the builder - Capuchin friar Berthold (real name Ferdinand Ziegerhoffer, died 12/05/1763 at Tate), who also built a church altar.

Statue of the patron saint of the church in the niche on the facade, the work of Anton Brand.

In 1737 Francis Portenhauser, under the supervision of Archbishop Imre Eszterházyho, has completed the construction of the monastery, which was built two more tracts with sacristy and library. The gate was built a new wing with five forehead for domestic and foreign. In the garden was established a hospital.

In 1779 the church received a new bench, in the years 1819-1824 was built a chorus, in which Juraj Klokner built a new organ.

A major reconstruction was neoslohová update the front facade in the years 1860-1861 Bratislava builder Ignatius Feigler ml, thus entered into a romantic look. Then was in recess located on the front stone statue patron of the church (the work of sculptor Anton Brand Bratislava), which replaced the original painting. 1892 placed in the interior of the church Calvary with reliefs from the Upper Austrian carver M. Gaige (drawings by prof. Klein). In the nineteenth century was carried repainting the interior, which, however, undermined its original simplicity.

In 1895, the church got a restoration. At that time in Bratislava monastery and study theology.

Another repair of the church took place after a fire in 1913. In the second half of the 20th century it came to several modifications, interior (wooden wall coverings, fixtures and supplement historicist supplement).

In the years 1867 - 1895 was fixed crypt, which was later filled up, even today we do not know its fate lobby or buried bodies. According to available data, would it be buried more than 200 people, among them the painter Anton Rosier and Prince Lobkowitz Georg Christian de Sagan.

Architecture church

Churches of all the Capuchin religious buildings have individual character. Capuchins - reformed branch of the Franciscan order, strictly comply with the requirement set out religious poverty of St. Francis of Assisi and applied it to the shape of their temples. Their churches were without the tower: the street is proceeds around a simple gable, tectonically unitary facade. Were arched barrel vault with lunettes. The interior walls were smooth, tectonically unitary, painted in white, from which well reflect modest sĺpové dark brown altars. Unlike polychrome and richly decorated interior fittings other churches were Capuchin altars covered with walnut graining, which could revive only lighter inlaid ornaments and beads and capitals in ivory color.

General view of the Church. Stephen with Marian column in front of the main entrance.

Austere character and visual simplicity Capuchin church corresponds to the pastoral aims of this order as their efforts to lead the faithful to deepen the internal life according to the Gospel. Extending the temple area to the side spaces on one side chapels allowing individual piety and confessional room, allowing internal focus - believers preparing for confession. Medieval church against the Mendicant Orders, where the choir stalls stood before the main altar, in the Capuchin church rendition of the main altar in the Oratory associated with specific presbytery into a single unit. The two spaces separated by only a massive baroque main altar of artistic expression on the front and the back. Under strict monastic cloister area visually separated from the church accessible to lay people, but also downsized voices and singing brothers odbavujúcich prescribed watch, what is the visitor of the church to act as engrossing example.

Outside the church

Church building is located in the southeast-northwest direction. The floor of the church is well below the surrounding terrain. Monolithic facades without vertical structuring is finished off with a steep ridge. The portal is designed by predstavanou hall, with a distinctive rosette window, culminating in a gabled roof, over the hallway is a stone niche with a statue of St. Stephen.

The interior of the church

Nave church of St. Stephen's arched barrel vault with lunettes. The ship is separated from the chancel triumphal arch. An interesting feature is the building interior architecture separating the chancel altar of the Oratory Brothers. On the right side of the church is the chapel and sacristy, the left side of the monastery hall.

The church is entered through predstavanú hall. Above the entrance to the ship of the church is the Latin inscription in the form of a chronogram of 1860 (in translation): "Behold! Pokojamilovným open the door to these Seraphic cells of which were rebuilt from God's favor and innate love of King Franz Joseph."

Internals of the church (benches, altars, pulpit) is of tmavomoreného wood, decorated with inlays (a typical phenomenon in the Capuchin church in western Slovakia). Brother Berthold, who completed the construction of the monastery complex, built the altar in the church.

The main altar

The main altar of St. Stephen from 1737 consists of a massive baroque architecture, separating the sanctuary from the oratory, visual design on both sides. Monumental altarpiece (created in 1737) is probably the work of monk Udalricha from Wels (real name Thomas Wimberger, died 19.7.1743 in Buda).

The main altar with the image of the monk Udalricha in 1737

The picture shows the first Hungarian King Stephen I. giving the Virgin Mary to protect his son Imre and Hungary, symbolically expressed on a pillow lying royal crown.

The picture is interesting from an architectural point of view: namely silhouette captures the contemporary Bratislava with its important buildings, the castle, house and city hall. It is expected that the show was not accidental starts of Bratislava. Bratislava has been since 1563 coronation city, which it wanted to pay tribute to the author of the image and at the same time emphasize the importance of capturing buildings symbolizing the three components of the then society - not sovereign, suzerain ecclesiastical and municipal administration.

Scenes on the side of the main altar are paintings of St. Joseph and St. Theresa of Avila .

The side altars

The side altars of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony Padua (from around 1737) stands on the sides of the triumphal arch and mast have the same architecture. Altarpieces - Stigmatization of St. Francis and St. Anthony's Vision - painted by Karol Anton Rosier, a student of G. R. Donner. The Raiser altar are paintings Holy Fidelius with a book and an angel (on the altar of St . Francis) and St. Felix with an angel (on the altar of St . Anton).

The boat is in nike altar of the Holy Cross (from 1737), which forms columnar baroque architecture with a central image of a cross with the corpus. Construct it gave Karol ble. Counterpart of the altar is the altar of St. Fidelism of Sigmaringenu, martyr and saint of the Order of Capuchins. The altar dates from 1749 and has a post-top architecture. Altarpiece painted the Death of St. Fidelis Capuchin Father Norbert from Vienna (real name Johann Baumgartner, died 29.09.1773 in Vienna). By the same author as well as religious paintings of saints and two box- reliquaries of 1st half of the 18 century.

Shrine of Our Lady (from 1742) on the right side chapel has a post-top baroque architecture, but the statue of the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus came into being in the 20th century. Below the niche is on an oval painting of St. John of Nepomuk.

Other sights include the church cycle of eight large paintings in the nave, showing Christ's suffering (work Frater Udalricha), two box and two pyramidal reliquaries in the rococo frame, a late baptistery of 18 century baroque oratory behind the main altar, Stations of the Cross in 1892 (Work Upper Austrian woodcarver M. Gaige).

In 1725, erected on the Esplanade in front of the church baroque column with a statue of the Immaculate, built in 1723, standing in front of the county near the house .

Interestingly

Church in Bratislava is the only Capuchin church dedicated to St. Stephen throughout the former Kingdom of Hungary.

sk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostol_sv%C3%A4t%C3%A9ho_%C5%A0tefana_(Bratislava)

Scheduled for a ceremonial opening in October 2019, the Iovine and Young Hall nears completion, June 11, 2019. (Photo/Gus Ruelas)

Sibiu (Romanian: [siˈbiw], antiquated Sibiiu; German: Hermannstadt [ˈhɛʁmanʃtat], Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Härmeschtat, Hungarian: Nagyszeben [ˈnɒcsɛbɛn]) is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 147,245.[1] Located some 275 km (171 mi) north-west of Bucharest,[2] the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt. Now the capital of Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 and 1849–65 Sibiu was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania.

Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and was designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2007, along with the city of Luxembourg.[3] Formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as "Europe's 8th-most idyllic place to live" by Forbes in 2008.[4]

The city administers the Păltiniș ski resort.

 

History[edit]

See also: Timeline of Sibiu

The first official record referring to the Sibiu area comes from 1191, when Pope Celestine III confirmed the existence of the free prepositure of the German settlers in Transylvania, the prepositure having its headquarters in Sibiu, named Cibinium at that time.[5]

In the 14th century, it was already an important trade centre. In 1376, the craftsmen were divided in 19 guilds. Sibiu became the most important ethnic German city among the seven cities that gave Transylvania its German name Siebenbürgen (literally seven citadels).[6][7] It was home to the Universitas Saxorum (Community of the Saxons), a network of pedagogues, ministers, intellectuals, city officials, and councilmen of the German community forging an ordered legal corpus and political system in Transylvania since the 1400s.[8][9] During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became the second- and later the first-most important centre of Transylvanian Romanian ethnics. The first Romanian-owned bank had its headquarters here (The Albina Bank), as did the ASTRA (Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Romanian's People Culture). After the Romanian Orthodox Church was granted status in the Habsburg Empire from the 1860s onwards, Sibiu became the Metropolitan seat, and the city is still regarded as the third-most important centre of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Between the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and 1867 (the year of the Ausgleich), Sibiu was the meeting-place of the Transylvanian Diet, which had taken its most representative form after the Empire agreed to extend voting rights in the region.

After World War I, when Austria-Hungary was dissolved, Sibiu became part of Romania; the majority of its population was still ethnic German (until 1941) and counted a large Romanian community, as well as a smaller Hungarian one. Starting from the 1950s and until after 1990, most of the city's ethnic Germans emigrated to Germany and Austria. Among the roughly 2,000 who have remained is Klaus Johannis, the current President of Romania.

 

Geography[edit]

  

Topographic map of the Sibiu region

  

Panoramic view of Sibiu historic center, looking East.

Sibiu is situated near the geographical center of Romania at

WikiMiniAtlas

45.792784°N 24.152069°E. Set in the Cibin Depression, the city is about 20 km from the Făgăraș Mountains, 12 km from the Cibin Mountains, and about 15 km from the Lotru Mountains, which border the depression in its southwestern section. The northern and eastern limits of Sibiu are formed by the Târnavelor Plateau, which descends to the Cibin Valley through Gușteriței Hill.

The Cibin river as well as some smaller streams runs through Sibiu. The geographical position of Sibiu makes it one of the most important transportation hubs in Romania with important roads and railway lines passing through it.

 

City districts[edit]

The following districts are part of Sibiu. Some were villages annexed by the city but most were built as the city developed and increased its surface.

•Historic Center - Divided into the Upper Town and Lower Town

•Centru (Centre)

•Lupeni

•Trei Stejari

•Vasile Aaron

•Hipodrom I, II, III, IV

•Valea Aurie (Golden Valley)

•Tilișca

•Ștrand

•Turnișor (Little Tower; German: Neppendorf)

•Piața Cluj

•Țiglari

•Terezian

•Reșița

•Lazaret

•Gușterița (German: Hammersdorf)

•Broscărie

•Viile Sibiului

•Tineretului

•Veteranilor de Război

The Southern part, including the ASTRA National Museum Complex and the Zoo, also falls within the city limits.

 

Politics[edit]

  

Sibiu city council composition in 2004:

Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania

Social Democratic Party

National Liberal Party

Democratic Party

Although ethnic Germans make up less than 2% of Sibiu's population, Klaus Johannis, the former president of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR) and current president of Romania, served as mayor of Sibiu from 2000 to 2014. Johannis was overwhelmingly reelected in 2004 (with 88.7% of votes) and 2008 (with 83.3% of the votes cast) and his party gained an absolute majority in the city council in that year. After the 2014 presidential elections, the interim position for mayor of the city was filled by deputy mayor Astrid Fodor who in the 2016 local elections won the seat with a majority of votes.[18]

Despite winning the local elections with a majority of votes and a high approval rating, the current administration is beginning to be viewed as slow moving and lacking transparency. Another issue that is affecting the current administraiton's approval ratings is the lack of investments and innovations

 

Economy[edit]

Sibiu is an important economic hub for Romania, with a high rate of foreign investments. It is also an important hub for the manufacturing of automotive components and houses factories belonging to ThyssenKrupp Bilstein-Compa, Takata Corporation, Continental Automotive Systems, and NTN-SNR ball bearings. Other local industries are machine components, textiles, agro-industry, and electrical components (Siemens).

The city also contains Romania's second-largest stock exchange, the Sibiu Stock Exchange which is set to merge with the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2018.[19]

The main industrial activities of Sibiu take place in two industrial zones located on the outskirts of the city:

•East industrial zone (East Economic Center), alongside the railway to Brașov and Râmnicu Vâlcea

•West industrial zone (West Economic Center),[20] near the exit to Sebeș, close to the Airport

A commercial zone located in the Șelimbăr commune plays an important role in the economy of Sibiu. It houses a mall and other large retailers.

Another factor that plays an important role in the economy of the city is tourism, which has been increasing at a steady rate since 2007.

 

Transport[edit]

  

Sibiu International Airport Location

Sibiu is well served in terms of transport and infrastructure. In 2010 a city bypass was opened, significantly reducing the road traffic inside the city.

Tursib[21] is the city's internal transportation system operator.

Air[edit]

  

Sibiu Airport, Blue Air flight.

Sibiu has one of the most modern international airports in Romania, with direct connections to Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain while connections to other European countries being scheduled to start in summer 2018 Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland.

Road[edit]

Sibiu is an important node in the European road network, being on two different European routes (E68 and E81). At a national level, Sibiu is located on three different main national roads, DN1, DN7 and DN14.

The Romanian Motorway A1 will link the city with Pitești and the Romanian western border, near Arad. From the remaining 332 km of motorway towards the border with Hungary Nadlac, a total of 276 km is completed and the last 56 km are currently under construction, while the timeline for the segment towards Pitești is targeted for completion for the year 2025 (construction will start no sooner than 2019). Sibiu' s ring road as part of A1 motorway was completed on December 1, 2010.

Sibiu is also an important hub for the international bus links with the biggest passenger transporter in Romania, Atlassib, based here. Transport companies are also providing coach connections from Sibiu to a large number of locations in Romania.

  

Public bus transportation in Sibiu

Rail[edit]

Main article: Sibiu railway station

Sibiu is situated on the CFR-Romanian Railways Main Line 200 (Brasov - Făgăraș - Sibiu - Simeria - Arad - Romanian Western Border) and on Line 206 (Sibiu - Mediaș).

The city is served by five rail stations: the Main Station (Gara Mare), the Little Station (Gara Micǎ), Turnișor, Sibiu Triaj, Halta Ateliere Zonă . It has an important diesel-powered locomotives depot and a freight terminal.

Numerous Inter City trains (nicknamed Blue Arrows) connect Sibiu to other major cities in Romania: Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, Craiova, Timișoara and Bucharest.

Cycling[edit]

Over the last six years, Sibiu has enjoyed a revival of cycling. The bicycle way in the city span for 43 kilometers.

Bicycle rentals have offered a boost for the local economy with several small rental centers and a bigger rental center that is administered by the I'Velo Bike Sharing group.

Culture[edit]

Sibiu is one of Romania's most culturally lively cities. It has 3 theatres and a philharmonic orchestra along with other smaller private theatrical venues and a theatre studio housed by the Performing Arts and Acting section of Lucian Blaga University, where students hold monthly representations.

The Radu Stanca National Theatre[22] is one of the leading Romanian theatres. With origins dating back to 1787, it attracts some of the best-known Romanian directors, such as Gábor Tompa and Silviu Purcărete. It has both a Romanian-language and a German-language section, and presents an average of five shows a week.

The Gong Theatre is specialised in puppetry, mime and non-conventional shows for children and teenagers. It also presents shows in both Romanian and German.

The State Philharmonic of Sibiu[23] presents weekly classical music concerts, and educational concerts for children and teenagers. The concerts take place in the newly restored Thalia Hall, a concert and theatre hall dating from 1787, situated along the old city fortifications. Weekly organ concerts are organised at the Evangelical Cathedral during summers, and thematic concerts are presented by the Faculty of Theology choir at the Orthodox Cathedral.

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival is an annual festival of performing arts. Since 2016, it is the largest performance arts festival in the world.[24]

  

Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu.

Museums and parks[edit]

Sibiu's museums are organised around two entities: the Brukenthal National Museum and the ASTRA National Museum Complex. The Brukenthal Museum consists of an Art Gallery and an Old Books Library located inside the Brukenthal Palace, a History Museum located in the old town hall building, a Pharmacy Museum located in one of the first apothecary shops in Europe, dating from the 16th century, a Natural History Museum and a Museum of Arms and Hunting Trophies.

The ASTRA National Museum Complex focuses on ethnography, and consists of a Traditional Folk Civilisation Museum, a 96-hectare open-air museum located in Dumbrava Forest south of Sibiu, a Universal Ethnography Museum, a Museum of Transylvanian Civilisation and a Museum of Saxon Ethnography and Folk Art. Also planned is a Museum of the Culture and Civilisation of the Romany People.

  

Bicycle riders in Sub Arini park, in Sibiu.

The Dumbrava Sibiului Natural Park stretches over 960 hectares and it is situated 4 km away from the center of the city in the southwest direction along the road towards Răşinari. Also, here you can find the Zoological Garden and Ethnography Museum.

There is a Steam Locomotives Museum close to the railway station, sheltering around 40 locomotives, two of which are functional.

The first park in the city was The Promenade, later called "The Disabled Promenade." established in 1791, today part of Parcul Cetății (Citadel Park). Current arrangement of the park, including the space between the walls, dates from 1928.

The Sub Arini Park, established in 1856 is one of the biggest and best-maintained parks in Romania. There are other green spaces in the city center, the best known being Astra Park, established in 1879.

  

Tineretului Park

Other parks:

Tineretului Park, Reconstrucției Park, Corneliu Coposu Park, Petöfi Sándor Park, Piața Cluj Park, Ștrand Park, Cristianului Park, Țițeica Park, Vasile Aaron Park, Lira Park.

The distribution of green space is good compared to other Romanian cities.

Events[edit]

  

Citadel Park, with the 16 century City wall

Several festivals are organised yearly in Sibiu, the most prestigious of them being the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, organized each spring at the end of May. Medieval Festival organized every year in August, reviving the medieval spirit of Transylvania. The Artmania Festival is held every Summer since 2006 and as of 2008 the Rockin' Transilvania Festival is also held in Sibiu. The oldest Jazz Festival in Romania is organized here, as well as the "Carl Filtsch" festival for young classical piano players, the "Astra Film" documentary film festival, the Transylvania calling Festival a Multi Cultural 6 day Open Air Music festival! 26–31 July 2007, a medieval arts festival and many more smaller cultural events.[25] Feeric Fashion Week is also hosted here.

European Cultural Capital[edit]

The designation as a European Cultural Capital for 2007, owed greatly to the excellent collaboration with Luxembourg, but also to what many regard as a miraculous social rebirth taking place in the city during the last years. The Cultural Capital status was expected to bring about an abrupt increase in quantity and quality of cultural events in 2007.

  

Tourism[edit]

In 2007, Sibiu was the European Capital of Culture (together with Luxembourg). This was the most important cultural event that has ever happened in the city, and a great number of tourists came, both domestic and foreign.

The city of Sibiu and its surroundings are one of the most visited areas in Romania. It holds one of the best preserved historical sites in the country, many of its medieval fortifications having been kept in excellent state. Its old center has begun the process for becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Sibiu and its surrounding area have many significant museums, with 12 institutions housing art collections, paintings, and exhibits in decorative arts, archeology, anthropology, history, industrial archeology and history of technology and natural sciences.

The city also lies close to the Făgăraș Mountains - a very popular trekking destination, close to the Păltiniș and Arena Platos ski resorts - popular winter holiday destinations, and it is at the heart of the former Saxon communities in Transylvania renowned for its fortified churches.

  

Fortified Lutheran church of Gușterița neighbourhood, 13th century

Since 2007, a traditional Christmas market is held for the first time in Sibiu, Romania. The first of its kind in Romania, it is inspired by Viennese Christmas markets, being a project developed by the Social Attaché of the Austrian Embassy in Romania, dr.h.c. Barbara Schöfnagel It was held in the "Lesser Square" (Piața Mică) with 38 small stalls, a small stage and an area dedicated to children, having several mechanical attractions installed there. Since 2008 the market is held in the "Grand Square" and grew to a number of about 70 stalls, a bigger stage was set up, where Christmas carols concerts are held. An ice skating rink and a children's workshop are also attractions which have been added in the following years.[26] It was the first Christmas Market in Romania,[27] but soon other Christmas markets emerged across the country. In 2013, the Sibiu Christmas markets was included in the "15 Of the Most Beautiful Christmas Markets in Europe"[28]

  

Main sights[edit]

  

Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral

  

Market in the Large Square, 1790, painting by Franz Neuhauser the Younger

  

Christmas Fair in the Large Square

  

Coopers Tower

  

The House with Caryatids on Mitropoliei Street, constructed in 1786

  

Pasajul Scărilor (Passage of the Stairs) in the Lower Town

Much of the city's aspect is due to its position, easily defensible, but allowing horizontal development. The old city of Sibiu lies on the right bank of the Cibin River, on a hill situated at about 200 m from the river. It consists of two distinct entities: the Upper Town and the Lower Town. Traditionally, the Upper Town was the wealthier part and commercial outlet, while the Lower Town served as the manufacturing area.

The Lower Town

(German: Unterstadt, Romanian: Orașul de jos) comprises the area between the river and the hill, and it developed around the earliest fortifications. The streets are long and quite wide for medieval city standards, with small city squares at places. The architecture is rather rustic: typically two-storey houses with tall roofs and gates opening passages to inner courts.

Most of the exterior fortifications were lost to industrial development and modern urban planning in the mid-late 19th century; only four towers still exist. A building associated with newer urbanism of the period is the Independența Highschool.

This area has the oldest church in the city, dating back to 1292.

The Upper Town (German: Oberstadt, Romanian: Orașul de sus) is organised around three city squares and a set of streets along the line of the hill. As the main area for burgher activities, the area contains most points of interest in the city.

Grand Square

(German: Großer Ring, Romanian: Piața Mare ) is, as its name suggests, the largest square of the city, and has been the center of the city since the 15th century. At 142 meters long and 93 meters wide, it is one of the largest ones in Transylvania.

Brukenthal Palace, one of the most important Baroque monuments in Romania, lies on the north-western corner of the square. It was erected between 1777 and 1787 as the main residence for the Governor of Transylvania Samuel von Brukenthal. It houses the main part of the National Brukenthal Museum, opened in 1817, making it one of the oldest museums in the world. Next to the palace is the Blue House or Moringer House, an 18th-century Baroque house bearing the old coat of arms of Sibiu on its façade.

  

Interior of the Sibiu Orthodox Cathedral

On the north side is the Jesuit Church, along with its dependencies, the former residence of the Jesuits in Sibiu. Also on the north side, at the beginning of the 20th century an Art Nouveau building was constructed on the west part, now it houses the mayor's office.

  

Liars Bridge in Lesser Square, erected in 1859

Next to the Jesuit Church on the north side is the Council Tower, one of the city's symbols. This former fortification tower from the 13th century has been successively rebuilt over the years. The building nearby used to be the City Council's meeting place; beneath it lies an access way between the Grand Square and the Lesser Square.

On the south and east sides are two- or three-storey houses, having tall attics with small windows known as the city's eyes. Most of these houses are dated 15th to 19th centuries, and most of them are Renaissance or Baroque in style.

Lesser Square (Small Square, German: Kleiner Ring) as its name implies, is a smaller square situated in the northern part of the Upper Town. After the 2007 rehabilitation there has been an increase in the number of small businesses such as pubs and restaurants in this area.

The square is connected to the other two squares and to other streets by small, narrow passages. The main access from the Lower City is through Ocnei Street, which divides the square in two. The street passes under the Liar's Bridge - the first bridge in Romania to have been cast in iron (1859).[29]

To the right of the bridge is another symbol of the city, The House of the Arts, a 14th-century arched building formerly belonging to the Butchers' Guild. On the left side of the bridge is the Luxemburg House, a Baroque four-storey building.

Huet Square

is the third of the three main squares of Sibiu. Its most notable feature is the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral in its center. It is the place where the earliest fortifications have been built in the late 12th century or early 13th century. The buildings around this square are mainly Gothic. On the west side lies the Brukenthal Highschool, in place of a former 14th-century school.

  

The Thick Tower

The Fortifications

of Sibiu made the city one of the most important fortified cities in Central Europe. Multiple rings were built around the city, most of them out of clay bricks. The south-eastern fortifications are the best kept, and all three parallel lines are still visible. The first is an exterior earth mound, the second is a 10-meter-tall red brick wall, and the third line comprises towers linked by another 10-meter-tall wall. All structures are connected via a labyrinth of tunnels and passageways, designed to ensure transport between the city and lines of defense.

In the 16th century more modern elements were added to the fortifications, mainly leaf-shaped bastions. Two of these survived to this day, as the Haller Bastion (all the way down Coposu Boulevard) and "Soldisch Bastion".

The Passage of the Stairs, leads down to the lower section of Sibiu. It descends along some fortifications under the support arches. It is the most picturesque of the several passages linking the two sides of the old city.

Health

 

Health[edit]

  

Sibiu County Hospital

Sibiu is one of the important medical centers of Romania, housing many important medical facilities:

•County Hospital

•Academic Emergency Hospital;

•Hospital of Pediatrics;

•Military Emergency Hospital;

•CFR Hospital (Romanian Railways Hospital);

•"Dr. Gheorghe Preda" Psychiatry Hospital

•other smaller private clinics

The city also houses one of the largest private hospitals in the country, Polisano.

Education[edit]

  

Samuel von Brukenthal High School

Sibiu is an important centre of higher education, with over 23,000 students in four public and private higher institutions.[30][31][32][33]

The Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu was founded in 1990, with five faculties: Engineering and Sciences; Language Sciences; History and Law; Medicine; Food and Textile Processing Technology. Nowadays, there are 10 faculties and departments.

Sibiu also houses the Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces Academy and the Military Foreign Language Center as well as two private universities, Romanian-German University and Alma Mater University.

In Sibiu there are 20 educational institutions on the secondary level, the most important of which are:

•Gheorghe Lazăr National College - sciences and informatics, first opened in 1692 as a Jesuit College

•

 

Gheorghe Lazăr National College

  

Samuel von Brukenthal National College - German language high school

•Octavian Goga National College - social sciences, sciences, informatics and linguistics

•Onisifor Ghibu Theoretical Highschool - informatics, sciences, sports, theater and linguistics

•Andrei Șaguna National College - training for school teacher and linguistics

•Constantin Noica Theoretical Highschool - sciences and linguistics

•Daniel Popovici Barcianu Highschool - agricultural sciences

•George Baritiu National College - economic sciences

•Nicolae Iorga Elementary school

•Regina Maria Elementary school

The Romanian army marks its end-of-mission with a ceremony at Contingency Operations Base Adder in Dhi Qar province, Iraq, on June 4. The Romanian President Traian Basescu attends to honor Romania's fallen and to place a battle streamer on the 26th Infantry Battalion's colors.

Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq

Photo by Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens

Date: 06.04.2009

Location: CAMP DRACULA, IQ

Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/ji5h6j

   

After the completion of the largest concrete pours of the first stage of construction, the foundation of the Mukilteo Multimodal Terminal starts to take shape. The foundation will provide support to the passenger building, overhead loading facilities, and the vehicle transfer span.

Well, Stephanie is down and out, time to end this. Time for my revenge to come into completions. First, Tim will watch as he murders the one he loves,and then I'l get the joy of killing him myself. I just gotta get a look at their faces and---

 

"hE's GoInG tO kIlL mY aLiCe!'

 

"So?"

 

"yOu PrOmIsEd HeR tO mE!"

 

"I lied, you fool."

 

"sCuM!!!!"

 

The multicolored freak actually tried to attack me? Heh. A slash to the knee brought him down with ease.

 

"You worthless little wretch. No wonder you need all those mind control drugs to get girls to talk to you. You're nothing."

 

Now that I have that out of the way, I can continue on. Ah, still the beautiful sight of Tim about to murder his love. Hahaha, Look at the tears on Stephanie's face! She knew it was hopeless the instant she started fighting, why did she bother. Now lets look at Timmy and....oh god, I can't hold it anymore! I just laughed aloud at the sight of it. Timmy's crying too! Oh man, this is...wait, what did he say? "I'm sorry"?! This is rich! This has to be the best night of my life! But it's about to get better.

 

"Oh, stop crying, Timmy. It ain't all that bad. I promise you'll see her again soon enough. Just make it quick for her. She went through so much to get here. She deserves a final kindness like that, don't you agree? Now, If you do the honors?....

 

....stop standing around! Finish her off already! it's gotta end sooner or later! DO IT!"

  

Humayun's tomb (Persian: آرامگاه همایون‎‎ Maqbara e Humayun Turkish: Hümayun Kabri) is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun in Delhi, India. The tomb was commissioned by Humayun's son Akbar) in 1569-70, and designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, a Persian architect chosen by Bega Begum. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent, and is located in Nizamuddin East, Delhi, India, close to the Dina-panah citadel also known as Purana Qila (Old Fort), that Humayun founded in 1533. It was also the first structure to use red sandstone at such a scale. The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and since then has undergone extensive restoration work, which is complete. Besides the main tomb enclosure of Humayun, several smaller monuments dot the pathway leading up to it, from the main entrance in the West, including one that even pre-dates the main tomb itself, by twenty years; it is the tomb complex of Isa Khan Niyazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri's court of the Suri dynasty, who fought against the Mughals, constructed in 1547 CE.

 

The complex encompasses the main tomb of the Emperor Humayun, which houses the graves of Bega Begum herself, Hamida Begum, and also Dara Shikoh, great-great-grandson of Humayun and son of the later Emperor Shah Jahan, as well as numerous other subsequent Mughals, including Emperor Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi Ul-Darjat, Rafi Ud-Daulat and Alamgir II. It represented a leap in Mughal architecture, and together with its accomplished Charbagh garden, typical of Persian gardens, but never seen before in India, it set a precedent for subsequent Mughal architecture. It is seen as a clear departure from the fairly modest mausoleum of his father, the first Mughal Emperor, Babur, called Bagh-e Babur (Gardens of Babur) in Kabul (Afghanistan). Though the latter was the first Emperor to start the tradition of being buried in a paradise garden. Modelled on Gur-e Amir, the tomb of his ancestor and Asia's conqueror Timur in Samarkand, it created a precedent for future Mughal architecture of royal mausolea, which reached its zenith with the Taj Mahal, at Agra.

 

The site was chosen on the banks of Yamuna river, due to its proximity to Nizamuddin Dargah, the mausoleum of the celebrated Sufi saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya, who was much revered by the rulers of Delhi, and whose residence, Chilla Nizamuddin Auliya lies just north-east of the tomb. In later Mughal history, the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar took refuge here, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, along with three princes, and was captured by Captain Hodson before being exiled to Rangoon. At the time of the Slave Dynasty this land was under the 'Kilo Kheri Fort' which was capital of Sultan Kequbad, son of Nasiruddin (1268–1287).

 

The Tombs of Battashewala Complex lie in the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site of the Humayun Tomb Complex; the two complexes are separated by a small road but enclosed within their own separate compound walls.

 

HISTORY

After his death on 20 January 1556, Humayun's body was first buried in his palace in Purana Quila at Delhi. Thereafter it was taken to Sirhind, in Punjab by Khanjar Beg, because it was feared that Hindu king Hemu, who had defeated Mughal forces in Agra and Delhi in Oct. 1556 and captured Purana Quila, will damage the tomb. In 1558, it was seen by his son, the then Mughal Emperor, Akbar. Akbar subsequently visited the tomb when it was about to be completed in 1571. The tomb of Humayun was built by the orders of Akbar (3rd emperor of mughal empire), Humayun's first wife and chief consort, and begun in 1565, nine years after his death, and completed in 1572 AD at a cost of 1.5 million rupees at the time. Arnav Deorukhar, one of Humayun's wives, was also very helpful. The cost for building the mausoleum was paid entirely by Empress Bega Begum. When Humayun had died in 1556, Bega Begum was so grieved over her husband's death that she dedicated her life thenceforth to a sole purpose: the construction of the most magnificent mausoleum in the Empire, at a site near the Yamuna River in Delhi for the memorial of the late Emperor. According to Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th-century detailed document written during the reign of Akbar, Haji Begum supervised the construction of the tomb after returning from Mecca and undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage. Humayun to Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni, one of the few contemporary historians to mention its construction, the architect of the tomb was the Persian architect, Mirak Mirza Ghiyas (also referred to as Mirak Ghiyathuddin) who was brought from Herat (northwest Afghanistan), and had previously designed several buildings in Herat, Bukhara (now Uzbekistan), and others elsewhere in India. Ghiyas, to whom the mausoleum's exquisite design is attributed was chosen to be the architect by Empress Bega Begum. Unfortunately, before the structure's completion, he died and so his son Sayyed Muhammad ibn Mirak Ghiyathuddin completed his father's design in 1571. An English merchant, William Finch, who visited the tomb in 1611, describes the rich interior furnishing of the central chamber (in comparison to the sparse look today). He mentioned the presence of rich carpets, and a shamiana, a small tent above the cenotaph, which was covered with a pure white sheet and with copies of the Quran in front along with his sword, turban and shoes.

 

The fortunes of the once famous Charbagh (Four-square) gardens, which spread over 13 hectares surrounding the monument, changed repeatedly over the years after its construction. The capital had already shifted to Agra in 1556, and the decline of the Mughals accelerated the decay of the monument and its features, as the expensive upkeep of the garden proved impossible. By the early 18th century, the once lush gardens were replaced by vegetable garden of people who had settled within the walled area. However, the capture of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 together with the premises, and his subsequent sentencing to exile, along with execution of his three sons, meant that the monument’s worst days lay ahead, as the British took over Delhi completely. In 1860, the Mughal design of the garden was replanted to a more English garden-style, with circular beds replacing the fours central water pools on the axial pathways and trees profusely planted in flowerbeds. This fault was corrected in early 20th century, when on Viceroy, Lord Curzon's orders the original garden were restored in a major restoration project between 1903–1909, which also included lining the plaster channels with sandstone; a 1915 planting scheme, added emphasis to the central and diagonal axis by lining it with trees, though some trees were also planted on the platform originally reserved for tents. The 1882, the Official curator of ancient monument in India, published his first report, which mentioned that the main garden was let out to various cultivators, amongst them till late were the royal descendants, who grew cabbage and tobacco in it.

 

During the Partition of India, in August 1947 the Purana Qila together with Humayun's Tomb, became major refugee camps for Muslims migrating to the newly founded Pakistan, and was later managed by the government of India. These camps stayed open for about five years, and caused considerable damage not only to the extensive gardens, but also to the water channels and the principle structures. Eventually, to avoid vandalism, the cenotaphs within the mausoleum were encased in brick. In the coming years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), took on responsibility for the preservation of heritage monuments in India, and gradually the building and its gardens were restored. Until 1985, four unsuccessful attempts were made to reinstate the original water features.

 

An important phase in the restoration of the complex, started around 1993, when the monument was declared a World Heritage Site. This brought new interest to its restoration, and a detailed research and excavation process began under the aegis of the Aga Khan Trust and the ASI, culminating in 2003, when much of the complex, and gardens were finally restored, with its historic fountains running once again after several centuries of disuse. The restoration has been a continuous process ever since, with subsequent phases addressing various aspects and monuments of the complex.

 

ARCHITECTURE

Turkish and Mughal rule in the Indian subcontinent, also introduced Central Asian and Persian styles of Islamic architecture in the region, and by the late 12th century early monuments in this style were appearing in and around Delhi, the capital of Delhi Sultanate. Starting with the Turkic Slave dynasty which built the Qutb Minar (1192 AD) and its adjacent Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque (1193 CE). North India was successive ruled foreign dynasties in the coming centuries giving rise to the Indo-Islamic architecture. While the prevailing style of architecture was trabeate, employing pillars, beams and lintels, this brought in the arcuate style of construction, with its arches and beams, which flourished under Mughal patronage and by incorporating elements of Indian architecture, especially Rajasthani architecture including decorative corbel brackets, balconies, pendentive decorations and indeed kiosks or chhatris, to developed a distinct, Mughal architecture style, which was to become a lasting legacy of the nearly four hundred years of the Mughal rule. The combination of red sandstone and white marble was previously seen in Delhi Sultanate period tombs and mosques, most distinctively in the highly decorative Alai Darwaza in the Qutub complex, Mehrauli, built in 1311 AD, under the Khilji dynasty. The high rubble built enclosure is entered through two lofty double-storeyed gateways on the west and south, 16 metres high with rooms on either side of the passage and a small courtyards on the upper floors. Six-sided stars that adorn the main gateway on the west, are also seen on the iwan of the main tomb structure, though it has been used as ornamental cosmic symbol. The mosque usually present alongside royal tombs, like the Taj, is conspicuously missing from the enclosure, which has only one other structure, the tomb of Emperor's favorite barber, now commonly known as Nai ka Gumbad (Dome-of-barber). The tomb built of rubble masonry and red sandstone, uses white marble as a cladding material and also for the flooring, lattice screens (jaalis), door frames, eaves (chhajja) and for the main dome. It stands on a vaulted terrace eight-metre high and spread over 12,000m². It is essentially square in design, though chamferred on the edges to appear octagonal, to prepare ground for the design of the interior structure. The plinth made with rubble core has fifty-six cells all around, and houses over 100 gravestones. Plus, the entire base structure is on a raised platform, a few steps high.Inspired by Persian architecture; the tomb reaches a height of 47 metres and is 91 metres wide, and was the first Indian building to use the Persian double dome on a high neck drum, and measures 42.5 metres, and is topped by 6 metres high brass finial ending in a crescent, common in Timurid tombs. The double or 'double-layered' dome, has its outer layer which supports the white marble exterior, while the inner part gives shape to the cavernous interior volume. As a contrast to the pure white exterior dome, rest of the building is made up of red sandstone, with white and black marble and yellow sandstone detailing, to relieve the monotony. The symmetrical and simple designed on the exterior is in sharp contrast with the complex interior floor plan, of inner chambers, which is a square 'ninefold plan', where eight two-storyed vaulted chambers radiate from the central, double-height domed chamber. It can be entered through an imposing entrance iwan (high arc) on the south, which is slightly recessed, while others sides are covered with intricate jaalis, stone lattice work. Underneath this white dome in a domed chamber (hujra), lies the central octagonal sepulcher, the burial chamber containing a single cenotaph, that of the second Mughal Emperor, Humayun aligned on the north-south axis, as per Islamic tradition, where in the head is placed to the north, while the face is turned sideways towards Mecca. The real burial chamber of the Emperor, however lies further away in an underground chamber, exactly beneath the upper cenotaph, accessible through a separate passage outside the main structure, which remains mostly closed to visiting public. This burial technique along with pietra dura, a marble and even stone inlay ornamentation in numerous geometrical and arabesque patterns, seen all around the facade is an important legacy of the Indo-Islamic architecture, and flourished in many later mausolea of the Mughal Empire, like the Taj Mahal, where again we find twin cenotaphs and exquisite 'pietra dura' craftsmanship. The main chamber also carries the symbolic element, a mihrab design over the central marble lattice or jaali, facing Mecca in the West, here instead of the traditional Surah 24, An-Noor of Quran which is inscribed on the mihrabs, this one is just an outline allowing light to enter directly into the chamber, from Qibla or the direction of Mecca, thus elevating the status of the Emperor, above his rivals and closer to divinity. This chamber with high ceiling is then encompassed by four main octagonal chambers on two floors, set at the diagonals with arched lobbies leading to them also connecting them, plus there are four auxiliary chambers in between suggesting that the tomb was built as a dynastic mausoleum. Collectively the concept of eight side chambers not only offers passage for circumambulation of the main cenotaph, a practice common in Sufism and also visible in many Mughal imperial mausoleums, it also the reflect the concept of Paradise in Islamic cosmology. Each of the main chambers has in turn eight more, smaller chambers radiating from them, and thus the symmetrical ground plan reveals itself to contain 124 vaulted chambers in all. Many smaller chambers too, contain cenotaphs of other members of the Mughal royal family and nobility, all within main walls of the tomb. Prominent among them cenotaphs of Hamida Begum herself, alongside Dara Shikoh. In all there are over 100 graves within the entire complex, including many on the first level terrace, earning it the name "Dormitory of the Mughals", since the graves are not inscribed their identification remains uncertain. The building was first to use its unique combination of red sandstone and white marble, and includes several elements of Indian architectural, like the small canopies, or chhatris surrounding the central dome, popular in Rajasthani architecture and which were originally covered with blue tiles.

 

CHAR BAGH GARDEN

While the main tomb took over eight years to build, it was also placed in centre of a 120,000 m2 Char Bagh Garden (Four Gardens), a Persian-style garden with quadrilateral layout and was the first of its kind in the South Asia region in such a scale. The highly geometrical and enclosed Paradise garden is divided into four squares by paved walkways (khiyabans) and two bisecting central water channels, reflecting the four rivers that flow in jannat, the Islamic concept of paradise. Each of the four square is further divided into smaller squares with pathways, creating into 36 squares in all, a design typical of later Mughal gardens. The central water channels appear to be disappearing beneath the tomb structure and reappearing on the other side in a straight line, suggesting the Quranic verse, which talks of rivers flowing beneath the 'Garden of Paradise'.

 

The entire tomb and the garden is enclosed within high rubble walls on three sides, the fourth side was meant to be the river Yamuna, which has since shifted course away from the structure. The central walkways, terminate at two gates: a main one in the southern wall, and a smaller one in the western wall. It has two double-storey entrances, the West gate which used now, while the South gate, which was used during Mughal era, now remains closed. Aligned at the centre on the eastern wall lies a baradari, literally a pavilion with twelve doors, which is a building or room with twelve doors designed to allow the free draught of air through it, finally on the northern wall lies a hammam, a bath chamber.

 

OTHER MONUMENTS

- Tomb and mosque of Isa Khan: Several monuments dot the pathway leading up to the tomb enclosure from the main entrance in the West. Prominent among them is one that pre-dates the main tomb itself, by twenty years. Constructed in 1547 CE, it is the tomb complex of Isa Khan Niyazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri's court of the Suri dynasty, who fought against the Mughals. The octagonal tomb is positioned within an octagonal garden, which was built during his own lifetime and the reign of Islam Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah. It later served as a burial place for the entire family of Isa Khan. On the western side of the tomb lies a three-bay wide mosque, in red sandstone. The octagonal tomb bears a striking resemblance to other tombs of the Sur dynasty monuments in the Lodhi Gardens, in Delhi and demonstrates a marked progression in the development of the exquisite architectural style of the main tomb. Some of the architectural details present here were seen later in the main Humayun's tomb, though on a much grander scale, such as the tomb being placed in a walled garden enclosure.

 

- Bu Halima's Tomb and Garden: When entering the complex from the West, visitor's first enter a garden complex, known as Bu Halima's Garden, though little is known about her, and since the tomb or the raised platform where it once stood is not at the centre, it appears to be a later addition. Afsarwala Tomb and mosque: Standing southwest end of the complex, lies the Afsarwala tomb (Officer's Tomb) belonging to a nobleman (Afsar Indianized word for Officer) in Akbar's court. One of the marble graves inside the tomb is dated 1566-67 CE. The mosque itself can be dated to the same period judging from its siting, standing as it does adjacent to the tomb, rather than away from it.

 

- Araba Sarai: Literally meaning the sarai (resthouse) for the horses of Gari (vehicle), the structure stands adjacent to the Afsarwala mosque and was built by Bega Begum around 1560-1561 CE, ostensibly built for the craftsmen who came for the construction work. It could accommodate 300 Arabas.(in Persian ارابه means:Cart or Gari (vehicle)).

 

- Nila Gumbad: Standing outside the boundary of the complex is the tomb known as Nila Burj (now known as Nila Gumbad) or 'Blue Dome', so called because it carries striking blue glazed tiles. It was built by Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, son of Bairam Khan also a courtier in Mughal Emperor, Akbar's court, for his servant Miyan Fahim. Fahim, who not only grew up with his son, but later also died alongside one of Rahim's own sons, Feroze Khan, while fighting against the rebellion of Mughal general Mahabat Khan in 1625/26, during the reign of Jahangir. This structure is known for its unique architecture, as it is octagonal on the outside while square within; its ceiling is decorated with painted and incised plaster, it has a high neck dome and shows a conspicuous absence of a double dome feature, common to tombs of the period.

 

- Chillah Nizamuddin Aulia: Believed to be the residence of patron saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya (d. 1325 A.D), is located just outside the main complex, near the northeastern corner of the principle mausoleum and is an example of Tughlaq period architecture.

 

Yet further away from the tomb complex, lie Mughal-period monuments, Bada Bateshewala Mahal, the tomb of Muzaffar Husain Mirza, the grand nephew of Humayun, built 1603-4 on platform with five arches on each side, has its interior walls decorated with incised and painted plaster; the Chote Bateshewala Mahal once an arcaded octagonal building with a domed ceiling and stone jaalis. Both these monument now lie inside a commercial area facing the complex's parking lot. Another period structure is Barapula, a bridge with 12 piers and 11 arched openings, built in 1621 by Mihr Banu Agha, the chief eunuch of Jahangir’s court.

 

- Barber's Tomb: Towards the south-east corner, within the 'char bagh' garden, lies a tomb known as Nai-ka-Gumbad, or Barber's Tomb, belonging to royal barber, it is datable to 1590-91 CE, through an inscription found inside. Its proximity to the main tomb and the fact that it is the only other structure within the main tomb complex suggests its importance, however there are no inscriptions suggesting as to who is interred therein, the name Barbers tomb is the local name of the structure, hence still in use. The tomb stands on a raised platform, reached by seven steps from the south, it has a square plan and consists of a single compartment covered with a double-dome. Inside lie two graves each inscribed with verses from the Quran. Also, one of the graves is inscribed with the figure 999 which may stand for the Hijra year 1590-91. However in an 1820 watercolour now at British Library, the Persian caption beneath the structure reads, Maqbarah-i-Kokah i.e. "Tomb of Kaka", and Kokah or Kaka in Persian stand for foster-brother (mirak brother), Mirak (a Persian title as sir) though the identity of the person remains unknown, and it might be (incorrectly) referring to another nearby monument in the Chausath Khamba complex, the tomb Ataga Khan, the foster brother of Humayun, which lies in Nizamuddin West area and not to the east of the Humayun's tomb.

 

RESTAURATION

Before the restoration work was undertaken, vandalism and illegal encroachments were rampant at the site of the tomb, presenting a serious danger to the preservation of this invaluable treasure. At the main entrance of Humayun’s Tomb, dingy stalls had been put up under a very corrupt system of municipal patronage known as tehbazari, and all sorts of heavy vehicles were allowed to be parked illegally in these open spaces. On the Nila Gumbad side was a huge citadel of India’s vote bank politics - thousands of ‘slum dwellers’ were kept by an influential section of the political leadership to serve as ‘bonded voters’ during elections. The environment of the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya had also been ruthlessly degraded and the holy tank had become a messy cesspool.Restoration work by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), in collaboration with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), began around 1999 after research work, which started in 1997, and was completed in March 2003. Around 12 hectares of lawns were replanted, and over 2500 trees and plants, including mango, lemon, neem, hibiscus and jasmine cuttings, were planted in the gardens. Installation of a new water circulation system for the walkway channels was also undertaken. To ensure that water flowed naturally through the channels and pools on the 12-hectare site without the aid of hydraulic systems, the water channels were re-laid to an exacting grade of one centimetre every 40 metres (1:4000 slope). This eventually enabled water to flow through the watercourses in the gardens, and dormant fountains to start functioning once again. Other tasks in this mammoth restoration project included setting up a rainwater harvesting system using 128 ground water recharge pits, and desilting and revitalizing old wells that were discovered during the restoration work. This was first a privately funded collaborative effort under the aegis of the National Cultural Fund (NCF) by the ASI. Funding included a sum of $650,000 from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture of His Highness the Aga Khan, with help from the Oberoi Hotels Group. In addition, AKTC is conducting a more significant restoration at Babur's tomb, the resting place of Humayun's father in Kabul.

 

After the restoration work, the conditions in and around this complex underwent a sea-change. All the stalls and other intrusions were removed and the monuments and green spaces restored. Elegant gardens now surround the monuments, adding to their dignity and grace. When illuminated at night, the monument looks truly magnificent.

 

In 2009, as a part of the ongoing restoration work, the ASI and AKTC, after months of manual work using hand-tools, removed from the roof a thick layer of cement concrete that had been exerting pressure of about 1,102 tons on the structure. The cement concrete was originally laid in the 1920s to prevent water seepage, and led to a blockage in water passages. Subsequently, each time there was leakage, a fresh layer of cement was added, leading to an accumulated thickness of about 40 cm; this has now been replaced with a traditional lime-based roof layer. In the next phase, similar treatment was given to the tomb's first chabutra (plinth), which was originally paved with large blocks of quartzite stone, some weighing over a 1,000 kg. In the 1940s, an uneven settlement in the lower plinth had been corrected by covering it with a layer of concrete, adding to the disfigurement of the original Mughal flooring, which matched with that at the West Gate.

 

THE MAUSOLEUM TODAY

Ill thought out construction plans like The Delhi Government's plans in 2006/2007 to build a new tunnel to connect East Delhi to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi in South Delhi, and to widen the roads near the tomb for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to connect National Highway-24 with Lodhi Road, also posed a serious threat to the monument. Urban planners feared that the historic monument would not have been able to withstand the vibrations ensuing from the construction work in such close proximity. Finally, the Archaeological Survey of India was able to halt the plans. During his visit to India in November 2010, US President Barack Obama visited this site.

 

On 30 May 2014, the finial of the tomb was knocked off the dome by a heavy storm which struck the city.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Seen on Love Street in Chester after completion of an early morning 1A circuit of Blacon is 34812 PX06 DVV. Pictured on 9th September 2016

Completion of the Fulton Substation is just one part of a planned $23 million in

system upgrades in Toledo Edison’s service area during 2013. The company also will

inspect and preemptively replace equipment and utility poles, replace underground vault

tops and continue vegetation management programs across its service area, all designed to

enhance service reliability.

Pismo Beach History, Visitor Center Information

The history of people at Pismo Beach starts at least 9,000 years ago with the Chumash Indians, who referred to the area as a place to find pismu, or tar. The Pismo Beach region has an interesting history going back in time to 1769, when Don Gaspar de Portola and parties camped in the area. According to the diary of Costanso, a member of the Portola party, “The party continued over the sand dunes and then descended to the beach, along which they walked for several miles before camping for the night. Near their camping place was an Indian village of some forty people.” Undoubtedly, the beach walked upon by the Portola party was that known today as Pismo Beach. We invite you to take a look at our rich history.

 

The First Pismo Beach

The City is part of the original 8,838-acre Rancho Pismo. Rancho Pismo was granted to Jose Ortega by Manuel Rinemo Goriod on November 18, 1840. Ortega is thought to have built a small adobe that later became part of the Price Adobe. The rancho was later acquired by Issac Sparks. Some folktales relate that Sparks won the land from Ortega in a game of monte, but it appears from records kept by John M. Price that the ranch was purchased for 477 head of cattle. Sparks, in 1850, appears to have given John Price El Pizmo Rancho instead of paying him wages in gold, as the deed shows a cost of $1 for the property. Upon Spark’s death, John Michael Price and Captain David Mallagh received a share of the land. Price lived and worked on the rancho until his death in 1902. Price built up sizeable horse and cattle herds, which he moved onto the rancho. Mallagh owned a section of Rancho Pismo around the cave landing area (now Pirate’s Cove), where he established a wharf business. Price purchased some of the property in 1854. A portion of the southern part, which is now Grover Beach and Arroyo Grande, was sold to Francisco Branch. This left him with Shell Beach, Pismo Beach area and a large section running back into Price Canyon. In 1875, Price took the first step toward funding the community of Pismo Beach when he built a hotel on the road from Arroyo Grande to the People’s Wharf in Avila Beach. The hotel was not a success and Price had the hotel moved to the beach in 1884. In 1881, Price leased oceanfront land to the Meherin brothers to build a wharf and a warehouse. This wharf at the end of Main Street was successful and the hotel’s new location was next to this operation. The school district was founded in 1888, and the Post Office was also established then.

 

Parceling Pismo Beach

In February 1886, Price hired R.R. Harris to survey and design a map of the subdivisions of part of the Ranchos El Pismo and San Miguelito, and to also map out and draw a plan for a town to be called “El Pismo.” This was initiated in April 1886. A year later, the Pismo Beach Company again subdivided part of the community and recorded a map of the “Town El Pizmo.” It is interesting to note that the Pismo Beach Company is given credit by some for the founding of the present City of Pismo Beach.

 

Pismo’s Pier

Back in 1881, Pismo’s original wharf opened for business. Taking off from a point below the present Main Street, remnants of the pilings may still be seen at very low tides.

 

It was not planned for recreation as such — it was a commercial venture designed in part to save freight fees for South County products. Lumber was received as well as other commodities. Stock was issued to farmers and landowners for $20 a share and the wharf was built for $14,613. The Meherin brothers, Arroyo Grande merchants, started the venture. Most credit is given to D.J. Meherin for its inception, construction and maintenance. In 1882, a year after its completion, Meherin figured the wharf had saved the people of the county $35,000 in decreased freight rates compared with those of the steamer line they would have patronized. Thirty-eight vessels were loaded at the wharf in 1882. Two warehouses were built near the entrance where teams could move cargo in and out. A small hand car track led out to the end of the pier. The wharf was still active in 1890, but a few years later it gave way during a heavy storm. Probably contributing to the disaster was a load of heavy “bituminous rock” that had been dug in Edna and was waiting in sacks for shipment to San Francisco to be used as paving material. The new pier that replaced the original was built in 1924 and was much longer than it is today. Some can remember driving cars along its length, then backing out, or using the tight turn around at the end. It is said that it extended out far enough that Navy ships could tie up and the men could come ashore. The pier has sustained damage several times, but a major storm tore up the south side of the sea wall and about 500 feet off the end of the pier early in its existence. It was never put back. After a 1983 storm washed out most of the wharf, it was rebuilt in its present configuration in 1985-86. The state, county and city all have an interest in the pier. The pier at Pismo Beach continues to be one of the community’s major attractions.

 

Tourism

John Price realized the potential Pismo had for tourism when he built the Pismo Beach Hotel. The Pismo Beach Hotel was sold to A.E. Pomeroy and Charles Stimson in 1887. They enlarged the hotel and renamed it the El Pizmo Inn. The hotel was sold and resold many times. In early times, the area was thought of as a place to spend several months, relaxing and enjoying the surroundings. Early advertisements for the El Pizmo Inn encouraged visitors to come and enjoy the “fine duck hunting and the pleasant surroundings.” The 1900s were wild times in Pismo Beach. Pismo was noted for having many saloons, along with several notorious brothels. Other amusement type businesses at the time, besides the hotels, offered a variety of entertainment, including a skating rink, a bowling alley, and a dance hall. The property directly south of Shell Beach now known as Dinosaur Caves, was the site of an amusement park, with a giant cement dinosaur to gather attention. H. Douglas Brown started building the dinosaur in 1948 and was stopped by local opposition. The headless dinosaur remained a local landmark until it was torn down in the late 1950s. Pismo Beach was also known to be a place to find booze during the Prohibition Era. The second El Pizmo Inn was built about the turn of the century and became so popular that a “Tent City” was erected for the overflow of tourists. They were clean, well-organized 18′ x 14′ tents that could be rented for $8 a week. Resting on wooden planks, the tents were located where the Clam Digger stands today. Eventually, the Tent City was expanded to where the theater now stands. “Tent City” lasted into the late 1920s. The Southern Pacific Railroad also helped tourism in Pismo Beach. It brought people from the San Francisco Bay area to Pismo Beach in one of the first “timeshare” operations. The people paid $30 for a ride down to Pismo Beach and then stayed in the Tent City. If the tourists liked the tents, the railroad would use their fare as a down payment on a tent for the people. If the people didn’t like the tent, their money was refunded and they returned to San Francisco free of charge. It was rumored that more people stayed than asked for refunds. In 1912, Highway 2, today’s Highway 101, was routed through Pismo Beach, giving automobile travelers an easy route to the beach. Highway 101 was not expanded to four lanes until the late 1950s.

 

Shell Beach And Sunset Palisades

Shell Beach was quite different years ago, when it was nothing but pea fields. The area was the site of a Chumsh village. Floyd Calvert bought and developed much of the land in 1926. He paid $45,OOO for 41 acres between the ocean and the highways. When Calvert first visited Shell Beach, there were approximately 50 residents in the area. Calvert sold lots in the area for as little as $195. A resident of Hollywood, Calvert was told about the area by a friend in 1925. When he first visited Shell Beach, there was only one street, Boeker Avenue, with a few cottages on it. Calvert was struck by the beauty of Shell Beach and bought a portion of it. In January 1926, he opened offices in the area, hired seven salesmen and began selling land to people seeking summer retreats from the hot valley. When the summer selling season was over that first year, Calvert had to close his offices. The depression, which was to hit hard in 1929, was beginning to be felt. Then Calvert had to devise a new way to sell his land. He offered it for $5 a month. Even then it was hard to sell. During the Depression, Calvert, who had been a builder in Hollywood, lost all his property except for Shell Beach. He had such faith in this area he thought if he could hold on to this land, someday people would realize its worth. It took Calvert 20 years to sell the first 456 lots on the Shell Beach land he owned. But shortly before and after World War II, Calvert began to have more success selling lots. During World War II, many soldiers had trained in California. They liked the climate and wanted to live in the area. It was then that Shell Beach changed from a resort area for residents of the San Joaquin Valley to a residential community. When Calvert began to break ground for building houses, he found skeletons of Indians who had died and were buried in the area. He also found copper bracelets, arrowheads, spearheads, and stone bowls, which had been used for grinding meal. Most of the Indian artifacts were found near the ocean between Placentia and Palomar Streets. Major archaeological sites have been noted in this area and that of Sunset Palisades. It was known as Oilport and was opened in August of 1907, quite different from today’s residential Sunset Palisades area. Built with investor funds, it operated for only one month. The plant, built by California Petroleum Refineries Ltd., was to be the most modern on the West Coast. Nearly 2.25 million bricks went into the construction of the facilities. Financed primarily by investors, it cost over $2 million to build. It was to be the most complete refinery on the coast. It was set up to produce kerosene, gasoline, lubricating oil, and oil byproducts. The refinery existed until just after World War II, when it was finally torn down. The land was sold, subdivided and replaced with housing.

 

Incorporation

1926 saw the first incorporation attempt in Pismo Beach. Though it failed, attempts to incorporate the city were finally successful in 1939, when Pismo Beach became a sixth-class city by a majority of seven votes. In 1940, worries over increased taxes led the citizens to vote to disincorporate the city. The majority was eight votes in the election. The present city government dates from 1946. Pismo Beach is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021

Originally dating to around 1320, the building is important because it has most of its original features; successive owners effected relatively few changes to the main structure, after the completion of the quadrangle with a new chapel in the 16th century. Pevsner described it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county", and it remains an example that shows how such houses would have looked in the Middle Ages. Unlike most courtyard houses of its type, which have had a range demolished, so that the house looks outward, Nicholas Cooper observes that Ightham Mote wholly surrounds its courtyard and looks inward, into it, offering little information externally.[9] The construction is of "Kentish ragstone and dull red brick,"[10] the buildings of the courtyard having originally been built of timber and subsequently rebuilt in stone.[11]

  

The moat of Ightham Mote

The house has more than 70 rooms, all arranged around a central courtyard, "the confines circumscribed by the moat."[10] The house is surrounded on all sides by a square moat, crossed by three bridges. The earliest surviving evidence is for a house of the early 14th century, with the great hall, to which were attached, at the high, or dais end, the chapel, crypt and two solars. The courtyard was completely enclosed by increments on its restricted moated site, and the battlemented tower was constructed in the 15th century. Very little of the 14th century survives on the exterior behind rebuilding and refacing of the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

The structures include unusual and distinctive elements, such as the porter's squint, a narrow slit in the wall designed to enable a gatekeeper to examine a visitor's credentials before opening the gate. An open loggia with a fifteenth-century gallery above, connects the main accommodations with the gatehouse range. The courtyard contains a large, 19th century dog kennel.[12] The house contains two chapels; the New Chapel, of c.1520, having a barrel roof decorated with Tudor roses. [13] Parts of the interior were remodelled by Richard Norman Shaw.[14] wikipedia

 

16th century-late 19th century

The house remained in the Selby family for nearly 300 years.[3] Sir William was succeeded by his nephew, also Sir William, who is notable for handing over the keys of Berwick-upon-Tweed to James I on his way south to succeed to the throne.[4] He married Dorothy Bonham of West Malling but had no children. The Selbys continued until the mid-19th century when the line faltered with Elizabeth Selby, the widow of a Thomas who disinherited his only son.[5] During her reclusive tenure, Joseph Nash drew the house for his multi-volume illustrated history Mansions of England in the Olden Time, published in the 1840s.[6] The house passed to a cousin, Prideaux John Selby, a distinguished naturalist, sportsman and scientist. On his death in 1867, he left Ightham Mote to a daughter, Mrs Lewis Marianne Bigge. Her second husband, Robert Luard, changed his name to Luard-Selby. Ightham Mote was rented-out in 1887 to American Railroad magnate William Jackson Palmer and his family. For three years Ightham Mote became a centre for the artists and writers of the Aesthetic Movement with visitors including John Singer Sargent, Henry James, and Ellen Terry. When Mrs Bigge died in 1889, the executors of her son Charles Selby-Bigge, a Shropshire land agent, put the house up for sale in July 1889.[6]

 

Late 19th century-21st century

The Mote was purchased by Thomas Colyer-Fergusson.[6] He and his wife brought up their six children at the Mote. In 1890-1891, he carried out much repair and restoration, which allowed the survival of the house after centuries of neglect.[7] Ightham Mote was opened to the public one afternoon a week in the early 20th century.[7]

 

Sir Thomas Colyer-Fergusson's third son, Riversdale, died aged 21 in 1917 in the Third Battle of Ypres, and won a posthumous Victoria Cross. A wooden cross in the New Chapel is in his memory. The oldest brother, Max, was killed at the age of 49 in a bombing raid on an army driving school near Tidworth in 1940 during World War II. One of the three daughters, Mary (called Polly) married Walter Monckton.

 

On Sir Thomas's death in 1951, the property and the baronetcy passed to Max's son, James. The high costs of upkeep and repair of the house led him to sell the house and auction most of the contents. The sale took place in October 1951 and lasted three days. It was suggested that the house be demolished to harvest the lead on the roofs, or that it be divided into flats. Three local men purchased the house: William Durling, John Goodwin and John Baldock. They paid £5,500 for the freehold, in the hope of being able to secure the future of the house.[8]

 

In 1953, Ightham Mote was purchased by Charles Henry Robinson, an American of Portland, Maine, United States. He had known the property when stationed nearby during the Second World War. He lived there for only fourteen weeks a year for tax reasons. He made many urgent repairs, and partly refurnished the house with 17th-century English pieces. In 1965, he announced that he would give Ightham Mote and its contents to the National Trust. He died in 1985 and his ashes were immured just outside the crypt. The National Trust took possession in that year.[8]

 

In 1989, the National Trust began an ambitious conservation project that involved dismantling much of the building and recording its construction methods before rebuilding it. During this process, the effects of centuries of ageing, weathering, and the destructive effect of the deathwatch beetle were highlighted. The project ended in 2004 after revealing numerous examples of structural and ornamental features which had been covered up by later additions.[1]

St Helen is probably my favourite Kent church. At least from the outside. Alternating bands of flints and local stone give it a Christmas Cake effect, but in bright sunshine it looks stunning.

 

Inside, its no less impressive. Part of the wall paintings survive, as do geometric patterns on some of the supporting columns.

 

And it is huge, with a fine wooden roof, a replacement after a fire, but still works well, and the fabric of the church seems good.

 

Everywhere there are fabulous things to find; Aumbries, memorials, and so much more.

 

And I reeived a warm welcome from the warden who was waiting for visitors. Last time I was here, there was a display of how the estuary airport-cum-Boris Johnson vanity project seemed a real possibility. Now he is back insulting foreigners, and the airport is dead. But a new Thames crossing is being mooted, and it might run across Grain, which would be a shame to have the peace and quiet shattered.

 

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An absolute knockout of a church. From the first glimpse of the exterior, with its zebra-like stripes of flint and stone, you know that here is a church of great interest. In plan it consists of an aisled nave, transepts, chancel and west tower - all built on a prodigious scale. Although the church was heavily restored on two occasions in the nineteenth century there is still a great deal of interest and a visit here should not be rushed. The pillars of the nave have distinctive 'V' paintings contemporary with their fourteenth-century construction. The pulpit is of 1636 and shows some excellent carved arcading. Attached to it is a contemporary hourglass stand. The north transept has wall paintings depicting the martyrdom of St Edmund, but these were over-touched-up by Professor Tristram in 1932. Further paintings exist in the south transept and probably show the martyrdom of St Margaret. The base of the rood screen is fifteenth century while the rather insubstantial traceried top is an early twentieth-century addition. There is an elaborate tie-beam high in the roof with little quatrefoil piercings in the spandrels, but this could not have supported the rood as the remains of the rood loft staircase may be seen in its usual position. Outside the north chancel wall can be found a piscina and holy water stoup - all that remains of a medieval chantry chapel or anchorite's cell which has been demolished. The blocked-up doorway that originally gave access to it may be seen both inside and out. On the inside south wall of the chancel is one of the finest sedilia in Kent which together with its double piscina dates from the early years of the fourteenth century.

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Cliffe

 

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THE Church at Cliffe is dedicated to St. Helen and bears the distinction of being the only church in Kent dedicated to that Saint. It stands in a prominent position at the edge of the Hoo peninsula overlooking the extensive marshes which at this point stretch some two miles to the Thames.

The village seems at one time to have been of greater importance than it is to-day. Lambarde describes it as a large town in his day in spite of a disastrous fire which had destroyed many of the houses about 1520, a fire from the effects of which it appears never to have recovered.

The Manor of Cliffe belonged from very early times to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, who were also the owners of the advowson, and thus became concerned with the upkeep of the church. At the Dissolution the Manor passed to George Brooke, Lord Cobham, though the Archbishop of Canterbury is still the patron of the living. Among the Rectors of Cliffe were several men of distinction, some of whom probably never visited the parish. From an early date there seems to have been a perpetual vicarage attached to the church, but when it became merged in the Rectory is uncertain.

Of the first church at Cliffe there is no definite record. It is sometimes said to have been founded by Offa, king of Mercia, in the latter part of the eighth century, though the only evidence for this appears to be the presumed identification of the place with the Cloveshoo of the Saxon Chronicle, where various synods of the Saxon Church were held in the eighth and ninth centuries. Without attempting to suggest a solution of this very debatable point, it can only be said that the evidence in favour of Cliffe appears to rest on at least as good authority as that of the rival claimants—Abingdon in Berkshire, and Clifton Hoo in Bedfordshire. There is moreover good reason to think that Cliffe was less inaccessible than might be supposed in mediaeval times. There still remain traces of a causeway across Higham Marsh, which must at one time have led to a ferry, thus affording an easy means of approach from Essex and the Midlands.

The earliest undisputed documentary reference to a church at Cliffe is in the Domesday Survey. It was evidently a building of more than usual importance for it is expressly stated that two ministers were in charge. Of this building, however, not a vestige remains, though there can be little doubt that from it the present plan has, on more or less recognised lines, been developed.

The plan as it exists to-day is complete, and consists of a nave with wide aisles, north and south transepts, chancel, western tower and south porch. The church is one of the largest in Kent, and is a striking example of a parish church whose size and splendour could have borne but little relation to the actual needs of the locality. It was the product of an age whose zeal for church building was limited only by the funds available. The total internal length from east to west is 182 feet, while the width across the transept is 82 feet. The exterior has been the subject of somewhat extensive restoration, which has robbed it of much of its ancient appearance. The south aisle differs from that on the north in having an embattled parapet, similar to that of the porch. The walls of the tower and transepts are faced with flint rubble with little attempt at regular coursing. The later work of the nave and chancel, though extensively refaced, is composed of alternate courses of dressed flints and stone ; the latter, a soft ragstone from the lower green sand formation which, quarried probably from the outcrop a few miles to the south, has weathered badly in many places. A variety of other materials is noticeable, some of which appear to have been reused from the earlier church. A block of Caen stone in the east wall of the chancel, and several pieces in the north wall, have obviously been reused, while a single piece of calcareous tufa can be seen in the north wall of the transept; Reigate stone is also fairly abundant.

 

It is not till one enters the church, that its size is fully realised. The absence of pews over a large part of the nave, with the fact that the nave arcade is carried past the crossing without a break, and the absence of a chancel arch, all combine to emphasise its spaciousness. The impression

gathered from a superficial survey of the interior is that of a thirteenth century church with considerable additions in the fourteenth century, but a more careful inspection shows at least one trace of an earlier building. The arch from the north aisle into the transept, which has been partially cut away when the thirteenth century nave arcade was constructed, is certainly of late twelfth century date and must therefore have survived from an earlier church. Before, however, considering the development of the ground plan, it is necessary to refer briefly to the chief features of architectural interest which call for notice.

The porch is of a fairly common type, with an upper room, approached by a stair turret from the south aisle. It measures internally 11 feet 5 inches from east to west by 16 feet from north to south, and is apparently of late fifteenth century date. On the right of the inner doorway are the remains of a holy water stoup. The room above has been considerably modernised, and there is nothing to indicate its original use. Occasionally an altar is found in the porch chamber, which, however, in this case would seem more likely to have been used for storing the church goods.

 

The north and south aisles of the nave are 19 feet 10 inches and 18 feet wide respectively, and are thus considerably wider than the nave itself. They contain a fine series of Decorated windows, those at the end of either aisle being particularly interesting examples of three lights. The church as a whole is very rich in windows of this period, which form in themselves an interesting study in design. The south aisle has a stone bench running along its south and west walls.

The tower is entered from the nave by a plain thirteenth century arch, and measures approximately 15 feet 6 inches from east to west by 17 feet 6 inches from north to south (interior measurements). The lower stage, which is shut off from the church by a screen, and is now used as a vestry, is lit by three narrow lancets, one in each of the disengaged walls. The roof is a simple quadripartite vault, without any boss at the intersection of the ribs, which are carried on shafts supported on corbels set in the four angles. The lower part of the tower is apparently thirteenth century work, and somewhat earlier than the transepts. The flat, clasping buttresses appear to be original, though now entirely re-faced, and might in themselves suggest a transitional date for the base of the tower. The upper part has been rebuilt at a much later date, and contains a Perpendicular window. Like most towers of the period, it is probable that there was originally no structural stairway leading to the upper stages, access to which had to be obtained by means of a ladder, though the existing doorway to the modern stair turret appears to be of fairly early date.

 

The transepts deserve special consideration on account of the very interesting work which they contain. Their date cannot be later than about 1260 and there are some grounds for thinking that the south transept may be slightly the earlier of the two. The east wall of the south transept is

divided into two bays by blind arches, supported on slender banded shafts, with a narrow lancet window in the centre of each arch. A somewhat similar arrangement exists on the east wall of the north transept, though in this case the central shaft is not carried to the ground, but rests midway on a moulded bracket, below which is a piscina with a trefoil head of the same date. The treatment of the west wall of the north transept is very similar to that of the east, but the arches are much narrower, and the arrangement has been somewhat interfered with by a later widening of the nave aisle. In the south transept the arcading on the west wall is somewhat plainer, and the banded shafts have been dispensed with. Although similar in general design, certain details point to the south transept being slightly the earlier. The string course below the windows, which is continued round the shafts of the mural arcading, is a plain scroll moulding, while in the north transept a fillet is substituted, and the central bands on the shafts of the arcading are of a more elaborate character. The triple lancet windows at the ends of either transept are modern, and replaced two large fifteenth-century windows, which are shown in several early views.

The north transept was formerly shut off from the rest of the church by a screen, and used for holding the Rector's Court. In mediaeval times, and down to 1845, the Rector of Cliffe had a peculiar jurisdiction within his parish. He was exempt from all ecclesiastical authority other than personal visitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The wills of parishioners were proved in the local court, and the official seal of the Peculiar is still preserved in the Rochester Museum.

The chancel, which appears to have been rebuilt entirely in the middle of the fourteenth century, is complete, save for the insertion of a modern east window, which replaced an extraordinarily ugly eighteenth-century aperture of brick. The remaining windows are all fine examples of Decorated work, the tracery of which shows a distinctly Flamboyant tendency. The eastern pair affords interesting examples of Kentish tracery. All have good hood-mouldings with

grotesques at the ends. Beneath the windows is a stringcourse, which terminates at the altar rails with a grotesque head on either side. That on the north has been renewed, but the southern one represents the battered head of a monk.

The chief interest in the chancel, however, is its fittings. In the south wall is a series of three very beautiful fourteenth century sedilia, with a piscina of uniform character, recessed in the wall and ascending eastward. They are divided by slender buttressed shafts, supporting elaborately carved ogee canopies, and surmounted by crockets and finials. Beneath the canopies are trefoiled arches, and behind these the roof is carved in imitation of sexpartite vaulting.

Opposite in the north wall is a fine late-fourteenth century tomb of early Perpendicular character, which is often referred to as an Easter sepulchre, for which purpose it may well have been used. The wide cinquefoil arch is surmounted by an elaborate embattled cornice, supported on narrow

buttressed shafts, and terminating with a carved head at either end ; circles with internal cuspings fill the spandrils of the arch.

 

Immediately west of this tomb is a blocked doorway which led to an adjoining building, now demolished. The exterior wall at this point is of a different character from the rest of the chancel walls, and apparently of earlier date. It is composed of a variety of material, including pieces of Caen stone, which probably came from the earlier church, and suggests that this section of wall and the chapel, of which it formed part, survived the re-building of the chancel in the fourteenth century. The two adjoining buttresses have been constructed out of sections of the eastern and western walls of the chapel, and serve to indicate its approximate size. The position of its low roof is clearly shown by the stone corbels which remain at a height of 7 feet 8 inches from the ground. The floor must have been somewhat lower than the present ground level, as the small piscina in the exterior of the chancel wall is now only two feet from the ground. In the base of the westernmost of the two buttresses is a niche, now scarcely eighteen inches from the ground, which may originally have been used as a holy water stoup, since it was close to the entrance to the chapel. This small building probably served the joint purpose of a Sacristy and Chapel. That it contained an altar there can be no doubt from the piscina already noted.

It may possibly be referred to in the will of Richard Elys, who in 1468 left 12 pence to the light of the Blessed Mary in the chapel and 4 pence to the light of the Blessed Mary near the pulpit, though one of the transepts may of course have been here intended. Such evidence as there is on the other hand seems to point to the chapel having been pulled down at the time of the rebuilding of the chancel or soon afterwards. The blocked doorway in the chancel wall was originally carried down to the present ground level on the exterior, so that there must have been some steps in the thickness of the wall leading down into the chapel. The date of this doorway, which was probably contemporary with the building to which, it led, is uncertain. It is certainly earlier than the adjoining late-fourteenth-century tomb, as parts have been cut away when the latter was inserted, and the use of somewhat small stones points to an earlier rather than a later date. Its details on the other hand include the wave moulding which is usually taken to be characteristic of the Decorated period, or one might otherwise be inclined to think that it formed part of the thirteenth century chancel. The filling on the exterior is certainly not modern, and the fact that a plinth has been inserted when the doorway was blocked up, to match that round the rest of the chancel evidently with the intention, which was never carried out, of continuing it along the section of earlier walling where the chapel stood, seems to suggest that this work was undertaken about the same time as the rebuilding of the chancel.

 

We are now in a position to consider the probable development of the ground plan, which, though somewhat conjectural for the earlier period, has left some interesting and unmistakable traces of its later history. In the entire absence of remains of the early Norman church, one is forced to rely for the identification of its position on analogy with other buildings of similar type. The first church of which we have any record in all probability consisted of a simple nave and square- ended chancel. The three easternmost bays of the existing nave arcade would preserve the line of

the north and south walls of the church, while the chancel would occupy the interior of the present crossing. There is nothing to show the position of the west wall, but it would have been approximately in a line with the present north and south doors. Towards the close of the twelfth century north and south aisles, about half the width of the present ones, were probably added by piercing the original walls with arches, and about the same time a small chapel or aisle appears to have been built to the north of the original chancel, and the existing arch constructed so as to give access into it. This arch, which cannot be later than about 1200, is obviously much earlier than the present transept and must therefore have communicated with an earlier building on its site. Some evidence in support of this came to light during the restoration of the north transept in 1864. The foundations of an early wall four feet thick were found beneath the present floor running parallel and close to its eastern wall. At a distance of 15 feet from the chancel wall it appears to have been met by another wall at right angles to it. Unfortunately no further record was made of this discovery, but it establishes beyond doubt the existence of a building in this position, to which the arch in question opened. It is possible that this was the chancel arch of a late twelfth century church, and that the foundations were those of the former chancel, though such a theory would be more difficult to reconcile with the later development of the plan. Moreover on the assumption that there already existed a building on the north of the original chancel when the thirteenth-century builders decided to remodel the church, it is possible to account for the hitherto unexplained fact that the north transept is wider than the south by some three feet. The normal development of the thirteenth century produced a cruciform church. A new and longer chancel, and north and south transepts, were built around the small twelfth century chancel, while the nave and aisles were lengthened by the removal of the west wall some 20 feet further west, and a tower erected to the west of this. These extensive works could not of course have been simultaneous.

The tower appears to be somewhat earlier than the transepts, so that presumably the lengthening of the west end was undertaken first, and at the same time an Early English arcade, extending an additional bay westward, was inserted in place of the twelfth century arches. Contrary to what was frequently the case in churches of this type, there was clearly never any intention to erect a central tower over the crossing, since the abutments are far too weak to have supported the weight. This weakness would account for the presence of the strainer arch of oak, which must

have been inserted sometime in the fifteenth century.

With the completion of this work the early builders grew more ambitious. Almost immediately the work on the new chancel and transepts must have begun. A temporary hoarding was probably erected, shutting off the nave and the altar, transferred there until the new works were finished. The chancel and the south transept were probably first erected, as the sites were free of buildings ; the width of the latter being determined by the size of the former chancel and the chapel on the north. When the work was completed attention was directed towards the north transept, which, according to the usual practice, would have been rebuilt round the earlier building, the foundations of which were discovered in 1864, thus accounting for its slight extra width. Probably towards the end of the century the small chapel, the remains of which have already been mentioned, was built on the north of the new chancel.

Considerable alterations were undertaken in the fourteenth century, the principal of which were the rebuilding of the thirteenth century chancel, and the widening of the nave aisles. The latter was a very frequent form of improvement at this period, and was usually occasioned by the desire

for extra space to set up additional altars so as to meet the enormous increase in the popularity of Chantry bequests. At Cliffe the effect of this widening is clearly shown on the already completed design of the transepts. In the north transept one of the lancets was cut away, and a short pointed arch springing from shafts, which do not reach the ground, inserted in its place. The apex of the original lancet still remains in the wall above. In the south transept a similar alteration in plan is treated somewhat differently. A segmental arch, here reaching to the ground, and opening into the extended aisle, was inserted within the earlier bund arch in the west wall of the transept. This also necessitated the removal of an original lancet, the head of which can be seen occupying the space between the original arch and the later insertion. The windows in the nave all appear to be of this date. Probably contemporary with this extension of the aisles, was the heightening of the nave to allow for the clerestory with its row of single splayed lancets. The junction of this work with the old can be clearly seen immediately above the arcading. The thirteenth century roof of the nave was about on a level with those of the aisles, as the small window in the east face of the tower, which now looks into the church, must originally have looked out over the roof. The line of the fourteenth roof, which was erected at the time that the clerestory was added, can be seen on the wall of the tower, passing across the window opening. Below this the position of the third roof, erected 1732, can also be seen. This roof, which was almost flat, was replaced by the present one about forty years ago.

The rebuilding of the chancel would appear to have been undertaken at the same time as extension of the aisles, to judge from the similarity of the external stonework. This would again have necessitated the use of the nave for services, and it is probable that either at this time, or during the earlier work on the interior of the transepts, the round headed arch, which can be seen on the exterior of the north wall of the north transept, was constructed for the convenience of the masons while the ordinary entrances were not available. That this arch or doorway, which has sometimes been said to be of Norman origin, was really of a much later date, and of a purely temporary character, seems to be shown by a close inspection of its construction. The position is not in the centre of the wall while the arch itself is made up of a variety of material including large flints, pieces of Beigate stone and a single block of calcareous tufa, the latter doubtless coming from the early church. Further, the fact that the filling of the arch' seems to be of much the same character as the adjoining walls points to it only having been used for a comparatively short time. Everything in fact indicates that it was a purely temporary arrangement used during the construction of the transepts, or the later chancel, and filled up as soon as the work was completed. A somewhat similar, though smaller, arch in the exterior of the south wall of the tower was probably of a similar nature, though its purpose is conjectural, and it may have had some connection with original stairs to the upper floors. By the end of the fourteenth century the church was practically complete. The porch was added early in the following century, and the large Perpendicular windows, which formerly existed at the ends of the transepts, inserted. At the same time the upper part of the west tower was rebuilt. Certain work also seems to have been in progress about this time in the chancel, for in the will of the Rector in 1413 a sum of money was left towards that object. Exactly what resulted from the bequest one cannot say.

The subsequent additions were chiefly in the nature of modern insertions. The eighteenth century saw many acts of destruction which are duly entered in the parish registers. In 1730, during the Rectorship of George Green, the old high-gabled roofs were taken down, the lead recast, and an

almost flat roof substituted. Two years later the east window was demolished and a hideous brick opening substituted, and at the same time the old timber roof of the chancel, which, since it bore his arms, had probably been erected during the time of Archbishop Arundel, who occupied the See from 1396 to 1414, was pulled down, and both the nave and chancel ceiled. During this period also the two enormous brick buttresses, which are shown in some early views, were erected on the north and south sides of the tower. The church was in this condition when Sir Stephen Glynne visited it in 1857. Subsequent restorations have been extensive, though for the most part necessary. The brick buttresses to the Tower were removed shortly after Sir Stephen Glynne's visit, and the present circular stair turret erected in the place of the southern one. The chancel was restored in 1875, when traces of the original reredos were discovered, and the jambs of the original east window, which were of Reigate stone and about 15 feet apart, were found in situ. The present window was erected in place of the eighteenth century one in 1884, and at the same time the flat lead roofs of the nave and chancel were removed, and the present high-pitched tiled roofs substituted. Finally a small building, without any communication with the church, has been erected in recent years to the east of the north transept. During these successive restorations much of the external walls has been refaced from time to time, and the whole of the upper part of the east wall of the chancel which was pulled down in 1732, was rebuilt when the present window was inserted.

It is somewhat difficult now to picture the appearance of the interior of the church in mediaeval times. A brilliant colour scheme evidently played an important part in the general effect. Many of the piers of the nave arcades, which are apparently constructed of hard chalk, still show traces of a bold chevron pattern in red and yellow, and, together with the extensive wall paintings, slight traces of which still remain in the transepts, and the brilliance of the mediaeval glass, must have combined to give a very rich effect to the interior. Of the ancient glass very little remains. Dr.

Grayling mentions some fourteenth century borders in the chancel windows, which seem to have disappeared. In the central window of the north aisle is a small piece of ancient glass representing a ship with fish in the water beneath, which is said to have been found many years ago in a shed in the churchyard. In the top of the adjoining window is a fifteenth century figure of the Virgin and Child. A coat of arms in another window is mentioned by Thorpe, but this also seems to have disappeared. The wall paintings, though now very indistinct, were evidently much clearer until

comparatively recent times. On the east wall of the north transept, in the space between the southernmost of the two lancets and the arch in which it is placed, is one of these paintings, divided into five panels, depicting the Martyrdom of St. Edmund. Very little of it can now be made out, though the whole of this transept showed traces of colour at the time of the restoration of 1864. Some remains of a painting in a similar position in the south transept can still be seen, and are said to represent the Last Judgment.

Several bequests for the provision and upkeep of lights before the various altars add a little to our knowledge of the interior in mediaeval times. Of the various saints to whom lights were dedicated in the church Our Lady was of course the most popular. We have already seen that two altars

were dedicated to her. One of these is again mentioned in 1483, when Robert Qwikerell left 20 pence "to the Parish Church of Cleue and to the ligth of Our Lady besyde the pulpett there" and also a similar amount to the lights of St. Laurence and St. George. Richard Elys in 1469 also

mentions lights of St. Christopher, St. John and St. James, while in 1509 Steven Tudor bequeathed to the high altar of St. Elyn 20 pence, and to the light of St. Elyn 12 pence.

Of the position of these various lights one cannot speak with any certainty. That to St. Christopher would have been near the main entrance to the church, while the light of the patron saint, St. Helen, would have been in the Chancel, probably over the high altar. Remains of a piscina in four other places in the church prove the former existence of altars in these positions. That in the Sacristy has already been mentioned. At least one altar stood in each of the transepts, while a small piscina, apparently constructed of broken window tracery at the east end of the south aisle, testifies to another. An altar probably stood in a corresponding position in the north aisle. This disposition would exactly account for the number of lights mentioned in early wills. Besides the lights burning before the altars, there would also be a light before the great Rood over the entrance to the chancel. Some of the lower panels of the original rood screen survive. Above, and partly supported by, the screen was the rood loft, which was already in existence as early as 1413, when it is mentioned in conjunction with the great rood itself and its attendant figures in the will of Nicholas de Ryssheton, Canon of Sarum and Rector of Cliffe. The small fifteenth century doorway with a fourcentred arch, which gave access to it, can still be seen high up in the north wall just east of the entrance of the chancel, and the original stairs remain in good condition, though the entrance from the church has been blocked up and covered over with plaster.

The furniture in the church has suffered much from “restoration" and other causes. Six of the ancient stalls remain, three on each side of the chancel, though panelling at the backs and all the seats except two are modern. The sides terminate in carved heads, some of which have been

renewed, while the two original miserecords are carved with grotesques. The Communion rails are Jacobean, though somewhat repaired. They are of the fairly common baluster type with a central bulge. The pulpit is a very fine piece of Renaissance carving, and retains the original stand for the hour glass, though the glass itself is modern; on it is the date 1636.

Besides the fragments of the original rood screen there is another screen shutting off the vestry under the tower.

The font, which has been moved from its original position, is 3 feet 4£ inches in height, and apparently of late-fourteenth century date. The perfectly plain octagonal bowl has concave sides, around the lower edge of which is a hollow chamfer. The bowl is supported by an octagonal, buttressed stem on a plain base. On the westernmost pillar of the south arcade can still be seen the bracket and chain by which the font cover was raised, indicating its original position.

The monuments in the church are few, and call for little comment. In the floor at the west end of the north aisle are two flat coffin-shaped stones with early fourteenth century French inscriptions in Lombardic capitals. The one on the north is probably the earlier, judging from the very rough

characters which are now scarcely legible. It commemorated Eleanor de Olive, of whom nothing is known. The other stone shows traces of brass, and is inscribed in memory of Joan, wife of John Earn. These stones are described in the Gentleman's Magazine, and old rubbings of them exist among the collection of the Society of Antiquaries. There are three brasses of seventeenth century date, one of which is thought to have been engraved locally.

Two wills are of interest in connection with early burials in the church. In 1376 Robert de Walton, Rector of Cliffe, desired to be buried in the church of Olyve at the entrance to the quire. Some years later, in 1387, Thomas de Lynton, a subsequent rector, directed that he should be buried in the chancel near the entrance, and between the entrance to the quire and the tomb of Master Robert Walton, late Rector, and he ordered that a handsome marble monument should be placed over his body at the discretion of his executors. It seems not unlikely however that his executors favoured a brass monument. In the chancel is the stone matrix of what must once have been a very fine brass of about this period, representing a priest under a canopy. Another smaller matrix of an ecclesiastic is close to the pulpit.

Of the church plate the most important piece is a very beautiful paten of silver gilt of the early part of the sixteenth century. In the centre, worked in coloured enamels, is a seated figure of God the Father holding before Him a figure of the crucifixion. The extreme rarity of pre-reformation

plate is not generally recognised, and the example at Cliffe is one of the finest English patens in existence. At some period or other the paten at Cliffe served as a chalice cover, and it is even said to have been used as an alms dish, which would account for its numerous signs of wear. The other plate is of seventeenth century and later date, and of no particular interest.

It remains for me to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. F. O. Blliston Erwood for several suggestions and for the photographs which illustrate this paper. The present account is intended to supplement, but not to supplant altogether, an article on Cliffe Church, by the Rev. I. Gr. Lloyd, a former Rector, which appeared in Vol. XI. of Arch. Cant., where reference should be made for further particulars.

 

www.cliffehistory.co.uk/martin.html

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

CLIFFE (St. Helen), a parish, in the union of North Aylesford, hundred of Shamwell, lathe of Aylesford, W. division of Kent, 5 miles (N. by W.) from Rochester; containing 842 inhabitants. The parish is bounded on the north by the Thames, and comprises 5660 acres, whereof 180 are woodland, about 2000 arable, and the remainder pasture, including a considerable portion of marshy land. The village, which is supposed to take its name from the cliff or rock on which it stands, was formerly of much greater extent, a great part of it having been destroyed by fire in 1520: it was the scene of several provincial councils. A pleasurefair is held on September 28th. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £50; net income, £1297; patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury: the glebe contains 20 acres. The church is considered one of the finest in the county, being a large handsome cruciform structure in the early English style, with an embattled central tower, and containing several curious monuments and remains of antiquity, together with six stalls that belonged to a dean and five prebendaries, it having been formerly collegiate.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp63...

Sendai, Japan 2012

MTA Acting Chair & CEO Janno Lieber and Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi announce the completion of a 598-spot garage at the AvalonBay development adjacent to the Harrison station on Thu., August 26, 2021.

 

George Latimer, Jon Vogel, Janno Lieber, Catherine Rinaldi, Ron Belmont.

 

(Marc A. Hermann / MTA)

LUC has worked with a large multi-disciplinary team to deliver a sustainable infrastructure and development masterplan to guide the long term transformation of Shawfield in Glasgow’s East End. LUC also led the design and implementation of an advanced phase of public realm and landscape works that now forms a framework for new development to be realised over a 20-25year horizon.

 

Prior to construction the site was heavily contaminated and consisted of large areas of vacant and derelict land together with dated business and industrial premises. The site was completely cleared and underwent significant ground remediation in advance of the public realm works to ensure the site is ‘development ready’.

 

LUC developed a green infrastructure strategy to inform the masterplan design with an emphasis on integrated surface water drainage and pedestrian connectivity to surrounding communities, transport nodes and the River Clyde corridor.

The Clyde riverbanks have been manipulated to provide new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and this now provides an extension to the strategically important Clyde Walkway.

 

An ecologically diverse mosaic of riparian woodland, grassland and wetland habitats has been created that will improve the biodiversity of the River Clyde corridor.

A new strategic pedestrian and cycling link has been created linking the new South Dalmarnock Smart Bridge with the centre of the masterplan site, improving connectivity in the area. In contrast with the more naturalistic riverside treatment this link is more formal in character with strong tree avenue planting, lighting and paving patterns.

  

For more information, visit: www.landuse.co.uk

Next up glosscoat, lettering and weathering.

Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (42). In the first novel and radio series, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer, Deep Thought, specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42. The Ultimate Question itself is unknown. When asked to produce The Ultimate Question, Deep Thought says that it cannot; however, it can help to design an even more powerful computer, the Earth, that can. The programmers then embark on a further ten-million-year program to discover The Ultimate Question. This new computer will incorporate living beings in the "computational matrix", with the pan-dimensional creators assuming the form of mice. The process is hindered after eight million years by the unexpected arrival on Earth of the Golgafrinchans and then is ruined completely, five minutes before completion, when the Earth is destroyed by the Vogons to make way for a new Hyperspace Bypass. This is later revealed to have been a ruse: the Vogons had been hired to destroy the Earth by a consortium of psychiatrists, led by Gag Halfrunt, who feared for the loss of their careers when the meaning of life became known. Lacking a real question, the mice decide not to go through the whole thing again and settle for the out-of-thin-air suggestion "How many roads must a man walk down?" from Bob Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind". At the end of the radio series (and television series, as well as the novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) Arthur Dent, having escaped the Earth's destruction, potentially has some of the computational matrix in his brain. He attempts to discover The Ultimate Question by extracting it from his brainwave patterns, as abusively suggested by Ford Prefect, when a Scrabble-playing caveman spells out forty two. Arthur pulls random letters from a bag, but only gets the sentence "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" "Six by nine. Forty two." "That's it. That's all there is." "I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe" Six times nine is, of course, fifty-four. The program on the "Earth computer" should have run correctly, but the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans on prehistoric Earth caused input errors into the system—computing (because of the garbage in, garbage out rule) the wrong question—the question in Arthur's subconscious being invalid all along. Quoting Fit the Seventh of the radio series, on Christmas Eve, 1978: Narrator: There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. Some readers subsequently noticed that 613 × 913 = 4213 (using base 13). Douglas Adams later joked about this observation, saying, "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13." In Life, the Universe and Everything, Prak, a man who knows all that is true, confirms that 42 is indeed The Answer, and confirms that it is impossible for both The Answer and The Question to be known about in the same universe (compare the uncertainty principle) as they will cancel each other out and take the Universe with them to be replaced by something even more bizarre (as described in the first theory) and that it may have already happened (as described in the second). Though the question is never found, 42 is shown as the table number at which Arthur and his friends sit when they arrive at Milliways at the end of the radio series. Likewise, Mostly Harmless ends when Arthur stops at a street address identified by his cry of, "There, number 42!" and enters the club Beta, owned by Stavro Mueller (Stavromula Beta). Shortly after, the earth is destroyed in all existing incarnations. The number 42 Douglas Adams was asked many times why he chose the number 42. Many theories were proposed, including the fact that 42 is 101010 in binary code, the fact that light refracts off water by 42 degrees to create a rainbow, the fact that light requires 10−42 seconds to cross the diameter of a proton. Adams rejected them all. On November 3, 1993, he gave an answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams: The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story. Adams described his choice as 'a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also six and seven. In fact it's the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents'. While 42 was a number with no hidden meaning, Adams explained in more detail in an interview with Iain Johnstone of BBC Radio 4 (recorded in 1998 though never broadcast) to celebrate the first radio broadcast's 20th anniversary. Having decided it should be a number, he tried to think what an "ordinary number" should be. He ruled out non-integers, then he remembered having worked as a "prop-borrower" for John Cleese on his Video Arts training videos. Cleese needed a funny number for the punchline to a sketch involving a bank teller (himself) and a customer (Tim Brooke-Taylor). Adams believed that the number that Cleese came up with was 42 and he decided to use it. Adams also had written a sketch for The Burkiss Way called "42 Logical Positivism Avenue", broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 12 January 1977[10] – 14 months before the Hitchhiker's Guide first broadcast "42" in fit the fourth, 29 March 1978. In January 2000, in response to a panelist's "Where does the number 42 come from?" on the radio show "Book Club" Adams explained that he was "on his way to work one morning, whilst still writing the scene, and was thinking about what the actual answer should be. He eventually decided that it should be something that made no sense whatsoever- a number, and a mundane one at that. And that is how he arrived at the number 42, completely at random." Stephen Fry, a friend of Adams, claims that Adams told him "exactly why 42", and that the reason is "fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious." However, Fry says that he has vowed not to tell anyone the secret, and that it must go with him to the grave. John Lloyd, Adams' collaborator on The Meaning of Liff and two Hitchhiker's fits, said that Douglas has called 42 "the funniest of the two-digit numbers." The number 42 also appears frequently in the work of Lewis Carroll, and some critics have suggested that this was an influence. Other purported Carroll influences include that Adams named the episodes of the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "fits", the word Carroll used to name the chapters of The Hunting of the Snark. There is the persistent tale that forty-two is actually Adams' tribute to the indefatigable paperback book, and is really the average number of lines on an average page of an average paperback book. On the Internet The number 42 and the phrase, "Life, the universe, and everything" have attained cult status on the Internet. "Life, the Universe, and Everything" is a common name for the off-topic section of an Internet forum and the phrase is invoked in similar ways to mean "anything at all". Many chatbots, when asked about the meaning of life, will answer "42". Several online calculators are also programmed with the Question. If you type the answer to life the universe and everything into Google (without quotes or capitalising the small words), the Google Calculator will give you 42, as will Wolfram's Computational Knowledge Engine. Similarly, if you type the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything into DuckDuckGo, the 0-click box will read "42".[19] In the online community Second Life, there is a section on a sim called "42nd Life." It is devoted to this concept in the book series, and several attempts at recreating Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, were made. In the OpenOffice.org software, if you type into any cell of a spreadsheet =ANTWORT("Das Leben, das Universum und der ganze Rest"), which means the answer to life, the universe and everything, the result is 42.[20] ISO/IEC 14519-2001/ IEEE Std 1003.5-1999, IEEE Standard for Information Technology - POSIX(R) Ada Language Interfaces - Part 1: Binding for System Application Program Interface (API) , uses the number '42' as the required return value from a process that terminates due to an unhandled exception. The Rationale says "the choice of the value 42 is arbitrary" and cites the Adams book as the source of the value. The random seed chosen to procedurally create the whole universe including all the regions, constellations, stars, planets, moons and mineral distribution of the online massively multi-player computer game EVE Online was chosen as 42 by its lead game designer in 2002. Cultural references The Allen Telescope Array, a radio telescope used by SETI, has 42 dishes in homage to the Answer. In the TV show Lost, 42 is the last of the mysterious numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. In an interview with Lostpedia, producer David Fury confirmed this was a reference to Hitchhiker's. The TV show The Kumars at No. 42 is so named because show creator Sanjeev Bhaskar is a Hitchhiker's fan.[24] The band Coldplay's album Viva la Vida includes a song called "42". When asked by Q magazine if the song's title was Hitchhiker's-related, Chris Martin said, "It is and it isn't." The band Level 42 chose its name in reference to the book. The episode "42" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who was named in reference to the Answer. Writer Chris Chibnall acknowledged that "it's a playful title". Ken Jennings, defeated along with Brad Rutter in a Jeopardy match against IBM's Watson, writes that Watson's avatar which appeared on-screen for those games showed 42 "threads of thought," and that the number was chosen in reference to this meme.

Puzzle #11 für WPD 2021

 

Zwar nicht wirklich ein Katzenpuzzle, aber das Motiv ist so schön, dass ich mich gefreut habe, eine Alibi-Katze drauf zu finden :).

Tatsächlich war ich aber von diesem polnischen Bluebird nicht restlos begeistert, da gab es doch etliche falsch passende Teile. Die türkischen waren und sind besser!

 

******************************

 

Hersteller: Bluebird

Jahr: ca. 2019.

Artikelnummer: 70 336-P (P steht für "Made in Poland")

Anzahl Teile: 1000 (40x25)

Masse: 68.3x48 cm

Bild: Dominic Davison

Kaufdatum und Ort: September 2020, Puzzle-online.de. (CHF 10.60 inkl. Zoll.)

Datum gelegt: 17.-18. Januar 2021.

Legezeit: 347 Min. - 5 3/4 Std.

 

*********************

 

Brand: Bluebird

Year: about 2019

Item no.: 70 236-P

Number of pieces: 1000

Measures: 68.3x48 cm.

Image by Artist/Photographer: Dominic Davison

Date and place of purchase: September 2020, Puzzle-online.de.

Date of completion: January 17-18, 2021

Time for completion: 347 min.

 

Led by Chicagoland indigenous organizations, people assembled at Federal Plaza to hear speeches and create a community snake dance against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). They were joined by a marchers from an anti-Trump protest. The DAPL is often called the "Black Snake”.

 

The pipeline will run across approximately 1,172 miles of land from North Dakota to Illinois. The DAPL will transfer crude oil, through the Oglala Aquifer, as well as, under the Big Sioux, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The pipeline will run through the traditional lands of the Standing Rock Sioux endangering water and sacred sites.

 

Energy Transfer Partners has 100% completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline in Illinois, and South Dakota. Resistance in North Dakota and Iowa are our last lines of defense against DAPL.

 

The Rockville Bridge, at the time of its completion in 1902, was, and still remains, the longest stone masonry arch railroad viaduct in the world.[1] Constructed between 1900 - 1902 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it has forty-eight 70-foot spans, for a total length of 3,820 feet (1,164 m).[1]

 

The bridge crosses the Susquehanna River about 5 miles (8 km) north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The eastern end is in Rockville and the western end is just south of Marysville.

 

The original bridge on the spot opened on September 1, 1849, when the PRR began operating over it. The Northern Central Railway began to use it after abandoning their Marysville Bridge. The current bridge was built by Italian laborers, who worked for two contractors (Drake & Stratton), one on the east side of the Susquehanna River and one on the west.[2] Local people from the Harrisburg area also worked on the bridge. For most of its life the bridge carried 4 main line tracks. They were reduced to three in the 1980s when the PRR Main Line was modernized across Pennsylvania. In the late 1990s an intermodal container was blown off an intermodal freight train and landed in the river prompting Norfolk Southern to reconfigure the track layout, terminating the wye track to Enola at the west end of the bridge. This reduced the number of main line tracks to two, but left a buffer zone on either side to prevent further containers ending up in the river, although high winds from the departing December 2010 North American blizzard resulted in a similar outcome on December 27, 2010.[3] Currently, the bridge is used by the Norfolk Southern Railway and Amtrak. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975

 

a colour shot of one of Walters rebuilt and refurbished Lorain cranes.it would seem that there is not much to do now to complete the transformation from USAF useage to one of Walters finished gems. behind the crane of note is the road tanker body that is being used as a fuel storage tank for Walters fleet.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

Military aircraft development made huge leaps in the 50ies, and it was around 1955 that the successful, transsonic MiG-19 was to be replaced by a next generation fighter - which was to attain more than Mach 2. At that time, these speed and performance figures were terra incognita, but OKB Mikoyan tackled the official request for a new light tactical fighter, which was primarily intended to be used against high flying bombers, guided by ground radar.

 

Since it was unclear which basic wing design would be most appropriate for the new high speeds, OKB MiG hesitantly brought forth several test aircraft which sported different wing shapes, so that direct comparison could be done. These were the Ye-1, which featured 57° swept wings, much like the MiG-19, the Ye-4, which featured a delta wing with an identical sweep, and finally the Ye-3, which featured a very thin but moderately swept wing - certainly inspired by the contemporary development of the radical F-104 Starfighter in the USA, which featured a duty profile which was very similar to the new Soviet tactical fighter's requirements.

 

All three aircraft did not go unnoticed from NATO intelligence, and since it was not clear whether these machines would eventually end up in front service, all received code names, which were, respectively, 'Faceplate', 'Fishbed' and 'Filbert'. As a side note, NATO expected the 'Faceplate' design to be the most likely to enter front service - but eventually it became the 'Fishbed'!

 

The original Ye-3 used a fuselage and tail of the other prototypes. Beyond the different wings, it featured a modified landing gear which had to be completely retracted into the fuselage, due to the wings' thinness. Since the internal space inside of these thin wings also restricted internal fuel capacity - compared to the Ye-1 and Ye-4 - the aircraft carried drop tanks on its wing tips, while the armament, two IR-guided short range missiles, would be carried under the wings on two hardpoints. These could alternatively carry pods with unguided missiles or iron bombs of up to 1.100 lb calibre. Two NR-30 30mm guns with 50 belt-fed RPG in the lower fuselage complemented the missile ordnance.

 

The original Ye-3 prototype was powered by an AM-11 engine rated at 8.580 lbf dry thrust and 11.200 lbf at full afterburner. It was the last of the test machine trio to fly: aptly coded "31 Blue" it made its maiden flight on 4th of April 1956 with OKB Mikoyan's chief test pilot Gheorgiy K. Mosolov at the controls. It was immediately clear that the aircraft had poor directional stability. It tended to spin at lower speeds, and at higher speeds the tailplane became ineffective. Handling was hazardous, and after just four test flights the aircraft had to be grounded.

 

It took until December 1956 that a satisfactory control surface solution could be found. Wind tunnel test had suggested that the horizontal stabilizer had to be moved much higher - higher than on the other prototypes, which already progressed in their test programs. The reworked Ye-3/1 featured a completely new T-tail arrangement with trapezoidal stabilizers which had little left in common with the other test types and made the aircraft look even more like a F-104 copy.In order to enhance the stability problem further, the ventral strakes had been enlarged and the fin chord slightly deepened. This new configuration was successfully tested on 21st 1956 of December.

 

At that time, a second Ye-3/1 was close to completion. Featuring the tactical code "32 Blue", this aircraft was powered by the new R-11 engine, an uprated AM-11 rated at 8.536 lbf dry and 12.686 lbf with afterburner. The same engine was soon re-fitted to "31 Blue", too, and during 1956 and 1957 both machines took part in the extensive trials program for the MiG-21, how the new fighter should be known in service.

 

"31 Blue" crashed on 30th of May 1958 due to hydraulic failure, even though the pilot was able to escape unharmed - just one day before another test aircraft, a Ye-6/1 (a modified swept-wing aircraft) crashed, too. Anyway, it was already becoming clear that the delta wing offered the best overall performance, being slightly superior to the swept-wing design. The straight, thin wing, though, was considered unsatisfactory and a dead end. The Ye-3/1 remained a touchy aircraft and was not popular among the test pilots. Compared to the swept or delta wing, the aircraft's agility was good, but it did not offer any significant benefit in speed, rate of climb or range and its poor directional stability was the biggest shortcoming. Additionally, the fact that starting and landing from improvised air strips was much more hazardous than with the other design types if not impossible with the small wings and tires) the Ye-3 was axed in January 1960 with no further development perspectives.

 

"32 Blue" survived the test phase, but eventually ended up as an instrcutional airframe at the Kharkov Aviation Institute without wings and fin.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (incl. pitot): 16.05 m (53 ft)

Wingspan (incl. drop tanks): 8,18 m (21 ft 6 in)

Height: 3.81 m (12 ft 6 1/3 in)

Wing area: 18 m² (196,1 ft²)

Aspect ratio: 7.3:1

Empty weight: 4.820 kg (10.617 lb)

Loaded weight: 7.844 kg (17.277 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 8.625 kg (19.000 lb)

Powerplant: 1 × Tumanskiy R-11F-300 turbojet, rated at 3875 kgp (8.536 lbf) dry and 5.760 kgp (12.686 lbf) with afterburner

 

Performance

Maximum speed: 725 mph (1.167 km/h) at sea level, 1.190 mph (1.917km/h) at 13.000m (42.640 ft)

Combat radius: 450 km (245 nm, 280 mi)

Range: 850 ml (1.370 km)

Service ceiling: 19.000 m (62.320 ft)

Rate of climb: 38 m/s (7.480 ft/min)

 

Armament:

2× Nudelmann-Richter NR-30 30mm cannons with 50 RPG;

1.500 kg (3.300 lb) of payload on four external hardpoints, including:

- 2x PTB-350 wing tip drop tanks (fitted as standard)

- 2× K-13/R-3S (AA-2/"Atoll") AAMs on underwing pylons

- Alternatively, the two underwing pylons could carry pods with unguided missiles or iron bombs of up to 1.100 lb calibre.

   

The kit and its assembly:

Another whif, based on vague indications that this Starfighter-like design was seriouly considered at OKB MiG in the early 50ies because there exists a (crude) desktop model which shows a MiG-21 fuselage with F-104 wings and tail. An appealing design, and a good story to tell with a model. Anyway, AFAIK the 'Ye-3' designation was never used in the MiG-21 development phase or anywhere else at OKB MiG, so I borrowed it for the kit. The NATO code 'Filbert' is also a fantasy product.

 

Basically, this model is a kit-bashing. It consists of a Hasegawa MiG-21F-13 fuselage with new wings. The Hasegawa kit is ancient, I guess it is from the early 70ies. It has several flaws, so it is good fodder for such a project. For example, the MiG-21 lacks any serious interior, the landing gear is not even a joke and the prominent Soviet Red Stars have been molded onto the parts as raised panel lines! The area-ruled fuselage is pretty, though, very sleek.

 

Much room for improvements and improvisation, though. Hence, I built a cockpit interior from scartch and added an Airfix pilot, since these figures look very Soviet. As a side benefit, the figure is rather voluminous, so it covers much of the primitive cockpit interior...

Another modification is the landing gear - I wanted to incorporate much of the aforementioned F-16's landing gear, so that new wells had to be cut into the fuselage. This turned out to be easier than expected, and I did not waste too much effort on it. The F-16 landing gear is shorter than the MiG-21's, so the Ye-3 is closer to the ground than its real world cousins.

 

For the new thin wings I considered at first butchering an Airfix F-104G Starfighter as donation kit, but eventually found the wings being simply too small for my taste and for what the desktop model paradigm shows. I eventually ended up with wings from an Italeri F-16, which - believe it or not - have the SAME leading and trailing edge angles as the F-104, you just have make angled cuts at the wing tips and the wing roots... I just had to cover up the original flap engravings and fit them to the fuselage. The F-16's horizontal stabilizers were taken, too, but shortened in order to match the smaller dimensions for a Starfighter-like look.

 

The fin was clipped on top and a new upper end created from the single MiG-21 under-fuselage stabilizer. The latter was replaced by two splayed fins, an arrangement which was featured on the original Ye-prototypes but were later replaced by the single fin.

 

The missiles and their launch rails are leftover pieces from my recent MiG-21G conversion (from a Hobby Master kit), they were painted orange as dummies, according to Soviet practice.

 

As extra equipment for a test airfcraft, a small camera pod (based on real life picture of other MiG prototypes and test aircraft) was added under the front fuselage - for recording live missile launch tests.

  

Painting:

I wanted, according to the background story, keep this a prototype aircraft. Unfortunately, this means that I'd be limited to a natural metal finish - and I hate such surfaces, because they are a great challenge, esp. with the manual brush technique I use...

 

But I tried to make the best of it and painted the model with a plethora of metal tones - ranging from Testors/Model Master Metallizer (Polished Aluminum, Polished Steel, Titanium, Exhaust) through Humbrol enamels (Aluminum, Gun Metal, Chrome Silver) up to Revell Aqua Acryllics (Aluminum). Additionally, some service flaps were painted in light grey (Humbrol 64), the nose cone (which would have been a metal piece, not a plastic radome) was painted in Humbrol 140.

 

The kit also received a wash with black ink - not to make it look worn, but to add to a "metallic" look with more contrast at edges and raised panel lines. To enhance this metallic look further, the kit received a treatment with a 'graphite rubbing'.

 

To make the machine look even more interesting (but not out of style), I added some phototheodolyte calibration markings on fuselage and fin: simple, black stripes, but, again, based on real test aircraft of that era. Additionally, "31 Blue" received four stars under the cockpit as mission markers - not for shot-down aircraft, but for successful live missile launches.

After the decals were applied - puzzled together from the scrap box and several aftermarket sheets for Russian/Soviet aircraft - everything was sealed under a coat of semi-matte acryllic varnish (Tamiya TS-79).

  

In the end a rather simple conversion, but quite effective and convincing. I think that this potential MiG-21 layout does not look out of place - but there certainly were reasons why the thin, unswept wings did not make it to the hardware stage at OKB MiG...

The SR 509 Completion Project in the SeaTac/Des Moines, WA area includes a new Veteran's Drive tunnel under I-5. The tunnel will create a link between the southbound off-ramp (on the right) to Military Road (visible in the photo's upper left).

 

To build the tunnel, crews are excavating from the middle of I-5, working on the west half of the tunnel first.

 

The SR 509 Completion project is part of the Puget Sound Gateway program which completes critical missing links in Washington state's highway and freight network.

Oil on Canvas (10X7)

 

Completion time 2 months...

 

I recently took part in my first Triathlon - The 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. The story of how I got to this starts at the end of my first ear of University, in the year 2000. I contracted glandular fever, and a doctor told me that I would feel "awful for two weeks, low in energy for a year, and have less energy for the rest of my life". I thought it would be a good idea to pull my finger out and work on getting fit, to prove the doctor wrong. My first efforts were extremely painful, and very short, and showed me quite how unfit I had become after a year of partying and very little exercise. When I spent two years in Japan, things moved up a couple of gears, and I started running, cycling and swimming longer distances. I found that the more exercise one does, the more one is inclined to do, until I was running half-marathon distances after work and cycling up mountains with friends (there's material for a retrospecitve blog if ever there was). Since these were the main sports I was doing, I wanted to do Triathlon, but I knew running was still my weak spot. With this in mind, I entered the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham on my return to the UK.

  

The marathon was massively painful in one of my knees, but because it was the event I had been building up to, I ran to the finish. Afterwards, it took about a week to be able to walk normally, and I concluded that running is not good for me. Supporting evidence for this is the fact that several members of my family on both my mother and father's sides have had knee problems to the point of surgery, and there is a history of arthiritis, so I decided to listen to the painful alarm bells. The training route to the triathlon consisted mainly of carrying on as before, and in fact the main hurdle was getting hold of all the equipment. I had foreseen the main expense as being the bike, but in fact it turned out to be the wetsuit. I managed to snag a basic raodbike for a mere 116 quid at Decathlon in their winter sale, and she is still going strong after over 700 miles.

  

My wetsuit is an Aquasphere Mako, hurriedly purchased from "Mike's Diving" in the week leading up to the Triathlon, and fortunately it fits like a glove. Thus prepared, George, his girlfriend and I headed up to Blenheim Palace on the day of the event, though not without a hitch as the following photo illustrates:

  

On arrival, we had to rack up, which basically means putting your bike and running gear in a rack in the transition zone and hopefully remembering their location. We then made our way down to the lake in our as-yet untested wetsuits, and had a briefing. Briefing over, we made our way to the pier, and followed the triathletes, leaping like lemmings into the remarkably chilly lake. The icy bite of the lake made things painful during the seemingly long wait for the starting claxon. I reassured George that the pain would go away once we started swimming, having no idea whether it actually would. Finally the claxon sounded and the lake transformed from idyllic tranquility to a frothing tumult of swimmers, all vying for position. I had read that the first 200-400 metres are the most stressful part of any triathlon, and that a lot of triathletes freak out at this point due to the combination of cold water on the face, sudden exertion, and being in water teeming with other people, all of whom seem to want to swim over you. Having been forewarned, I was prepared for this and kept switching from crawl to breast stroke to keep my bearings, and my head.

  

At the end of the swim, we clambered out of the water and some helpful attendants unzipped our wetsuits as we made our way up the hill for the 400m run to the transition zone.

  

At transition, I spent about two minutes trying to extricate myself from my wetsuit, writhing around on the gravel in a most undignified fashion, before finally emerging and grabbing my t-shirt and bike from the rack, clipping on my helmet and wheeling the bike towards the exit of the transition. There are so many tules dictating what one can and cannot do in transition, I was quite worried about getting disqualified for doing something that was banned, like putting my helmet on at the wrong time, or walking inappropriately... Once on the bike I made a mental note to not go too hard, as I am wont to do on my commute when anyone overtakes me. I wanted to pace myself to leave something in reserve for the run. The route was three laps of a track through the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace, adding up to just under 20km. There were several downhill sections marked with "slow down", which obviously were the most fun parts to go as fast as possible on, and build up some momentum for the ensuing hill-climbs. I still had not encountered George by the end of the third lap, and was pondering this when I heard a shout of "COME ON CHUFFY!" as George flew by on his trusty steed. I gave chase and we entered transition at the same time, in our appalling-looking skimpy swimming trunks.

  

The second transition should have been more straightforward than the first, as no wetsuit removal was necessary. Despite this fact, I managed to remove my helmet too early, earning a shouting-at from one of the marshalls. George and I then headed out of transition heading in completely the wrong direction, and the same marshall alerted us to our glaring error before witheringly shouting "The run exit is over there where there's a huge sign saying 'RUN EXIT'!". Thus informed, we set off on the run leg of the event. George had to drop back briefly as he was suffering from cramp owing to the transition from one leg-intensive exercise to another. I didn't want to go into cramp so I kept jogging steadily. I ran alongside a friendly Aussie called Coops and we chatted until the end, when he had challenged me to a sprint finish.

  

As the time approached, Coops said he didn't really feel the sprint coming on, and I could totally sympathise with him after my previous marathon experience, so I went for it, and here is a video of the finish: [video:youtube:O7cHwRKMHZI] All in all, it was a fantastic event, with much less painful after effects than the half marathon. It is definitely something I want to repeat. In fact, George and I have booked places at the Nottingham Triathlon on August 3rd.

 

Here's a vid of the finish :D

Quinault Indian Nation President Fawn Sharp signs a commemorative banner at the construction site in Aberdeen. Event participants were invited to sign the banner.

 

WSDOT and contractor Kiewit-General marked a major milestone in Aberdeen on March 9, 2015, as crews prepared to float out the final three pontoons for the new SR 520 floating bridge. Several elected officials, community members, and even the Aberdeen High School marching band participated in the event at the casting basin facility. These three pontoons represent the last of the 77 pontoons needed for the new floating bridge, and mark the completion of all six cycles built in Aberdeen. Next, the three pontoons will be inspected and then towed to Lake Washington where they will be joined together to form the foundation of the new floating bridge. The new bridge is scheduled to open in spring 2016.

Finished it!