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Next door to the Primary School and opposite the church is Stone Hall. Currently an Adult Education Centre for Birmingham City Council.
Private Car Park sign near Stone Hall. No access for parents of Acocks Green Schools. No unauthorised parking.
Stone Hall - Acocks Green History Society archive
Stone Hall is one of the most respected and beloved institutions in Acocks Green. Over the last three decades it has given so much pleasure to so many people, enriching their lives with education, leisure, trips, meetings, meals, indeed everything that a real community centre can do.
The Tithe Map for the 1840s shows the area between Broad Lane, the Warwick Road and Well Lane (Westley Road) occupied by fields. Numbers 1197 to 1199 were owned and farmed by Benjamin Cook. In 1853 he began to develop part of the land, and built three dwellings on Broad Road. Five years later, nine houses were built along the Warwick Road, including Stone Hall, and five more on Broad Road. It is possible that the surgeon's house on the corner of Broad Road was also built at this time. That left a large corner area at the Green, part of which was soon taken up with the original New Inn, which was opened in 1859. Next to the inn, five cottages leading back from the road were built in the same year. Benjamin Cook's estate came up for sale in May 1875 after his death. Stone Hall was Lot 16.
The ground rent for Stone Hall dates from 25th March 1858. It was built at the eastern end of field 1197, called Fox Green Lane Close in the Tithe Award Schedule. In the 1860 and 1864 directories the house was occupied by Samuel Robotham, and in 1868 by Joseph Bourne, a gun and pistol maker. In the 1872 and 1883 directories the house was listed under William Bourne. In 1884 the house and grounds came up for sale. Stone Hall was sold by auction on Thursday 27th March 1884 by Grimley and Son. The estate was 5 acres, 1 rood and 17 perches. There were aleady two ground rents within the Stone Hall estate, one for a house on the Warwick Road, and one for a piece of land in Well Lane ( Florence Road c. 1876 and Westley Road since c. 1879). The greater part of the rest of the estate was said to be available for building on: "The whole of the land in Well Lane and a considerable portion of the frontage in the main road may be advantageously leased for the erection of Villa Residences without destroying the character of the Residence or interfering with the privacy of the Pleasure Grounds." This is how the property was described in the sale documents. It was clearly a rich man's home.
Known as “STONE HALL,” situate at Acocks’s Green, in the parish of Yardley, on the Warwick Road, about four miles from Birmingham, comprising a most substantially-built FAMILY RESIDENCE, erected by a former Proprietor, for his own occupation, regardless of cost; delightfully placed in beautifully-timbered Grounds, abounding in choice Shrubs and trees of mature growth.
Text above copied from the above archived link.
my current desktop, wall paper (downloaded from the DC comics website) and various shite on there. As you can see, I do line my icons up in an anally retentive fashion. Res is 1440x 900. Equally strange.
Calotrope [Calotropis procera (Aiton) W.T.Aiton] is an exotic shrub or small tree species that is currently invading the northern landscape of Australia. I found this singular plant at Mary Kathleen and I am sure that there would be more plants in this area.
Common Names: apple of Sodom, auricula tree, cabbage tree, calotrope, calotropis, Dead Sea apple, giant milkweed, Indian milkweed, kapok tree, King Edward's crown, king's crown, king's crown kapok, Prince of Wales' crown, rubber bush, rubber plant, rubber tree, rubberbush, small crown flower, small crownflower, Sodom apple, Sodom's milkweed, swallowwort
Calotrope is a spreading shrub or small tree which can grow up to 4 m high. A milky sap oozes from any part of the plant which is cut or broken. I know this as I brike some pieces off but was carefull notto get any of the sap on my fingers. Stems are smooth and pale greyish green. Mature stems have a characteristic beige corrugated bark, cork-like in appearance and texture. The grey-green leaves are attached in opposite pairs directly to the stem. Leaves are large, 10−20 cm long and 4−10 cm wide, with a short pointed tip and a heart-shaped base. Flowers grow in groups in the forks of the uppermost leaves, up to 15 flowers per group. The five-petalled waxy flowers are white with purple tips inside and have a central purplish crown. The large, green, inflated fruit is rounded at the base and somewhat pointed at the tip, similar in shape to a mango. It grows 8−12 cm long and nearly as wide. When ripe, the fruit bursts and releases numerous seeds which have tufts of long, silky hairs at one end. These can be carried long distances by the wind. Calotrope, a native of tropical Africa and Asia, was introduced into Australia as an ornamental shrub. In Queensland, it has become naturalised in the semi-arid north, particularly in the Gulf of Carpentaria region. The plant is poisonous to humans. There are reports that cattle can eat the plant with no known ill effects in the dry season, but may die from calotrope poisoning if they are subjected to stress (e.g. mustering). Calotrope is a weed of roadsides and watercourses and commonly invades old cultivated land and heavily grazed areas where there is little competition from grass. Calotrope may spread rapidly from the base of plants and from seedlings unless there is vigorous competition from grass or other herbs. Even in cases where the above-ground plant has disappeared, calotrope often regrows from the root system when conditions become favourable. Calotrope roots are large and spongy; new plants quickly grow from underground tubers. This makes any form of mechanical control (including fire) difficult. Research has shown several herbicides to be effective as foliar spray, cut stump, or basal bark methods of control.
Scavenger Challenge- May 2017 Assignment - Texture in Foliage
I appreciate every comment on my photos, especially when it is in your own words and not only a copy&paste comment code, but please do not add invites or awards with gaudy images bigger than thumbnail-size or any animated gifs - thank you!
Former Ruby Tuesday 199 Eisenhower Dr Hanover, PA. Currently this has become a Denny's restaurant. March 2016
Thirty years later it could be a photograph of myself.
I was never interested in current fashions, whilst my friends in the mid 1960s were seeking the latest shade of anorak and trousers, I was quite happy with a waterproof raincoat, my only objection was if the hat fixed under my chin, for some reason after a couple of outings, the chin cord seem to fail and become lost.
I was fine with the fashions of the 1930s-1950s.
Thank goodness for today's high index lenses that take away lots of the thickness. These are my new glasses with identical frames as those purchased in October, 2009. Notice that I'm not wearing the spongy nose pads with these. Yay!
Varosha - Maras is the southern quarter of the Famagusta, a de jure territory of Cyprus, currently under the control of Northern Cyprus. Varosha has a population of 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census. The area of Varosha is 6.19 km2 (2.39 sq mi).
The name of Varosha derives from the Turkish word varoş (Ottoman Turkish: واروش, 'suburb'). The place where Varosha is located now was empty fields in which animals grazed.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta was the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus. To cater to the increasing number of tourists, many new high-rise buildings and hotels were constructed. During its heyday, Varosha was not only the number-one tourist destination in Cyprus, but between 1970 and 1974, it was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world and was a favorite destination of such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, and Brigitte Bardot.
Before 1974, Varosha was the modern tourist area of the Famagusta city. Its Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, when the city of Famagusta came under Turkish control, and it has remained abandoned ever since. In 1984 a U.N. resolution called for the handover of the city to UN control and said that only the original inhabitants, who were forced out, could resettle in the town.
Entry to part of Varosha was opened to civilians in 2017.
In August 1974, the Turkish Army advanced as far as the Green Line, a UN-patrolled demilitarized zone between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and controlled and fenced Varosha. Just hours before the Greek Cypriot and Turkish armies met in combat on the streets of Famagusta, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled to Paralimni, Dherynia, and Larnaca, fearing a massacre. The evacuation was aided and orchestrated by the nearby British military base. Paralimni has since become the modern-day capital of the Famagusta province of Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus.
The Turkish Army has allowed the entry of only Turkish military and United Nations personnel since 2017.
One such settlement plan was the Annan Plan to reunify the island that provided for the return of Varosha to the original residents. But this was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a 2004 referendum. The UN Security Council Resolution 550 states that it "considers attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the United Nations".
The European Court of Human Rights awarded between €100,000 and €8,000,000 to eight Greek Cypriots for being deprived of their homes and properties as a result of the 1974 invasion. The case was filed jointly by businessman Constantinos Lordos and others, with the principal judgement in the Lordos case dating back to November 2010. The court ruled that, in the case of eight of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right of peaceful enjoyment of one's possessions, and in the case of seven of the applicants, Turkey had violated Article 8 on the right to respect for private and family life.
In the absence of human habitation and maintenance, buildings continue to decay. Over time, parts of the city have begun to be reclaimed by nature as metal corrodes, windows are broken, and plants work their roots into the walls and pavement and grow wild in old window boxes. In 2014, the BBC reported that sea turtles were observed nesting on the beaches in the city.
During the Cyprus Missile Crisis (1997–1998), the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over Varosha if the Cypriot government did not back down.
The main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue, a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta, through Varosha and parallel to Glossa beach. Along JFK Avenue, there were many well known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, The Asterias Hotel, The Grecian Hotel, The Florida Hotel, and The Argo Hotel which was the favourite hotel of Elizabeth Taylor. The Argo Hotel is located near the end of JFK Avenue, looking towards Protaras and Fig Tree Bay. Another major street in Varosha was Leonidas (Greek: Λεωνίδας), a major street that came off JFK Avenue and headed west towards Vienna Corner. Leonidas was a major shopping and leisure street in Varosha, consisting of bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and a Toyota car dealership.
According to Greek Cypriots, 425 plots exist on the Varosha beach front, which extends from the Contandia hotel to the Golden Sands hotel. The complete number of plots in Varosha are 6082.
There are 281 cases of Greek Cypriots who filed to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of Northern Cyprus for compensation.
In 2020, Greek Cypriot Demetrios Hadjihambis filed a lawsuit seeking state compensation for financial losses.
The population of Varosha was 226 in the 2011 Northern Cyprus census.
In 2017, Varosha's beach was opened for the exclusive use of Turks (both Turkish Cypriots and Turkish nationals).
In 2019, the Government of Northern Cyprus announced it would open Varosha to settlement. On 14 November 2019, Ersin Tatar, the prime minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that Northern Cyprus aims to open Varosha by the end of 2020.
On 25 July 2019, Varosha Inventory Commission of Northern Cyprus started its inventory analysis on the buildings and other infrastructure in Varosha.
On 9 December 2019, Ibrahim Benter, the Director-General of the Turkish Cypriot EVKAF religious foundation's administration, declared all of Maraş/Varosha to be the property of EVKAF. Benter said "EVKAF can sign renting contracts with Greek Cypriots if they accept that the fenced-off town belongs to the Evkaf."
In 2019–20, inventory studies of buildings by the Government of Northern Cyprus were concluded. On 15 February 2020, the Turkish Bar Association organised a round table meeting at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Varosha, which was attended by Turkish officials (Vice President Fuat Oktay and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül), Turkish Cypriot officials, representatives of the Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf, and Turkish and Turkish Cypriot lawyers.
On 22 February 2020, Cyprus declared it would veto European Union funds to Turkish Cypriots if Varosha were opened to settlement.
On 6 October 2020, Ersin Tatar, the Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus, announced that the beach area of Varosha would reopen to the public on 8 October 2020. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Turkey fully supported the decision. The move came ahead of the 2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election, in which Tatar was a candidate. Deputy Prime Minister Kudret Özersay, who had worked on the reopening previously, said that this was not a full reopening of the area, that this was just a unilateral election stunt by Tatar. His People's Party withdrew from the Tatar cabinet, leading to the collapse of the Turkish Cypriot government. The EU's diplomatic chief condemned the plan and described it as a "serious violation" of the U.N. ceasefire agreement. In addition, he asked Turkey to stop this activity. The U.N. Secretary-General expressed concern over Turkey's decision.
On 8 October 2020, some parts of Varosha were opened from the Officers' Club of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot Army to the Golden Sands Hotel.
In November 2020, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkey's ambassador to Nicosia, visited Varosha. In addition, the main avenue in Varosha has been renamed after Semih Sancar, Chief of the General Staff of Turkey from 1973 to 1978, a period including the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The European Parliament on 27 November, asked Turkey to reverse its decision to re-open part of Varosha and resume negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation and called on the European Union to impose sanctions against Turkey, if things do not change. Turkey rejected the resolution, adding that Turkey will continue to protect both its own rights and those of Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidency also condemned the resolution.
On 20 July 2021, Tatar, the president of Northern Cyprus announced the start of the 2nd phase of the opening of Varosha. He encouraged Greek Cypriots to apply Immovable Property Commission of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to claim their properties back if they have any such rights.
Bilal Aga Mosque, constructed in 1821 and taken out of service in 1974, was re-opened on 23 July 2021.
In response to a decision by the government of Turkish Cyprus, the presidential statement of the United Nations Security Council dated on 23 July said that settling any part of the abandoned Cypriot suburb of Varosha, "by people other than its inhabitants, is 'inadmissible'." The same day, Turkey rejected the presidential statement of the UNSC on Maras (Varosha), and said that these statements were based on Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda, were groundless and unfounded claims, and inconsistent with the realities on the Island. On 24 July 2021, the presidency of Northern Cyprus condemned the presidential statement of the UNSC dated on 23 July, and stated that "We see and condemn it as an attempt to create an obstacle for the property-rights-holders in Varosha to achieve their rights".
By 1 January 2022, nearly 400,000 people had visited Varosha since its opening to civilians on 6 October 2020.
On 19 May 2022, Northern Cyprus opened a 600m long X 400m wide stretch of beach on the Golden Sands beach (from the King George Hotel to the Oceania Building) in Varosha for commercial use. Sun beds and umbrellas were installed.
UNFICYP said it would raise the decision taken by Turkish Cypriot authorities to open that stretch of beach in Varosha with the Security Council, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force Aleem Siddique said on Friday. The UN announced its "position on Varosha is unchanged and we are monitoring the situation closely".
In October 2022, the Turkish Cypriots announced that public institutions will be opened in the city.
In April 2023, Cleo Hotel, the 7-floor Golden Seaside Hotel, and the 3-star Aegean Hotel were purchased by a Turkish Cypriot businessman (from their Greek Cypriot owners) who will operate them within 2025.
On 10 August 2023, the Government of Northern Cyprus decided to construct a marina and tourist facility in Varosha.
Varosha was analyzed by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us as an example of the unstoppable power of nature.
Filmmaker Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis described the city and interviewed its exiled citizens in the film Attilas '74, produced in 1975.
In 2021, the Belarusian group Main-De-Gloire dedicated a song to this city that has become a ghostly place.
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
it has switched between the time of the photograph and now (8 hours). i'm tempted to make a table cloth for this small round table.
Current setup - new MacBook Pro on left, rejuvenated iMac on right, and my 20" nec monitor in middle. Canon i9900 printer, and Epson scanner on left. That's my mom in the picture. And - oh yeah - GO BLUE!
This circa 1980 photograph shows Boulevard Lake and the Current River Bridge. It appears to have been taken from the Bluffs. Grain elevators and Lake Superior are also visible.
Accession 1991-03 #35
For more information about Thunder Bay's history, visit www.thunderbay.ca/archives
U.S. Army Africa Soldiers apply lessons of WWII to current mission
By Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Africa
KAIROUAN, Tunisia – Col. Stephen Mariano looked down into a foxhole carved atop a rocky hill top near El Guettar, where in March 1943, troops from U.S. Army II Corps battled German panzers.
Nearby, retired Army Col. Len Fullenkamp conjured tales of U.S. Army Rangers under Lt. Col. William Darby marching through darkness along a nearby ridge to surprise sleeping enemy infantrymen with fixed bayonets. Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division hacked fighting positions from solid rock as enemy tanks rumbled into the valley. U.S. Army artillery units skimmed shells across the desert at approaching German armor.
Mariano began to wonder, “Had my grandfather dug one of these foxholes? Was his artillery position somewhere nearby? Did he fire on Germans coming through this gap?”
Mariano, 45, of Redlands, Calif., was among several U.S. Army Africa officers who took part in a four-day “staff ride,” – onsite discussions of Tunisia’s World War II battlefields geared toward finding insights into U.S. Army Africa’s present challenge – building cooperative relationships with African land forces to increase security, stability and peace in the region.
In late 1942, U.S. forces landed in North Africa with British troops. Their first fights were with Vichy French units, who later joined the Allied cause. Together, they pushed east into Tunisia, where they clashed with German and Italian troops among craggy, cactus-covered hills and washed out wadis.
As a U.S. Army Africa’s strategic planner, a look back at the alliance between American, British and French forces offered Mariano a glimpse at an international coalitions’ growing pains and how friction between partners can doom a mission. On a more personal level, the staff ride allowed him to recapture his family’s past.
Henry Mariano, Sr., was a sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, 62nd Armored Field Artillery Regiment who survived combat in North Africa, Italy and France before being wounded during the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
“This staff ride is a historic event, on a historic event, separated by 67 years,” Mariano said. “To be here, where my grandfather was, is pretty powerful to me.”
The tour began May 27 outside Sidi Bou Zid, where U.S. forces suffered a horrible defeat in mid-February 1943. They stopped for the evening in Gafsa, a city in Central Tunisia that changed hands between Allied and Axis forces several times during the campaign.
The second day, they focused on the Allied defeat at Kasserine Pass, followed by the U.S. Army’s first solid gains against veteran German troops in the counterattack at El Guettar. The next day, U.S. Army Africa Soldiers ventured east to focus on British Gen. Bernard Montgomery’s attempt to punch through Axis defenses at the coastal town of Enfidaville, roughly 40 miles southeast of Tunis.
Perched on a craggy knoll near Takrouna, Col. David Buckingham, U.S. Army Africa’s senior operations officer, bent the spine of Atkinson’s book, deep in thought about how for two days in mid-April 1942, New Zealanders came to death grips with Italian defenders in the limestone foothills outside Enfidaville.
Afterward, they paid respects to French and British Commonwealth troops buried nearby.
“Tying this staff ride together with Memorial Day, taking time to better understanding leadership and feel the sacrifice of our soldiers, has been both poignant and educational,” Buckingham said.
At each stop, officers thumbed through worn copies of Rick Atkinson’s “An Army At Dawn,” at their hip as Fullenkamp spoke of the bravery, heroics, ingenuity, lunacy and debacles of the North African campaign. After discussions, they poked through thorn bushes and cacti along the rocky terrain, searching for battlefield remnants.
At El Guettar, Maj. Gen. William B. Garrett III, commander of U.S. Army Africa, found a tin C-ration can and passed it to his senior logistics officer, Col. Mike Balser. Others found shards of shells and bullet casings. Lt. Col. David Konop, the command’s public affairs officer, found a link from a 30-caliber machine gun belt.
It was hard to not be overwhelmed in the presence of such history, to walk this consecrated ground, Fullenkamp said.
Like the 34th Infantry Division, they climbed the hills near Fondouk Pass. They stood in the cold rain below Longstop Hill, just as the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment had when they relieved the 2nd Battalion of the British Coldstream Guards, around Christmas 1942.
The U.S. Army Africa tour wrapped up in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, the prize the Allies had fought seven months to pry away from German control. The Soldeirs took part in a May 31 Memorial Day ceremony at the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial near Carthage, Tunisia.
All agreed that their experience in Tunisia was unlike walking the U.S. battlefield of Gettysburg, tracing the footsteps of Pickett’s men from Spangler’s Woods to the Emmitsburg Road. Nor was it like stepping from the shores of Normandy onto Omaha beach’s Dog Green sector on D-Day staff rides.
This tour was focused on lessons the U.S. Army learned over the course of a seven-month campaign across North Africa.
“No one’s ever done something like this, in this context, before. We’re using the book ‘An Army At Dawn’ and we are an Army Service Component Command at dawn,” Mariano said. “That’s the connection. It’s brilliant. “
Early on, Garrett challenged his staff to ask tough questions along the way and encouraged them to discuss tactical operations, but also look for insights into overall strategic goals. In North Africa, U.S. Army leaders found innovative ways to grow and succeed against often-insurmountable odds, he said.
“Talking about the past, in the present, that’s what this is about,” Garrett said. “This staff ride is simply a mechanism, a tool for helping us think about the challenges leaders faced in Africa during World War II and applying insights to our present focus.”
PHOTO CAPTION:
U.S. Army photo by Rick Scavetta
Cleared for Public Release
I love that the wallpaper on my laptop in this photo is actually the previous photo in my flickr stream.
In its current incarnation as the Rendezvous Grand, the hotel on Melbourne's Flinders Street was once in fact, the Commercial Travellers Association Building.
The Commercial Travellers Association Building was designed by architect Harry Tompkins in 1912 and completed in 1913. It is one of the finest and most distinct expressions of the Edwardian Baroque style in Melbourne. This grand classical non-domestic style, featuring a combination of Beaux Arts Classicism with a revival of English Baroque sources, was adopted as the style of choice for department stores, emporiums and other large commercial establishments in Melbourne in the first two decades of the 20th Century. It was thus an eminently suitable style for the headquarters of the roving disciples of commerce, the Commercial Travellers Association. The building was the winning entry in a competition organised by the Association and judged by the well-respected Percy Oakden, an indication of the high regard in which the building was held by Harry Tompkins' architect peers.
The Commercial Travellers Association Building is of architectural significance for a number of innovations, such as the use of welded wire reinforcing mesh, perhaps the first use of such material in Victoria, and "Mack" slab cement partitions, the only known use of this technology in Victoria. It was also one of Australias earliest steel framed buildings. It comprises a basement and nine storeys. The ground floor is faced with granite. The facade above is partially rendered and partially faced with (formerly) cream glazed bricks. An unusual feature, the choice of such bricks was used to combat discolouration caused by pollution from the busy city thoroughfare and the nearby railway yards opposite. The rendered areas are treated in an ornate fashion, with exaggerated classical detailing including foliated swags, medallions and cartouches. It features a colonnade of the second floor (also known as a piano nobile), which is supported on massive, oversized consoles. Consoles also support the cornice surmounting the facade. Oriel windows rise through the second and third floors and are topped with balconettes. There are also balconettes on the eighth floor.
Leadlight is featured in some of the windows, mainly at the lower levels. The building is an early example of steel-framed construction, with reinforced concrete floors and a combination of terra cotta lumber and cement slab for non-structural internal walls. The building also boasted equipment such as a built-in vacuum cleaning plant, electrically heated service lifts, potato peeling machines, telephones in each room (the height of opulent luxury), a dish washing machine and large electric toaster. The building was also the tallest in Melbourne until the construction of the Manchester Unity Building, completed in 1932, and the first to be constrained to the new city height limit of one hundred and thirty two feet. The Commercial Travellers Association Building is of architectural significance as one of the most impressive buildings created by Harry Tompkins.
The building ceased functioning as the Commercial Travellers Association club in 1976 and fell into disrepair before being partially restored as the Duxton Hotel in the late 1990s. When commercial viability saw the Duxton close its doors, the Rendezvous Hospitality Group took on the project of meticulously restoring the hotel, retaining the elegant style of the early 1900s while providing guests with all the convenience of the 21st Century; what today is known as the Rendezvous Grand Hotel.
Harry Tompkins was one of Melbourne's best commercial architects during the first three decades of the 20th Century. He had a long relationship with the Commercial Travellers Association and also with Sydney Myer, for whom he designed the first Myer Emporium building. Harry Tompkins served two terms as President of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects between 1914 and 1916, a reflection of his esteemed position in the architectural profession. Other well-known buildings for which he was responsible include Dimmeys Model Stores on Swan Street in Richmond, the London Stores on Bourke Street and the Centreway Arcade in Collins Street.
2 x Dell 1907FP Flat Panel LCDs
Apple Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66Ghz + 2GB ram
Custom PC - Intel E6400 2.13Ghz + 2GB ram
Logitech MX3200
Lenovo X61 T7300 + 2GB ram
Pioneer 5.1 Surround sound
Polaroid FLM-3232 32" LCD TV (looks green/blue in pic?)
Scientific Atlanta Cable Box
My second copy of this lens.
In summary this is what I found with the 3 copies I received:
Each additional copy I received the FOV angle was slightly wider; in other words, the second lens was slightly wider than the first and the third lens was slightly wider than the second.
The first copy had a soft spot in the focus (constant friction on the end-points but somewhere in the middle of the focus throw it got loose for a bit, almost like it didn’t have and even application of grease). The second copy was smooth as silk. The third copy was smooth but has a little bit of a gritty sound to it, but nothing too annoying.
The second copy had a large speck of dust under the outer element whereas the first and second were spotless.
Captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC lens.
that's my current set up in the Palo Alto apartment I'll stay until end of march. Loosing weight running from one side to other of the desk :)
A cross used as a war memorial. Currently has poppy wreaths on it.
The memorial is in memory of those who served in the First World War of 1914 - 18. But for some reason it says to 1919.
This is the main church in Moseley Village, supposedly is more than 600 years old, but the current building dates to the 18th century.
It is a Grade II listed building.
A church of C15 origin, built as a chapel in the parish of Kings Norton but
a subsequent history of numerous rebuilds and enlargements. The plain stone
west tower is an early C16 addition but with much brick refacing. The body
of the church was rebuilt in 1780 and considerably altered by Thomas Rickman
1823-24. Finally, under Chatwins father and son, a complete reconstruction,
excluding the tower, was initiated. J A Chatwin added the north aisle 1886,
enlarged to chancel and provided a side chapel in 1897. The nave and south
aisle were rebuilt in 1910 by P B Chatwin who also carved out reconstruction
following war domain in 1952-54. Ashlar elevations in a competent simply
modelled Decorated style typical of the Chatwin practice. Crennellation
to tower parapet.
Church of St Mary, Moseley - Heritage Gateway
Below is info from Bill Dargue - places - Moseley
Moseley's parish church was founded rather later than Birmingham's other ancient churches. St Mary's is first mentioned in 1405 in a declaration of the church as a chapel-of-ease of Kings Norton church licensed by the Bishop of Worcester on the authority of Pope Innocent VII. It is likely to have been set up by wealthy local residents to save themselves the long journey to Kings Norton every Sunday morning. At that time the route ran via Dogpool Lane across the wide marshy valley of the River Rea, which was prone to flooding in winter. The oldest surviving part of the building is the tower which was built in 1514 using forty-eight wagon-loads of stone reused from Bromsgrove's old parsonage.
By 1780 the chapel had fallen into such disrepair that services could no longer be held here. The fallen roof was repaired and the church was encased in brick with fashionable round-headed windows in neo-classical style. But only forty years later, fashions had changed and the leading gothicist, Thomas Rickman was employed to remove the alterations and regothicise the church. He plastered the external brick-clad walls to look like stone, added cast-iron girders simulated as timber and put gothic-style iron frames in the windows.
Another forty years on and all of Rickman's work was lost in further gothic restoration. In 1876 the Birmingham architect, J A Chatwin restored, rebuilt and extended the building. Ten years later a north aisle was added, and in 1897 the chancel and transept were built, bringing the church to its present size. The nave and south aisle were reconstructed in 1910 by Chatwin's son, P B Chatwin who later also repaired the German bomb damage which occurred in 1940 during the Second World War.
St Mary's has a unique ring of bells which attracts visiting ringers from all over the country. The peal originated in Sheffield. In a pioneering venture in 1861, eight steel bells cast by a Sheffield foundry were loaned to St Marie's Roman Catholic Church. This was an unusual experiment as English bells have been made from time immemorial with a copper-tin alloy known as bell metal. In comparison with bell metal, steel bells are very heavy for the note they produce. The steel bells were bought for St Mary's in 1874 by Sir John Holder of Pitmaston, Moor Green.
However, when the church was partially rebuilt in 1910, the ringing room floor was removed and the bells could no longer be rung full circle, only chimed with hammers. Examination in 1979 found the bell installation to be unsafe and it was recommended that it should be removed. However, a suggestion was made to the Parochial Church Council that the bells could and should be restored, these being now the only surviving steel bells in the country. After a great deal of fund-raising and 5000 hours of volunteer labour, the restoration was completed by Easter 1991, when the bells were rung after morning service for the first time in over 80 years.
It's starting to get tight in the photo bag...
LowePro Mini Trekker II AW Black.
Picture taken with our Canon IXUS 85IS compact camera.
This is how I've been spending much of my time lately, building up inventory to take back to the States in July to sell! It's fun and challenging!
. . . these handprints are placed at the entrance to the Junagarh Fort. They are memorial plaques for the women who immolated herself on her husband´s funeral pyre
______________________________________________
Sati was (is) a social funeral practice among some Indian communities in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. The practice was banned several times, with the current ban dating to 1829 by the British.
CURRENT INCIDENCE
Sati still occurs in the rural areas of India, reports extending into the 21st century. Some 30 cases of sati from 1943-1987 in the Rajput/Shekavati region are documented according to a referred statistics, the official number being 28. A well documented case from 1987 was that of 18-year old Roop Kanwar. In response to this incident, additional recent legislation against the practice was passed, first within the state of Rajasthan, then generally, the central government of India.
In 2002, a 65-year-old woman by the name of Kuttu died after sitting on her husband's funeral pyre in the Indian Panna district. On 18 May 2006, Vidyawati, a 35-year old woman allegedly committed sati by jumping into the blazing funeral pyre of her husband in Rari-Bujurg Village, Fatehpur district in the State of Uttar Pradesh. On 21 August 2006, Janakrani, a 40-year-old woman, burned to death on the funeral pyre of her husband Prem Narayan in Sagar district. On 11 October 2008 a 75-year-old woman, Lalmati Verma, committed sati by jumping into her 80-year-old husband's funeral pyre at Checher in the Kasdol block of Chhattisgarh's Raipur district.
ETYMOLOGY
The term is derived from the original name of the goddess Sati, also known as Dakshayani, who self-immolated because she was unable to bear her father Daksha's humiliation of her husband Shiva. The term may also be used to refer to the widow. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as "chaste woman". Sati appears in both Hindi and Sanskrit texts, where it is synonymous with "good wife"; the term suttee was commonly used by Anglo-Indian English writers.
ORIGN
Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, approximately 400 CE. After about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these are found in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest collections date from several centuries later, and are found in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines to the dead woman, who was treated as an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India. A description of suttee appears in a Greek account of the Punjab written in the first century BCE by historian Diodorus Siculus. Brahmins were forbidden from the practice by the Padma Purana. A chapter dated to around the 10th century indicates that, while considered a noble act when committed by a Kshatriya woman, anyone caught assisting an upper-caste Brahmin in self-immolation as a "sati" was guilty of Brahminicide.
The ritual has prehistoric roots, and many parallels from other cultures are known. Compare for example the ship burial of the Rus' described by Ibn Fadlan, where a female slave is burned with her master.
Aristobulus of Cassandreia, a Greek historian who traveled to India with the expedition of Alexander the Great, recorded the practice of sati at the city of Taxila. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of Eumenes of Cardia, whose two wives jumped on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC. The Greeks believed that the practice had been instituted to discourage wives from poisoning their old husbands.
Voluntary death at funerals has been described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were called anumarana, and were uncommon. Anumarana was not comparable to later understandings of sati, since the practices were not restricted to widows – rather, anyone, male or female, with personal loyalty to the deceased could commit suicide at a loved one's funeral. These included the deceased's relatives, servants, followers, or friends. Sometimes these deaths stemmed from vows of loyalty, and bear a slight resemblance to the later tradition of junshi in Japan.
It is theorized that sati, enforced widowhood, and girl marriage were customs that were primarily intended to solve the problem of surplus women and surplus men in a caste and to maintain its endogamy.
Apart from the Indian subcontinent, origins of this practice have been found in many parts of the world; it was followed by the ancient Egyptians, Thracians, Scythians, Scandinavians, Chinese, as well as people of Oceania and Africa.
Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had been abolished in lands under British control. Jaipur banned the practice in 1846. Nepal continued to practice Sati well into the 20th century.
On the Indonesian island of Bali, sati (known as masatya) was practised by the aristocracy as late as 1905, until Dutch colonial rule pushed for its termination.
Following outcries after each instance, the government has passed new measures against the practice, which now effectively make it illegal to be a bystander at an event of sati. The law now makes no distinction between passive observers to the act and active promoters of the event; all are supposed to be held equally guilty. Other measures include efforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. Glorification includes the erection of shrines to the dead, the encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and the derivation of any income from such sites and pilgrims.
Another instance of systematic Sati happened in 1973, when Savitri Soni sacrificed her life with her husband in Kotadi village of Sikar District in Rajasthan. Thousands of people witnessed this incident.
Although many have tried to prevent the act of sati by banning it and reinforcing laws against it, it is still being practiced (on rare occasions) in India under coercion or by voluntary burning, as in the case of Charan Shah: a 55 year-old widow of Manshah who burnt herself on the pyre of her husband in the village of Satpura in Uttar Pradesh on 11 November 1999. Her death on the funeral pyre has provoked much controversy, as there have been questions as to whether she willingly performed the Sati or was coerced. Charan Shah had not professed strong feelings to become a Sati to any of her family members, and no one saw her close to the burning body of her husband before she jumped into the fire. The villagers, including her sons, say that she became a Sati of her own accord and that she was not forced into it. They continue to pay their respects to the house of Charan Shah. It has become a shrine for the villagers, as they strongly believe that one who has become a sati is a deity; she is worshipped and endowed with gifts.
NUMBERS
There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati across the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known occurrences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135; another source gives a comparable number of 7,941 from 1815 to 1828, thus giving an average of about 507 to 567 documented incidents per year in that period. Raja Ram Mohan Roy estimated that there were ten times as many cases of Sati in Bengal compared to the rest of the country. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 44 in the 'Upper Provinces' (the upper Gangetic plain).
WIKIPEDIA
One of the Chinese highlights of Zhuhai last week. The sight of two operational Y-20's. Close my eyes and I could have been watching a IL-76 perform, as the Y-20 is currently powered by 4x Soloviev D-30KP-2. Nothing wrong with that as I love that sound, but clearly this aircraft is in need of the Chinese WS-18 Turbofan which is under development.The PLAAF hope o have 400 of these aircraft for heavy long range use.
Currently fitting LED lights to my fleet of Roco class 62’s. LED lights make such a difference!! Production line in progress, all the sound fitted engines.
Judging by the people milling around the Railyard, the opening must have been a great success. I never made it inside yet, but watched something about a last cruise around the Taos plaza, narrated bi-lingually in a rich and satisfying voice, while expressive images of how things were then and now were projected on some of those colorful panels.
I look forward to next 3 long extended weekends to explore the inside of this annual always exciting exhibition.
The current house was commissioned in 1759 by Nathaniel Curzon and designed by Robert Adam.[11] George Nathaniel Curzon is Kedleston's first Marquess Curzon, the first son of the fourth Baron Scarsdale.[18] The second Baroness Ravensdale was Irene Mary Curzon (1896–1966).[citation needed] The third Baron Ravensdale (b. 1923), was Sir Nicholas Mosley, born to George Curzon's daughter, Cynthia Blanche Mosley (1898–1933).[19] The first Earl Howe included Curzon-Howe Richard William (1796–1870);[3] Curzon-Howe George Frederick (1821–1876).[20] The third Earl Howe going forward included the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Earl Howe as Curzon-Howe Richard William (1822–1900), Curzon Richard George (1861–1929), Curzon Francis Penn (1884–1964), Curzon Richard Assheton (1908–1984), and Curzon Frederick Richard (b. 1951), in that order.[5][21][16]
On the death of the second Viscount Scarsdale, Richard Curzon in 1977, expenses compelled the heir, his cousin (Francis Curzon), to transfer the property to the care of the National Trust.[22]
Places and facilities named after the Curzon family name include Curzon Street believed to have been named after the third Viscount Howe, Mr. George Howe, and later transferred to another member of the family whose last name was Curzon.[23] Curzon Avenue is a street in England's North West expanse, specifically Northwich, in the Weaver Vale constituency.[24] In the world of athletics, Curzon Ashton F.C. is a soccer club situated in Ashton-Under-Lyne, which traces its history to the family's name owing to a few members of the family who participated in football. The key parks bearing the Curzon family name include Roker Curzon Park (Sunderland), Curzon Park (in Chester),[25] and Curzon Park Abbey (a monastery of nuns).[26]
Exterior
Kedleston Hall was Brettingham's opportunity to prove himself capable of designing a house to rival Holkham Hall. The opportunity was taken from him by Robert Adam who completed the North front (above) much as Brettingham designed it, but with a more dramatic portico.
The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The central, corps de logis, the largest block, contains the state rooms and was intended only for formal entertaining. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation.
Plans for two more pavilions (as the two smaller blocks are known), of identical size and similar appearance, were never executed. These further wings were intended to contain, in the south-east a music room, and in the southwest a conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the piano nobile of their southern facades. Here the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; a mezzanine was to have been disguised in the north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows, than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.
The north front, approximately 117 yards [107 m] in length, is Palladian in character, dominated by a massive, six-columned Corinthian portico; however, the south front (illustrated right) is pure neoclassical Robert Adam. This garden facade is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome) containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and medallions in relief.
The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance. Flanking the central section are two identical wings on three floors, each three windows wide, the windows of the first-floor piano nobile being the tallest. Adam's design for this facade contains huge "movement" and has a delicate almost fragile quality.
Interior
A cross section through the hall and saloon
The neoclassical interior of the house was designed by Adam to be no less impressive than the exterior. Entering the house through the great north portico on the piano nobile, one is confronted by the marble hall designed to suggest the open courtyard or atrium of a Roman villa.
Marble Hall 1763, decoration completed in 1776-7
Twenty fluted alabaster columns with Corinthian capitals support the heavily decorated, high-coved cornice. Niches in the walls contain classical statuary; above the niches are grisaille panels. The floor is of inlaid Italian marble. Matthew Paine's original designs for this room intended for it to be lit by conventional windows at the northern end, but Adam, warming to the Roman theme, did away with the distracting windows and lit the whole from the roof through innovative glass skylight.
At Kedleston, the hall symbolises the atrium of the Roman villa and the adjoining saloon the vestibulum. The saloon, contained behind the triumphal arch of the south front, like the marble hall rises the full height of the house, 62 feet to the top of the dome, where it too is sky-lit through a glass oculus. Designed as a sculpture gallery, this circular room was completed in 1763. The decorative theme is based on the temples of the Roman Forum with more modern inventions: in the four massive, apse-like recesses are stoves disguised as pedestals for classical urns. The four sets of double doors giving entry to the room have heavy pediments supported by scagliola columns, and at second-floor height, grisaille panels depict classical themes.
A neoclassical drawing room at Kedleston photographed in 1915.
From the saloon, the atmosphere of the 18th-century Grand Tour is continued throughout the remainder of the principal reception rooms of the piano nobile, though on a slightly more modest scale. The "principal apartment", or State bedroom suite, contains fine furniture and paintings as does the drawing room with its huge Venetian window; the dining room, with its gigantic apse, has a ceiling that Adam based on the Palace of Augustus in the Farnese Gardens.
The theme carries on through the library, music room, down the grand staircase (not completed until 1922) onto the ground floor and into the so-called "Caesar's hall". On the departure of guests, it must sometimes have been a relief to vacate this temple of culture and retreat to the relatively simple comforts of the family pavilion.
Below the Rotunda is the Tetrastyle Hall, which was converted into a museum in 1927. The kitchen is an oblong shape with a balustraded gallery at one end. This links the room to other household offices on each side.
Also displayed in the house are many curiosities pertaining to George, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, who succeeded to the house in 1916 and who had earlier served as Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905. Lord Curzon had amassed a large collection of subcontinental and Far Eastern artefacts. Also shown is Lady Curzon's Delhi Durbar Coronation dress of 1903. Designed by Worth of Paris, it was known as the peacock dress for the many precious and semi-precious stones sewn into its fabric. These have now been replaced by imitation stones; however, the effect is no less dazzling.
In addition to that described above, this great country house contains collections of art, furniture and statuary. Kedleston Hall's alternative name, The Temple of the Arts, is truly justified.
Gardens and grounds
A sketch by Robert Adam for the Fishing Room and Boat House at Kedleston. Circa 1769
Fishing Room and Boat House built 1770-72
The gardens and grounds, as they appear today, are largely the concept of Robert Adam. Adam was asked by Nathaniel Curzon in 1758 to "take in hand the deer park and pleasure grounds". The landscape gardener William Emes had begun work at Kedleston in 1756, and he continued in Curzon's employ until 1760; however, it was Adam who was the guiding influence. It was during this period that the former gardens designed by Charles Bridgeman were swept away in favour of a more natural-looking landscape. Bridgeman's canals and geometric ponds were metamorphosed into serpentine lakes.
The Bridge by Robert Adam built 1770-71
Adam designed numerous temples and follies, many of which were never built. Those that were include the North lodge (which takes the form of a triumphal arch), the entrance lodges in the village, a bridge, cascade and the Fishing Room. The Fishing Room is one of the most noticeable of the park's buildings. In the neoclassical style it is sited on the edge of the upper lake and contains a plunge pool and boat house below. Some of Adam's unexecuted design for follies in the park rivalled in grandeur the house itself.
A "View Tower" designed in 1760 – 84 feet high and 50 feet wide on five floors, surmounted by a saucer dome flanked by the smaller domes of flanking towers — would have been a small neoclassical palace itself. Adam planned to transform even mundane utilitarian buildings into architectural wonders. A design for a pheasant house (a platform to provide a vantage point for the game shooting) became a domed temple, the roofs of its classical porticos providing the necessary platforms; this plan too was never completed. Among the statuary in the grounds is a Medici lion sculpture carved by Joseph Wilton on a pedestal designed by Samuel Wyatt, from around 1760–1770.[27][28]
In the 1770s, George Richardson designed the hexagonal summerhouse, and in 1800 the orangery. The Long Walk was laid out in 1760 and planted with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees. In 1763, it was reported that Lord Scarsdale had given his gardener a seed from rare and scarce Italian shrub, the "Rodo Dendrone" (sic).
The gardens and grounds today, over two hundred years later, remain mostly unaltered. Parts of the park are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, primarily because of the "rich and diverse deadwood invertebrate fauna" inhabiting its ancient trees.[29]
Later history
The Curzon family, whose name originates in Notre-Dame-de-Courson in Normandy, have been in Kedleston since at least 1297, and have lived in a succession of manor houses near to or on the site of the present Kedleston Hall. The present house was commissioned by Sir Nathaniel Curzon (later 1st Baron Scarsdale) in 1759. The house was designed by the Palladian architects James Paine and Matthew Brettingham and was loosely based on an original plan by Andrea Palladio for the never-built Villa Mocenigo.
At the time a relatively unknown architect, Robert Adam, was designing some garden temples to enhance the landscape of the park; Curzon was so impressed with his designs that Adam was quickly put in charge of the construction of the new mansion.
Second World War
In 1939, Kedleston Hall was offered by Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale, for use by the War Office.[30] The Hall was used in various ways during the War, including as a mustering point and army training camp.
It also formed one of the Y-stations used to gather signals intelligence by collecting radio transmissions which, if encrypted, were subsequently passed to Bletchley Park for decryption.[31]
National Trust
By the 1970s Kedleston Hall had become too expensive for the Curzon family to maintain. When Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale, died, his cousin Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale, offered the house, park and gardens to the nation in lieu of death duties. A deal was agreed with the National Trust that it should take over Kedleston, along with an endowment, while still allowing the family to live rent-free in the 23-room Family Wing, which contained an adjoining garden and two rent-free flats for servants or other family members.[22] Richard Curzon and his family currently reside there.
In 2020, the Trust was working on a plan to include coverage about the owners of its properties who had links to colonialism and slavery. That had included Kedelston Hall; although Lord George Nathaniel Curzon had no links to slavery, he was president of The National League for Opposing Women's Suffrage and worked to prevent giving women the right to vote. Visitors to the Hall will find a display in the Billiard Room[32] exploring his role in the Anti-Suffrage movement.[33][34][35]