I never expected this exercise to be so much fun. I particularly enjoy the element of surprise along the way: not knowing where it all is leading, but still having faith in that it will come together in the end. I laughed out loud when I discovered the route to the bird's left wing. It was so unexpected and wacky. I mean, birds don't flap their wings like this when they fly. I find the bird's flying style pretty hilarious, if I may say so myself. :D

We can regularly expect to see two of our four US Sapsuckers up here. The other one that is regular (if not common) is the Williamson's. The Red-breasted is primarily a West Coast bird, and the Yellow-bellied is mainly an Eastern bird... although Sapsucker vagrants may show up anywhere in North America. Our constructed bird oasis draws in nearly all of the avian population to be found in this area. This bird has stopped at our pond for a drink and has conveniently parked on one of my photo props. The small patch of white under her chin suggests her sex. She is clearly a first-year bird.

 

IMG_9173; Red-naped Sapsucker

i've been sensing a lot lately that i am in a photography rut with my images and what better time than today to make some resolutions to try to break out and move forward. so you may see me posting some things that are a little more erratic, experimental, etc. as i try for less perfectionism (ha, as if i'd ever come close) and less playing-it-safe. some of you may recognize it as just more of the same, me vacillating with no personal style but i'm not in this for business, just for fun and, as much as my nature allows, a creative outlet and so these are my excuses for being all over the place. one offshoot of this thinking is that I am not going to be reluctant to post some half-baked images, such as the one at hand. Happy New Year friends and Happy Sliders Sunday.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of Greek Antiquity artifacts worldwide. It is situated in the Exarcheia area in central Athens between Epirus Street, Bouboulinas Street and Tositsas Street while its entrance is on the Patission Street adjacent to the historical building of the Athens Polytechnic university.

 

History

The first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by the governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. Subsequently, the archaeological collection was relocated to a number of exhibition places until 1858, when an international architectural competition was announced for the location and the architectural design of the new museum.

 

The current location was proposed and the construction of the museum's building began in 1866 and was completed in 1889 using funds from the Greek Government, the Greek Archaeological Society and the society of Mycenae. Major benefactors were Eleni Tositsa who donated the land for the building of the museum, and Demetrios and Nikolaos Vernardakis from Saint Petersburg who donated a large amount for the completion of the museum.

 

The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum. It was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museum's curator.

 

During World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were again displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos and Semni Karouzou. The south wing of the museum houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the architectural designs of Patroklos Karantinos.

 

In 2023, the Greek government approved plans for a 20,000 square metre underground extension to the museum. The extension is expected to be completed by 2028 and will also feature a rooftop garden.

 

The building

The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was very popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was later modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos and Ernst Ziller. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures.

 

Expansions and renovations

The building has undergone many expansions. Most important were the construction of a new east wing in the early 20th century based on the plans of Anastasios Metaxas and the construction of a two-storeyed building, designed by George Nomikos, during 1932–1939. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the rapidly growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum took more than 1.5 years to complete, during which the museum remained completely closed. It reopened in July 2004, in time for the Athens Olympics and it included an aesthetic and technical upgrade of the building, installation of a modern air-conditioning system, reorganisation of the museum's collection and repair of the damage caused by the 1999 earthquake. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005. In May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos.

 

In 2020, there was renewed discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan was made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum.

 

In 2023, the Greek government approved plans for a 20,000 square metre underground extension to the museum. The extension is expected to be completed by 2028 and will also feature a rooftop garden.

 

Prehistoric collection

The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era (6800–3000 BC), Early and Mid-Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC and 2000 to 1700 BC respectively), objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art.

 

Mycenean art collection

Mycenean civilization is represented by stone, bronze and ceramic pots, figurines, ivory, glass and faience objects, golden seals and rings from the vaulted tombs in Mycenae and other locations in the Peloponnese (Tiryns and Dendra in Argolis, Pylos in Messinia and Vaphio in Lakonia). Of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull.

 

Heinrich Schliemann finds

Mycenean collection includes also the magnificent 19th-century finds of Heinrich Schliemann in Mycenae from the Grave Circle A and the earlier Grave Circle B. Most notable are the golden funerary masks which covered the faces of deceased Mycenean nobles. Among them, the most famous is the one that was named erroneously as the mask of Agamemnon. There are also finds from the citadel of Mycenae including relief stelae, golden containers, glass, alabaster and amber tools and jewels. Other features include an ivory carving of two goddesses with a child, a painted limestone head of a goddess and the famous warrior's vase dating from the 12th century.

 

Egyptian art collection

The Egyptian collection dates back to the last twenty years of the 19th century. Notable is the donation of the Egyptian government which in 1893 offered nine mummies of the era of the Pharaohs from Bab el-Gasus. However, the Egyptian collection is mainly by two donors, Ioannis Dimitriou (in 1880) and of Alexandros Rostovic (in 1904). In total the collection includes more than 6000 artefacts, 1100 of which are available presently for the public. The collection is considered to be one of the best collections of Egyptian art in the world. The exhibition features rare statues, tools, jewels, mummies, a wooden body tag for a mummy, a stunning bronze statue of a princess, intact bird eggs and a 3000-year-old loaf of bread with a bite-sized chunk missing. The exhibition centrepiece is a bronze statue of the princess-priestess Takushit, dating to around 670 BC. Standing 70 cm high and wearing a gown covered in hieroglyphs, the statue was found south of Alexandria in 1880.

 

Stathatos collection

The Stathatos collection is named for the donors and major Greek benefactors Antonis and Eleni Stathatos. The collection features about 1000 objects, mainly jewels as well as metal objects, vases, and pottery from the Middle Bronze Age to post-Byzantine era. Features of special note are the Hellenistic period golden jewels from Karpenissi and Thessaly.

 

Artists and artifacts

Some of the ancient artists whose work is presented in the museum are Myron, Scopas, Euthymides, Lydos, Agoracritus, Agasias, Pan Painter, Wedding Painter, Meleager Painter, Cimon of Cleonae, Nessos Painter, Damophon, Aison (vase painter), Analatos Painter, Polygnotos (vase painter), Hermonax.

 

Collections include sculpture work, Loutrophoros, amphora, Hydria, Skyphos, Krater, Pelike, and lekythos vessels, Stele, frescoes, jewellery, weapons, tools, coins, toys and other ancient items.

 

Artifacts derive from archaeological excavations in Santorini, Mycenae, Tiryns, Dodona, Vaphio, Rhamnous, Lycosura, Aegean islands, Delos, the Temple of Aphaea in Aegina, the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta, Pylos, Thebes, Athens, Vari Cave, the Antikythera wreck and from various other places in Greece.

 

The museum houses the archaic terracota statuette daidala that inspired the designers of the 2004 Athens Olympics maskots Athena and Phevos.

 

New exhibits

Two of the newest exhibits of the museum include a 4th-century BC golden funerary wreath and a 6th-century BC marble statue of a woman, which were returned as stolen artifacts to Greece in 2007 by the Getty Museum in California, after a 10-year-long legal dispute between the Getty Center and the Greek Government. One year earlier, the Los Angeles foundation agreed to return a 4th-century BC tombstone from near Greek Thebes and a 6th-century BC votive relief from the island of Thassos.

 

Museum highlights

Antikythera Ephebe

Antikythera mechanism

Aphrodite of Syracuse

Apollo Omphalos

Armed Aphrodite

Artemision Bronze

Atalante Hermes

Bronze Statuette of Athletic Spartan Girl

Bust of Antinous

Capitoline Venus

Daidala

Diadumenos

Dipylon inscription

Funerary naiskos of Aristonautes

Funerary Stela of Demokleides

Great Eleusinian Relief

Group of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros

Heracles of Antikythera

Hermes Criophorus

Hermes of Aegium

Jockey of Artemision

Kouroi and Korai:

Kroisos Kouros

Merenda Kouros

Phrasikleia Kore

Sounion Kouros

Lemnos stela

Lenormant Athena

Lycosoura Artemis

Lycosoura Demeter

Mantineia Base

Marathon Boy

Mask of Agamemnon

Mycenean Warrior Vase

Nestor's Cup

Nike of Epidaurus

Nike of Megara

Ninnion Tablet

Pitsa panels

Poseidon of Melos

Rhyton in the shape of a bull head

Theseus Ring

Varvakeion Athena

Wall frescoes from Tiryns and Santorini

 

Library of archaeology

The museum houses a 118-year-old library of archeology with rare ancient art, science and philosophy books and publications. The library has some 20,000 volumes, including rare editions dating to the 17th century. The bibliography covers archaeology, history, arts, ancient religions and ancient Greek philosophy, as well as Ancient Greek and Latin literature. Of particular value are the diaries of various excavations including those of Heinrich Schliemann. The collection of archaeology books is the richest of its kind in Greece. The Library has been recently renovated with funds from the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. Its renovation was completed on 26 May 2008 and is now named after Alexander Onassis.

 

Athens is a major coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, and it is both the capital and the largest city of Greece. With its urban area's population numbering over three million, it is also the eighth largest urban area in the European Union. Athens dominates and is the capital of the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. The city was named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom.

 

Classical Athens was one of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. It was a centre for democracy, the arts, education and philosophy, and was highly influential throughout the European continent, particularly in Ancient Rome. For this reason, it is often regarded as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy in its own right independently from the rest of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a huge cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece. In 2023, Athens metropolitan area and its surrounding municipalities (consisting the regional area of Attica) has a population of approximately 3.8 million.

 

Athens is a Beta-status global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and is one of the biggest economic centers in Southeastern Europe. It also has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the 2nd busiest passenger port in Europe, and the 13th largest container port in the world. The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire urban area, had a population of 643,452 (2021) within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi). The Athens metropolitan area or Greater Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits as well as its urban agglomeration, with a population of 3,638,281 (2021) over an area of 2,928.717 km2 (1,131 sq mi). Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland.

 

The heritage of the Classical Era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments, and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western culture. The city also retains Roman, Byzantine and a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban core features elements of continuity through its millennia of history. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the Architectural Trilogy of Athens, consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of five cities to have hosted the Summer Olympics on multiple occasions. Athens joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.

 

Etymology and names

In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι (Athênai, pronounced [atʰɛ̂ːnai̯] in Classical Attic), which is a plural word. In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη (Athḗnē). It was possibly rendered in the plural later on, like those of Θῆβαι (Thêbai) and Μυκῆναι (Μukênai). The root of the word is probably not of Greek or Indo-European origin, and is possibly a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica. In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron goddess Athena (Attic Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, Ionic Ἀθήνη, Athḗnē, and Doric Ἀθάνα, Athā́nā) or Athena took her name from the city. Modern scholars now generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city,[24] because the ending -ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.

 

According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, competed against Poseidon, the God of the Seas, for patronage of the yet-unnamed city; they agreed that whoever gave the Athenians the better gift would become their patron and appointed Cecrops, the king of Athens, as the judge. According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up. In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil's poem Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse. In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree. Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens. Eight different etymologies, now commonly rejected, have been proposed since the 17th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος (áthos) or ἄνθος (ánthos) meaning "flower", to denote Athens as the "flowering city". Ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- (tháō, thē-, "to suck") to denote Athens as having fertile soil. Athenians were called cicada-wearers (Ancient Greek: Τεττιγοφόροι) because they used to wear pins of golden cicadas. A symbol of being autochthonous (earth-born), because the legendary founder of Athens, Erechtheus was an autochthon or of being musicians, because the cicada is a "musician" insect. In classical literature, the city was sometimes referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindar's ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι (iostéphanoi Athânai), or as τὸ κλεινὸν ἄστυ (tò kleinòn ásty, "the glorious city").

 

During the medieval period, the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα. Variant names included Setines, Satine, and Astines, all derivations involving false splitting of prepositional phrases. King Alphonse X of Castile gives the pseudo-etymology 'the one without death/ignorance'. In Ottoman Turkish, it was called آتينا Ātīnā, and in modern Turkish, it is Atina.

 

History

Main article: History of Athens

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Athens.

Historical affiliations

Kingdom of Athens 1556 BC–1068 BC

City-state of Athens 1068 BC–322 BC

Hellenic League 338 BC–322 BC

Kingdom of Macedonia 322 BC–148 BC

Roman Republic 146 BC–27 BC

Roman Empire 27 BC–395 AD

Eastern Roman Empire 395–1205

Duchy of Athens 1205–1458

Ottoman Empire 1458–1822, 1827–1832

Greece 1822–1827, 1832–present

 

Antiquity

The oldest known human presence in Athens is the Cave of Schist, which has been dated to between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 5,000 years (3000 BC). By 1400 BC, the settlement had become an important centre of the Mycenaean civilization, and the Acropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress, whose remains can be recognised from sections of the characteristic Cyclopean walls. Unlike other Mycenaean centers, such as Mycenae and Pylos, it is not known whether Athens suffered destruction in about 1200 BC, an event often attributed to a Dorian invasion, and the Athenians always maintained that they were pure Ionians with no Dorian element. However, Athens, like many other Bronze Age settlements, went into economic decline for around 150 years afterwards. Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region.

 

By the sixth century BC, widespread social unrest led to the reforms of Solon. These would pave the way for the eventual introduction of democracy by Cleisthenes in 508 BC. Athens had by this time become a significant naval power with a large fleet, and helped the rebellion of the Ionian cities against Persian rule. In the ensuing Greco-Persian Wars Athens, together with Sparta, led the coalition of Greek states that would eventually repel the Persians, defeating them decisively at Marathon in 490 BC, and crucially at Salamis in 480 BC. However, this did not prevent Athens from being captured and sacked twice by the Persians within one year, after a heroic but ultimately failed resistance at Thermopylae by Spartans and other Greeks led by King Leonidas, after both Boeotia and Attica fell to the Persians.

 

The decades that followed became known as the Golden Age of Athenian democracy, during which time Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece, with its cultural achievements laying the foundations for Western civilization. The playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides flourished in Athens during this time, as did the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the physician Hippocrates, and the philosopher Socrates. Guided by Pericles, who promoted the arts and fostered democracy, Athens embarked on an ambitious building program that saw the construction of the Acropolis of Athens (including the Parthenon), as well as empire-building via the Delian League. Originally intended as an association of Greek city-states to continue the fight against the Persians, the league soon turned into a vehicle for Athens's own imperial ambitions. The resulting tensions brought about the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), in which Athens was defeated by its rival Sparta.

 

By the mid-4th century BC, the northern Greek kingdom of Macedon was becoming dominant in Athenian affairs. In 338 BC the armies of Philip II defeated an alliance of some of the Greek city-states including Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea. Later, under Rome, Athens was given the status of a free city because of its widely admired schools. In the second century AD, The Roman emperor Hadrian, himself an Athenian citizen, ordered the construction of a library, a gymnasium, an aqueduct which is still in use, several temples and sanctuaries, a bridge and financed the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

 

In the early 4th century AD, the Eastern Roman Empire began to be governed from Constantinople, and with the construction and expansion of the imperial city, many of Athens's works of art were taken by the emperors to adorn it. The Empire became Christianized, and the use of Latin declined in favour of exclusive use of Greek; in the Roman imperial period, both languages had been used. In the later Roman period, Athens was ruled by the emperors continuing until the 13th century, its citizens identifying themselves as citizens of the Roman Empire ("Rhomaioi"). The conversion of the empire from paganism to Christianity greatly affected Athens, resulting in reduced reverence for the city.[33] Ancient monuments such as the Parthenon, Erechtheion and the Hephaisteion (Theseion) were converted into churches. As the empire became increasingly anti-pagan, Athens became a provincial town and experienced fluctuating fortunes.

 

The city remained an important center of learning, especially of Neoplatonism—with notable pupils including Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea and emperor Julian (r. 355–363)—and consequently a center of paganism. Christian items do not appear in the archaeological record until the early 5th century. The sack of the city by the Herules in 267 and by the Visigoths under their king Alaric I (r. 395–410) in 396, however, dealt a heavy blow to the city's fabric and fortunes, and Athens was henceforth confined to a small fortified area that embraced a fraction of the ancient city. The emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) banned the teaching of philosophy by pagans in 529, an event whose impact on the city is much debated, but is generally taken to mark the end of the ancient history of Athens. Athens was sacked by the Slavs in 582, but remained in imperial hands thereafter, as highlighted by the visit of the emperor Constans II (r. 641–668) in 662/3 and its inclusion in the Theme of Hellas.

 

Middle Ages

The city was threatened by Saracen raids in the 8th–9th centuries—in 896, Athens was raided and possibly occupied for a short period, an event which left some archaeological remains and elements of Arabic ornamentation in contemporary buildings—but there is also evidence of a mosque existing in the city at the time. In the great dispute over Byzantine Iconoclasm, Athens is commonly held to have supported the iconophile position, chiefly due to the role played by Empress Irene of Athens in the ending of the first period of Iconoclasm at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. A few years later, another Athenian, Theophano, became empress as the wife of Staurakios (r. 811–812).

 

Invasion of the empire by the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, and the ensuing civil wars, largely passed the region by and Athens continued its provincial existence unharmed. When the Byzantine Empire was rescued by the resolute leadership of the three Komnenos emperors Alexios, John and Manuel, Attica and the rest of Greece prospered. Archaeological evidence tells us that the medieval town experienced a period of rapid and sustained growth, starting in the 11th century and continuing until the end of the 12th century.

 

The Agora (marketplace) had been deserted since late antiquity, began to be built over, and soon the town became an important centre for the production of soaps and dyes. The growth of the town attracted the Venetians, and various other traders who frequented the ports of the Aegean, to Athens. This interest in trade appears to have further increased the economic prosperity of the town.

 

The 11th and 12th centuries were the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Athens. Almost all of the most important Middle Byzantine churches in and around Athens were built during these two centuries, and this reflects the growth of the town in general. However, this medieval prosperity was not to last. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade conquered Athens and the city was not recovered from the Latins before it was taken by the Ottoman Turks. It did not become Greek in government again until the 19th century.

 

From 1204 until 1458, Athens was ruled by Latins in three separate periods, following the Crusades. The "Latins", or "Franks", were western Europeans and followers of the Latin Church brought to the Eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades. Along with rest of Byzantine Greece, Athens was part of the series of feudal fiefs, similar to the Crusader states established in Syria and on Cyprus after the First Crusade. This period is known as the Frankokratia.

 

Ottoman Athens

The first Ottoman attack on Athens, which involved a short-lived occupation of the town, came in 1397, under the Ottoman generals Yaqub Pasha and Timurtash. Finally, in 1458, Athens was captured by the Ottomans under the personal leadership of Sultan Mehmed II. As the Ottoman Sultan rode into the city, he was greatly struck by the beauty of its ancient monuments and issued a firman (imperial edict) forbidding their looting or destruction, on pain of death. The Parthenon was converted into the main mosque of the city.

 

Under Ottoman rule, Athens was denuded of any importance and its population severely declined, leaving it as a "small country town" (Franz Babinger). From the early 17th century, Athens came under the jurisdiction of the Kizlar Agha, the chief black eunuch of the Sultan's harem. The city had originally been granted by Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617) to Basilica, one of his favourite concubines, who hailed from the city, in response of complaints of maladministration by the local governors. After her death, Athens came under the purview of the Kizlar Agha.

 

The Turks began a practice of storing gunpowder and explosives in the Parthenon and Propylaea. In 1640, a lightning bolt struck the Propylaea, causing its destruction. In 1687, during the Morean War, the Acropolis was besieged by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini, and the temple of Athena Nike was dismantled by the Ottomans to fortify the Parthenon. A shot fired during the bombardment of the Acropolis caused a powder magazine in the Parthenon to explode (26 September), and the building was severely damaged, giving it largely the appearance it has today. The Venetian occupation of Athens lasted for six months, and both the Venetians and the Ottomans participated in the looting of the Parthenon. One of its western pediments was removed, causing even more damage to the structure. During the Venetian occupation, the two mosques of the city were converted into Catholic and Protestant churches, but on 9 April 1688 the Venetians abandoned Athens again to the Ottomans.

 

Modern history

In 1822, a Greek insurgency captured the city, but it fell to the Ottomans again in 1826 (though Acropolis held till June 1827). Again the ancient monuments suffered badly. The Ottoman forces remained in possession until March 1833, when they withdrew. At that time, the city (as throughout the Ottoman period) had a small population of an estimated 400 houses, mostly located around the Acropolis in the Plaka.

 

Following the Greek War of Independence and the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, Athens was chosen to replace Nafplio as the second capital of the newly independent Greek state in 1834, largely because of historical and sentimental reasons. At the time, after the extensive destruction it had suffered during the war of independence, it was reduced to a town of about 4,000 people (less than half its earlier population) in a loose swarm of houses along the foot of the Acropolis. The first King of Greece, Otto of Bavaria, commissioned the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert to design a modern city plan fit for the capital of a state.

 

The first modern city plan consisted of a triangle defined by the Acropolis, the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos and the new palace of the Bavarian king (now housing the Greek Parliament), so as to highlight the continuity between modern and ancient Athens. Neoclassicism, the international style of this epoch, was the architectural style through which Bavarian, French and Greek architects such as Hansen, Klenze, Boulanger or Kaftantzoglou designed the first important public buildings of the new capital. In 1896, Athens hosted the first modern Olympic Games. During the 1920s a number of Greek refugees, expelled from Asia Minor after the Greco-Turkish War and Greek genocide, swelled Athens's population; nevertheless it was most particularly following World War II, and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded, and Athens experienced a gradual expansion.

 

In the 1980s, it became evident that smog from factories and an ever-increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to congestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenge.[citation needed] A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the Attiki Odos motorway, the expansion of the Athens Metro, and the new Athens International Airport), considerably alleviated pollution and transformed Athens into a much more functional city. In 2004, Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics.

 

Geography

Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica that is often referred to as the Athens Basin or the Attica Basin (Greek: Λεκανοπέδιο Αθηνών/Αττικής). The basin is bounded by four large mountains: Mount Aigaleo to the west, Mount Parnitha to the north, Mount Pentelicus to the northeast and Mount Hymettus to the east. Beyond Mount Aegaleo lies the Thriasian plain, which forms an extension of the central plain to the west. The Saronic Gulf lies to the southwest. Mount Parnitha is the tallest of the four mountains (1,413 m (4,636 ft)), and has been declared a national park. The Athens urban area spreads over 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Agios Stefanos in the north to Varkiza in the south. The city is located in the north temperate zone, 38 degrees north of the equator.

 

Athens is built around a number of hills. Lycabettus is one of the tallest hills of the city proper and provides a view of the entire Attica Basin. The meteorology of Athens is deemed to be one of the most complex in the world because its mountains cause a temperature inversion phenomenon which, along with the Greek government's difficulties controlling industrial pollution, was responsible for the air pollution problems the city has faced. This issue is not unique to Athens; for instance, Los Angeles and Mexico City also suffer from similar atmospheric inversion problems.

 

The Cephissus river, the Ilisos and the Eridanos stream are the historical rivers of Athens.

 

Environment

By the late 1970s, the pollution of Athens had become so destructive that according to the then Greek Minister of Culture, Constantine Trypanis, "...the carved details on the five the caryatids of the Erechtheum had seriously degenerated, while the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side was all but obliterated." A series of measures taken by the authorities of the city throughout the 1990s resulted in the improvement of air quality; the appearance of smog (or nefos as the Athenians used to call it) has become less common.

 

Measures taken by the Greek authorities throughout the 1990s have improved the quality of air over the Attica Basin. Nevertheless, air pollution still remains an issue for Athens, particularly during the hottest summer days. In late June 2007, the Attica region experienced a number of brush fires, including a blaze that burned a significant portion of a large forested national park in Mount Parnitha, considered critical to maintaining a better air quality in Athens all year round. Damage to the park has led to worries over a stalling in the improvement of air quality in the city.

 

The major waste management efforts undertaken in the last decade (particularly the plant built on the small island of Psytalia) have greatly improved water quality in the Saronic Gulf, and the coastal waters of Athens are now accessible again to swimmers.

 

Parks and zoos

Parnitha National Park is punctuated by well-marked paths, gorges, springs, torrents and caves dotting the protected area. Hiking and mountain-biking in all four mountains are popular outdoor activities for residents of the city. The National Garden of Athens was completed in 1840 and is a green refuge of 15.5 hectares in the centre of the Greek capital. It is to be found between the Parliament and Zappeion buildings, the latter of which maintains its own garden of seven hectares. Parts of the City Centre have been redeveloped under a masterplan called the Unification of Archeological Sites of Athens, which has also gathered funding from the EU to help enhance the project. The landmark Dionysiou Areopagitou Street has been pedestrianised, forming a scenic route. The route starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, continues under the southern slopes of the Acropolis near Plaka, and finishes just beyond the Temple of Hephaestus in Thiseio. The route in its entirety provides visitors with views of the Parthenon and the Agora (the meeting point of ancient Athenians), away from the busy City Centre.

 

The hills of Athens also provide green space. Lycabettus, Philopappos hill and the area around it, including Pnyx and Ardettos hill, are planted with pines and other trees, with the character of a small forest rather than typical metropolitan parkland. Also to be found is the Pedion tou Areos (Field of Mars) of 27.7 hectares, near the National Archaeological Museum. Athens' largest zoo is the Attica Zoological Park, a 20-hectare (49-acre) private zoo located in the suburb of Spata. The zoo is home to around 2000 animals representing 400 species, and is open 365 days a year. Smaller zoos exist within public gardens or parks, such as the zoo within the National Garden of Athens.

 

Climate

Athens has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa). According to the meteorological station near the city center which is operated by the National Observatory of Athens, the downtown area has an annual average temperature of 19.2 °C (66.6 °F) while parts of the urban agglomeration may reach up to 19.8 °C (67.6 °F), being affected by the urban heat island effect. Athens receives about 433.1 millimetres (17.05 in) of precipitation per year, largely concentrated during the colder half of the year with the remaining rainfall falling sparsely, mainly during thunderstorms. Fog is rare in the city center, but somewhat more frequent in areas to the east, close to mount Hymettus.

 

The southern section of the Athens metropolitan area (i.e., Elliniko, Athens Riviera) lies in the transitional zone between Mediterranean (Csa) and hot semi-arid climate (BSh), with its port-city of Piraeus being the most extreme example, receiving just 331.9 millimetres (13.07 in) per year. The areas to the south generally see less extreme temperature variations as their climate is moderated by the Saronic gulf. The northern part of the city (i.e., Kifissia), owing to its higher elevation, features moderately lower temperatures and slightly increased precipitation year-round. The generally dry climate of the Athens basin compared to the precipitation amounts seen in a typical Mediterranean climate is due to the rain shadow effect caused by the Pindus mountain range and the Dirfys and Parnitha mountains, substantially drying the westerly and northerly winds respectively.

 

Snowfall is not very common, though it occurs almost annually, but it usually does not cause heavy disruption to daily life, in contrast to the northern parts of the city, where blizzards occur on a somewhat more regular basis. The most recent examples include the snowstorms of 16 February 2021 and 24 January 2022, when the entire urban area was blanketed in snow.

 

Athens may get particularly hot in the summer, owing partly to the strong urban heat island effect characterizing the city. In fact, Athens is considered to be the hottest city in mainland Europe, and is the first city in Europe to appoint a chief heat officer to deal with severe heat waves. Temperatures of 47.5°C have been reported in several locations of the metropolitan area, including within the urban agglomeration. Metropolitan Athens was until 2021 the holder of the World Meteorological Organization record for the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe with 48.0 °C (118.4 °F) which was recorded in the areas of Elefsina and Tatoi on 10 July 1977.

 

Administration

Athens became the capital of Greece in 1834, following Nafplion, which was the provisional capital from 1829. The municipality (City) of Athens is also the capital of the Attica region. The term Athens can refer either to the Municipality of Athens, to Greater Athens or urban area, or to the entire Athens Metropolitan Area.

 

The large City Centre (Greek: Κέντρο της Αθήνας) of the Greek capital falls directly within the Municipality of Athens or Athens Municipality (Greek: Δήμος Αθηναίων)—also City of Athens. Athens Municipality is the largest in population size in Greece. Piraeus also forms a significant city centre on its own within the Athens Urban Area and it is the second largest in population size within it.

 

Athens Urban Area

The Athens Urban Area (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Αθηνών), also known as Urban Area of the Capital (Greek: Πολεοδομικό Συγκρότημα Πρωτεύουσας) or Greater Athens (Greek: Ευρύτερη Αθήνα), today consists of 40 municipalities, 35 of which make up what was referred to as the former Athens Prefecture municipalities, located within 4 regional units (North Athens, West Athens, Central Athens, South Athens); and a further 5 municipalities, which make up the former Piraeus Prefecture municipalities, located within the regional unit of Piraeus as mentioned above.

 

The Athens Municipality forms the core and center of Greater Athens, which in its turn consists of the Athens Municipality and 40 more municipalities, divided in four regional units (Central, North, South and West Athens), accounting for 2,611,713 people (in 2021) within an area of 361 km2 (139 sq mi). Until 2010, which made up the abolished Athens Prefecture and the municipality of Piraeus, the historic Athenian port, with 4 other municipalities make up the regional unit of Piraeus. The regional units of Central Athens, North Athens, South Athens, West Athens and Piraeus with part of East and West Attica regional units combined make up the continuous Athens Urban Area, also called the "Urban Area of the Capital" or simply "Athens" (the most common use of the term), spanning over 412 km2 (159 sq mi), with a population of 3,059,764 people as of 2021. The Athens Urban Area is considered to form the city of Athens as a whole, despite its administrative divisions, which is the largest in Greece and the 9th most populated urban area in Europe.

 

Demographics

The Municipality of Athens has an official population of 643,452 people (in 2021). According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, The four regional units that make up what is referred to as Greater Athens have a combined population of 2,611,713 . They together with the regional unit of Piraeus (Greater Piraeus) make up the dense Athens Urban Area which reaches a total population of 3,059,764 inhabitants (in 2021).

 

The municipality (Center) of Athens is the most populous in Greece, with a population of 643,452 people (in 2021) and an area of 38.96 km2 (15.04 sq mi), forming the core of the Athens Urban Area within the Attica Basin. The incumbent Mayor of Athens is Kostas Bakoyannis of New Democracy. The municipality is divided into seven municipal districts which are mainly used for administrative purposes.

 

For the Athenians the most popular way of dividing the downtown is through its neighbourhoods such as Pagkrati, Ampelokipoi, Goudi, Exarcheia, Patisia, Ilisia, Petralona, Plaka, Anafiotika, Koukaki, Kolonaki and Kypseli, each with its own distinct history and characteristics.

 

Safety

Athens ranks in the lowest percentage for the risk on frequency and severity of terrorist attacks according to the EU Global Terrorism Database (EIU 2007–2016 calculations). The city also ranked 35th in Digital Security, 21st on Health Security, 29th on Infrastructure Security and 41st on Personal Security globally in a 2017 The Economist Intelligence Unit report. It also ranks as a very safe city (39th globally out of 162 cities overall) on the ranking of the safest and most dangerous countries. As May 2022 the crime index from Numbeo places Athens at 56.33 (moderate), while its safety index is at 43.68.Crime in Athens According to a Mercer 2019 Quality of Living Survey, Athens ranks 89th on the Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranking.

 

Economy

Athens is the financial capital of Greece. According to data from 2014, Athens as a metropolitan economic area produced US$130 billion as GDP in PPP, which consists of nearly half of the production for the whole country. Athens was ranked 102nd in that year's list of global economic metropolises, while GDP per capita for the same year was 32,000 US-dollars.

 

Athens is one of the major economic centres in south-eastern Europe and is considered a regional economic power. The port of Piraeus, where big investments by COSCO have already been delivered during the recent decade, the completion of the new Cargo Centre in Thriasion, the expansion of the Athens Metro and the Athens Tram, as well as the Hellenikon metropolitan park redevelopment in Elliniko and other urban projects, are the economic landmarks of the upcoming years.

 

Prominent Greek companies such as Hellas Sat, Hellenic Aerospace Industry, Mytilineos Holdings, Titan Cement, Hellenic Petroleum, Papadopoulos E.J., Folli Follie, Jumbo S.A., OPAP, and Cosmote have their headquarters in the metropolitan area of Athens. Multinational companies such as Ericsson, Sony, Siemens, Motorola, Samsung, Microsoft, Teleperformance, Novartis, Mondelez and Coca-Cola also have their regional research and development headquarters in the city.

 

The banking sector is represented by National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, Eurobank, and Piraeus Bank, while the Bank of Greece is also situated in the City Centre. The Athens Stock Exchange was severely hit by the Greek government-debt crisis and the decision of the government to proceed into capital controls during summer 2015. As a whole the economy of Athens and Greece was strongly affected, while data showed a change from long recession to growth of 1.4% from 2017 onwards.

 

Tourism is also a leading contributor to the economy of the city, as one of Europe's top destinations for city-break tourism, and also the gateway for excursions to both the islands and other parts of the mainland. Greece attracted 26.5 million visitors in 2015, 30.1 million visitors in 2017, and over 33 million in 2018, making Greece one of the most visited countries in Europe and the world, and contributing 18% to the country's GDP. Athens welcomed more than 5 million tourists in 2018, and 1.4 million were "city-breakers"; this was an increase by over a million city-breakers since 2013.

 

Tourism

Athens has been a destination for travellers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the city's infrastructure and social amenities have improved, in part because of its successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the EU, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, the expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway

 

Education

Located on Panepistimiou Street, the old campus of the University of Athens, the National Library, and the Athens Academy form the "Athens Trilogy" built in the mid-19th century. The largest and oldest university in Athens is the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Most of the functions of NKUA have been transferred to a campus in the eastern suburb of Zografou. The National Technical University of Athens is located on Patision Street.

 

The University of West Attica is the second largest university in Athens. The seat of the university is located in the western area of Athens, where the philosophers of Ancient Athens delivered lectures. All the activities of UNIWA are carried out in the modern infrastructure of the three University Campuses within the metropolitan region of Athens (Egaleo Park, Ancient Olive Groove and Athens), which offer modern teaching and research spaces, entertainment and support facilities for all students. Other universities that lie within Athens are the Athens University of Economics and Business, the Panteion University, the Agricultural University of Athens and the University of Piraeus.

 

There are overall ten state-supported Institutions of Higher (or Tertiary) education located in the Athens Urban Area, these are by chronological order: Athens School of Fine Arts (1837), National Technical University of Athens (1837), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1837), Agricultural University of Athens (1920), Athens University of Economics and Business (1920), Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (1927), University of Piraeus (1938), Harokopio University of Athens (1990), School of Pedagogical and Technological Education (2002), University of West Attica (2018). There are also several other private colleges, as they called formally in Greece, as the establishment of private universities is prohibited by the constitution. Many of them are accredited by a foreign state or university such as the American College of Greece and the Athens Campus of the University of Indianapolis.

 

Culture

The city is a world centre of archaeological research. Alongside national academic institutions, such as the Athens University and the Archaeological Society, it is home to multiple archaeological museums, taking in the National Archaeological Museum, the Cycladic Museum, the Epigraphic Museum, the Byzantine & Christian Museum, as well as museums at the ancient Agora, Acropolis, Kerameikos, and the Kerameikos Archaeological Museum. The city is also the setting for the Demokritos laboratory for Archaeometry, alongside regional and national archaeological authorities forming part of the Greek Department of Culture.

 

Athens hosts 17 Foreign Archaeological Institutes which promote and facilitate research by scholars from their home countries. As a result, Athens has more than a dozen archaeological libraries and three specialized archaeological laboratories, and is the venue of several hundred specialized lectures, conferences and seminars, as well as dozens of archaeological exhibitions each year. At any given time, hundreds of international scholars and researchers in all disciplines of archaeology are to be found in the city.

 

Athens' most important museums include:

 

the National Archaeological Museum, the largest archaeological museum in the country, and one of the most important internationally, as it contains a vast collection of antiquities. Its artefacts cover a period of more than 5,000 years, from late Neolithic Age to Roman Greece;

the Benaki Museum with its several branches for each of its collections including ancient, Byzantine, Ottoman-era, Chinese art and beyond;

the Byzantine and Christian Museum, one of the most important museums of Byzantine art;

the National Art Gallery, the nation's eponymous leading gallery, which reopened in 2021 after renovation;

the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2000 in a former brewery building;

the Numismatic Museum, housing a major collection of ancient and modern coins;

the Museum of Cycladic Art, home to an extensive collection of Cycladic art, including its famous figurines of white marble;

the New Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, and replacing the old museum on the Acropolis. The new museum has proved considerably popular; almost one million people visited during the summer period June–October 2009 alone. A number of smaller and privately owned museums focused on Greek culture and arts are also to be found.

the Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, a museum which displays artifacts from the burial site of Kerameikos. Much of the pottery and other artifacts relate to Athenian attitudes towards death and the afterlife, throughout many ages.

the Jewish Museum of Greece, a museum which describes the history and culture of the Greek Jewish community.

 

Architecture

Athens incorporates architectural styles ranging from Greco-Roman and Neoclassical to Modern. They are often to be found in the same areas, as Athens is not marked by a uniformity of architectural style. A visitor will quickly notice the absence of tall buildings: Athens has very strict height restriction laws in order to ensure the Acropolis Hill is visible throughout the city. Despite the variety in styles, there is evidence of continuity in elements of the architectural environment throughout the city's history.

 

For the greatest part of the 19th century Neoclassicism dominated Athens, as well as some deviations from it such as Eclecticism, especially in the early 20th century. Thus, the Old Royal Palace was the first important public building to be built, between 1836 and 1843. Later in the mid and late 19th century, Theophil Freiherr von Hansen and Ernst Ziller took part in the construction of many neoclassical buildings such as the Athens Academy and the Zappeion Hall. Ziller also designed many private mansions in the centre of Athens which gradually became public, usually through donations, such as Schliemann's Iliou Melathron.

 

Beginning in the 1920s, modern architecture including Bauhaus and Art Deco began to exert an influence on almost all Greek architects, and buildings both public and private were constructed in accordance with these styles. Localities with a great number of such buildings include Kolonaki, and some areas of the centre of the city; neighbourhoods developed in this period include Kypseli.

 

In the 1950s and 1960s during the extension and development of Athens, other modern movements such as the International style played an important role. The centre of Athens was largely rebuilt, leading to the demolition of a number of neoclassical buildings. The architects of this era employed materials such as glass, marble and aluminium, and many blended modern and classical elements. After World War II, internationally known architects to have designed and built in the city included Walter Gropius, with his design for the US Embassy, and, among others, Eero Saarinen, in his postwar design for the east terminal of the Ellinikon Airport.

 

Urban sculpture

Across the city numerous statues or busts are to be found. Apart from the neoclassicals by Leonidas Drosis at the Academy of Athens (Plato, Socrates, Apollo and Athena), others in notable categories include the statue of Theseus by Georgios Fytalis at Thiseion; depictions of philhellenes such as Lord Byron, George Canning, and William Gladstone; the equestrian statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis by Lazaros Sochos in front of the Old Parliament; statues of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Rigas Feraios and Adamantios Korais at the University; of Evangelos Zappas and Konstantinos Zappas at the Zappeion; Ioannis Varvakis at the National Garden; the" Woodbreaker" by Dimitrios Filippotis; the equestrian statue of Alexandros Papagos in the Papagou district; and various busts of fighters of Greek independence at the Pedion tou Areos. A significant landmark is also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma.

 

Entertainment and performing arts

Athens is home to 148 theatrical stages, more than any other city in the world, including the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, home to the Athens Festival, which runs from May to October each year. In addition to a large number of multiplexes, Athens plays host to open air garden cinemas. The city also supports music venues, including the Athens Concert Hall (Megaro Moussikis), which attracts world class artists. The Athens Planetarium, located in Andrea Syngrou Avenue, in Palaio Faliro is one of the largest and best equipped digital planetaria in the world. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, inaugurated in 2016, will house the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera. In 2018 Athens was designated as the World Book Capital by UNESCO.

 

Restaurants, tavernas and bars can be found in the entertainment hubs in Plaka and the Trigono areas of the historic centre, the inner suburbs of Gazi and Psyrri are especially busy with nightclubs and bars, while Kolonaki, Exarchia, Metaxourgeio, Koukaki and Pangrati offer more of a cafe and restaurant scene. The coastal suburbs of Microlimano, Alimos and Glyfada include many tavernas, beach bars and busy summer clubs.

 

The most successful songs during the period 1870–1930 were the Athenian serenades (Αθηναϊκές καντάδες), based on the Heptanesean kantádhes (καντάδες 'serenades'; sing.: καντάδα) and the songs performed on stage (επιθεωρησιακά τραγούδια 'theatrical revue songs') in revues, musical comedies, operettas and nocturnes that were dominating Athens' theatre scene.

 

In 1922, following the war, genocide and later population exchange suffered by the Greek population of Asia Minor, many ethnic Greeks fled to Athens. They settled in poor neighbourhoods and brought with them Rebetiko music, making it also popular in Greece, and which later became the base for the Laïko music. Other forms of song popular today in Greece are elafrolaika, entechno, dimotika, and skyladika. Greece's most notable, and internationally famous, composers of Greek song, mainly of the entechno form, are Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. Both composers have achieved fame abroad for their composition of film scores.

 

The renowned American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas spent her teenage years in Athens, where she settled in 1937. Her professional opera career started in 1940 in Athens, with the Greek National Opera. In 2018, the city's municipal Olympia Theatre was renamed to "Olympia City Music Theatre 'Maria Callas'" and in 2023, the Municipality inaugurated the Maria Callas Museum, housing it in a neoclassical building on 44 Mitropoleos street.

 

Sports

The Panathenaic Stadium of Athens (Kallimarmaron) dates back to the fourth century BC and has hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.

 

Agia Sophia Stadium

Athens has a long tradition in sports and sporting events, serving as home to the most important clubs in Greek sport and housing a large number of sports facilities. The city has also been host to sports events of international importance.

 

Athens has hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice, in 1896 and 2004. The 2004 Summer Olympics required the development of the Athens Olympic Stadium, which has since gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world, and one of its most interesting modern monuments. The biggest stadium in the country, it hosted two finals of the UEFA Champions League, in 1994 and 2007. Athens' other major stadiums are the Karaiskakis Stadium located in Piraeus, a sports and entertainment complex, host of the 1971 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final, and Agia Sophia Stadium located in Nea Filadelfeia.

 

Athens has hosted the EuroLeague final three times, the first in 1985 and second in 1993, both at the Peace and Friendship Stadium, most known as SEF, a large indoor arena, and the third time in 2007 at the Olympic Indoor Hall. Events in other sports such as athletics, volleyball, water polo etc., have been hosted in the capital's venues.

 

Athens is home to three European multi-sport clubs: Panathinaikos, originated in Athens city centre, Olympiacos, originated in the suburb of Piraeus and AEK Athens, originated in the suburb of Nea Filadelfeia. In football, Panathinaikos made it to the 1971 European Cup Final, Olympiacos have dominated domestic competitions, while AEK Athens is the other member of the big three. These clubs also have basketball teams; Panathinaikos and Olympiacos are among the top powers in European basketball, having won the Euroleague six times and three respectively, whilst AEK Athens was the first Greek team to win a European trophy in any team sport.

 

Other notable clubs within Athens are Athinaikos, Panionios, Atromitos, Apollon, Panellinios, Egaleo F.C., Ethnikos Piraeus, Maroussi BC and Peristeri B.C. Athenian clubs have also had domestic and international success in other sports.

 

The Athens area encompasses a variety of terrain, notably hills and mountains rising around the city, and the capital is the only major city in Europe to be bisected by a mountain range. Four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries and thousands of kilometres of trails criss-cross the city and neighbouring areas, providing exercise and wilderness access on foot and bike.

 

Beyond Athens and across the prefecture of Attica, outdoor activities include skiing, rock climbing, hang gliding and windsurfing. Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Athens Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

 

Athens was awarded the 2004 Summer Olympics on 5 September 1997 in Lausanne, Switzerland, after having lost a previous bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics, to Atlanta, United States. It was to be the second time Athens would host the games, following the inaugural event of 1896. After an unsuccessful bid in 1990, the 1997 bid was radically improved, including an appeal to Greece's Olympic history. In the last round of voting, Athens defeated Rome with 66 votes to 41. Prior to this round, the cities of Buenos Aires, Stockholm and Cape Town had been eliminated from competition, having received fewer votes. Although the heavy cost was criticized, estimated at $1.5 billion, Athens was transformed into a more functional city that enjoys modern technology both in transportation and in modern urban development. The games welcomed over 10,000 athletes from all 202 countries.

Apologies to those expecting a rare Japanese car tonight, due to time constraints today during a family outing I had to narrow my spotting right down to just Fulham.... fear not, I shall be spotting aforementioned car on the 26th (hopefully).

But anyway, this was a nice sight as it wasn't here when I last visited, some 2 years ago nearly! Interesting that it is a genuine UK car too, which you rarely come across now, the last few I have seen have been imports. Not the rarest Alfas, but I like them all the same. I swear I have come across a few which have been debadged too.

"It is only to be expected that a city as old as Seville, that at different times has had close connections with many other parts of the world, will have acquired its fair share of unusual objects. One such is the Lagarto, or lizard, actually a stuffed crocodile, which hangs from the ceiling in the corner of the Courtyard of the Oranges beside Seville Cathedral, and gives its name to the Gate of the Lizard, the old Moorish gate with the typical Visigothic horseshoe arch next to the Giralda Tower. Despite its size and location, it’s surprisingly easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. But when you do see it, the obvious question springs at once to the mind. “Why is there a crocodile just outside the Cathedral?” There is, of course, a story…

 

Once upon a time (in the Middle Ages) there was a king of Castile (the central region of Spain) called Alfonso X, also known as the Wise because of his love of learning, especially esoteric learning. His father, Ferdinand III, had conquered Seville from the Moors in 1248, and made it the capital of the kingdom, which Alfonso inherited in 1252.

 

Now, this being a once upon a time story, Alfonso had a beautiful daughter, named Berenguela. Actually, we don’t know if she was beautiful, but we do know she was illegitimate, so it’s as likely a reason as any for why the Emir of Egypt wished for her hand in marriage. To this end, the Emir sent a magnificent embassy to Seville with rich and exotic gifts for the king and princess. Among these gifts was a live crocodile, whose size astonished the Spanish. I’ve heard it said that the crocodile lived for many years and converted to Christianity, but a second version of the tale, that the crocodile languished in its captivity and shortly died, seems more likely. In either case, a wooden model of the beast was carved, and covered with its skin, and this was hung in the corner of the Courtyard of the Oranges, where it can still be seen today. And the Emir never got the girl.

Charming though the tale may be, there are those who see a deeper meaning in the crocodile. In ancient Egypt the crocodile God, whose name was Sobekh, was of great power, as a savant like Alfonso would certainly have known. He was important to the cycles of fertility and vegetation through his connection to the Nile, and devourer of the souls who failed to pass the judgement of Osiris after death. More importantly, he was able to protect against the evil eye, and the placing of a crocodile over the entrance to the cathedral was probably intended to help to keep the forces of evil at bay.

And there he has been ever since, through several earthquakes and the complete rebuilding of the cathedral in its modern form, a kitsch oddity and surprise for the eyes of children." by Peter Tatford

www.veoapartment.com/blog/seville-the-crocodile-in-the-ca...

Alex Ferreira, World Tour Final

Nice little photo shoot with some friends. Maternity shoot at Kings Park on a disappointingly cloudy golden hour. 17/1/2021 - Staggering beautiful sunset though.

what do you think I should call this shot? please post suggestions

First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and facility manager Judith Markelz, second left, greet volunteers preparing a meal at the Warrior and Family Support Center in San Antonio, Texas, April 13, 2011. The First Lady and Dr. Biden met with service members and their families during their visit to the facility, which helps care for family members of Wounded Warriors whose recovery is expected to last a long period of time. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

 

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

La naturaleza está ahí, sola, esperando ojos que la revelen,

corazones que la sientan. Desde sus montes o sus llanos,

desde sus bosques o sus praderas, la naturaleza es en principio

una expectativa, una oquedad para ser llenada, una propuesta

para el augurio.

 

Mario Benedetti

  

I opened the microwave to find the two air plants inside. It only took a moment to realize Joe was hiding them from Alby. Alby loves to take them off the shelf and use them as toys.

Polling Station sign, Percival Street, Islington, EC1. This wasn't the actual Polling Station for the London Assembly/London Mayoral elections but was attempting to tell the electorate where it was! Made me smile anyway.

Just wandering around the Telliskivi Creative City in Tallinn, Estonia. I was hunting for murals, street art and graffiti but then discovered this.

Expecting mother portraits

 

Find me on facebook @ Jeremy J. Saunders Photography

I expected this train to pass during the night or just after daybreak. After catching another train at ASB Junction, I rode over to the Neff bypass tracks and saw this train sitting there. After some other riding around, I noticed this train was gone, but it hadn't gotten far. This train had to stop in the West Bottoms for an eastbound stack to cross over in front of it. I knew I was not leaving this train, because the second unit is what I wanted to get. Add in the first unit being a rebuild in UP's new scheme, this was a must get. Westbound MASNP (129 cars) on the Metro Sub in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, MO. UP CW44ACM #9571 leads with KLWX (Knoxville Locomotive Works) AC44C6CF trailing. This is a former Norfolk Southern unit, originally built as NS CW40-9 #8946. This unit is the only C6F unit ever made. The idea was to add the new technology, but not remove the wide cab in the process. Since this is the only one ever built, needless to say that move was a flop.

I wasn't expecting the fog to be so thick or last so long when I planned a sunrise photoshoot. Two hours later it was starting to clear a bit, so I decided to fly the quadcopter to see what was visible. The fog bank was thicker than 100 m, but patches were clearing and I was able to grab a panorama of the old Walker Sawmill.

 

This whole area was open farmland at the turn of the twentieth century. Thin soil and poor farming practices had left much of it underutilized. James Walker was a Toronto lawyer who came to the area to ski in the 1930’s and took an interest in the abandoned farms in the area. He bought his first four acres on the 6th concession in 1934 for $350.00. When Walker returned home after the Second World War he started buying more properties in the area, eventually amassing 15 of them and 1,800 acres of land. He then began the process of planting forests on the property to help curb the erosion that was taking place.

 

James Walker turned his properties into a forest by planting over 2,500,000 trees eventually starting a nursery and planting over 300,000 of his own saplings. He planted both scotch and red pine as well as maple, beech, black walnut and oak trees. Many parts of the trails make their way through straight rows of trees and follow old logging roads. Eventually the forest was mature enough that James started to make a profit by selling Christmas Trees, fire wood, hardwood boards, cord wood and pulp wood. He build several structures for his venture that still remain in the forest including the drying shed where wood was left to dry and his own saw mill to cut the wood. Several other of Walkers buildings are in use by the Toronto Region Conservation Authority as equipment sheds and they stand just off the trail on a bit of property that is off limits to the public. The mill is interesting because it has a structure at the rear that resembles a grain elevator. It contains two bays that were fed by a single conveyor belt.

 

The elevator was likely used in the pulp wood side of the business. Trap doors on the bottom of each bay could be opened to allow the pulp wood to be dumped into trucks or trailers.

 

You can view a larger version of this panorama here:

www.360cities.net/image/aerial-view-of-historic-sawmill-c...

 

This 360° aerial panorama was stitched from 26 photographs with PTGUI Pro and touched up in Affinity Photo and Aperture.

 

Original size: 25000 × 12500 (312.5 MP; 582.97 MB).

 

Location: East Duffins Headwaters, Ontario, Canada

I've just about recovered from what turned out to be a rather gruelling day photting the Royal Ascot Ladies day coaches in an energy sapping 30 degrees heat! An amazing 225 coaches (including a few buses) arrived for the biggest day (Thursday 19th June 2025) at the Berkshire race course.

 

It's impossible to capture everything as there were 5 coach parking areas (#6, #8, #10N, #10S, #10E) in use today, although #6 now has very few visitors. Among those that caught my eye was a Van Hool Astrobel, a brand new Barnes Higer, a Volvo 9700 from Royal Motorways, and the unique in the UK King Long C9.

 

With Saturday expected to be even warmer, if you decide to visit the coach parks, then TAKE PLENTY OF WATER!!

It was a pleasant morning to fan in Derry, the weather being unusually decent for a December day. I had seen on heritageunits.com that the S&A was reported near Pitcairn sometime earlier in the morning, although I had no idea where if it was leading or even coming my way. I heard 36A calling signals east and thought, "Wouldn't that be something if the S&A was on that?"

Well, imagine my surprise when I see the train come around the corner in Derry and NS 1065 is on the point of the train. Lesson learned. Expect the unexpected in railfanning.

Maternity photos I took of my sister back in Sept. 2007.

I went to go and check on TimTam and the Tawny on the left had a glare ready as if it was trying to say "i've been expecting you Luke".

Nikon 1 V1

Carl Zeiss Makro-Planar T* 2/50 ZF

I never expected to see the Eurasian Stone-curlew (Triel / Burhinus oedicnemus) - or Thick-knee (which seems to be the official new English name for the bird) on Gran Canaria - but there it was, at Los Giles, just outside Las Palmas (Gran Canaria, Spain)

 

Canon 70D, Canon EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L USM IS.

 

You will find more photos of the same species in my Eurasian Stone-curlew set.

Sittingbourne is a large town up from Faversham on the A2, or the old high road.

 

Today it is post industrial, mostly, with a one way system and out of town big box stores.

 

I have seen little of worth in the town when we have passed through. So, Milton Regis was expected to be more of the same.

 

But the ancient borough is full of fine old timber-framed houses, narrow streets, but beyond them there are endless estates full of identical houses.

 

Holy Trinity sits the other side of a busy junction, at the end of a short lane, now used mostly by people visiting the large playing field so their dogs don't crap in their owner's back gardens.

 

Or so it seemed.

 

Urban churches are rarely open for causal visits, so it proved this time. The young folks paiting the parish offices didn't have a key for the church, so could not help.

 

So I made do with snapping the outside of the church and large collection of ancient gravestones, one I learn was connected to the Gunpowder Plot.

 

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The massive 14th century tower grabs attention immediately, but just by the door is a most mysterious headstone which commemorates a man killed by a rocket at an early Guy Fawke`s celebration. Inside, the south aisle is almost as wide as the nave and has a rare rood loft staircase that runs in the thickness of the wall rather than up a spiral staircase. There is little stained glass but the east window, by the firm of Ward and Hughes is rather a masterpiece, with most of the subjects being real portraits – especially the figures of St George and St Uriel. An inscription nearby tells the whole story. At the junction of nave and chancel is a rare benefactions board which is carved to look like a memorial – look out for Faith Hope and Charity. The medieval vestry at the north east corner has an original shuttered window – a rare survival indeed, whilst under the huge tower is a benefactions board recording gifts to dredgermen`s widows. Now you don’t find them very often!

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Milton+Regis

 

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MILTON,

OR, more properly, Middleton, lies the next parish north-westward from Sittingborne, last described, and seems to have taken its name from the Saxon Midletun, a name denoting its situation in the middle part of this county.

 

THE PARISH of Milton is most of it situated on low flat ground, and extends from the high London road as far as the waters of the Swale northward, adjoining to which, the marshes in this parish are both fresh and salt, of a very large extent. In the southern or upper part of the parish, next to the London road, is a small hamlet, called from the soil Chalkwell, in which there are two modern-built houses of the better sort, the lower most of which has a large tan-yard belonging to it; near it there rise some springs, which fill several large ponds, the reservoirs for a corn mill below them, after which they run along the east skirts of the town, which are a continued swamp of watry bogs, into the creek below. The town, antiently called the king's town of Milton, as being part of the antient possessions of the crown, is situated about half a mile from the high London road, at the eastern boundary of the parish, the greatest part of it on the knole of a hill, extending mostly down the east side of it to the head of the creek, which flows north-westward from hence, and at two miles distance, after several meandrings, joins the waters of the Swale. It has a very indifferent character for health, owing both to the badness of the water, and the gross unwholesome air to which it is subject from its watry situation; nor is it in any degree pleasant, the narrow streets, or rather lanes in it, being badly paved, and for the most part inhabited by seafaring persons, fishermen, and oyster-dredgers.

 

Its commodious situation for navigation near the Swale, to which the town then stood much nearer than it does at present, caused it to be frequented by the Danes, in their piratical excursions into this county, particularly in 893, these pirates, who had been ravaging. France and the Low Countries, being distressed for subsistence, turned their thoughts towards England, for the sake of plunder: for this purpose, with one of their fleets, they sailed up to Apledore, and with the other, consisting of about eighty ships, under the command of Hastings their captain, they entered the mouth of the river Thames, and landing in this parish built themselves a fortress or castle here. Asserius writes, anno 892, Hastengus fecit sibi firmissimum oppidum apud Middeltunam. Sax. Chron. anno 893, interpreted, Arcem extruxit. Simon Dunelm, coll. 151, H. Huntingdon, lib. 5, Florence of Worcester, p. 595, and Chron. Malros, Fecit munitionem. Spelman, in his Life of Alfred, says, Dani castra validis operibus communiunt. This fortress was erected at a place called Kemsleydowne, in the marshes, about midway between the town and the mouth of the creek, the scite of which is still visible, and being overgrown with wood and bushes, has obtained the name of Castberough. (fn. 1) It is of a square form, and is surrounded by a high bank thrown up, and a broad ditch. There is a raised causeway, very plainly to be seen, leading from it towards the seashore. From this fortress they not only made their excursions and plundered the neighbouring country, but secured themselves against such power as the king might send against them.

 

This town of Milton being part of the royal demesnes, was a cause of its being destroyed by earl Godwin, who being at variance with Edward the Consessor, came here, with a large force, in the year 1052, and burned this town, then of good condition, to the ground; and afterwards ransacked and spoiled many other of the king's estates throughout the county. After which it does not seem to have been ever restored to its former state.

 

Its condition in the reign of queen Elizabeth may be seen by the survey, made by her order in the 8th year of her reign; by which it appears, that there were then in this town, houses inhabited one hundred and thirty, persons lacking habitations six, landing-places four, one called Fluddmill keye, appertaining to Sir Henry Cheney; the second, Whitlock's key, now the Town key; the third, Reynolds's, now Page's key; and the fourth, Hamond key, appertaining to Thomas Hayward, now Huggins's key; ships and vessels twenty-six, of which twenty were under ten tons; the rest were of twelve, sixteen, and twenty tons; and persons occupied in trade and fishing twenty four.

 

Since which the town of Milton has considerably increased, as well in the number of its houses and inhabitants, as in its wealth and trade. The number of houses at present is about two hundred and thirty, which are supposed to contain about twelve hundred inhabitants.

 

The trade of it chiefly consists in the traffic carrying on weekly at the four wharfs in it, where the corn and commodities of the neighbouring country are shipped for London, and goods of every sort brought back again in return; and in the fishery for oysters, a further account of which will be given hereafter. Besides which, the several mills here do not contribute a little to the benefit of this place; four of these are employed in the grinding of corn, and dressing it into flour; and the fifth, called Perrywinckle mill, was some few years ago applied to the manufacturing of pearl-barley, which used to be imported from Holland; and it was supposed to be the only mill in the kingdom where that article was brought to the same perfection as in Holland, but this manufacture for want of due encouragement has been since discontinued.

 

The town of Milton is governed by a a portreve, who is chosen annually on St. James's day, by the inhabitants of the parish paying church and poor's rates; whose office is, to oversee the market, and preserve good order within the town, and to execute the office of clerk of the market in all matters, within the hundreds of Milton and Marden; he likewise sets the price of all things which come to the keys, or any other creek within the hundred, being such things as head officers in other towns may set the prices on

 

The market, which is a very plentiful one for all sorts of butchers meat, poultry, &c. is held on a Saturday weekly, at the shambles, in the center of the town. Adjoining to them is the market-house, having a clock, and a bell, which is rung not only for the purpose of the market, but for the calling of the parshioners to church, for funerals, and for occasional parish meetings. At a small distance northward from the shambles is a king of court-house, being a very low old-timbered tenement, where the courts of the manor are kept, and other meetings held; at other times it is made use of as the school house; underneath it is the town prison.

 

The school is endowed with the annual sum of nine pounds, an account of which may be seen hereafter, among the charitable benefactions to this parish. The master is appointed by the minister and churchwardens. Nine or ten poor boys are taught to read and write in it.

 

There is a fair, which used to be held on the feast of St. Margaret, July 13, now, by the alteration of the stile, on the 24th of that month, and the two following days.

 

The lands in this parish, near the town, and especially on the lower or northern part of it, are very rich and sertile. Adjoining to these are the marshes, which extend to the waters of the Swale. Below the hill westward there is another streamlet, which having turned a mill near the vicarage, runs on not far distant from the church, and court-lodge, situated about half a mile northward below the present town, near which the former one destroyed by Earl Godwin is supposed to have once stood.

 

In the north-west part of this parish, among the marshes, there is a decoy for wild fowl, the only one, that I know of, in this part of the county. The fowl caught in it, are much esteemed for their size and flavor. Great numbers of them are weekly taken and sent up to London.

 

In this parish, at a small distance northward from Bobbing-place, is a farm called the Quintin farm, which shews that diversion to have been formerly used in it. (fn. 2)

 

THE FISHERY belonging to the manor and hundred of Milton is of very considerable account. It seems to have been granted by king John, by his charter, in his 7th year, to the abbot and convent of Faversham, by the description of the fisheries of Milton, which the men of Seasalter then held by the yearly rent of twenty shillings, payable at his manor of Milton, and by doing therefrom the customs and service which were wont to be to it.

 

King Edward III. in his 4th year, confirmed this grant, as did king Henry VI. and this fishery remained part of the possessions of the abbey till its dissolution, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered up into the king's hands, together with all its possessions.

 

After which, the fee simple of this fishery remained with the manor in the hands of the crown, till the 10th year of king Charles I. when it was passed away, with it, by the words recited in the grant then made of the manor, to Sir Ed. Browne and Christ. Favell, as will be more fully mentioned below; after which, James Herbert, esq. coming into the possession of it, by the settlement of it from his father Philip, earl of Pembroke, he in the 26th year of king Charles II. obtained a fresh grant of this fishery, against which there was a quo warranto brought in the reign of queen Anne, on a petition of the fishermen of Rochester and Stroud, to shew by what authority they, the grantees, kept courts within their manor of Milton, and restrained the fishermen of those and the adjacent towns, from fishing and dredging for oysters within this hundred and manor: but on a trial had at bar, a verdict was given in his favor. Since which it has continued down, in like manner as the manor of Milton, to the right hon. Philip, viscount Wenman, and Mrs. Anne Herbert, who are at this time proprietors of this fishery, together with the manor.

 

The company of Fishermen, or Dredgers, of this fishery, hold it by lease from the owners of the manor, at the yearly rent of one hundred pounds and four bushels of oysters. They are governed by their particular officers, under certain rules or bye-laws, made by antient custom at the court baron of the manor. There are now about one hundred and forty freemen belonging to it.

 

The oysters produced from these grounds, within the limits of this fishery, are usually called Milton Natives, and are esteemed the finest and richest flavored of any in Europe. They are supposed to be the same that Juvenal particularly describes, in his fourth satire, as being reckoned a delicacy even in his time, in these words, satire iv. l. 144:

 

— Rutupinove edita fundo Ostrea, callebat primo deprendere morsu.

 

The sum usually returned for these oysters is from 3000l. to 7000l. per annum. The Dutch have been supposed by many, to have engrossed this article of luxury; but they expend but a very small part of the above sums, and sometimes none, for the space of seven years together.

 

IN THE WESTERN PART of this parish there are several hundred acres of coppice-wood, which are adjoining to a much larger tract of the like sort, extending southward almost as far as Binbury pound, on the west side of Stockbury-valley, for the space of near five miles. These woods, especially those in and near this parish, are noted for the great plenty of chesnut stubs interspersed promiscuously throughout them, which, from the quick and strait growth of this king of wood, makes them very valuable. These are so numerous in them, as to give name to most of these woods near Milton, which, besides their particular names to each of them, are usually called by the general name of Chesnut-woods. And in the presentment made of the customs of the manor of Milton in 1575, it is mentioned, that the occupiers of the three mills holden of the manor should gather yearly for the lord of it nine bushels of chestenottes, in Chestnott wood, or pay eighteen-pence by the year to the queen, who then had the manor in her own hands, and was possessed of three hundred acres of chesnut wood within this hundred.

 

¶These chesnuts are undoubtedly the indigenuous growth of Britain, planted by the hand of nature. They are interspersed throughout the whole tract, without any form or regularity, and are many of them, by their appearance, of great age; and by numbers of them, which now seem almost worn out and perishing, being made use of as the termini or boundaries, as well of private property as of parishes, it is plain they were first pitched upon, in preference to others, for that purpose, as being the largest and most antient ones of any then existing; and as these are hardly ever cut down or altered, they must have stood sacred to this use from the first introduction of private property into this kingdom, and the first division of it into parishes. Four letters were printed in 1771, after having been read before the Royal Society, two of which were written by Dr. Ducarel, and the other two by Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Hasted, to prove that chesnut-trees were the indigenous growth of this kingdom, in answer to an idea of the hon. Daines Barrington, who had a wish to establish a contrary opinion.

 

DR. PLOT says, that Herba Britannica, which Twyne and Johnson think to be bistort, Trisolium acetosum, or Oxys; Empetron, quæ est petrafindula Britanniæ prope peculiaris, and Crocus, were found at Milton by Scribonius Largus, when he came into Britain with the emperor Claudius. And he further says, that Crocus sativus, saffron, was heretofore sown and gathered (as now at Walden, in Essex) at Milton, and quotes for his authority, a manuscript rental of the manor of Milton, in the library of Christ-church, Canterbury.

 

MILTON is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sittingborne.

 

The church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It is a large handsome building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, the southernmost of which belongs to the manor of Northwood. It has a well built tower at the west end, in which are five bells. In this church, among others, were formerly the arms of Barry, Diggs, Finch, of the Five Ports, of Norwood and Norton, with their several crests, trophies, and banners; of Marten quartering Boteler; one coat, Barry, argent and azure, on a canton of the first, a bird of the second; Argent, three bends azure, within a bordure, eight mullets; Gules, a fess or, between three mullets, argent; and in one of the windows, a man kneeling, with a coat of arms, Six lions rampant, three and three, and underneath, Orate paia Guliel Savage Armigi.

 

Mauricius ap John, rector of St. George's, in Exeter, was buried in the choir of this church, as appears by his will, anno 1499.

 

In the year 1070, being the 5th year of his reign, William the Conqueror gave to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, the church of Middelton, and the tenths of all the products accruing from that manor, and the tenths of all its appurtenances, of the land, wood, meadows, and water, excepting the tenths of honey, and rent paid in money. (fn. 12)

 

Pope Lucius XI. in 1144, at the petition of abbot Hugh de Trottesclive, confirmed the annual pension of ten marcs from this church to that abbey.

 

In 1168, the conventual church of St. Augustine was the greatest part of it burnt; on which account this church was allotted to the sacristy there, for the repair of it. (fn. 13) But they did not keep it long, for in 1178, at the king's instance, they gave it up, and lost all property both in the church, and the advowson of it. A composition was entered into between the archbishop and the abbot in 1182, concerning the privileges and exemptions of the latter; when it was agreed, that the archdeacon, or his official, should receive his accustomed dues and procurations from the churches of St. Augustine, excepting those of Minster, Northborne, and Chistelet, and from this church likewise, when the monks should again get possession of the appropriation of it.

 

Four years after which, the abbot demised to the prioress of St. Sexburg of Shepey, the tiches which his monastery possessed, in right of this church, in Bobbing, at the yearly rent of ten shillings, on condition that all housekeepers, which should be on the estates from which they arose, should yearly repair to this the mother church, with their oblations, on Christmas-day, the Purification, and Easter day. And in 1188, the abbot demised to the prioress there, the tenths of Westlonde, within her parish, for the rent of fourteen shillings, payable yearly to the sacrist of St. Augustine.

 

About the year 1198, the abbot and convent recovered this church, which was then become vacant by the death of one Franco, the person to whom they had given it up, at the instance of king Henry. But they had kept it but a small time, before the archbishop disturbed them in their possession of it. However, by the mediation of mutual friends, and at the king's request, that he would not molest them in their appropriation of it; he out of respect to the king, ratified this church to them, to be possessed by them for ever. (fn. 14)

 

There was a pension of forty shillings payably yearly from this church, with the chapel belonging to it, to the above monastery, which, with the other pensions from their several churches, was given up by agreement in 1242, for a compensation out of the profits of the church of Preston.

 

The abbot and convent, among the extensive privileges from the papal see, had obtained an exemption from all archiepiscopal authority, and about the year 1295 made an institution of several new deanries, and apportioned the several churches belonging to his monastery, to each of them, according to their vicinity; one of these was the deanry of Lenham, in which this church was included. This raised great contests with the several archbishops, and after more than five years altercation, the abbot was stripped of these exemptions, and was declared, by the pope's bull, to be subject to the archbishop's jurisdiction, in like manner as before; which entirely dissolved these new deanries, and that of Lenham among them. (fn. 15)

 

Notwithstanding the abbot and convent seem to have held the appropriation of this church almost from held the appropriation of this church almost from the first grant of it, and though there had been vicars instituted to it long before this time, for Robert de Wikes, who stiles himself vicar of Middelton, by his deed in 1247, granted seven deywerks of land, with the houses built on it, for the habitation of the vicar of Middelton, for the time being; and the abbot and convent had in 1286, assigned a portion for the maintenance of the vicar here; yet there does not appear to have been any regular endowment of a vicarage to it, till the reign of king Edward III. when archbishop Stratford, in 1345, anno 20 Edward III. by his instrument, decreed, that the vicar of the church of Middelton, and his successors, should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden adjoining to it, together with one acre of the glebe of the same; and that he should have, in the name of the vicarage, all manner of oblations in the church of Middelton, and in all places, situated within the bounds and limits or titheable places of it; and that they should have in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of sylva cædua, wool, lambs, calves, pigs, ducks, geese, swans, pidgeons, cheese, milk-meats, herbage, apples, pears, and other fruit, growing in gardens and orchards, pulse, flax, hemp, eggs, rushes, merchandizes, and of all mills built, or which might in future be built, within the bounds and limits or titheable places of the church, and all other small tithes whatsoever belonging to it, and all legacies left in future to it, which the rectors or vicars of it might of right or custom take; also, that the vicars, in right of the vicarage, should have of the religious, the annual pension of 4s. (fn. 16) sterling, one seam or quarter of corn, and three quarters or seams of barley, on the feast of St. Michael, at Middelton, by them to be yearly paid, on pain of the sequestration of the fruits and profits of the church, belonging to the religious, to be laid on as often and whenever they should cease in the payment of the pension or barley, or should not pay either of them in the time above-mentioned.

 

But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving by themselves, or some other fit priest, the church in divine services, in the finding of one lamp, to burn before the altar of St. Mary there, and the ministering of bread, wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary for the celebration of divine rights in the church. The burthen likewise of the payment of tenths and other impositions, whenever they might be imposed on the English church, or incumbent on the church, for the taxation of twelve marcs, beyond the burthens allotted to the religious underneath, they should undergo at their own costs and expences.

 

But the burthen of the reparation and rebuilding of the chancel of the church, both within and without, and also the finding and repairing of books and vestments, and ornaments of the church, which were wont or ought of right or custom, to be found and repaired by the rectors of churches, and all other burthens, ordinary and extraordinary, incumbent on the church, the religious should undergo and acknowledge for ever, &c. (fn. 17)

 

The church and vicarage, after this, remained part of the possessions of the monastery, till the final dissolution of it, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was, with all its revenues, surrendered up into the king's hands, who by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, settled both the appropriation of this church, and the advowson of the vicarage, among other premises, on his new-founded dean and chapter of Christchurch, Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of the parsonage still remains, the interest in the lease of it being now in the heirs of John Cockin Sole, esq. deceased, but the advowson of the vicarage the dean and chapter retain in their own hands, and are the present patrons of it.

 

The vicarage of Milton is valued in the king's books at 13l. 2s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 1l. 6s. 3d.

 

¶In 1578, there were here, dwelling-houses on hundred and eight, communicants three hundred and seventy-four. In 1640 this vicarage was valued at eighty pounds. Communicants five hundred and twenty-nine.

 

The antient annual pension of four shillings, one quarter of wheat, and three quarters of barley, stipulated to be paid by the religious as before-mentioned, still continues to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage, by the covenants of his lease.

 

The agreement made between the prior of the brethren of the hospital of St. John of Jersalem and the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, about king Henry the IId.'s reign, that whenever their chapel of Rodmersham should be dedicated, and the cemetery consecrated, they would diminish by it none of the mother church of Middleton's rights; has already been more fully mentioned in the account of that parish before. (fn. 18)

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol6/pp163-192

At Anvers metro station entrance

Another alt... I was just testing this lens + tc setup, I didn't expect to actually like any of these.

Tokina at-x 80-200 f/2.8 + kenko 2x teleconverter + nikon 1 j5

Wiki - The Battle of Barrington was an intense and deadly gunfight between federal agents and notorious Great Depression Era gangster, Baby Face Nelson, that took place on November 27, 1934 in the town of Barrington, outside Chicago, Illinois. It resulted in the deaths of Nelson, Federal Agent Herman "Ed" Hollis and Agent/Inspector Samuel P. Cowley.

 

With the death of "Public Enemy Number One" John Dillinger in July 1934, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, known at the time as the Division of Investigation, focused on eliminating what remained of the notorious Dillinger Gang. Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, whom newspapers of the era dubbed "Dillinger's aid", had managed to elude the federal dragnet. By late November 1934, the new Public Enemy Number One was hid out in the isolated piney woods of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Bolstered by his new found status, the diminutive Nelson bragged he would rob, "...a bank a day for a month."

 

On the morning of November 27, Nelson, sporting a thin mustache on his youthful face, Helen Gillis (Nelson's loyal wife), and John Paul Chase, Nelson's trusted right-hand man, departed Lake Geneva and traveled south, toward Chicago, on U.S. Route 12 (now U.S. 14). Nelson planned to meet two underworld figures in Chicago and had reasoned daylight the safer time to travel as agents would expect an evening departure.

 

Near the village of Fox River Grove, Illinois, Nelson observed a vehicle driven in the opposite direction. Inside the car were federal agents Thomas McDade and William Ryan. McDade and Ryan were traveling to Lake Geneva to support a fellow agent who had relayed an encounter with Nelson. The agents and the gangster recognized each other simultaneously and after several U-turns by the agents and by Nelson, Nelson wound up in pursuit of the federal car.

 

As Nelson's powerful V-8 Ford, driven by Helen Gillis, caught up to the weaker federal sedan, Nelson and Chase opened fire on the agents. Incredibly, McDade and Ryan were not killed or injured. The agents returned fire, sped ahead and ran off the highway. Taking defensive positions, McDade and Ryan awaited Nelson and Chase. The agents, however, were unaware a round fired by Ryan had punctured the water pump and or the radiator of Nelson's Ford. With his Ford rapidly losing power, Nelson was now pursued by a Hudson automobile driven by two more agents: Herman Hollis and Samuel P. Cowley.

 

A plaque at the Barrington Park District in Barrington, Illinois commemorates the site of the Battle of Barrington, a 1934 shootout that claimed the lives of two FBI agents and resulted in the death of notorious Chicago gangster Baby Face Nelson.

 

With his new pursuers attempting to pull alongside, Nelson instructed Helen Gillis to steer into the entrance of Barrington's Northside Park, just across the line from Fox River Grove, and stop. Hollis and Cowley overshot Nelson's Ford by over 100 feet (30 m). With their car stopped at an angle, Hollis and Cowley exited, took defensive positions behind the vehicle and, as Helen Gillis fled toward a drainage ditch, opened fire on Nelson and Chase.

 

Within seconds of the gun battle starting, a round from Cowley's Thompson submachine-gun struck Nelson above his belt line. The .45 caliber bullet tore through Nelson's liver and pancreas and exited from his lower back. Nelson grasped his side and leaned on the Ford's running board. Chase, in the meantime, continued to fire from behind the car. When Nelson regained himself, he suddenly stepped into the line of fire and advanced toward Cowley and Hollis. Cowley was hit by a burst from Nelson's machine gun, after retreating to a nearby ditch. Pellets from Hollis' shotgun struck Nelson in the legs and momentarily downed him. Hollis, possibly already wounded, retreated behind a utility pole. With his shotgun empty, Hollis drew his service revolver only to be struck by a bullet to the head from Nelson's gun. Hollis slid against the pole and fell face down. Nelson stood over Hollis for a moment then limped toward the agents' bullet-riddled car. Nelson backed the agents' car over to the Ford, and, with Chase's help, loaded the agents' vehicle with guns and ammo from the disabled Ford. After the weapon's transfer, Nelson, too badly wounded to drive, collapsed into the Hudson. Chase got behind the wheel and, along with Helen Gillis and the mortally wounded Nelson, fled the scene.

 

Nelson had been shot a total of nine times; a single (and ultimately fatal) machine gun slug had struck his abdomen and eight of Hollis's shotgun pellets had hit his legs. After telling his wife "I'm done for", Nelson gave directions as Chase drove them to a safe house on Walnut Street in Wilmette. Nelson died in bed there, with his wife at his side, at 7:35 that evening. Hollis, with massive head wounds, was declared dead soon after arriving at the hospital. At a different hospital, Cowley hung on long enough to confer briefly with Melvin Purvis, telling him, "Nothing would bring [Nelson] down." He underwent unsuccessful surgery before succumbing to a stomach wound similar to Nelson's.

 

Following an anonymous telephone tip, Nelson's body was discovered wrapped in a Native American patterned blanket in front of St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery in Skokie, which still exists today. Helen Gillis later stated that she had placed the blanket around Nelson's body because, "He always hated being cold..."

Newspapers reported, based on the questionable wording of an order from J. Edgar Hoover ("...find the woman and give her no quarter"), that the Bureau of Investigation had issued a "death order" for Nelson's young widow, who wandered the streets of Chicago as a fugitive for several days, described in print as America's first female "public enemy". After surrendering on Thanksgiving Day, Helen Gillis, who had been paroled after capture at Little Bohemia Lodge, served a year in prison for harboring her late husband and died in 1987. Chase was apprehended later and served a term at Alcatraz and died in 1973. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIo-GKSEG2g

I was pleased with these finds (together). However, I was not expecting the grey Toyota Corolla (saloon!) to be there, that has only recently appeared. I've driven past this parking area a few times recently but haven't had the chance to stop and snap. Parked next to the white Micra usually, is a white F reg Mazda 323. Obviously I didn't see it there today, but hopefully I'll get photographs of all three together if I can, or just the Micra and 323 like I was intending.

 

The vehicle details for F842 JAA are:

Date of Liability 01 09 2013

Date of First Registration 07 09 1988

Year of Manufacture 1988

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 988cc

CO2 Emissions Not Available

Fuel Type PETROL

Export Marker N

Vehicle Status Licence Not Due

Vehicle Colour WHITE

 

The vehicle details for H825 OKG are:

Date of Liability 01 01 2014

Date of First Registration 15 01 1991

Year of Manufacture 1991

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1295cc

CO2 Emissions Not Available

Fuel Type PETROL

Export Marker N

Vehicle Status SORN Not Due

Vehicle Colour GREY

Well - I wasnt expecting this aparition! Green Line liveried Leyland RTL1323 (MLL685) on the run near Laindon on 19/5/68. The RTL class (although some were tried in Country Livery for a short time) NEVER ran in Green Line livery so what on earth possessed the owner to 'preserve' the bus as such - one wonders!

Walked past this cool couple hanging out in front of their house every night we headed out for dinner.

 

It's a bit noisy since it's heavily cropped – I shot from the hip on a whim while passing without stopping and composing (not really advisable), but I really like the mood and their faces.

SL House & Garden Xmas Market OPEN NOW !

 

Visitors to the SL House & Garden Sim can expect to see a venue dedicated to everything home, furniture, garden and decor.

There will be a fantastic array of shops featuring the very best home and decor creators from accross the grid.

There is more 'showcase rooms' featuring home and decor creators each offering an exclusive item for visitors to the sim, as well as a room for interior designers and bloggers each demonstrating different ways of creating a look for your home.

There is also a new texture trend showroom.....a first for SL! This showroom displays some amazing and unique textures and shows you how to work textures together. Visitors will also have a relaxing gallery and cafe to enjoy which features home decor and garden photography of group members. There is also a terrific display of the winners of the SL House & Garden Group monthly photography competition.

 

SL House & Garden is an Jennaa Loire project, and more info can be found here >> slhousegarden.blogspot.com/

 

Visit SL House & Garden Centre >> slurl.com/secondlife/Mystical%20Beach/71/121/22/

Visit the UrbanizeD store >> slurl.com/secondlife/Mystical%20Beach/57/216/29/

 

For info about the group, sim & stores >> Jennaa Loire

For info about sim designs & custom builds >> Pitsch Parx

 

Texture layers on picture by Distressed from "Treasured" and "Dreaming in Spring" set.

More textures can be found here >> www.wix.com/distressedjewell/distressed-textures

    

acn4173 7841,10/12/2022

Brockdish is one of three parish churches within about a mile that can be seen from the A143, but only the top of the tower is visible when heading north, and only fleetingly. THe only other clue is the truncated Church Lane which cuts across the main road, the name of which indicates the nearby church.

 

I came here at about eleven in the morning, having visited Oulton in Suffolk earlier, and wasn't expecting to find it open to be honest. But I heard the bells being rung, or at least pealing in intermittent intervals, the reason being some people were being given lessons.

 

Three cars were parked in the lane beside the church, which you reach by traveling up a green lane north out of the village before taking the track to the church.

 

The door to the tower, where the bellringers were being taught was ajar, and I could have gone up, but instead I go to the porch to try the door, and finding it open, I go inside lest someone comes and closes it.

 

Soon I am joined inside by the warden who is surprised, but pleased, to find a visitor: she is there to make teas for the ringers, and would I like one?

 

My breath had already been taken away by the tiles in the chancel, which are of exceptional quality. Tiles are something easily overlooked, and indeed many were clearly bought from catalogues, and so many are similar, but when more attention to detail was given, when extra quality was installed, it shines through.

 

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

 

When I first visited this church in 2005, it was with something of a sinking heart to arrive at the third church in a row that was locked without a keyholder notice. Today, nothing could be further from the truth. In the south porch there is a large notice now which reads Come in and enjoy your church! Fabulous stuff.

The trim graveyard includes some substantial memorials to the Kay family, including one massive structure with an angel under a spire which would not look out of place opposite the Royal Albert Hall. No expense was spared by the Victorians here at Brockdish. The rebuilding was paid for by the Rector, George France, who also advised architect Frederick Marable on exactly what form this vision of the medieval should take. The tower above is curiously un-East Anglian, looking rather unusual surrounded by Norfolk fields. All around the building headstops are splendid, and fine details like faux-consecration crosses on the porch show that France was generally a man who knew what a medieval church should look like.

 

It will not surprise you to learn that St Peter and St Paul is similarly grand on the inside, if a touch severe. France actually devised a church much more Anglo-catholic than we find it today; it was toned down by the militantly low church Kay family later in the century. They took down the rood and replaced it with a simple cross, painting out the figures on the rood screen as well. When I first visited, the very helpful churchwarden who'd opened up for me observed that Brockdish is the only church in Norfolk that has stained glass in every window, which isn't strictly true (Harleston, three miles away, has as well) but we can be thankful that, thanks to the Reverend France's fortunes, it is of a very good quality. The glass seems to have been an ongoing project, because some of it dates from the 1920s. In keeping with low church tradition, the glass depicts mainly Biblical scenes and sayings of Christ rather than Saints, apart from the church's two patron Saints in the east window of the chancel. There are also some roundels in the east window of the south aisle, which appear to be of continental glass. They depict the Adoration of the Magi, the deposition of Christ, what appears to be Paharoah's daughter with the infant Moses, and the heads of St Matthias, St John the Evangelist, and Christ with a Crown of Thorns. However, I suspect that at least some of them are the work of the King workshop of Norwich, and that only the Deposition and the Old Testament scene are genuinely old.

 

If this is rather a gloomy church on a dark day, it is because of the glass in the south clerestory, a surprisingly un-medieval detail - the whole point of a clerestory was to let light reach the rood. The glass here is partly heraldic, partly symbolic. The stalls in the chancel are another faux-medieval detail - there was never a college of Priests here - but they looked suspiciously as if they might contain old bench ends within the woodwork. Not all is false, because the chancel also contains an unusual survival from the earlier church, a tombchest which may have been intended as an Easter Sepulchre.

 

Above all, the atmosphere is at once homely and devotional, not least because of the exceptional quality of the tiled sanctuary, an increasingly rare beast because they were so often removed in the 1960s and 1970s, when Victorian interiors were unfashionable. Brockdish's is spectacular, a splendid example that has caught the attention of 19th century tile enthusiasts and experts nationally.

 

Also tiled is the area beneath the tower, which France had reordered as a baptistery. The font has recently been moved back into the body of the church; presumably, whoever supplies the church's liability insurance had doubts about godparents standing with their backs to the steps down into the nave.

I liked Brockdish church a lot; I don't suppose it gets a lot of visitors, but it is a fine example of what the Victorians did right.

 

Simon Knott, June 2005, revisited and updated July 2010

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/brockdish/brockdish.htm

 

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Is the next adjoining town eastward, through which the great road passes to Yarmouth; on the left hand of which, stands the church, on a hill by itself, there being no house near it but the parsonage, which joins to the east side of the churchyard. The advowson always belonged to the Earl's manor here, with which it now continues.

 

In Norwich Domesday we read, that the rector had a house and 30 acres of land, that it was then valued at 15 marks, and paid as it now doth for synodals 1s. 9d. procurations 6s. 8d. and 12d. Peter-pence. It stands in the King's Books thus:

 

10l. Brokedish rectory. 1l. yearly tenths.

 

And consequently pays first-fruits, and is incapable of augmentation. The church stands included in the glebe, which is much the same in quantity as it was when the aforesaid survey was taken. It is in Norfolk archdeaconry, Redenhall deanery, and Duke of Norfolk's liberty, though he hath no lete, warren, paramountship, or superiour jurisdiction at all in this town, the whole being sold by the family along with the manors of the town.

 

In 1603, there were 103 communicants here, and now there are 50 families, and about 300 inhabitants; it was laid to the ancient tenths at 4l. but had a constant deduction of 14s. on account of lands belonging to the religious, so that the certain payment to each tenth, was 3l. 6s.

 

The Prior of St. Faith at Horsham owned lands here, which were taxed at 2s. 6d. in 1428.

 

The Prior of Thetford monks had lands here of the gift of Richard de Cadomo or Caam, (fn. 1) who gave them his land in Brokedis, and a wood sufficient to maintain 20 swine, in the time of King Henry I. when William Bigot, sewer to that King, gave to this priory all the land of Sileham, which from those monks is now called Monks-hall manor, and the water-mill there; all which Herbert Bishop of Norwich conveyed to his father, in exchange for other lands, he being to hold it in as ample a manner as ever Herbert the chaplain did; and in Ric. the Second's time, the monks bought a piece of marsh ground in Brokedis, to make a way to their mill, which being not contained in the grant of Monks-hall manor from Hen. VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk, William Grice, Esq. and Charles Newcomen, who had a grant of such lands as they could find concealed from the Crown, seized on this as such; and upon their so doing, the owner of the mill was obliged to purchase it of them, by the name of Thetford-Mill-Way, and it hath ever since belonged to, and is constantly repaired by the owner thereof.

 

Rectors of Brockidish.

 

12 - - Robert

 

12 - - Sir Ralf de Creping, rector.

 

1313, Sir Stephen Bygod. The King, for this turn.

 

1324, Nic. le Mareschal. Tho. Earl of Norfolk and Marshal.

 

1326, Mathew Paumer, or Palmer. Ditto. He changed for Canefield-Parva in London diocese with

 

Master Robert de Hales. Ditto.

 

1333, John de Melburn. Ditto.

 

1355, Roger de Wombwell. Lady Eleanor and Thomas de Wingfield, attorneys to Sir John Wingfield, Knt.

 

1356, John Knyght of Exeter. Mary Countess-Marshal, widow of Tho. de Brotherton, who recovered the advowson by the King's writ, against Sir J. Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, and so Wombwell was ejected.

 

1357, John de Esterford. Mary Countess-Marshal. He resigned in

 

1367, to John son of Catherine de Frenge, and he in

 

1368, to John Syward. Sir Walter Lord Manney.

 

1382, John de Balsham, who changed for Stowe St. Michael in Exeter diocese, with

 

Bartholomew Porter. Margaret Marshal, Countess of Norfolk.

 

1405, Sir John Dalyngho of Redcnhall. Eliz. Dutchess of Norf. in right of her dower.

 

1417, he exchanged with Thomes Barry, priest, for the vicarage of Berkyng church in London. John Lancaster, Ric. Sterisacre, and Rob. Southwell, attorneys to John Duke of Norfolk, EarlMarshal and Notyngham, who was beyond the seas. Barry resigned in

 

1422, to Sir Thomas Briggs, priest, who died rector. Ditto.

 

1454, Sir Hen. White, priest. John Duke of Norf. Earl-Marshal and Notingham, Marshal of England, Lord Mowbray, Segrave, and Gower. He resigned in

 

1455, to Sir Thomas Holm, priest. Ditto. And he in

 

1478, to John Nun. The King, as guardian to Richard Duke of York and Norfolk, and Lady Ann his wife, daughter and heir of John late Duke of Norfolk.

 

1491, John Mene; he had a union to hold another benefice.

 

1497, John Rogers, A. M. Eliz. Dutchess of Norfolk. He resigned in

 

1498, to Sir John Fisk, priest, chaplain to the Dutchess. Ditto. At whose death in

 

1511, Sir Robert Gyrlyng, chaplain to Thomas Earl of Surrey, had it of that Earl's gift: he was succeeded by

 

Sir William Flatberry, chaplain to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, who presented him; he resigned in

 

1540, to Sir Nic. Stanton, chaplain to his patron, Tho. Duke of Norf. Lord Treasurer and Earl-Marshal, and was succeeded by

 

William Hide, priest. Ditto. He resigned, and the Duke presented it in

 

1561, to Sir John Inman, priest, who was buried here Aug. 1, 1586.

 

1586, Aug. 4, Master Richard Gibson was instituted, who was buried Oct. 1, 1625; he was presented by Robert Nichols of Cambridge, by purchase of the turn from William le Grice, Gent. and Hester le Grice, wife of Charles le Grice, Gent. true patrons.

 

1625, William Owles, who held it united to Billingford. John Knapp of Brockdish, by grant of this turn. He was succeeded in

 

1645, by Brian Witherel, and he by

 

Mr. James Aldrich, who died rector Nov. 10, 1657, from which time somebody held it without institution, till the Restoration, and then receded, for in

 

1663, May 14, Sir Augustine Palgrave, patron of this turn, in right of Catherine his wife, presented George Fish, on the cession of the last incumbent; he was buried here Oct. 29, 1686.

 

1686, Thomas Palgrave, A.M. buried here March 24, 1724. Fran. Laurence, Gent.

 

1724, Abel Hodges, A.B. he held it united to Tharston, and died in 1729. Richard Meen, apothecary, for this turn.

 

1729, Richard Clark, LL. B. was instituted Dec. 3, and died about six weeks after. Mrs. Ellen Laurence of Castleacre, widow.

 

1730, Alan Fisher. Ditto. He resigned in

 

1738, and was succeeded by Robert Laurence, A. B. of Caius college, who lies buried at the south-east corner of the chancel, and was succeeded in

 

1739, by Francis Blomefield, clerk, the present rector, who holds it united to Fresfield rectory, being presented by Mrs. Ellen Laurence aforesaid.

 

The church is dedicated to the honour of the apostles St. Peter and Paul, and hath a square tower about 16 yards high, part of which was rebuilt with brick in 1714; there are five bells; the third, which is said to have been brought from Pulham in exchange, hath this on it;

 

Sancta Maria ora pro nobis.

 

and on the fourth is this,

 

Uirgo Coronata duc nos ad Regna beata.

 

The nave, chancel, and south isle are leaded, the south porch tiled, and the north porch is ruinated. The roof of this chancel is remarkable for its principals, which are whole trees without any joint, from side to side, and bent in such a rising manner, as to be agreeable to the roof. The chancel is 30 feet long and 20 broad, the nave is 54 feet long and 32 broad, and the south isle is of the same length, and 10 feet broad.

 

At the west end of the nave is a black marble thus inscribed,

 

Here lyeth buried the Body of Richard Wythe Gent. who departed this Life the 6 of Sept. 1671, who lived 64 Years and 4 Months and 9 Days.

 

This family have resided here till lately, ever since Edw. the Third's time, and had a considerable estate here, and the adjacent villages. See their arms, vol. iv. p. 135.

 

Another marble near the desk hath this,

 

Near this Place lays Elizabeth Wife of John Moulton Gent. who died Oct. 31, 1716, aged 32 Years. And here lieth Mary the late Wife of John Moulton, who died March 20, 1717, aged 27 Years. And also here lyeth the Body of John Moulton Gent. who died June 12, 1718, aged 38 Years.

 

Moulton's arms and crest as at vol. iv. p. 501.

 

In a north window are the arms of De la Pole quartering Wingfield.

 

In 1465, Jeffry Wurliche of Brockdish was buried here, and in 1469 John Wurliche was interred in the nave, and left a legacy to pave the bottom of the steeple. In 1518, Henry Bokenham of Brockdish was buried in the church, as were many of the Spaldings, (fn. 2) Withes, Howards, Grices, Tendrings, and Laurences; who were all considerable owners and families of distinction in this town.

 

The chapel at the east end of the south isle was made by Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. whose arms remain in its east window at this day, once with, and once without, a crescent az. on the fess, viz. az. a fess between two chevrons arg.

 

His altar monument stands against the east wall, north and south, and hath a sort of cupola over it, with a holy-water stope by it, and a pedestal for the image of the saint to which it was dedicated, to stand on, so that it served both for a tomb and an altar; the brass plates of arms and circumscription are lost.

 

On the north side, between the chapel and nave, stands another altar tomb, covered with a most curious marble disrobed of many brass plates of arms and its circumscription, as are several other stones in the nave, isle, and chancel. This is the tomb of John Tendring of Brockdish-hall, Esq. who lived there in 1403, and died in 1436, leaving five daughters his heirs, so that he was the last male of this branch of the Tendrings. Cecily his wife is buried by him.

 

On the east chancel wall, on the south side of the altar, is a white marble monument with this,

 

Obdormit hìc in Domino, lætam in Christo expectans Resurrectionem, Robertus, Roberti Laurence, ac Annæ Uxoris ejus, Filius, hujusce Ecclesiæ de Brockdish in Comitatû Norfolciensi Rector, ejusdem Villæ Dominus, ac Ecclesiæ Patronus, jure hereditario (si vixîsset) Futurus; Sed ah! Fato nimium immaturo abreptus; Cœlestia per Salvatoris merita sperans, Terrestria omnia, Juvenis reliquit. Dec. 31°. Anno æræ Christianæ mdccxxxixo. Ætatis xxvo. Maria, unica Soror et Hæres, Roberti Frankling Generosi Uxor, Fraterni Amoris hoc Testimonium animo grato, Memoriæ Sacrum posuit.

 

1. Laurence, arg. a cross raguled gul. on a chief gul. a lion passant guardant or.

 

2. Aslack, sab. a chevron erm. between three catherine-wheels arg.

 

3. Lany, arg. on a bend between two de-lises gul. a mullet of the field for difference.

 

4. Cooke, or, on a chevron ingrailed gul. a crescent of the field for difference, between three cinquefoils az. on a chief of the second, a lion passant guardant of the first.

 

5. Bohun, gul. a crescent erm. in an orle of martlets or.

 

6. Bardolf, az. three cinquefoils or.

 

7. Ramsey, gul. a chevron between three rams heads caboshed arg.

 

8. as 1.

 

Crest, a griffin seiant proper.

 

Motto, Floreat ut Laurus.

 

On a flat stone under this monument, is a brass plate thus inscribed,

 

Sacrum hoc Memoriæ Roberti Laurence Armigeri, qui obijt xxviijo die Julij 1637, Elizabeth Uxor ejus, Filia Aslak Lany Armigeri posuit.

 

Arms on a brass plate are,

 

Lawrence impaling Lany and his quarterings, viz. 1, Lany. 2, Aslack. 3, Cooke. 4, Bohun. 5, nine de-lises, 3, 3, and 3. 6, Bardolf. 7, Charles. 8, on a chevron three de-lises. 9, Ramsey. 10, Tendring. 11, on a fess two coronets. 12, Wachesam, arg. a fess, in chief two crescents gul. 13, a lion rampant. 14, Lany.

 

There is a picture of this Robert drawn in 1629, æt. 36. He built the hall in 1634; it stands near half a mile north-east of the church, and was placed near the old site of Brockdishe's-hall; the seat of the Tendrings, whose arms, taken out of the old hall when this was built, were fixed in the windows. The arms of this man and his wife, and several of their quarterings, are carved on the wainscot in the rooms.

 

On the south side of the churchyard is an altar tomb covered with a black marble, with the crest and arms of

 

Sayer, or Sawyer, gul. a chief erm. and a chevron between three seamews proper.

 

Crest, a hand holding a dragon's head erased proper.

 

To the Memory of Frances late the wife of Richard Tubby Esq. who departed this Life Dec. 22, 1728, in the 60th Year of her Age.

 

And adjoining is another altar tomb,

 

In Memory of Richard Tubby Esq. (fn. 3) who died Dec. 10th. 1741, in the 80th Year of his Age.

 

There are two other altar tombs in the churchyard, one for Mr. Rich. Chatton, and another for Eliz. daughter of Robert and Eliz. Harper, who died in 1719, aged 8 years.

 

The town takes its name from its situation on the Waveney or Wagheneye, which divides this county from that of Suffolk; the channel of which is now deep and broad, though nothing to what it was at that time, as is evident from the names of places upon this river, as the opposite vill, now called Sileham, (oftentimes wrote Sayl-holm, even to Edw. the Third's time) shows; for I make no doubt, but it was then navigable for large boats and barges to sail up hither, and continued so, till the sea by retiring at Yarmouth, and its course being stopt near Lowestoft, had not that influence on the river so far up, as it had before; which occasioned the water to retire, and leave much land dry on either side of the channel; though it is so good a stream, that it might with ease, even now, be made navigable hither; and it would be a good work, and very advantageous to all the adjacent country. That [Brod-dic] signifies no more than the broad-ditch, is very plain, and that the termination of ò, eau, or water, added to it, makes it the broad ditch of water, is as evident.

 

Before the Confessor's time, this town was in two parts; Bishop Stigand owned one, and the Abbot of Bury the other; the former afterwards was called the Earl's Manor, from the Earls of Norfolk; and the other Brockdishe's-hall, from its ancient lords, who were sirnamed from the town.

 

The superiour jurisdiction, lete, and all royalties, belonged to the Earl's manor, which was always held of the hundred of Earsham, except that part of it which belonged to Bury abbey, and that belonged to the lords of Brockdishe's-hall; but when the Earl's manor was sold by the Duke of Norfolk, with all royalties of gaming, fishing, &c. together with the letes, view of frankpledge, &c. free and exempt from his hundred of Earsham, and the two manors became joined as they now are, the whole centered in the lord of the town, who hath now the sole jurisdiction with the lete, belonging to it; and the whole parish being freehold, on every death or alienation, the new tenant pays a relief of a year's freehold rent, added to the current year: The annual free-rent, without such reliefs, amounting to above 3l. per annum. At the Conqueror's survey the town was seven furlongs long, and five furlongs and four perches broad, and paid 6d. to the geld or tax. At the Confessor's survey, there were 28 freemen here, six of which held half a carucate of land of Bishop Stigand, and the others held 143 acres under the Abbot of Bury, and the Abbot held the whole of Stigand, without whose consent the freemen could neither give away, nor sell their land, but were obliged to pay him 40s. a year free-rent; (fn. 4) and if they omitted paying at the year's end, they forfeited their lands, or paid their rent double; but in the Conqueror's time they paid 16l. per annum by tale. There were two socmen with a carucate of land, two villeins and two bordars here, which were given to Bury abbey along with the adjacent manor of Thorp-Abbots, but were after severed from that manor, and infeoffed by the Abbot of Bury in the lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, with which it passed ever after. (fn. 5)

 

Brockdish-Earl's Manor, or Brockdish Comitis.

 

This manor always attended the manor of Forncet after it was granted from the Crown to the Bygods, along with the half hundred of Earsham, for which reason I shall refer you to my account of that manor at p. 223, 4. It was mostly part of the dower of the ladies of the several noble families that it passed through, and the living was generally given to their domestick chaplains. In 3 Edward I. the Abbot of Bury tried an action with Roger Bigod, then lord and patron, for the patronage; (fn. 6) pleading that a part of the town belonged to his house, and though they had infeoffed their manor here in the family of the Brockdishes, yet the right in the advowson remained in him; but it appearing that the advowson never belonged to the Abbot's manor, before the feofment was made, but that it wholly was appendant ever since the Confessor's time, to the Earl's manor, the Abbot was cast: notwithstanding which in 1335, Sir John Wingfield, Knt. and Thomas his brother, William de Lampet and Alice his wife, and Catherine her sister, owners of Brockdishe's manor, revived the claim to the advowson; and Thomas de Wingfield, and lady Eleanor wife of Sir John Wingfield, presented here, and put up their arms in the church windows, as patrons, which still remain; but Mary Countess Marshal, who then held this manor in dower, brought her quare impedit, and ejected their clerk; since which time, it constantly attended this manor, being always appendant thereto. In 15 Edw. I. Roger Bigot, then lord, had free-warren in all this town, as belonging to this manor, having not only all the royalties of the town, but also the assise of bread and ale, and amerciaments of all the tenants of his own manor, and of the tenants of Reginald de Brockdish, who were all obliged to do suit once a year at the Earl's view of frankpledge and lete in Brockdish; and it continued in the Norfolk family till 1570, and then Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, obtained license from Queen Elizabeth to sell it; it being held in capite or in chief of the Crown, as part of the barony and honour of the said Duke, who accordingly sold the manor, advowson, free-fishery, and all the place or manor-house, and demean lands; together with the lete, view of frankpledge, liberty of free warren, and all other royalties whatsoever, free and exempt from any jurisdiction or payment to his half hundred of Earsham, to

 

Charles le Grice, Esq. of Brockdish, and his heirs, who was descended from Sir Rorert le Grys of Langley in Norfolk, Knt. equerry to Ric. I. and Oliva his wife, whose son, Sir Simon le Grys, Knt. of Thurveton, was alive in 1238, and married Agnes daughter and coheir to Augustine son of Richard de Waxtenesham or Waxham, of Waxham in Norfolk, by whom he had Roger le Grys of Thurton, Esq. who lived in the time of Edward I. whose son Thomas le Grice of Thurton, had Roger le Grice of Brockdish, who lived here in 1392; whose son Thomas left John le Grice his eldest son and heir, who married a Bateman, and lies buried in St. John Baptist's church in Norwich; (see vol. iv. p. 127;) but having no male issue, William le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. son of Robert le Grice of Brockdish, his uncle, inherited; he married Sibill, daughter and sole heir of Edmund Singleton of Wingfield in Suffolk, and had

 

Anthony le Grice of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 7) who married Margaret, daughter of John Wingfield, Esq. of Dunham, who lived in the place, and died there in 1553, and lies buried in the church, by whom his wife also was interred in 1562. His brother Gilbert Grice of Yarmouth, Gent. (fn. 8) first agreed with the Duke for Brockdish, but died before it was completed; so that Anthony, who was bound with him for performance of the covenants, went on with the purchase for his son,

 

Charles le Grice aforesaid, (fn. 9) to whom it was conveyed: he married two wives; the first was Susan, daughter and heir of Andrew Manfield, Gent. and Jane his wife, who was buried here in 1564; the second was Hester, daughter of Sir George Blagge, Knt. who held the manor for life; and from these two wives descended the numerous branches of the Grices of Brockdish, Norwich, Wakefield in Yorkshire, &c. He was buried in this church April 12, 1575, and was found to hold his manor of the hundred of Earsham, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite; and Brockdishe's-hall manor of the King, as of his barony of Bury St. Edmund in Suffolk, which lately belonged to the abbey there, in free soccage, without any rent or service, and not in capite, and

 

William le Grice, Esq. was his eldest son and heir, who at the death of his mother-in-law, was possessed of the whole estate; for in 1585, William Howard, then lord of Brockdishe's-hall manor, agreed and sold it to this William, and Henry le Grice his brother, and their heirs; but Howard dying the next year, the purchase was not completed till 1598, when Edw. Coppledick, Gent. and other trustees, brought a writ of entry against John son of the said William Howard, Gent. and had it settled absolutely in the Grices, from which time the two manors have continued joined as they are at this day; by Alice, daughter and heiress of Mr. Eyre of Yarmouth; he left

 

Francis le Grice, Esq. his son and heir, who sold the whole estate, manors, and advowson, to

 

Robert Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. (fn. 10) who married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, son of Edmund Anguish of Great-Melton, by whom he had

 

Robert Laurence, Esq. his son and heir, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Aslack Lany, who survived him, and remarried in 1640, to Richard Smith, Gent. by whom she had one child, Eliz. buried here in 1641: he died July 24, 1637, and lies buried by the altar as aforesaid: he built the present hall, and had divers children, as Aslak Laurence, Robert, born in 1633, buried in 1635, Samuel Laurence, born in 1635, Ellen, born in 1635, Elizabeth, who married William Reynolds of Great-Massingham, Gent. and

 

Francis Laurence of Brockdish, Esq. his eldest son and heir, who married Ellen, daughter of Thomas Patrick of Castle-acre, Gent. widow of Mathew Halcote of Litcham, Gent. who survived him, and held Brockdish in jointure to her death, which happened Jan. 6, 1741, when she was buried in the nave of Litcham church: they had Frances, and Elizabeth, who died infants; Mary, who died single about 1736, and was buried in the vestry belonging to Castleacre church; Jane, married to Mr. Thomas Shin of Great Dunham, by whom a Thomas, a son, &c. she being dead; Ellen, now widow of Thomas Young of Oxboro, Gent. who died Oct. 1743, leaving issue, the Rev. Mr. Thomas-Patrick Young of Caius college in Cambridge, Benjamin and Mary, and

 

Samuel Lawrence, Gent. their second son, is now alive and single; and

 

Robert Lawrence, Esq. their eldest son and heir, is long since dead, but by Anne daughter of John Meriton, late rector of Oxburgh, his wife, he left one son,

 

Robert Laurence, late rector of Brockdish, who died single, and

 

Mrs. Mary Laurence, his only sister, who is now living, and married to Robert Frankling, Gent. of Lynn in Norfolk, is the present lord in her right, but they have no issue.

 

Brockdishe's-Hall Manor,

 

Belonged to Bury abbey as aforesaid, till the time of Henry I. and then the Abbot infeoffed

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish in it, from whom it took its present name; he was to hold it at the 4th part of a knight's fee of that abbey: it contained a capital messuage or manor-house, called now Brockdishe's-hall; 105 acres of land in demean, 12 acres of wood, 8 of meadow, and 4l. 13s. 10d. rents of assise; he left it to

 

Jeffery de Brockdish his son, and he to

 

William, his son and heir, who in 1267, by the name of William de Hallehe de Brokedis, or Will. of Brockdish-hall, was found to owe suit and service once in a year with all his tenants, to the lete of the Earl of Norfolk, held here. He left this manor, and the greatest part of his estate in Norwich-Carleton (which he had with Alice Curson his wife) to

 

Thomas, his son and heir, and the rest of it to Nigel de Brockdish, his younger son; (see p. 102;) Thomas left it to

 

Reginald, his eldest son and heir, and he to

 

Sir Stephen de Brockdish, Knt. his son and heir, who was capital bailiff of all the Earl of Norfolk's manors in this county; he was lord about 1329, being succeeded by his son,

 

Stephen, who by Mary Wingfield his wife, had

 

Reginald de Brockdish, his son and heir, (fn. 11) to whom he gave Brockdish-hall manor in Burston, (see vol. i. p. 127, vol. ii. p. 506,) but he dying before his father, was never lord here; his two daughters and heiresses inheriting at his father's death, viz.

 

Alice, married to William de Lampet about 1355, and Catherine some time after, to William son of John de Herdeshull, lord of North Kellesey and Saleby in Lincolnshire, who inherited each a moiety, according to the settlement made by their grandfather, who infeoffed Sir John de Wingfield, Knt. and Eleanor his wife, and Thomas his brother, in trust for them; (fn. 12) soon after, one moiety was settled on Robert Mortimer and Catherine his wife, by John Hemenhale, clerk, and John de Lantony, their trustees; and not long after the whole was united, and belonged to

 

Sir William Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. and Margaret his wife, daughter and coheir of Sir Will. Kerdeston of Claxton in Norfolk, Knt. who were succeeded by their son and heir

 

Sir John Tendring of Stokeneyland, Knt. who jointly with Agnes his wife, settled it on

 

Sir Ralf Tendring of Brockdish, Knt. one of their younger sons, who built the old hall (which was pulled down by Robert Lawrence, Esq. when he erected the present house) and the south isle chapel, in which he and Alice his wife are interred; his son,

 

John Tendring of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord here and of Westhall in Colney, (see p. 5,) and was buried in the said chapel, with Cecily his wife, died in 1436, and left five daughrers, coheiresses, viz.

 

Cecily, married to Robert Ashfield of Stowlangetot in Suffolk, Esq.

 

Elizabeth, to Simeon Fincham of Fincham in Norfolk, Esq.

 

Alice, to Robert Morton.

 

Joan, to Henry Hall of Helwinton.

 

Anne, to John Braham of Colney.

 

Who joined and levied a fine and sold it to

 

Thomas Fastolff, Esq. and his heirs; and the year following, they conveyed all their lands, &c. in Wigenhall, Tilney, and Islington, to

 

Sir John Howard, Knt. and his heirs; and vested them in his trustees, who, the year following, purchased the manor of Fastolff to himself and heirs; this Sir John left Brockdish to a younger son,

 

Robert Howard, Esq. who settled here, and by Isabel his wife had

 

William Howard of Brockdish, Esq. who was lord in 1469; he had two wives, Alice and Margaret, from whom came a very numerous issue, but

 

Robert, his son and heir, had this manor, who by Joan his wife had

 

William Howard, his eldest son and heir, who died in 1566, seized of many lands in Cratfield, Huntingfield, Ubbeston, and Bradfield in Suffolk; and of many lands and tenements here, and in Sileham, &c. having sold this manor the year before his death, to the Grices as aforesaid; but upon the sale, he reserved, all other his estate in Brockdish, in which he dwelt, called Howard's Place, situate on the south side of the entrance of Brockdish-street; which house and farm went to

 

John Howard, his son and heir, the issue of whose three daughters, Grace, Margaret, and Elizabeth, failing, it reverted to

 

Mathew, son of William Howard, second brother to the said John Howard their father, whose second son,

 

Mathew Howard, afterwards owned it; and in 1711, it was owned by a Mathew Howard, and now by

 

Mr. Bucknall Howard of London, his kinsman (as I am informed.)

 

The site and demeans of the Earl's manor, now called the place, was sold from the manor by the Grices some time since, and after belonged to Sir Isaac Pennington, alderman of London, (see vol. i. p. 159,) and one of those who sat in judgment on the royal martyr, for which his estate was forfeited at the Restoration, and was given by Car. II. to the Duke of Grafton; and his Grace the present Duke of Grafton, now owns it.

 

the benefactions to this parish are,

 

One close called Algorshegge, containing three acres, (fn. 13) and a grove and dove-house formerly built thereon containing about one acre, at the east end thereof; the whole abutting on the King's highway north, and the glebe of Brockdish rectory west: and one tenement abutting on Brockdish-street south, called Seriches, (fn. 14) with a yard on the north side thereof, were given by John Bakon the younger, of Brockdish, son of John Bakon the elder, of Thorp-Abbots; the clear profits to go yearly to pay the tenths and fifteenths for the parish of Brockdish when laid, and when they are not laid, to repair and adorn the parish church there for ever: his will is proved in 1433. There are always to be 12 feoffees, of such as dwell, or are owners in the parish, and when the majority of them are dead, the survivors are to fill up the vacancies.

 

In 1590, 1 Jan. John Howard, Gent. John Wythe, Gent. William Crickmere and Daniel Spalding, yeomen, officers of Brockdish, with a legacy left to their parish in 1572, by John Sherwood, late of Brokdish, deceased, purchased of John Thruston of Hoxne, Gent. John Thruston his nephew, Thomas Barker, and the inhabitants of Hoxne in Suffolk, one annuity or clear yearly rent-charge of 6s. 8d. issuing out of six acres of land and pasture in Hoxne, in a close called Calston's-close, one head abutting on a way leading from Heckfield-Green to Moles-Cross, towards the east; to the only use and behoof of the poor of Brockdish, to be paid on the first of November in Hoxne church-porch, between 12 and 4 in the afternoon of the same day, with power to distrain and enter immediately for non-payment; the said six acres are warranted to be freehold, and clear of all incumbrances, except another rentcharge of 13s. 4d. granted to Hoxne poor, to be paid at the same day and place

 

In 1592, John Howard of Brockdish sold to the inhabitants there, a cottage called Laune's, lying between the glebes on all parts; this hath been dilapidated many years, but the site still belongs to the parish.

 

From the old Town Book.

 

1553, 1st Queen Mary, paid for a book called a manuel 2s. 6d.; for two days making the altar and the holy-water stope, and for a lock for the font. 1554, paid for the rood 9d. 1555, paid for painting the rood-loft 14d. At the visitation of my Lord Legate 16d. To the organs maker 4d. and for the chalice 26s. 1557, paid for carriage of the Bible to Bocnam 12d. for deliverance of the small books at Harlstone 15d.; the English Bibles and all religious Protestant tracts usually at this time left in the churches for the information and instruction of the common people, being now called in by the Papist Queen. Paid for two images making 5s.; for painting them 16d. for irons for them 8d. But in 1558, as soon as Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, all these Popish, images, &c. were removed out of the church. Paid for sinking the altar 4d.; carrying out the altar 5d.; mending the communion table 3d.; 1561, paid for the X. Commandments 18d.; for pulling down the rood-loft 14d.; paid Roger Colby repairing the crosse in the street 26s. 8d.; for a lock to the crosse-house, &c.; 1565, for digging the ground and levelling the low altar, (viz. in the south chapel,) and mending the pavement. For makyng the communion cup at Harlston 5s. 4d. besides 6s. 2d. worth of silver more than the old chalice weyed. 1569, paid to Belward the Dean for certifying there is no cover to the cup, 8d. 1657, layd out 19s. 4d. for the relief of Attleburgh, visited with the plague. Laid out 17s. for the repair of the Brockdish part of Sileham bridge, leading over the river to Sileham church. This bridge is now down, through the negligence of both the parishes, though it was of equal service to both, and half of it repaired by each of them. In 1618, the church was wholly new paved and repaired; and in 1619, the pulpit and desk new made, new books, pulpit-cloth, altar-cloth, &c. bought.

 

From the Register:

 

1593, Daniel son of Robert Pennington, Gent. bapt. 13 July. 1626, John Brame, Gent. and Anne Shardelowe, widow, married Sept. 2. 1631, John Blomefield and Elizabeth Briges married May 30. 1666, Roger Rosier, Gent. buried. 1735, Henry Blomefield of Fersfield, Gent. single man, and Elizabeth Bateman of Mendham, single woman, married Feb. 27.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol5...

by ryanmillier bit.ly/1TvY12N

At a Fish Market in Kolkata. Cats looking on expectantly...

Yes, this is still a thing. Here is Part 32 of 50 in a sporadic series.

 

Well, it's been a quiet few centuries in Minnesota, out there on edge of the prairie.

 

Most people don't expect Minnesota to have had much effect on the course of U.S. history, and other than producing two or three prominent politicians, the state's lived up to those expectations. Minnesota has generally been a thing unto itself, an isolated batch of glacial potholes that even in this age of global warming still seems to forget the glacier went away for half the year. Its people are famous for their taciturn work ethic and an obsessive self-reliance that borders on isolationism, and yet everybody always says they're so nice. And they are. I've never had anybody be mean to me in Minnesota.

 

Minnesota was slow getting to statehood; it was the last piece of the original Northwest Territories to sign on the dotted line. It got its enabling act together just as the rest of the country was gearing up for a really big fight, and despite its reputation, Minnesota was as much a part of that fight as anybody else. It's just that there weren't so many Minnesotans to contribute anything just yet. Most of the people who would define the state's character were just then getting there.

 

But I get ahead of myself.

 

Early Days

 

The early bits of Minnesota's tale mimic a lot of what we saw in Wisconsin and Iowa, only it was a little farther north and spent a little more time beneath the glacier, so everything came just a bit later. The oldest known evidence of human habitation in Minnesota dates to about 9,000 years ago, well after cultures were already thriving in more southerly places. Which makes sense, because even after the glaciers left, Minnesota wasn't an easy place to live. The glaciers had gouged out a ton of kettle lakes -- as many as 10,000 of them, some might say -- and much of the land that wasn't lake was boggy. The Mississippi Valley mound-building cultures made it up here, but this was right at the edge their world, and they vanished here before anyplace else.

 

By the time the first Europeans (Frenchmen, of course) made it out this way around the middle of the 1600s, the land that would become Minnesota had spent at least a couple of centuries as the ancestral homeland of the Dakota Sioux people, with a few smaller groups of prairie people like the Ioway or the Sauk tucked away here and there. Oral histories talk of a lot of migration and jostling for land, but for the most part all these groups had lived together as peacefully as any collection of different groups of people ever lives. But those French settlers who spent the 17th century inching their way up the St. Lawrence Valley had hit Lake Superior to the east like a meteor, and the waves from that impact washed into Minnesota well before any Frenchmen showed up.

 

The issue was the Ojibwe, that branch of Anishinaabe people who'd migrated to Lake Superior a couple of hundred years ahead of the French. The oral histories suggest the Ojibwe hadn't received the warmest welcome from the Dakotas when they first stepped into the region, and they nursed a generational grudge as they built their sacred towns along Lake Superior's south shore. They always had a mind for expansion, tiptoeing south down the St. Croix River or west toward the St. Louis, where Duluth would someday rise. They fought a seemingly endless series of wars against the Dakotas, but it all was stuck in decades of stalemate until the French came along. The French were eager to trade with anyone local, and they met the Ojibwe first, so the Ojibwe got a jump on the market. This meant the Ojibwe had guns long before the Dakotas, so the Ojibwe were finally able to push west from Lake Superior and carve out a piece of Minnesota of their own.

 

Bonjour, les Blancs

 

You'd think those French trappers and traders and priests would have followed right behind the Ojibwe and pushed into Minnesota, but the mouth of the St. Louis River was kind of the western limit of most French wandering. Minnesota was included in the vast claim our old buddy René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, made for France in 1682, but La Salle made his claim from someplace down in Illinois, and he did it in this hand-wavy sort of way that defined the French boundaries as "Out there, somewhere." Minnesota was only included because it was, in fact, out there somewhere, but La Salle never actually saw it.

 

A French Jesuit named Claude Jean Allouez who'd been preaching to the Ojibwe at Madeline Island did take a few months off in 1671 to go map Lake Superior's north shore, and he was probably one of the first Europeans to touch Minnesota. In 1680, Father Louis Hennepin, one of the priests who'd tagged along with La Salle's party, split off from the group with a couple of other guys and wound up captured by Dakotas, who took them all to the Falls of St. Anthony, where someday somebody would build the Twin Cities. Some guy wandered through southern Minnesota around 1700 and thought he'd found copper, but he hadn't. A few guys came through in the 1720s looking for the fabled Northwest Passage, probably thinking that native talk of a "great western sea" meant the Pacific when in reality the natives were talking about Lake Winnepeg. Over time, a few Frenchmen established a few small trading posts out in the wilderness, but that was it. The French never committed any real resources to it.

 

And time was up for the French in Minnesota anyway, thanks to that big war that hit Europe in 1757 and bled over into the North American wilderness. In 1763, Minnesota got handed over to the Spanish without ever noticing it, because in all the 38 years Spain owned the thing, no Spanish person ever set foot in Minnesota even one time. The British up in Canada took this as a sign of neglect and snuck across the Pigeon River in the 1780s to set up an illegal trading post on Spanish territory at Grand Portage, along one of the more popular fur trapper paths. But nobody else from Europe did anything in Minnesota for decades.

 

It all changed in a whirlwind when Napoleon took the Louisiana Territory back from Spain in 1801 and sold it to Thomas Jefferson in 1803. And just like that, all of Minnesota was part of the United States.

 

Minnesota Territory

 

Like a lot of states that came before, Minnesota's territorial history involves a lot of vague borders based on random lines drawn across blank spots on a map, often meant to follow rivers that didn't go where people thought they went. And yeah, the American government could have asked the Ojibwe or the Dakotas or somebody to pin all that down, but you know that wasn't ever going to happen.

 

Part of the problem was baked into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the first attempt by Congress to organize all the extra territory the United States had been given in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 that ended the Revolutionary War. That treaty handed the Americans everything west of the Appalachian Mountains all the way out to the Mississippi River and north all the way to Canada. Nobody was sure where exactly Canada started, but wherever it was, the treaty refs were all sure that the Mississippi started someplace way north of there, so it shouldn't be a problem. But of course, the Mississippi starts from a little stream flowing from Lake Itasca, which is right around the center of modern Minnesota and well below Canada. So the line north of Lake Itasca dividing the U.S., Canada, and Spanish Louisiana was a vague kind of thing that somebody would need to pin down. And that only affects half of Minnesota, anyway. The western half was still Spanish.

 

Napoleon took care of part of the problem with Minnesota's western half when he signed over the deed in 1803, and the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 solved the issue with the northern border. (That's kind of an interesting story, but it makes more sense to tell that in the origin of the state after this one.) But Minnesota was still cut in two, with its west side part of the Louisiana Territory and its east side passed back and forth between a succession of territories carved from the old Northwest.

 

Seriously, nobody could make up their mind who should run Minnesota. When Ohio declared statehood in 1803, eastern Minnesota was assigned as part of the Illinois Territory. Illinois statehood in 1818 made eastern Minnesota part of the Michigan Territory. Michigan gained statehood in 1837 and passed eastern Minnesota over to Wisconsin. Wisconsin's statehood in 1848 left no place else for eastern Minnesota to go.

 

For a while, it looked like Minnesota might be divvied up between Wisconsin, Iowa, and some as-yet undefined territory out west, but an Illinois senator named Stephen Douglas (soon to be made famous debating Lincoln) didn't much like that idea. He felt like it gave the states on Illinois's border too much territory and too much wealth and power, and he had it in his head that the headwaters of the Mississippi should all be under a single authority, anyway. So he came up with the idea of making Minnesota its own thing, and in 1849, the Minnesota Territory was born.

 

Velkommen til den Nye Verdenen

 

Now all there was left to do was settle the place. Which at this point, people expected to happen quickly. As I mentioned in Iowa's tale, this was the era of Manifest Destiny, when Americans felt guided by a loving God to spill out into the West and transform savage lands into Christian civilization all the way to the Pacific Ocean. But Minnesota is damned cold, and civilization has its limits. Sure, all that glacial outwash had left a lot of fertile soil, but fertility doesn't do you much good when it's frozen half the year.

 

The earliest settlers, then, followed the last of the fur trappers into the woods until the beavers and minks ran out, and then they started cutting down trees. American logging camps had started springing up in Minnesota's North Woods as early as the 1820s. In 1825, the U.S. Army opened Fort Snelling at the Falls of St. Anthony, and a little squatter town full of bootleggers grew up in the fort's shadows. These squatters initially named their little town Pig's Eye, after a moonshiner named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant. They eventually changed the name to St. Paul. The town would have to wait another 25 years for its twin city of Minneapolis to come along.

 

The true kick in the pants for Minnesota settlement didn't come until the 1850s, and it didn't come from Americans looking to fulfill their Manifest Destiny. It came from Europe. Specifically, from Norway. And, to a lesser extent, Sweden and Germany.

 

Norway's story had followed a kind of Malthusian arc over the previous century. Sometime around 1750, improved farming techniques and technology had allowed the Norwegian farmers to double and triple their production, and Norwegians were for a while happy and well fed. But this led to an overproduction of Norwegians, who soon caught up and then surpassed the farmers at the same time they ate the Atlantic fisheries to collapse. By 1850, there were a lot of hungry Norwegians looking for some option other than Scandinavia.

 

And wouldn't you know it, but at just this very moment the Americans had a patch of frozen prairie they were itching for somebody to come carve into farms. Norwegians weren't afraid of the Minnesota cold. For them, Minnesota was like a tropical paradise. So the Norwegians started piling onto the boats, and over time everybody in Minnesota wound up with names like Olaf Lundegaard or Carl Gustafson, and a century later they'd call their NFL expansion team the Vikings.

 

And Finally, Statehood

 

That flood of Norwegians only started in the 1850s and would keep flowing into Minnesota until the rise of nativist paranoia started cutting off immigration in the 1920s. But the initial surge was enough to combine with a trickle of farmers from New England for people to start talking about Minnesota statehood toward the end of the 1850s.

 

But then, people were talking about a lot of other things by the end of the 1850s, too. Because here we are, finally, with that festering boil of slavery about ready to erupt. In 1850, California had pushed the total number of states up to 31. Fifteen of those were slave-holding states; sixteen of them were free. Everybody knew Minnesota was destined to be a free state, and there were nothing but more free states on the horizon. The fragile peace among the states that had held since Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise had depended on a numerical balance. Now that balance seemed to be tipping irreversibly in the direction of freedom, and we couldn't have that.

 

You wouldn't think this would matter much to the Minnesotans, but the fight made it into the territorial legislatures tasked with writing up the state's constitution, and there were Minnesotans as concerned with the rights of a state to let people own other people as any plantation owner in South Carolina. Minnesota became a proxy war zone between Democrats wanting to protect slavery and a party of abolitionists still new enough to have principles called the Republicans. The Democrats and Republicans even refused to meet in the same legislative body, and each group held its own constitutional convention in 1857 and drafted its own constitution. Representatives from each of these conventions met that October to hammer out a compromise constitution, but the representatives from each side refused to have his name on the same copy of that compromise constitution as representatives from the other side. So they had to print up two copies. The Democrats signed one, and the Republicans signed the other. The two copies of the state constitution were then sent to the United States Congress for ratification, and after a little more than a year of pre-war political shenanigans designed for delay, Minnesota was admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858.

 

But remember this the next time you hear somebody complaining about pettiness or a lack of civility in modern government: The nicest state of the Union had to make two copies of its founding document because one side of the political fence didn't want to put their names on the same piece of paper as the other. Political pettiness is nothing new in the United States of America, and not even the most civil of us are immune.

Expected to be finished in 2026, one hundred years after the decease of its architect

Antoni Gaudi.

A1(M) Bramham 01/03/2016

Bob Vylan

 

Beautiful Days 2022

 

NMK Photography

Wasn't expecting to see this in Headcorn today, and this vehicle was on SouthEastern Trains Rail Replacement Services to and from Ashford and Paddock Wood and Tonbridge.

 

So yeah I left Dover again, and these 10 shots were taken during the just 2 hours I spent in Headcorn, with very few people around enabling me to "Social Distance" again.

 

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw Very Recently!!

...that's what life is full of.

 

"Life" is so not the thing like the way it seems like.

Neither it comes out like the way we expect to.

 

So the cliché continues.

 

Taken from: Dhaka, Bangladesh.