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Macro detail of small Studio Glass perfume bottle by British Glass Artist Catherine Hough showing lined and textured front surface and internal reflections. The inspiration for this design is based on lines of quartz seen in pebbles. The precision of such lines and surface textures became the 'hallmark' of her work in the early 1980's while working at the Glasshouse in London and her small bottles, in a variety of shapes and designs were very popular. This piece was made for an exhibition in 1983.
In 1997 she set up her own company to concentrate on larger 'one-off' and limited edition pieces. More details and images of her work can be found at www.catherinehough.com
Table Mountain (Khoekhoe: Huriǂoaxa, lit. 'sea-emerging'; Afrikaans: Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa.
It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors either using the cableway or hiking to the top.[4] The mountain has 2,285 plant species,[5] of which around 80% are fynbos (Afrikaans for 'fine bush'). Table Mountain National Park is the most visited national park in South Africa, attracting 4.2 million people every year for various activities.[6] It forms part of the lands formerly inhabited by Khoe-speaking clans, such as the !Uriǁʼaes (the "High Clan").
Table Mountain is home to a large array of mostly endemic flora and fauna.[7] Its top rises about 1,000 m above the surrounding city, making the popular hike upwards on a large variety of different, often steep and rocky pathways a serious mountain tour which requires fitness, preparation and hiking equipment.
Features
Table Mountain as seen from Lion's Head, with low-lying cloud cover over Cape Town
Cape Town under the clouds
The main feature of Table Mountain is the level plateau approximately three kilometres (2 mi) from side to side, edged by steep cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town. This broad sweep of mountainous heights, together with Signal Hill, forms the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl and Table Bay harbour. The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level, and about 19 metres (62 ft) higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau.
The cliffs of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"), which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by António de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503.[8]
The flat top of the mountain is often covered by orographic clouds, formed when a southeasterly wind is directed up the mountain's slopes into colder air, where the moisture condenses to form the so-called "table cloth" of cloud. Legend attributes this phenomenon to a smoking contest between the Devil and a local pirate called Van Hunks.[9] When the table cloth is seen, it symbolises the contest.
Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula that terminates approximately 50 kilometres (30 mi) to the south at the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. Immediately to the south of Table Mountain is a rugged "plateau" at a somewhat lower elevation than the Table Mountain Plateau (at about 1,000 m or 3,300 ft), called the "Back Table". The "Back Table" extends southwards for approximately 6 km to the Constantia Nek-Hout Bay valley. The Atlantic side of the Back Table is known as the Twelve Apostles, which extends from Kloof Nek (the saddle between Table Mountain and Lion's Head) to Hout Bay. The eastern side of this portion of the Peninsula's mountain chain, extending from Devil's Peak, the eastern side of Table Mountain (Erica and Fernwood Buttresses), and the Back Table to Constantia Nek, does not have a single name, as on the western side. It is better known by the names of the conservation areas on its lower slopes: Groote Schuur Estate, Newlands Forest, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cecilia Park, and Constantia Nek. Wikipedia
Another dancer at the recital this past weekend from Carlisle School of Dance.
Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AFS @ f/3.5
Brayford Pool in Lincoln, Lincolnshire.
Brayford Pool is a natural lake formed from a widening of the River Witham in the centre of the city of Lincoln. It was used as a port by the Romans who connected it to the River Trent by constructing the Foss Dyke Canal and the area has a long industrial heritage.
The Pool has been the focus of Lincoln's urban regeneration since the early 1990s. It is now overlooked by bars, restaurants, a cinema and, most significantly, the University of Lincoln. The only reminder of the past is the Royal William public house, a traditional pub housed inside a listed building. The Pool is used as a marina by houseboats and pleasure craft, as well as by anglers and kayakers.
It has long been a favourite place for mute swans. Mute swans are one of the UK's largest birds and they can grow up to about 1.5m high. Although the mute swans are usually silent, they do make a loud hissing noise when they are angry and young swans make a high-pitched whistling noise.
They breed upstream on the River Witham, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but are attracted down to the Brayford Pool area by food provided by passers-by. The number of swans usually peaks in the autumn and can be anything up to 130 birds. In recent years the swans have moved out of the city along the River Witham.
Mallard ducks, Coots and Moor Hens can be found in the area as well as the less commonly known Muscovy ducks, native to Central and South America but brought to Europe by explorers in the 16th Century. The strange looking ducks have been immortalized to a degree with a ground floor suite named after them in the University’s Main Admin Building.
Other birds seen around the Brayford include the pied wagtail, kingfishers, mallards, moorhens, coots, and herons. There are at least five different types of dragonfly, whilst the fish in the Brayford include roach, common bream, tench and pike.
Plants that can be found along River Witham include common species such as reed sweet grass, branched bur-reed and red mace, the much rarer arrowhead and flowering rush along with great water dock, skull cap and wild celery. A common tree along the riverbank is the Alder.
Information Source:
www.visitlincoln.com/about-lincoln/areas-of-lincoln/brayf...
Une forme de tulipe et une couleur des plus classique mais toujours tellement agréable à contempler sur les quais de Montreux
River Wear, river that rises near Wearhead in the county of Durham, England, and enters the North Sea at Sunderland. With headwaters in the Pennines, it flows through Weardale and once entered the sea in the vicinity of Hartlepool, but it was subsequently diverted northward. Durham city is built along the Wear, and its castle and cathedral stand 100 feet (30 metres) above the river on an incised meander (loop). From Bishop Auckland the river flows across coalfields, but coal mining had ceased by the end of the 20th century.
Stanhope is a market town and civil parish in the County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. It lies on the River Wear between Eastgate and Frosterley, in the north-east of Weardale. The main A689 road over the Pennines is crossed by the B6278 between Barnard Castle and Shotley Bridge. In 2001 Stanhope had a population of 1,633, in 2019 an estimate of 1,627, and a figure of 1,602 in the 2011 census for the ONS built-up-area which includes Crawleyside. In 2011 the parish population was 4,581.[4]
Stanhope parish is the largest parish area in England, at 85 square miles (221 km2) It has some land in common with the neighbouring Wolsingham civil parish. On 31 December 1894 "Stanhope Urban" parish was formed from part of Stanhope parish, but on 1 April 1937 it was merged back. In 1894 Stanhope became an urban district which contained Stanhope Urban parish, on 1 April 1937 the urban district was abolished and merged with Weardale Rural District. On 1 April 1946, 2,396 acres (969.6 ha) were transferred to the parish from Wolsingham. Stanhope Town Hall was completed in 1849.
Stanhope is surrounded by moorland in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second largest of a current 40 such areas in England and Wales.
Features of interest include:
A petrified tree stump standing in the churchyard was found with two others, one of which features in the Great North Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The Durham Dales Centre incorporates a tea room, tourist information and craft shops.
Stanhope Bridge, a scheduled monument, was built in the 15th century and widened in 1792.
The ford has a stepping-stone bridge for pedestrians.
The 18th-century Stanhope Castle in the town centre stands on the possible site of a medieval castle. It was built in 1798 by Cuthbert Rippon, MP for Gateshead.
The town has one of only two heated open-air swimming pools in the North East.
Stanhope was at the centre of the Weardale campaign (1327), when Sir James Douglas of Scotland invaded England and faced Edward III and Roger Mortimer, Earl of March. A series of skirmishes took place on the valley floor and in Stanhope Park.
The parish church dedicated to St Thomas is mostly from the 12th–13th centuries, with restoration in 1663 and 1867. The earliest known Rector was Richardus in 1200. Joseph Butler, later Bishop of Bristol, was Rector in 1725.
Stanhope Castle may be on the site of a motte and bailey castle according to some evidence from the 1790s. Furthermore, Bishop Anthony Bek granted land "to the west side of Stanhope castle". The present castle was built for Cuthbert Rippon (1744-1801) in 1798 with additions in 1823 by his son, also Cuthbert (1797–1867) and Member of Parliament for Gateshead. Ignatius Bonomi (1787–1870) was the architect. In 1941 the castle was adapted by the Home Office as a school for boys and remained so until 1980, when it was converted into apartments. Part of the gardens lie to the north of the castle across the main road, including the park wall and gazebo.
Stanhope Agricultural Show is held on the second weekend of September each year. It has been held annually since 1834, except in world-war years, the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak and times of bad weather.
Stanhope is the current terminus of the Weardale Railway, a heritage line operating mainly at weekends from Bishop Auckland, with stations at Frosterley, Wolsingham and Witton-le-Wear. Stanhope Station stood in for the fictional Partlington Station in an episode of the criminal drama series Vera.
Notable residents
Joseph Butler (1692–1752), theologian and cleric
William Greenwell (1820–1918), archaeologist and Anglican cleric, catalogued Late Bronze Age finds at Heathery Burn Cave near Stanhope in 1859–1872.
William Percival Crozier (1879–1944), scholar and journalist, edited the Manchester Guardian in 1932–1944.
Muriel Young (1923–2001), television continuity announcer, presenter and producer, died in Stanhope.
County Durham, officially simply Durham is a ceremonial county in North East England. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne and Wear to the north, the North Sea to the east, North Yorkshire to the south, and Cumbria to the west. The largest settlement is Darlington, and the county town is the city of Durham.
The county has an area of 2,721 km2 (1,051 sq mi) and a population of 866,846. The latter is concentrated in the east; the south-east is part of the Teesside built-up area, which extends into North Yorkshire. After Darlington (92,363), the largest settlements are Hartlepool (88,855), Stockton-on-Tees (82,729), and Durham (48,069). For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas—County Durham, Darlington, and Hartlepool—and part of a fourth, Stockton-on-Tees. The county historically included the part of Tyne and Wear south of the River Tyne, and excluded the part of County Durham south of the River Tees.
The west of the county contains part of the North Pennines uplands, a national landscape. The hills are the source of the rivers Tees and Wear, which flow east and form the valleys of Teesdale and Weardale respectively. The east of the county is flatter, and contains by rolling hills through which the two rivers meander; the Tees forms the boundary with North Yorkshire in its lower reaches, and the Wear exits the county near Chester-le-Street in the north-east. The county's coast is a site of special scientific interest characterised by tall limestone and dolomite cliffs.
What is now County Durham was on the border of Roman Britain, and contains survivals of this era at sites such as Binchester Roman Fort. In the Anglo-Saxon period the region was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. In 995 the city of Durham was founded by monks seeking a place safe from Viking raids to house the relics of St Cuthbert. Durham Cathedral was rebuilt after the Norman Conquest, and together with Durham Castle is now a World Heritage Site. By the late Middle Ages the county was governed semi-independently by the bishops of Durham and was also a buffer zone between England and Scotland. County Durham became heavily industrialised in the nineteenth century, when many collieries opened on the Durham coalfield. The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, opened in 1825. Most collieries closed during the last quarter of the twentieth century, but the county's coal mining heritage is remembered in the annual Durham Miners' Gala.
Remains of Prehistoric Durham include a number of Neolithic earthworks.
The Crawley Edge Cairns and Heathery Burn Cave are Bronze Age sites. Maiden Castle, Durham is an Iron Age site.
Brigantia, the land of the Brigantes, is said to have included what is now County Durham.
There are archaeological remains of Roman Durham. Dere Street and Cade's Road run through what is now County Durham. There were Roman forts at Concangis (Chester-le-Street), Lavatrae (Bowes), Longovicium (Lanchester), Piercebridge (Morbium), Vindomora (Ebchester) and Vinovium (Binchester). (The Roman fort at Arbeia (South Shields) is within the former boundaries of County Durham.) A Romanised farmstead has been excavated at Old Durham.
Remains of the Anglo-Saxon period include a number of sculpted stones and sundials, the Legs Cross, the Rey Cross and St Cuthbert's coffin.
Around AD 547, an Angle named Ida founded the kingdom of Bernicia after spotting the defensive potential of a large rock at Bamburgh, upon which many a fortification was thenceforth built. Ida was able to forge, hold and consolidate the kingdom; although the native British tried to take back their land, the Angles triumphed and the kingdom endured.
In AD 604, Ida's grandson Æthelfrith forcibly merged Bernicia (ruled from Bamburgh) and Deira (ruled from York, which was known as Eforwic at the time) to create the Kingdom of Northumbria. In time, the realm was expanded, primarily through warfare and conquest; at its height, the kingdom stretched from the River Humber (from which the kingdom drew its name) to the Forth. Eventually, factional fighting and the rejuvenated strength of neighbouring kingdoms, most notably Mercia, led to Northumbria's decline. The arrival of the Vikings hastened this decline, and the Scandinavian raiders eventually claimed the Deiran part of the kingdom in AD 867 (which became Jórvík). The land that would become County Durham now sat on the border with the Great Heathen Army, a border which today still (albeit with some adjustments over the years) forms the boundaries between Yorkshire and County Durham.
Despite their success south of the river Tees, the Vikings never fully conquered the Bernician part of Northumbria, despite the many raids they had carried out on the kingdom. However, Viking control over the Danelaw, the central belt of Anglo-Saxon territory, resulted in Northumbria becoming isolated from the rest of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Scots invasions in the north pushed the kingdom's northern boundary back to the River Tweed, and the kingdom found itself reduced to a dependent earldom, its boundaries very close to those of modern-day Northumberland and County Durham. The kingdom was annexed into England in AD 954.
In AD 995, St Cuthbert's community, who had been transporting Cuthbert's remains around, partly in an attempt to avoid them falling into the hands of Viking raiders, settled at Dunholm (Durham) on a site that was defensively favourable due to the horseshoe-like path of the River Wear. St Cuthbert's remains were placed in a shrine in the White Church, which was originally a wooden structure but was eventually fortified into a stone building.
Once the City of Durham had been founded, the Bishops of Durham gradually acquired the lands that would become County Durham. Bishop Aldhun began this process by procuring land in the Tees and Wear valleys, including Norton, Stockton, Escomb and Aucklandshire in 1018. In 1031, King Canute gave Staindrop to the Bishops. This territory continued to expand, and was eventually given the status of a liberty. Under the control of the Bishops of Durham, the land had various names: the "Liberty of Durham", "Liberty of St Cuthbert's Land" "the lands of St Cuthbert between Tyne and Tees" or "the Liberty of Haliwerfolc" (holy Wear folk).
The bishops' special jurisdiction rested on claims that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria had granted a substantial territory to St Cuthbert on his election to the see of Lindisfarne in 684. In about 883 a cathedral housing the saint's remains was established at Chester-le-Street and Guthfrith, King of York granted the community of St Cuthbert the area between the Tyne and the Wear, before the community reached its final destination in 995, in Durham.
Following the Norman invasion, the administrative machinery of government extended only slowly into northern England. Northumberland's first recorded Sheriff was Gilebert from 1076 until 1080 and a 12th-century record records Durham regarded as within the shire. However the bishops disputed the authority of the sheriff of Northumberland and his officials, despite the second sheriff for example being the reputed slayer of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scots. The crown regarded Durham as falling within Northumberland until the late thirteenth century.
Following the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror appointed Copsig as Earl of Northumbria, thereby bringing what would become County Durham under Copsig's control. Copsig was, just a few weeks later, killed in Newburn. Having already being previously offended by the appointment of a non-Northumbrian as Bishop of Durham in 1042, the people of the region became increasingly rebellious. In response, in January 1069, William despatched a large Norman army, under the command of Robert de Comines, to Durham City. The army, believed to consist of 700 cavalry (about one-third of the number of Norman knights who had participated in the Battle of Hastings), entered the city, whereupon they were attacked, and defeated, by a Northumbrian assault force. The Northumbrians wiped out the entire Norman army, including Comines, all except for one survivor, who was allowed to take the news of this defeat back.
Following the Norman slaughter at the hands of the Northumbrians, resistance to Norman rule spread throughout Northern England, including a similar uprising in York. William The Conqueror subsequently (and successfully) attempted to halt the northern rebellions by unleashing the notorious Harrying of the North (1069–1070). Because William's main focus during the harrying was on Yorkshire, County Durham was largely spared the Harrying.
Anglo-Norman Durham refers to the Anglo-Norman period, during which Durham Cathedral was built.
Matters regarding the bishopric of Durham came to a head in 1293 when the bishop and his steward failed to attend proceedings of quo warranto held by the justices of Northumberland. The bishop's case went before parliament, where he stated that Durham lay outside the bounds of any English shire and that "from time immemorial it had been widely known that the sheriff of Northumberland was not sheriff of Durham nor entered within that liberty as sheriff. . . nor made there proclamations or attachments". The arguments appear to have prevailed, as by the fourteenth century Durham was accepted as a liberty which received royal mandates direct. In effect it was a private shire, with the bishop appointing his own sheriff. The area eventually became known as the "County Palatine of Durham".
Sadberge was a liberty, sometimes referred to as a county, within Northumberland. In 1189 it was purchased for the see but continued with a separate sheriff, coroner and court of pleas. In the 14th century Sadberge was included in Stockton ward and was itself divided into two wards. The division into the four wards of Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Easington and Stockton existed in the 13th century, each ward having its own coroner and a three-weekly court corresponding to the hundred court. The diocese was divided into the archdeaconries of Durham and Northumberland. The former is mentioned in 1072, and in 1291 included the deaneries of Chester-le-Street, Auckland, Lanchester and Darlington.
The term palatinus is applied to the bishop in 1293, and from the 13th century onwards the bishops frequently claimed the same rights in their lands as the king enjoyed in his kingdom.
The historic boundaries of County Durham included a main body covering the catchment of the Pennines in the west, the River Tees in the south, the North Sea in the east and the Rivers Tyne and Derwent in the north. The county palatinate also had a number of liberties: the Bedlingtonshire, Islandshire and Norhamshire exclaves within Northumberland, and the Craikshire exclave within the North Riding of Yorkshire. In 1831 the county covered an area of 679,530 acres (2,750.0 km2) and had a population of 253,910. These exclaves were included as part of the county for parliamentary electoral purposes until 1832, and for judicial and local-government purposes until the coming into force of the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844, which merged most remaining exclaves with their surrounding county. The boundaries of the county proper remained in use for administrative and ceremonial purposes until the Local Government Act 1972.
Boldon Book (1183 or 1184) is a polyptichum for the Bishopric of Durham.
Until the 15th century, the most important administrative officer in the Palatinate was the steward. Other officers included the sheriff, the coroners, the Chamberlain and the chancellor. The palatine exchequer originated in the 12th century. The palatine assembly represented the whole county, and dealt chiefly with fiscal questions. The bishop's council, consisting of the clergy, the sheriff and the barons, regulated judicial affairs, and later produced the Chancery and the courts of Admiralty and Marshalsea.
The prior of Durham ranked first among the bishop's barons. He had his own court, and almost exclusive jurisdiction over his men. A UNESCO site describes the role of the Prince-Bishops in Durham, the "buffer state between England and Scotland":
From 1075, the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop, with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England, he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler, reaping the revenue from his territory, but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.
A report states that the Bishops also had the authority to appoint judges and barons and to offer pardons.
There were ten palatinate barons in the 12th century, most importantly the Hyltons of Hylton Castle, the Bulmers of Brancepeth, the Conyers of Sockburne, the Hansards of Evenwood, and the Lumleys of Lumley Castle. The Nevilles owned large estates in the county. John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby rebuilt Raby Castle, their principal seat, in 1377.
Edward I's quo warranto proceedings of 1293 showed twelve lords enjoying more or less extensive franchises under the bishop. The repeated efforts of the Crown to check the powers of the palatinate bishops culminated in 1536 in the Act of Resumption, which deprived the bishop of the power to pardon offences against the law or to appoint judicial officers. Moreover, indictments and legal processes were in future to run in the name of the king, and offences to be described as against the peace of the king, rather than that of the bishop. In 1596 restrictions were imposed on the powers of the chancery, and in 1646 the palatinate was formally abolished. It was revived, however, after the Restoration, and continued with much the same power until 5 July 1836, when the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 provided that the palatine jurisdiction should in future be vested in the Crown.
During the 15th-century Wars of the Roses, Henry VI passed through Durham. On the outbreak of the Great Rebellion in 1642 Durham inclined to support the cause of Parliament, and in 1640 the high sheriff of the palatinate guaranteed to supply the Scottish army with provisions during their stay in the county. In 1642 the Earl of Newcastle formed the western counties into an association for the King's service, but in 1644 the palatinate was again overrun by a Scottish army, and after the Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644) fell entirely into the hands of Parliament.
In 1614, a Bill was introduced in Parliament for securing representation to the county and city of Durham and the borough of Barnard Castle. The bishop strongly opposed the proposal as an infringement of his palatinate rights, and the county was first summoned to return members to Parliament in 1654. After the Restoration of 1660 the county and city returned two members each. In the wake of the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned two members for two divisions, and the boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland acquired representation. The bishops lost their secular powers in 1836. The boroughs of Darlington, Stockton and Hartlepool returned one member each from 1868 until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 reformed the municipal boroughs of Durham, Stockton on Tees and Sunderland. In 1875, Jarrow was incorporated as a municipal borough, as was West Hartlepool in 1887. At a county level, the Local Government Act 1888 reorganised local government throughout England and Wales. Most of the county came under control of the newly formed Durham County Council in an area known as an administrative county. Not included were the county boroughs of Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland. However, for purposes other than local government, the administrative county of Durham and the county boroughs continued to form a single county to which the Crown appointed a Lord Lieutenant of Durham.
Over its existence, the administrative county lost territory, both to the existing county boroughs, and because two municipal boroughs became county boroughs: West Hartlepool in 1902 and Darlington in 1915. The county boundary with the North Riding of Yorkshire was adjusted in 1967: that part of the town of Barnard Castle historically in Yorkshire was added to County Durham, while the administrative county ceded the portion of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in Durham to the North Riding. In 1968, following the recommendation of the Local Government Commission, Billingham was transferred to the County Borough of Teesside, in the North Riding. In 1971, the population of the county—including all associated county boroughs (an area of 2,570 km2 (990 sq mi))—was 1,409,633, with a population outside the county boroughs of 814,396.
In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 abolished the administrative county and the county boroughs, reconstituting County Durham as a non-metropolitan county. The reconstituted County Durham lost territory to the north-east (around Gateshead, South Shields and Sunderland) to Tyne and Wear and to the south-east (around Hartlepool) to Cleveland. At the same time it gained the former area of Startforth Rural District from the North Riding of Yorkshire. The area of the Lord Lieutenancy of Durham was also adjusted by the Act to coincide with the non-metropolitan county (which occupied 3,019 km2 (1,166 sq mi) in 1981).
In 1996, as part of 1990s UK local government reform by Lieutenancies Act 1997, Cleveland was abolished. Its districts were reconstituted as unitary authorities. Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees (north Tees) were returned to the county for the purposes of Lord Lieutenancy. Darlington also became a third unitary authority of the county. The Royal Mail abandoned the use of postal counties altogether, permitted but not mandatory being at a writer wishes.
As part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England initiated by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the seven district councils within the County Council area were abolished. The County Council assumed their functions and became the fourth unitary authority. Changes came into effect on 1 April 2009.
On 15 April 2014, North East Combined Authority was established under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 with powers over economic development and regeneration. In November 2018, Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Borough Council, and Northumberland County Council left the authority. These later formed the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
In May 2021, four parish councils of the villages of Elwick, Hart, Dalton Piercy and Greatham all issued individual votes of no confidence in Hartlepool Borough Council, and expressed their desire to join the County Durham district.
In October 2021, County Durham was shortlisted for the UK City of Culture 2025. In May 2022, it lost to Bradford.
Eighteenth century Durham saw the appearance of dissent in the county and the Durham Ox. The county did not assist the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. The Statue of Neptune in the City of Durham was erected in 1729.
A number of disasters happened in Nineteenth century Durham. The Felling mine disasters happened in 1812, 1813, 1821 and 1847. The Philadelphia train accident happened in 1815. In 1854, there was a great fire in Gateshead. One of the West Stanley Pit disasters happened in 1882. The Victoria Hall disaster happened in 1883.
One of the West Stanley Pit disasters happened in 1909. The Darlington rail crash happened in 1928. The Battle of Stockton happened in 1933. The Browney rail crash happened in 1946.
The First Treaty of Durham was made at Durham in 1136. The Second Treaty of Durham was made at Durham in 1139.
The county regiment was the Durham Light Infantry, which replaced, in particular, the 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) and the Militia and Volunteers of County Durham.
RAF Greatham, RAF Middleton St George and RAF Usworth were located in County Durham.
David I, the King of Scotland, invaded the county in 1136, and ravaged much of the county 1138. In 17 October 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross was fought at Neville's Cross, near the city of Durham. On 16 December 1914, during the First World War, there was a raid on Hartlepool by the Imperial German Navy.
Chroniclers connected with Durham include the Bede, Symeon of Durham, Geoffrey of Coldingham and Robert de Graystanes.
County Durham has long been associated with coal mining, from medieval times up to the late 20th century. The Durham Coalfield covered a large area of the county, from Bishop Auckland, to Consett, to the River Tyne and below the North Sea, thereby providing a significant expanse of territory from which this rich mineral resource could be extracted.
King Stephen possessed a mine in Durham, which he granted to Bishop Pudsey, and in the same century colliers are mentioned at Coundon, Bishopwearmouth and Sedgefield. Cockfield Fell was one of the earliest Landsale collieries in Durham. Edward III issued an order allowing coal dug at Newcastle to be taken across the Tyne, and Richard II granted to the inhabitants of Durham licence to export the produce of the mines, without paying dues to the corporation of Newcastle. The majority was transported from the Port of Sunderland complex, which was constructed in the 1850s.
Among other early industries, lead-mining was carried on in the western part of the county, and mustard was extensively cultivated. Gateshead had a considerable tanning trade and shipbuilding was undertaken at Jarrow, and at Sunderland, which became the largest shipbuilding town in the world – constructing a third of Britain's tonnage.[citation needed]
The county's modern-era economic history was facilitated significantly by the growth of the mining industry during the nineteenth century. At the industry's height, in the early 20th century, over 170,000 coal miners were employed, and they mined 58,700,000 tons of coal in 1913 alone. As a result, a large number of colliery villages were built throughout the county as the industrial revolution gathered pace.
The railway industry was also a major employer during the industrial revolution, with railways being built throughout the county, such as The Tanfield Railway, The Clarence Railway and The Stockton and Darlington Railway. The growth of this industry occurred alongside the coal industry, as the railways provided a fast, efficient means to move coal from the mines to the ports and provided the fuel for the locomotives. The great railway pioneers Timothy Hackworth, Edward Pease, George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson were all actively involved with developing the railways in tandem with County Durham's coal mining industry. Shildon and Darlington became thriving 'railway towns' and experienced significant growths in population and prosperity; before the railways, just over 100 people lived in Shildon but, by the 1890s, the town was home to around 8,000 people, with Shildon Shops employing almost 3000 people at its height.
However, by the 1930s, the coal mining industry began to diminish and, by the mid-twentieth century, the pits were closing at an increasing rate. In 1951, the Durham County Development Plan highlighted a number of colliery villages, such as Blackhouse, as 'Category D' settlements, in which future development would be prohibited, property would be acquired and demolished, and the population moved to new housing, such as that being built in Newton Aycliffe. Likewise, the railway industry also began to decline, and was significantly brought to a fraction of its former self by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. Darlington Works closed in 1966 and Shildon Shops followed suit in 1984. The county's last deep mines, at Easington, Vane Tempest, Wearmouth and Westoe, closed in 1993.
Postal Rates from 1801 were charged depending on the distance from London. Durham was allocated the code 263 the approximate mileage from London. From about 1811, a datestamp appeared on letters showing the date the letter was posted. In 1844 a new system was introduced and Durham was allocated the code 267. This system was replaced in 1840 when the first postage stamps were introduced.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911): "To the Anglo-Saxon period are to be referred portions of the churches of Monk Wearmouth (Sunderland), Jarrow, Escomb near Bishop Auckland, and numerous sculptured crosses, two of which are in situ at Aycliffe. . . . The Decorated and Perpendicular periods are very scantily represented, on account, as is supposed, of the incessant wars between England and Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries. The principal monastic remains, besides those surrounding Durham cathedral, are those of its subordinate house or "cell," Finchale Priory, beautifully situated by the Wear. The most interesting castles are those of Durham, Raby, Brancepeth and Barnard. There are ruins of castelets or peel-towers at Dalden, Ludworth and Langley Dale. The hospitals of Sherburn, Greatham and Kepyer, founded by early bishops of Durham, retain but few ancient features."
The best remains of the Norman period include Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle, and several parish churches, such as St Laurence Church in Pittington. The Early English period has left the eastern portion of the cathedral, the churches of Darlington, Hartlepool, and St Andrew, Auckland, Sedgefield, and portions of a few other churches.
'Durham Castle and Cathedral' is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Elsewhere in the County there is Auckland Castle.
Northern & Mid river pylon's (Form Traveller now raised to the Hammerhead on northern pylon)...............Please note ALL pictures on this Photostream are Copyright Protected
Green Forms. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.
Green foliage in spring light.
There are two photographers in our household, and one specializes in close-up photography, especially featuring the plant world. I'm not that photographers. (She would be Patricia Emerson Mitchell, my wife.) Recently I've tagged along a few times when she went to photograph at a couple of botanical gardens, and the exercise stretching by "seeing" skills in interesting ways.
In person you might not have found this plant to be all that interesting. The light was tricky (I used a diffuser to control it) and only a small section of the plant seemed to produce a decent composition. But I moved in close, used a macro lens, and found something that focuses on the gestures of the plant's shape, and on a small, very green world.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, "California's Fall Color: A Photographer's Guide to Autumn in the Sierra" is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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5 week old English Bulldog puppy!
An old stalk of grass that weathered the winter has aged into graceful curls and stands out above the young Spring leaves.
Post-processing the photo to black & white emphasizes form over color, further highlighting the beautiful curls.
Here is a little taster of a series I'm editing at the moment, went for a Sin City / Noir theme!
Please check out my Facebook page at - www.facebook.com/seancrottyartwork
Photo by Sean Crotty
Des physiciens britanniques ont récemment accouché d’une nouvelle théorie sur les interactions entre la matière et la lumière au niveau quantique, et ces travaux ont aussi fait émerger une très intéressante : pour la première fois, ces chercheurs ont réussi à définir la forme précise d’un photon isolé.
Les photons, ce sont les particules qui servent de vecteur à la force électromagnétique, et par extension, à la lumière visible grâce à laquelle nous sommes capables de visualiser notre environnement. Mais même s’ils sont incroyablement abondants, ce sont des objets qui, paradoxalement, sont encore loin d’être parfaitement compris par les physiciens.
La façon dont ils interagissent avec la matière, en particulier, est extrêmement complexe. Pour en appréhender toutes les nuances, il faut d’abord réussir à conceptualiser puis à associer une myriade de phénomènes souvent très difficiles à manipuler, notamment parce qu’une grande partie d’entre eux se déroulent dans le domaine quantique.
« La nature de ces interactions ouvre des possibilités infinies par rapport à l’existence et à la propagation de la lumière à travers son environnement. Ces possibilités illimitées rendent les interactions exceptionnellement difficiles à modéliser, et c’est un défi que les physiciens quantiques cherchent à relever depuis plusieurs décennies », expliquent les auteurs de l’étude dans un communiqué de l’Université de Birmingham.
Un nouveau cadre théorique sur le comportement des photons
Pour simplifier l’équation, ces chercheurs ont donc décidé de regrouper toutes ces possibilités dans quelques ensembles bien définis. Grâce à cette approche, ils ont réussi à établir un modèle certes simplifié par rapport à la réalité, mais tout de même cohérent et très complet : il décrit non seulement la relation entre le photon et l’objet qui l’émet, mais aussi le comportement de l’énergie qui résulte de ces interactions.
Il s’agit donc de travaux importants, car ils permettent de définir précisément comment ces particules exceptionnellement importantes interagissent avec les différents éléments de leur environnement.
« Ces travaux nous aident à approfondir notre compréhension de l’échange d’énergie entre la lumière et la matière », explique Benjamin Yuen, co-auteur de l’étude. « Il y a de nombreux signaux que l’on considérait auparavant comme du simple “bruit”, mais qui contiennent en fait énormément d’informations auxquelles nous pouvons désormais donner du sens », se réjouit-il.
Par extension, cette étude défriche donc de nouvelles pistes que les physiciens pourront emprunter pour faire progresser des disciplines comme la physique quantique ou la science des matériaux. Les auteurs citent notamment des « nouvelles technologies nanophotoniques » qui pourraient « changer notre manière de communiquer, de détecter des pathogènes, ou encore de contrôler des réactions chimiques à l’échelle moléculaire ».
Le premier portrait-robot d’un photon
En parallèle, ces travaux ont aussi fait émerger une autre nouveauté relativement anecdotique dans le contexte de ces travaux, mais néanmoins fascinante : pour la première fois, les auteurs ont réussi à modéliser la “forme” d’un photon. Dans leur papier de recherche, ils présentent en effet une forme vaguement circulaire qui fait un peu penser à une cellule vue au microscope, entourée d’un étrange halo en forme d’étoile.
Ce concept de “forme” d’un photon est assez perturbant au premier abord. À l’inverse des neutrons et des protons qui constituent les atomes, les photons ne sont typiquement pas décrits comme des objets physiques. Contrairement à ces derniers, il faut passer par plusieurs couches d’abstraction pas toujours très intuitives pour les étudier.
En effet, on considère généralement que les photons n’existent qu’à travers leurs interactions ; ils sont régulièrement décrits comme des ondes plutôt que comme des particules tangibles (voir la notion de dualité onde-corpuscule). Par extension, la plupart des modèles physiques leur attribuent une masse nulle, et considèrent qu’ils n’ont pas de taille ou de forme bien définie.
Physique : l’étau se resserre autour de la masse de la lumière
Comment les auteurs ont-ils donc réussi à visualiser une forme qui, selon ces interprétations, n’existe tout simplement pas ? Pour le comprendre, il faut reconsidérer la définition même de la forme. Car ici, nous ne parlons pas des frontières d’un objet matériel comme une sphère ou un cube ; il s’agit plutôt d’une question de répartition d’énergie.
Pour visualiser cette notion, on peut l’aborder en faisant un détour par le monde de la musique. Chaque note (Do, Ré, Mii…) est construite autour d’une fréquence fondamentale qui détermine sa hauteur. Mais elle est rarement seule : la fréquence fondamentale est presque toujours accompagnée d’autres fréquences plus discrètes que l’on appelle les partiels, et ce sont eux qui déterminent les autres paramètres d’un son — comme son timbre. C’est précisément à cause de ces partiels qu’un do joué par un piano est beaucoup plus riche que celui qui sort d’un diapason, par exemple ; la répartition de ces fréquences change la manière dont l’onde sonore interagit avec nos tympans.
De la même façon, l’énergie des photons est distribuée sur plusieurs modes de fréquences différents. Comme avec une note de musique, cette répartition joue un rôle crucial dans la manière dont le photon interagit avec son environnement, et notamment avec les champs électriques.
En d’autres termes, cette image ne représente pas une forme physique que l’on pourrait toucher ou observer au microscope. La « forme » en question est en fait une carte de la distribution de l’énergie véhiculée par le photon sur différentes fréquences du spectre électromagnétique ; c’est une manière de représenter visuellement le résultat des interactions entre le photon et la matière qui sont décrites dans le modèle des chercheurs (voir plus haut).
Quoi qu’il en soit, il s’agit tout de même du premier portrait d’un photon. Et même s’il ne s’agit que d’une représentation abstraite, il sera très intéressant de garder un œil sur les travaux ultérieurs qui se serviront de ce nouveau cadre théorique pour faire avancer des disciplines fascinantes telles que la physique quantique.
Garden .. creative work reflecting the colours and forms of an imagined undersea garden . Another way of looking at this is to think of all the discarded plastic that is dumped into the sea , some of it breaking down to microscopic particles where by its consumed by the fish and we eat the fish . When are we going to stop using the sea as a garbage tip and expect everything that comes from it to be and pure and good .
From an exhibition titled Water .
GOMA : Gallery Of Modern Art
Cultural Centre . Brisbane
Light, form and proportion shape a quiet composition.
The timeless silhouette of a classic Porsche 911 remains the natural focal point, while a subtle human presence adds balance without disturbing the stillness of the scene.
Smyth County, Virginia was formed on February 23, 1832, from Washington and Wythe counties. The county is named after Alexander Smyth, a general during the War of 1812 who was elected to the state Senate, House of Delegates, and as a Representative to the United States Congress.
The county courthouse in Marion, Virginia was built in 1905 with the Beaux Arts style of design being done by Architect Frank Milburn. This courthouse is part of the Marion Historic District was listed in the National Register in 1992.
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
Project 52 Week 10
“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me
There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.
–Josh Jameson
Laura New Myers is an expressive artist who describes her collaboration with photographers "...to gratify a new flourishing requisition that I had come to find existed in this new age of chaos emerging personal expression... to persuede and promote divine intervention in the sense of ones "higher self", independent thinking, moral/ethical consideration, and scholastics through the art of silent, expressive, and allegorical story telling and last but not least to connect Arists from far and wide." Model, Makeup, Wardrobe: Laura New Myers.
artwork form blue thirty: Ratkiller
bluetapes.co.uk/product/blue-thirty-ratkiller
Pro-dubbed C35 with onbody printing and O-card
Cubist, electronic, jazz. Obliquely funky. Negative space as a bassline and panning analogue synth vocalisations as melodies.
Ratkiller’s music seems at once spontaneous and intricately plotted - it’s like a computer system grown fat on its own logic that has started to improvise with its own programming. Because it feels good. Because it’s testing the very barriers of what it is capable of, and rather than disguising its limitations, using them as accompaniment.
This exploratory, unhurried music is full of moment of subtle awe and wonderment. It’s abstract, for sure, but far from a difficult listen - the ear candy is sublime and, in its own way, kind of pop. It ripples and flutters with colour.
Even when the pieces across this album do indulge more familiar structures, for instance hooking themselves around a beat, rather than sabotage the rhythm the more aleatoric elements bounce along with it, batting it about and toying with it like two two unfamiliar species communicating through play.
This isn’t music for barbecues. Don’t play it when your friends are round. Curl up in a space with it where it can have your full attention. Curl up inside it. These are your friends now.
Praise for Ratkiller:
“Ratkiller, aka Mihkel Kleis, is a compelling artist. Someone, somewhere in this land, once wrote that Kleis “listens to music on the edge of human perception”. Quite what that entails, or whether he does is open to debate, though it certainly sounds shamanic enough.” - The Quietus
“There are always other words in a word, other texts in a text, but also other melodies in a melody, and other music in music. Ratkiller is a master of this musical intertextuality.” - Norient
"This has to be one of the best blasts of aural information we’ve heard come off a cassette in a while. Playful, noisy, weird – a mostly indefinable mess of squirmy ugly sexiness. Ratkiller doesn’t sound much like what you’d expect someone called Ratkiller – grindcore? goregrind? gorecore? – to sound like, and is therefore totally the most appropriate name for this project." - 20 Jazz Funk Greats
Each square is 6x6.
Sharpie on drawing paper.
Concern: The Past
Principles: Figure to Ground & Rendering Form
It took me a while to figure how I wanted to pursue the idea of "the past" because it can be interpreted on many levels including a historical, personal, or philosophical perspective. I eventually decided to incorporate feminity with the past that utilized high contrast design principles to mimic a figure to ground relationship and a minimalist design. My work was inspired by Ellsworth Kelly's color-blocking techniques and Kara Walker's politically stirring, high-contrast work. Each square is meant to depict the relationship between men and women overtime and how times leads to a continual growth of complexities in society. The first square (from the left) shows an equal balance between men (black) and women (white) because before developed society ever emerged, men and women were merely creatures who served equal purposes in this world — to survive. As humans became more intelligent, men in developed society found ways to minimize a women's voice and diminish her importance / exploit her well-being for their own purpose. Eventually, by the 20th century, women took great strives in American society, and women were granted the right to vote by 1920. The newly emerging lines in the third square represent this first wave of feminism. The fourth square thus depicts the second wave of feminism where women entered the workforce more rigorously in the 1970's. Finally, the last square depicts the modern era — one where the complexity between the sexes has grown the greatest. Because women were marginalized so greatly for centuries before, we can no longer reach the simple harmony and equality of the past, but emerging voices have helped acquire more rights for women within the political, economic, and social constructs of society. The last square also appears so circuitous to underscore the entangled issues of race and sexual orientation in the modern era. Feminism and the idea of feminity needs to be intertwined within all human beings, not just expressed or only accepted in women. As these complexities continue to grow on the page, progress will be further achieved.
La forme conique des maisons ruche de Harran n’est pas le fruit d’un caprice esthétique. Elle répond à des exigences climatiques et matérielles très précises. Dans cette région semi-désertique, les amplitudes thermiques peuvent dépasser les 40° entre le jour et la nuit. Construire avec de la pierre taillée, rare et coûteuse, n’était pas une option accessible aux populations rurales. Les habitants ont donc mis au point une solution ingénieuse à partir de matériaux locaux : la brique de terre crue.
Les murs, bâtis en briques d’adobe, forment une base circulaire sur laquelle viennent se superposer des anneaux concentriques qui se rétrécissent progressivement jusqu’à former une voûte conique. Ce type de construction, sans charpente ni linteau, présente de nombreux avantages techniques et pratiques : stabilité structurelle, excellente isolation thermique, ventilation naturelle et faible coût de construction. On comprend rapidement pourquoi ce système a perduré pendant des siècles à Harran.
D'après diapositive.
There are many ancient olive trees here.
Teos (Ancient Greek: Τέως) or Teo was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus. It was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus, Ionians and Boeotians, but the date of its foundation is unknown. Teos was one of the twelve cities which formed the Ionian League. The city was situated on a low hilly isthmus. Its ruins are located to the south of the modern town Sığacık in the Seferihisar district of Izmir Province, Turkey.
Teos, the important commercial harbour on the Ionian coast, was one of the most powerful cities of the region until the Hellenistic period. The remains of the city lie very close to the present Siğacik, within about 30 km from Smyrna. The name is Greek but its etymology remains unknown.1
Teos was founded during the Ionian colonisation, which must have started towards the 10th century BC at the latest. According to tradition,2 the first settler of the city was Athamas with his Minyans from the ancient Boeotian city of Orchomenus. The next settlers were the Ionians under Apoecus and shortly later a third group of immigrants from Athens under Damasus and Nauclus, the sons of Codrus, and from Boeotia under Geres settled there.
The city was one of the earliest members of the Ionian Dodecapolis, as indicated by the fact that colonists from Teos and Erythrae settled in Phokea, whose first inhabitants were Aeolians. Tradition says that the fall of Phokea to the Ionians from Teos and Erythrae was considered a submission of Phokea to the kings of the two above cities so that Teos could become a member of the Ionian union.3 Around 600 BC Thales of Miletus suggested that a political union of the Ionian cities should be based in Teos thanks to the ideal location of the city exactly in the middle of Ionia.
History
Pausanias writes that the city was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus under the leadership of Athamas, a descendant of Athamas the son of Aeolus. Later on they were joined by Ionians and more colonists from Athens and Boeotia.[1]
Teos was a flourishing seaport with two fine harbours until Cyrus the Great invaded Lydia and Ionia (c. 540 BC). The Teans found it prudent to retire overseas, to the newly founded colonies of Abdera in Thrace and Phanagoria on the Asian side of the Cimmerian Bosporus. The port was revived by Antigonus Cyclops. During the times of the Roman emperors, the town was noted for its wine, a theatre and Temple of Dionysus. These are positioned near the acropolis, which is situated on a low hill and had fortifications by the 6th century. A shipwreck near Tektaş, a small rock outcrop near Teos harbour, dates from the Classical period (around the 6th to the 4th centuries BC) and implies trading connections by sea with eastern Aegean Islands.
It was a member of the Lydian group of the Ionian League, one of the four groups defined by Herodotus, based on the particular dialects of the cities. It was the birthplace of Anacreon the poet, Hecateus the historian, Protagoras the sophist, Scythinus the poet, Andron the geographer, Antimachus the epic poet and Apellicon, the preserver of the works of Aristotle. Epicurus reportedly grew up in Teos and studied there under Nausiphanes, a disciple of Democritus.[2][3] Vitruvius notes Hermogenes of Priene as the architect of the monopteral temple of Dionysus at Teos.
An interesting rental agreement chiseled into stone was uncovered in 2016 in the ruins of Teos
Playing around with flash, a miniature dress form, and new 50mm 1.8 lens. Shot this with D7000, 50mm at ISO400, f/7.1, 1/80, 2.33EV. Strobist: single SB600 with diffuser dome in DIY Pringles can snoot above angled down from camera left, fired via Nikon CLS from camera. Post in Aperture3 and Topaz Adjust.
Many thanks to all who viewed, fav'd and commented.
Il sogno è vedere le forme invisibili della distanza imprecisa, con sensibili movimenti della speranza e della volontà cercare
sulla fredda linea d'orizzonte
l'albero, la spiaggia, il fiore, l'uccello, la fonte: i baci meritati della Verità. (Fernando Pessoa)
Corsica : Coast of Balagna seen from the beach of Nonza (Capi Corsu)