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Wow!! AP implies Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh's bombshell revelation that it was the U.S. that sabotaged the Nord Stream Pipelines is a baseless conspiracy theory, spread by the Russians!! Amazing! Here's a quote from the AP article: "Russia spread conspiracy theories blaming the U.S. for the sabotage. The baseless theories were quickly amplified by far-right users in the U.S. It’s not the first time America’s authoritarian adversaries have seized on global events to portray the U.S. as belligerent."
The Seymour Hersh article:
seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord...
www.globaltimes.cn/page/202302/1285368.shtml
US' role more questionable as Hersh loses stardom among US media outlets
apnews.com/article/technology-politics-united-states-gove...
Rumors swirl about balloons, UFOs as officials stay mum
February 14, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe they came from China. Maybe from somewhere farther away. A lot farther away.
The downing of four aerial devices by U.S. warplanes has touched off rampant misinformation about the objects, their origin and their purpose, showing how complicated world events and a lack of information can quickly create the perfect conditions for unchecked conjecture and misinformation.
The presence of mysterious objects high in the sky doesn’t help.
“There will be an investigation and we will learn more, but until then this story has created a playground for people interested in speculating or stirring the pot for their own reasons,” said Jim Ludes, a former national defense analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International Relations at Salve Regina University.
“In part,” Ludes added, “because it feeds into so many narratives about government secrecy.”
President Joe Biden and other top Washington officials have said little about the repeated shootdowns, which began with a suspected Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. Three more unidentified devices have been shot down, with the latest Sunday over Lake Huron. Pentagon officials said they posed no security threats but have not disclosed their origins or purpose.
On Monday, many social media sites in the U.S. lit up with theories that Biden had deployed the aerial devices as a way to distract Americans from other, more pressing issues. Those concerns included immigration, inflation, the war in Ukraine and Republican investigations into Hunter Biden, the president’s son.
While the concentration of claims was highest on fringe sites popular with far-right Americans, the unfounded rumors and conspiracy theories popped up on bigger platforms like Twitter and Facebook, too.
One of the most popular theories suggested the White House and Pentagon are using the airborne devices to divert attention from a chemical spill earlier this month in Ohio.
That incident, caused by a train derailment, occurred several days before the most recent devices were shot down, and was covered extensively. Nonetheless, the spill remained the top subject searched on Google on Monday, showing continued public interest in the story.
China’s government apparently took notice. On Tuesday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying tweeted a link to news coverage of the Ohio chemical leak and added #OhioChernobyl, a hashtag used in many posts that suggest the incident is being covered up.
“Apparently some in the US take a wandering civilian balloon as a big threat while the explosive train derailment and toxic chemical leak not,” she wrote in the tweet, which racked up tens of thousands of views within hours Tuesday.
Misleading claims about the airborne devices have also prompted violent threats, according to an analysis by the SITE Intelligence Group, a firm that tracks extremist rhetoric online. After the White House said earlier surveillance flights went undetected during Donald Trump’s presidency, an article circulated on far-right sites urging the execution of any Trump administration officials who may have withheld the information.
Trump administration officials have said they knew of no such surveillance craft.
Some commenters said Biden’s decision to wait until the balloon had reached the East Coast before shooting it down showed he was in league with China. Others, meanwhile, chastised Biden for shooting down foreign aircraft that they imagined could be carrying bioweapons or nuclear weapons.
Alongside the political conspiracy theories were suggestions that the aerial objects were extraterrestrial in origin. Photos of alleged UFOs were shared online and web searches for the term “UFO” soared around the world Sunday, according to information from Google Trends.
Online posts mentioning extraterrestrials increased by nearly 300% since the first balloon was identified, according to an analysis conducted for The Associated Press by Zignal Labs, a San Francisco-based media intelligence firm. Zignal’s review included millions of posts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
“Don’t worry, just some of my friends of mine stopping by,” Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, joked in a tweet Sunday.
Humor aside, while the details of the different claims vary, they have two things in common: a lack of evidence and a strong distrust of America’s elected leaders.
“Maybe Joe built the balloon & had Hunter launch it to scare we the people!” wrote one Facebook user. “How do WE know??? We don’t!”
The federal government must balance the public’s desire to know the details with the need for secrecy regarding national security and defense, Ludes said. That’s not likely to satisfy Biden’s critics, Ludes said, or prevent misleading explanations from going viral.
High-profile news stories and events often precede a spike in false and misleading claims as people turn to the internet for explanations. Conspiracy theories about Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin spread quickly after his dramatic on-field collapse in January. Something similar happened last year when the Nord Stream pipelines in the North Sea were damaged.
In that instance, Russia spread conspiracy theories blaming the U.S. for the sabotage. The baseless theories were quickly amplified by far-right users in the U.S. It’s not the first time America’s authoritarian adversaries have seized on global events to portray the U.S. as belligerent.
China has claimed the balloon shot down Feb. 4 was engaged in meteorological research. On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said 10 U.S. balloons had entered Chinese airspace without permission in the past year.
Beijing’s response to this latest diplomatic row seeks to portray China as the responsible actor, while sidestepping surveillance allegations made by the U.S., according to Kenton Thibaut, a China expert at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, a Washington-based organization that tracks foreign disinformation and propaganda.
“It’s about projecting an image of responsibility and rationality, of being the adult in the room,” Thibaut said of China’s response. “It’s a clear signal to nations in the developing world that the U.S. is selfish, untrustworthy and hypocritical.”
On Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did refute one viral claim to have emerged from the balloon saga.
“I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again no indication — of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “I wanted to make sure that the American people knew that, all of you knew that and it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it.”
Its been a few weeks since I did any churchcrawling, so here we are near to the north Kent coast, looking to find which churches are open.
We had a couple of locked doors, but preparations at Holy Cross were well under way for Messy Church later.
I was last here six years ago, back when I was still green on the fixtures and fittings of a Kentish parish church. Original gas lamps, although there is now goof electrical lights and heaters.
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HOTHE,
OTHERWISE called Hoad borough, lies the next parish south-eastward from Herne. It was antiently, as its name implies, accounted but as a borough to the adjoining parish of Reculver, to which, as to its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, it still belongs.
THE PARISH of Hothe is situated in a lonely unfrequented country, both unwholesome and unpleasant, the soil being for the most part a deep stiff clay. The road from Sturry, through Rushborne to Reculver, goes along the western part of it, upon which stands Maypole-street, one side of which only is in this parish, the other side being in Herne; further in the valley, close to a rill of water, stood the old palace of Ford, and several houses near it; a habitation, says archbishop Parker, in such a soil, and in such a corner as he thought no man could delight to dwell there. The street or village of Hothe, in which the chapel stands, though as well as Maypole-street, situated on high ground, are both very wet, from the land springs which the ground is much subject to. Towards the south this parish is mostly woodland.
A fair, formerly held on Easter-Monday, is now held yearly on the 27th of May.
A branch of the Knowlers resided for several generations in this parish, possessed of Wainfleets, and farms in Maypole and Breadless-streets in it.
Within the bounds of this pairsh is THE MANOR OF FORD, alias SHELVINGFORD, which was once the patrimony of the family of Shelving, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward III. and prefixed their name to it. Soon after which it passed, by the marriage of Benedicta, daughter and heir of John Shelving, to Sir Edmund Haut, in whose descendants it continued down till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, leaving two daughters his coheirs, the eldest of them, Elizabeth, carried it in marriage to Thomas Culpeper, esq. of Bedgbury, in Goudhurst, son and heir of Sir Alexander Culpeper, who by an act in the 35th year of that reign exchanged this manor with the archbishop of Canterbury, for other premises. (fn. 1) Since which it has remained parcel of the possessions of that see to the present time.
FORD PALACE, in the northern part of this parish, was parcel of the antient possessions of the see of Canterbury, built probably on lands given to it sometime before the Norman conquest, and from the few remains left of it, appears to have been the most antient palace, excepting that of Canterbury, which had been erected for the archiepiscopal residence. Archbishop Moreton, in king Henry VII.'s reign, a magnificent prelate, who expended large sums, in the building and augmenting of his different palaces, almost rebuilt the whole of this of Ford, at which afterwards, in the summer of the year 1544, king Henry VIII. in his journey towards France, dined with archbishop Cranmer, who frequently resided here, and rode the same night to Dover, to go over thither. But in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, it had fallen greatly to ruin, insomuch that archbishop Parker, made his petition in the year 1573, to the queen, though in vain, for her consent to pull it down, in order to enlarge his palace at Bekesborne, representing it, though large, yet as very inconvenient, being an old, decayed, wasteful, unwholesome, and desolate house; for Forde was in such a corner, and in such a soil, as he thought no man could have any delight to dwell there. After which archbishop Abbot, in 1627, being suspended from all his archiepiscopal functions, retired with the king's consent to this palace. (fn. 2) Archbishop Whitgift, his next successor in the see, used at times to reside here, and is said to have hunted in the park of Ford. Nearly in which state this palace continued till the civil wars, when the revenues of the archbishopric being seized on by the state, and sold to different purchasers, this house of Ford was pulled down in 1658, and the materials disposed of. On the restoration, the scite of Ford palace, with the park and other lands belonging to it, returned again to the see of Canterbury, and were soon afterwards demised by the archbishop on a beneficial lease. In which state it still continues, Mr. Vincent Varham being the present lessee of it. There are but very small remains left of this antient palace. Some of the walls have flues in them, the use of which cannot be ascertained, part of the old gateway is still remaining. The park and vineyards still netain their names, and the forms of the fish-ponds are yet visible. (fn. 3) There is a farm-house now built on the scite of the old lodge, a small part of which yet remains.
Charities.
WILLIAM YVE, of Hothe, by his will in 1526, gave to Margery his daughter, wife of William Alyn, land in Parkfield, beside Chistlet park pale, and beside the chantry meadow in Hothe, and wood lying in Combe wood, on condition, that she and her heirs should evermore brew, against the nativity of St. John Baptist, a quarter of malt; and bake half a quarter of wheat yearly against that feast; and the bread and ale thereof coming, to be distributed within the borough of Hothe, on that and the days following, as long as it should last, to such persons as would eat and drink of it.
A PERSON, of the name of WILMOT, gave to the relief of the poor, wheat to the value of 8s. to be made into bread; to be paid out of the farm at the old tree in this parish.
THERE ARE likewise vested in the chapel wardens, for the use of the poor, three acres of land in Herne, of the yearly rent of 3l. and lands in this parish, of the yearly rents of 5l. 10s.
CHRISTOPHER MILLES, esq. of Herne, by his will in 1638, devised to the poor of this parish, 40s. to be paid yearly, (as has been already mentioned under Westbere and Herne) out of his lease of the parsonage of Reculver, Hoade, and Herne, so long as the lease should continue in any of his surname. Which lease is now in the name of his descendant Richard Milles, esq. of Nackington.
The poor constantly relieved are about fifteen, casually eleven.
HOTHE BOROUGH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, called Hothe chapel, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. It is a small neat building, of one isle and a chancel, having a low square turret of wood at the west end, in which hang three bells. In the isle is an inscription in brass, for Anthony Maycot and Agnes his wife, with their figures, and underneath two sons and five daughters. He died in 1535. And a memorial for Richard Wightwick, A. B. obt. 1779. In the chancel an inscriptions in brass, for Isabella Chakbon, the date obliterated.
This chapel is annexed to the church of Reculver, in the parsonage and vicarage of which the tithes and profits of it are included, being distant about four miles from it. It was probably built at the charge of the inhabitants, to prevent the trouble of going to the mother church, on account of which distance, at their petition in 1303, they had granted the privilege of a church-yard, near their chapel here, to bury their dead in; and in the year 1410, archbishop Arundel dedicated and consecrated this chapel anew, and granted it the right of sepulture, so that the vicar of Reculver should not by that means be any ways prejudiced. And lastly, he decreed that they should be bound to contribute to the repair of the church of Reculver.
¶In the year 1360, Thomas Newe, then vicar of Reculver, for the perpetual discharge of himself and successors, from officiating in the cure of this chapel, and for furnishing it with a constant resident priest, who beside the duty of the chantry which he at that time founded in it, should officiate in the cure here, partly of himself, and partly of the inhabitants, endowed it with competent means, and a house, and glebe, for the priest, who from that time till the dissolution duly served the cure of Hothe, the vicar of Reculver being during that time acquitted of all care and attendance on it. But this chantry being dissolved among others, in the 2d year of king Edward VI. frequent disputes arose between the inhabitants of Hothe and the vicar of Reculver, the latter often neglecting the cure of this chapel for years together, holding himself acquitted of the cure by the antient endowment made as above-mentioned, which plea was allowed by the visitors in queen Mary's days, and by archbishop Abbot, on a suit between them, which lasted some years. But the vicar of Reculver has for some years past constantly served the cure of this chapelry, and received the emoluments belonging to it.
There is a yearly pension of forty shillings paid from the archbishop's estate of Forde. The profits of the tithes of it do not amount to fourteen pounds per annum. (fn. 4) It is valued in the king's books with the vicarage of Reculver. In 1640 here were one hundred and forty communicants.
Kathmandu Durbar Square (Nepali: वसन्तपुर दरवार क्षेत्र, Basantapur Darbar Kshetra) in front of the old royal palace of the former Kathmandu Kingdom is one of three Durbar (royal palace) Squares in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, all of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Several buildings in the Square collapsed due to a major earthquake on 25 April 2015. Durbar Square was surrounded with spectacular architecture and vividly showcases the skills of the Newar artists and craftsmen over several centuries. The Royal Palace was originally at Dattaraya square and was later moved to the Durbar square.
The Kathmandu Durbar Square held the palaces of the Malla and Shah kings who ruled over the city. Along with these palaces, the square surrounds quadrangles, revealing courtyards and temples. It is known as Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square, a name derived from a statue of Hanuman, the monkey devotee of Lord Ram, at the entrance of the palace.
CONTENTS
HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION
The preference for the construction of royal palaces at this site dates back to as early as the Licchavi period in the third century. Even though the present palaces and temples have undergone repeated and extensive renovations and nothing physical remains from that period. Names like Gunapo and Gupo, which are the names referred to the palaces in the square in early scriptures, imply that the palaces were built by Gunakamadev, a King ruling late in the tenth-century. When Kathmandu City became independent under the rule of King Ratna Malla (1484–1520), the palaces in the square became the Royal Palaces for its Malla Kings. When Prithvi Narayan Shah invaded the Kathmandu Valley in 1769, he favored the Kathmandu Durbar Square for his palace. Other subsequent Shah kings continued to rule from the square until 1896 when they moved to the Narayan Hiti Palace.
The square is still the center of important royal events like the coronation of King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah in 1975 and King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah in 2001.
Though there are no written archives stating the history of Kathmandu Durbar Square, construction of the palace in the square is credited to Sankharadev (1069–1083). As the first king of the independent Kathmandu City, Ratna Malla is said to have built the Taleju temple in the Northern side of the palace in 1501. For this to be true then the temple would have had to have been built in the vihara style as part of the palace premise surrounding the Mul Chok courtyard for no evidence of a separate structure that would match this temple can be found within the square.
Construction of the Karnel Chok is not clearly stated in any historical inscriptions; although, it is probably the oldest among all the courtyards in the square. The Bhagavati Temple, originally known as a Narayan Temple, rises above the mansions surrounding it and was added during the time of Jagajaya Malla in the early eighteenth century. The Narayan idol within the temple was stolen so Prithvi Narayan Shah replaced it with an image of Bhagavati, completely transforming the name of the temple.
The oldest temples in the square are those built by Mahendra Malla (1560–1574). They are the temples of Jagannath, Kotilingeswara Mahadev, Mahendreswara, and the Taleju Temple. This three-roofed Taleju Temple was established in 1564, in a typical Newari architectural style and is elevated on platforms that form a pyramid-like structure. It is said that Mahendra Malla, when he was residing in Bhaktapur, was highly devoted to the Taleju Temple there; the Goddess being pleased with his devotion gave him a vision asking him to build a temple for her in the Kathmandu Durbar Square. With a help of a hermit, he designed the temple to give it its present form and the Goddess entered the temple in the form of a bee.
His successors Sadasiva (1575–1581), his son, Shiva Simha (1578–1619), and his grandson, Laksmi Narsingha (1619–1641), do not seem to have made any major additions to the square. During this period of three generations the only constructions to have occurred were the establishment of Degutale Temple dedicated to Goddess Mother Taleju by Shiva Simha and some enhancement in the royal palace by Laksminar Simha.
UNDER PRATAP MALLA
In the time of Pratap Malla, son of Laksminar Simha, the square was extensively developed. He was an intellectual, a pious devotee, and especially interested in arts. He called himself a Kavindra, king of poets, and boasted that he was learned in fifteen different languages. A passionate builder, following his coronation as a king, he immediately began enlargements to his royal palace, and rebuilt some old temples and constructed new temples, shrines and stupas around his kingdom.During the construction of his palace, he added a small entrance in the traditional, low and narrow Newari style. The door was elaborately decorated with carvings and paintings of deities and auspicious sings and was later transferred to the entrance of Mohan Chok. In front of the entrance he placed the statue of Hanuman thinking that Hanuman would strengthen his army and protect his home. The entrance leads to Nasal Chok, the courtyard where most royal events such as coronation, performances, and yagyas, holy fire rituals, take place. It was named after Nasadya, the God of Dance, and during the time of Pratap Malla the sacred mask dance dramas performed in Nasal Chok were widely famed. In one of these dramas, it is said that Pratap Malla himself played the role of Lord Vishnu and that the spirit of the Lord remained in the king's body even after the play. After consulting his Tantric leaders, he ordered a stone image of Lord Vishnu in his incarnation as Nara Simha, the half-lion and half-human form, and then transferred the spirit into the stone. This fine image of Nara Simha made in 1673 still stands in the Nasal Chok. In 1650, he commissioned for the construction of Mohan Chok in the palace. This chok remained the royal residential courtyard for many years and is believed to store a great amount of treasure under its surface. Pratap Malla also built Sundari Chok about this time. He placed a slab engraved with lines in fifteen languages and proclaimed that he who can understand the inscription would produce the flow of milk instead of water from Tutedhara, a fountain set in the outer walls of Mohan Chok. However elaborate his constructions may have been, they were not simply intended to emphasize his luxuries but also his and the importance of others' devotion towards deities. He made extensive donations to temples and had the older ones renovated. Next to the palace, he built a Krishna temple, the Vamsagopala, in an octagonal shape in 1649. He dedicated this temple to his two Indian wives, Rupamati and Rajamati, as both had died during the year it was built. In Mohan Chok, he erected a three roofed Agamachem temple and a unique temple with five superimposing roofs. After completely restoring the Mul Chok, he donated to the adjoining Taleju Temple. To the main temple of Taleju, he donated metal doors in 1670. He rebuilt the Degutale Temple built by his grandfather, Siva Simha, and the Taleju Temple in the palace square. As a substitute to the Indreswara Mahadeva Temple in the distant village of Panauti he built a Shiva temple, Indrapura, near his palace in the square. He carved hymns on the walls of the Jagannath Temple as prayers to Taleju in the form of Kali.
At the southern end of the square, near Kasthamandap at Maru, which was the main city crossroads for early traders, he built another pavilion named Kavindrapura, the mansion of the king of poets. In this mansion he set an idol of dancing Shiva, Nasadyo, which today is highly worshipped by dancers in the Valley.
In the process of beautifying his palace, he added fountains, ponds, and baths. In Sundari Chok, he established a low bath with a golden fountain. He built a small pond, the Naga Pokhari, in the palace adorned with Nagakastha, a wooden serpent, which is said he had ordered stolen from the royal pond in the Bhaktapur Durbar Square. He restored the Licchavi stone sculptures such as the Jalasayana Narayana, the Kaliyadamana, and the Kala Bhairav. An idol of Jalasayana Narayana was placed in a newly created pond in the Bhandarkhal garden in the eastern wing of the palace. As a substitute to the idol of Jalasayana Narayana in Buddhanilkantha, he channeled water from Buddhanilkantha to the pond in Bhandarkhal due bestow authenticity. The Kalyadana, a manifestation of Lord Krishna destroying Kaliya, a water serpent, is placed in Kalindi Chok, which is adjacent to the Mohan Chok. The approximately ten-feet-high image of terrifyingly portrayed Kal Bhairav is placed near the Jagannath Temple. This image is the focus of worship in the chok especially during Durga Puja.
With the death of Pratap Malla in 1674, the overall emphasis on the importance of the square came to a halt. His successors retained relatively insignificant power and the prevailing ministers took control of most of the royal rule. The ministers encountered little influence under these kings and, increasingly, interest of the arts and additions to the square was lost on them. They focused less on culture than Pratap Malla during the three decades that followed his death, steering the city and country more towards the arenas of politics and power, with only a few minor constructions made in the square. These projects included Parthivendra Malla building a temple referred to as Trailokya Mohan or Dasavatara, dedicated to Lord Vishnu in 1679. A large statue of Garuda, the mount of Lord Vishnu, was added in front of it a decade later. Parthivendra Malla added a pillar with image of his family in front of the Taleju Temple.
Around 1692, Radhilasmi, the widowed queen of Pratap Malla, erected the tall temples of Shiva known as Maju Deval near the Garuda image in the square. This temple stands on nine stepped platforms and is one of the tallest buildings in the square. Then her son, Bhupalendra Malla, took the throne and banished the widowed queen to the hills. His death came early at the age of twenty one and his widowed queen, Bhuvanalaksmi, built a temple in the square known as Kageswara Mahadev. The temple was built in the Newari style and acted as a substitute for worship of a distant temple in the hills. After the earthquake in 1934, the temple was restored with a dome roof, which was alien to the Newari architecture.
Jayaprakash Malla, the last Malla king to rule Kathmandu, built a temple for Kumari and Durga in her virginal state. The temple was named Kumari Bahal and was structured like a typical Newari vihara. In his house resides the Kumari, a girl who is revered as the living goddess. He also made a chariot for Kumari and in the courtyard had detailed terra cotta tiles of that time laid down.
UNDER THE SHAH DYNASTY
During the Shah dynasty that followed, the Kathmandu Durbar Square saw a number of changes. Two of the most unique temples in the square were built during this time. One is the Nautale, a nine-storied building known as Basantapur Durbar. It has four roofs and stands at the end of Nasal Chok at the East side of the palace. It is said that this building was set as a pleasure house. The lower three stories were made in the Newari farmhouse style. The upper floors have Newari style windows, sanjhya and tikijhya, and some of them are slightly projected from the wall. The other temple is annexed to the Vasantapur Durbar and has four-stories. This building was initially known as Vilasamandira, or Lohom Chok, but is now commonly known as Basantapur or Tejarat Chok. The lower floors of the Basantapur Chok display extensive woodcarvings and the roofs are made in popular the Mughal style. Archives state that Prthivi Narayan Shah built these two buildings in 1770.
Rana Bahadur Shah was enthroned at the age of two. Bahadur Shah, the second son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, ruled as a regent for his young nephew Rana Bahadur Shah for a close to a decade from 1785 to 1794 and built a temple of Shiva Parvati in the square. This one roofed temple is designed in the Newari style and is remarkably similar to previous temples built by the Mallas. It is rectangular in shape, and enshrines the Navadurga, a group of goddesses, on the ground floor. It has a wooden image of Shiva and Parvati at the window of the upper floor, looking out at the passersby in the square. Another significant donation made during the time of Rana Bahadur Shah is the metal-plated head of Swet Bhairav near the Degutale Temple. It was donated during the festival of Indra Jatra in 1795, and continues to play a major role during the festival every year. This approximately twelve feet high face of Bhairav is concealed behind a latticed wooden screen for the rest of the year. The following this donation Rana Bahadur donated a huge bronze bell as an offering to the Goddess Taleju. Together with the beating of the huge drums donated by his son Girvan Yudha, the bell was rung every day during the daily ritual worship to the goddess. Later these instruments were also used as an alarm system. However, after the death of his beloved third wife Kanimati Devi due to smallpox, Rana Bahadur Shah turned mad with grief and had many images of gods and goddesses smashed including the Taleju statue and bell, and Sitala, the goddess of smallpox.
In 1908, a palace, Gaddi Durbar, was built using European architectural designs. The Rana Prime Ministers who had taken over the power but not the throne of the country from the Shahs Kings from 1846 to 1951 were highly influenced by European styles. The Gaddi Durbar is covered in white plaster, has Greek columns and adjoins a large audience hall, all foreign features to Nepali architecture. The balconies of this durbar were reserved for the royal family during festivals to view the square below.
Some of the parts of the square like the Hatti Chok near the Kumari Bahal in the southern section of the square were removed during restoration after the devastating earthquake in 1934. While building the New Road, the southeastern part of the palace was cleared away, leaving only fragments in places as reminders of their past. Though decreased from its original size and attractiveness from its earlier seventeenth-century architecture, the Kathmandu Durbar Square still displays an ancient surrounding that spans abound five acres of land. It has palaces, temples, quadrangles, courtyards, ponds, and images that were brought together over three centuries of the Malla, the Shah, and the Rana dynasties. It was destroyed in the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.
VISITING
Kathmandu's Durbar Square is the site of the Hanuman Dhoka Palace Complex, which was the royal Nepalese residence until the 19th century and where important ceremonies, such as the coronation of the Nepalese monarch, took place. The palace is decorated with elaborately-carved wooden windows and panels and houses the King Tribhuwan Memorial Museum and the Mahendra Museum. It is possible to visit the state rooms inside the palace.
Time and again the temples and the palaces in the square have gone through reconstruction after being damaged by natural causes or neglect. Presently there are less than ten quadrangles in the square. The temples are being preserved as national heritage sites and the palace is being used as a museum. Only a few parts of the palace are open for visitors and the Taleju temples are only open for people of Hindu and Buddhist faiths.
At the southern end of Durbar Square is one of the most curious attractions in Nepal, the Kumari Chok. This gilded cage contains the Raj Kumari, a girl chosen through an ancient and mystical selection process to become the human incarnation of the Hindu mother goddess, Durga. She is worshiped during religious festivals and makes public appearances at other times for a fee paid to her guards.
WIKIPEDIA
even the tiger agreed for some action shots :)
NOTE: All images are Copyrighted by Asad Gilani. No rights to use are given or implied to the viewer. All rights of ownership and use remain with the copyright own.
Model: Lorna Lynne
MM#: 4402245
Lingerie & Implied Shoot
Studio Chez-Moi
Photographer/Editor: Pedro Marenco
After 15 years of diving, I finally have Everything*
*This in no way implies I'm going to stop spending money any time soon
We saw no blue birds.
Yes, the White Cliffs of Dover, so revered they built a railway line down them to bring materials down when they built the eastern harbour arm, then abandoned the line.
That is the flat area to the left, what is left of an inclined plane from the top of Langdon Hole where a line went across the fields to join the main line at Martin Mill.
After the harbour was built, a tramway was to be built to serve a newtown to be built along the cliffs, but thankfully that plan never came to fruition, though I have seen the plans for terraced house all along our streets and the others up Station Road, and stretching halfway along to Ringwould.
I have no idea where those who would have lived in this new town would have worked.
Anyway, in the end money ran out and the war came.
We were here at seven in the morning looking for orchids before we went to Tesco.
Was bracing, but glorious, and well worth being out so early, and with no other people about too.
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In the 21st century, before anything is built, before a spade breaks the earth, a whole series of legal processes must take place to ensure that no one's point of view is not heard.
Our Victorian forebears had no such issues of course, if they saw that something needed to built, then whatever was in its way, it would be torn down so progress could be made.
Not always the best way to do things, but this attitude helped the track millage in Britain increase year on year in the 19th century. And then, with the dawning of the 20th century, no more main lines were built in Britain, until the CTRL.
But back to the matter in hand. Imagine, someone had an idea of defacing that great symbol of Britain, the White Cliffs of Dover, by building a ten metre wide shelf in them and running a railway up them, a railway which would only be open for a decade at most. Clearly there would be public uproar. Will it ever be built?
Well, it was built, the cliffs were scarred, the railway built, used and ripped up. The shelf, The Cliff Road, is still there, leading from under Jubilee Way up round the top of Langdon Hole. It is possible to look at Google Earth and see the trackbed crossing Reach Road, Deal Road before running alongside the Deal to Dover line, the line from the cliffs losing height until at Martin Mill, they had their junction.
Then, during WWII, rail mounted guns were needed to fire across the channel, the track was relaid, and new lines laid in arcs of fire, so the guns could recoil and make aiming easier.
After the way, the track was taken up again, bridges dismantled and mostly forgotten.
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At the cliff end of Athol Terrace, near Eastern Docks, Dover, a steep footpath leads up the cliff and then along Langdon Cliffs towards St Margaret’s. From the footpath, one can watch the daily activities of Dover’s Eastern Docks and Channel shipping beyond. On clear day, the coast France with the Strait of Dover, like a wide river, in between is quite a site. As one traverses the path, it becomes apparent that it was once a railway track.
The story begins in 1892 when Dover Harbour Board (DHB) accepted the tender of John Jackson (1851-1919) for the building of the Eastern Arm of the new Commercial Harbour - the Prince of Wales Pier. Four years later, in August 1896, the Undercliff Reclamation Act received Royal Assent. The Act was for laying out land on the South Foreland, near St Margaret’s, where a new ‘Dover’ was to be built.
The Parliamentary Bill had been sponsored by Sir William Crundall (1847-1934), thirteen times Mayor of Dover from 1886 to 1910. Crundall owned a construction company that had been founded by his late father, also called William. Both father and son were the prime movers in the development of Dover’s town planning:
- On the west side of the Dour cottages for the working class – Clarendon estate
- On the east side homes for the lower middle class i.e. Barton Road neighbourhood
- Below the Castle and nearer the sea, villas for the upper middle class i.e. the Castle Avenue estate.
The next part of their dream for Dover was to be a private estate on the South Foreland for the well-to-do upper classes.
Crundall had been appointed to DHB in 1886 and twenty years later, in 1906, he was elected Chairman of the Board. He was to hold the office until his death in 1934. Two other businessmen were involved in the proposed South Foreland scheme, Sir John Jackson, who had won the contract for building the Prince of Wales Pier. The third person involved in the South Foreland enterprise was the eminent construction engineer Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray. His company had tendered to build the proposed Admiralty Harbour, which would enclose the whole of Dover bay.
The three men decided that access to the South Foreland site was to be by a road starting from the shore by Castle Jetty, at the east end of Dover’s seafront. It would then run along the base of the cliffs before gently rising to South Foreland at St Margaret’s. To reduce anticipated opposition while the Undercliff Reclamation Bill was going through Parliament, the main purpose given was the prevention of sea erosion at the base of the cliffs. This was substantiated by Sir John Jackson calling an expert witness who proclaimed the necessity. Dover Corporation echoed this and showed that over the previous 25 years the encroachment of the sea had given rise to numerous cliff falls.
It was agreed that in time an Undercliff marine road would be built on the inside of a seawall between Dover and St Margaret’s Bay but not in the foreseeable future. In the immediate future a road if built, they implied, would go over the cliffs. Thus the opposition centred their argument on this saying that if the over-cliff road were to go ahead, it would effectively put public land into private hands. This was dealt with by amendment to the Bill by giving the over-cliff road a lower priority than the Undercliff marine road … either way, the three men got exactly what they wanted!
Before the Bill had received parliamentary approval, excavations began. Initially, the men stated that 500 convicts from the then Langdon prison would be part of the workforce. However, Herbert Asquith, the Home Secretary, refused to comply! For the residents of Athol Terrace, permission for the compulsorily purchase of their front gardens was given and the road we see today was laid at their doorsteps.
The Admiralty Harbour, we see today, was given the go ahead by the government on 5 April 1898 when the contract was signed. Viscount Cowdray’s company (Pearsons) were the main contractors, Sir John Jackson was a subcontractor and Dover Harbour Board, under Sir William Crundall, was actively involved.
To build the Piers and the Breakwater of the new Admiralty Harbour, Pearsons used locally made concrete blocks and faced them with granite. The concrete blocks were made at two blockyards, one on Shakespeare beach in the west and the second on reclaimed land to the east of Castle Jetty, where the Undercliff marine road was proposed to start. To reclaim land the cliff face was blasted and the surplus chalk was removed by steam-navvies – locomotive driven excavators made by Ruston, Proctor & Co, Sheaf Ironworks, Lincoln. Soon a level platform, some 24½ acres (9.915 hectares), was created at the base of the eastern cliffs where the massive blocks were made and stored.
The blocks were made out of sand and shingle brought by ship from Stonar, near Sandwich and unloaded into trucks at the Castle Jetty. From there the trucks were manually pushed along a narrow-gauge track to the blockyard. However, the sea journey was subject to the vagaries of the weather and so it was decided to run a Standard gauge Light Railway line (engines could not go more than 25 miles an hour) from Martin Mill, the nearest station on the South East and Chatham Railway line between Dover and Deal.
The three and a half mile track was pegged out by June 1898. It ran from the Dover side of Martin Mill main line station parallel to the Dover – Deal line for about a mile. Crossing two roads on bridges made of brick abutments with supporting iron girders. Just before the main line Guston Tunnel the Pearson line veered south towards the coast and then along an embankment passing under the Dover-Deal road (A258) near the Swingate Inn. Past Bere Farm, West Cliffe, the line continued south-east crossing the Dover -St Margaret’s Upper Road by a gate. It then turned south-west, following the cliff contours, skirting Langdon Bay. Running west, it followed the edge of Langdon Cliff for about half a mile where metal frames were erected on the cliff edge to stop chalk falling on the works below.
Much of the land that the Pearson railway, as it was called, crossed, was owned by the Cliff Land Company the principal owner of which was Frederick George North, 8th Earl of Guilford (1876–1949) of Waldershare Park. Back in 1844, with the coming of the South Eastern Railway to Dover, the Guilford family had made an application to build 1,500 houses on land to the north of the Castle with an approach road from Castle Jetty. The family still had this dream and the 8th Earl made a deal with Pearsons to charge £25 per year ground rent with the option to buy the standard gauge line, once the lease had expired, for £3,000. It was planned that the Cliff Land Company would use the railway for a passenger service to the development. From Langdon Hole to East Cliff the land was owned by the War Office. They stipulated that the track was to be completed by December 1899. Further, that the Pearson railway was only to be used for carrying materials and the site had to be restored to its original condition.
At the end of the line was a chute down which the materials were fed to the block yard. This quickly proved a problem and was replaced by a funicular, down the cliff face, with side tipping skips to ease unloading. At the bottom, the skips were pushed by hand along a narrow-gauge track built on trestles to the blockyard and emptied into one of six lines of mixers where some 250 blocks were made at once. These were moved by blockyard goliaths – cranes with a span of 100-feet that could lift 50-tons.
The excavations were not without problems. In October 1898, fuses and explosives were taken and deliberately fired at the rear of the sea front East Cliff houses. In September 1899, Albert Knowler was killed during blasting and three months later, a fire in the East Cliff office burnt a man to death. Then, on 19 January 1900, as men were preparing to blast some more of the cliff face there was a massive explosion. Five men, George Jeffries, aged 24, – who later died – James Murton, Ernest Dutton, William Davies and Algenon Gibbs were all injured. In May 1900, labourer Bill Chadwick age-32, was killed by a lump of chalk during blasting at East Cliff.
Neither was the new railway line without controversy, much to the annoyance of the local tourist industry it caused the North Fall Tunnel, a pathway created by the Dover Chamber of Commerce in 1870 to provide a short cut from the beach to the Castle, to be destroyed. In its place, a new path with a steep gradient was excavated up to Broadlees, some distance east of the Castle. This path was expected to be extended in the direction of St Margaret’s Bay and eventually to become the over-cliff road, one of the two options that was envisaged to connected Dover with New Dover – the superlative estate that Crundall, Jackson and Cowdray planned to build at the South Foreland.
The actual building of the Eastern Arm was started in January 1901 and Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson applied for a Light Railway Order to extend the Pearson railway to the South Foreland. A Light Railway order would allow the trains to run on a standard track but at no more than 25 miles an hour, however, this the degree of regulation was less than that applied to main line services and therefore cheaper to set up, run and maintain. The proposal said that the line would run from Athol Terrace, up a 1-in-28 gradient along a 60-foot wide ‘road’ cut into the face of the cliff to Langdon Battery. It would then cross the fields to St Margaret’s to the proposed site of New Dover, before continuing to Martin Mill and joining the main line.
The application stated that it would be a tram/railway service powered by electricity - the local electricity company was then in private ownership and Crundall was the Chairman. There was also the stated intention of extending the line from the Eastern Dockyard, as it became to be called, along Dover’s seafront, Union Street, Strond Street and then to the Harbour station, on the western side of what became the Western Docks. There the proposed line would join the main South East and Chatham Railway line. Another line would go from the existing Deal line at Buckland and then via River to Bushy Ruff in the Alkham Valley.
In April 1902 a public inquiry, headed by the Earl of Jersey, was held into the application. It was agreed that the Company could lay down lines for a light railway in the Borough of Dover, but they could not exercise that power for two years. This was to give time to Dover Corporation, if desirable, to obtain the authority to extend their tramways. Further, on the proposed light railway to Bushy Ruff in the Alkham Valley, this was to terminate at River church and go no further. The application explicitly stated that the tram/railway would be a passenger service, which contravened the agreement with the Earl of Guilford. He immediately sought legal advice and eventually laid out his landholdings on the cliff top as a seaside residential resort.
Crundall, against considerable opposition, in 1907, gained permission to develop the area around the South Foreland. This would, claimed the local paper, Dover Express, turn the acres east of Dover into a ‘land flowing with milk and honey, with many noble marine residences.‘ In the meantime, the land from Bere Farm to Langdon Hole, owned by the Earl of Guilford and designated as a seaside residential resort, was taken over by the War Office.
, gained permission to develop the area around the South Foreland. This would, claimed the local paper, Dover Express, turn the acres east of Dover into a ‘land flowing with milk and honey, with many noble marine residences.‘ In the meantime, the land from Bere Farm to Langdon Hole, owned by the Earl of Guilford and designated as a seaside residential resort, was taken over by the War Office.
At the western end of the harbour, the Admiralty Pier extension was completed in 1908 and South Eastern Railway Company, with representatives on the Dover Harbour Board, proposed to erect a grand new terminal station at the landward end. Early the following year, Crundall, as Chairman of DHB, invited tenders to widen Admiralty Pier for the possibility of a new railway station. The Lords of the Admiralty visited and discussed the proposals and on 9 December, Pearsons were given the contract.
The Admiralty Harbour was officially opened on the 15 October 1909 by the Prince of Wales, later George V (1910-1936) who unveiled a stone commemorating the event on the Eastern Arm. Two months before, on 9 August, the Dover, St Margaret’s and Martin Mill Light Railway Company (Light Railway Company) was formed. Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson owned 25 shares each and four others owned one share each. One of these shareholders was Richard Tilden-Smith who later became the main shareholder of Tilmanstone Colliery.
Later that month planning permission was given by Dover Corporation for the utilisation of the Light Railway Company line as a public tramway. The residents of East Cliff objected but their concerns were dismissed by the Corporation and John Bavington Jones, of the Dover Express.
Work started on 21 July 1910 to widen the shore end of the Admiralty Pier for the new railway station comprising of over 11 acres. Chalk for in-filling was taken from East Cliff excavated by the steam-navvy machines. The excavations also created a new road. However, because of the cliffs are so steep when the ‘road’ reached the top it had to be cut in a series of zigzags. This problem was expected to be dealt with later, when the rest of the road was nearing completion.
At the base of East Cliff, railway lines were used to transport the chalk to Castle Jetty where it was loaded onto barges and taken across to Admiralty Pier. In 1910, while the excavations were going on, Channel Collieries Trust was set up to purchase land near South Foreland. Their remit stated that they would build a residential estate, approached by a Cliff Road and the St Margaret’s Light Railway from Dover. The Trust syndicate was composed of … Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson! The road from the excavations was started on 21 July 1910.
The last coping stone on the Admiralty Pier extension was laid by Crundall on 2 April 1913. A month later work started on building the Marine Station, the foundations having been filled in by 1 million cubic yards of chalk from the eastern cliffs.
Two months before, in February 1913, DHB chaired by Crundall, filed a Parliamentary Bill to make changes to the Tidal Basin at the Western Docks. As a supplementary, the Channel Collieries Trust sort consent to replace the western half of the seafront and beach with a 5.75 acre dock and terminus for a Light Railway Company. This went down badly in Dover and a petition was raised followed by a poll that took place on 20 May 1913. Of those eligible to vote, 2,265 voted against the Bill’s Supplement and 1,508 for it. The Supplement was withdrawn.
On 13 April, a closed meeting of the Light Railway Company was held when it was announced that Cowdray and Crundall had sold their shares, by transfer, to the Channel Collieries Trust. The four holders of the single shares in Light Railway Company were not invited to the meeting – the first they heard about it was when they read the national newspapers. A bitter legal battle ensued with Richard Tilden-Smith unsuccessfully trying to seek redress. In the event, Sir John Jackson and two nominees owned the controlling shares in the Light Railway Company.
At the time, the East Kent coalmining industry was taking off. Arthur Burr, a mining entrepreneur and major shareholder of several companies with interests in the Kent coalfield, was the leading light. One of these companies was Kent Coal Concessions. Arthur Burr had formed it in 1896 with the purpose of buying potential underground coal fields but not surface land. The intention was lease the coalfields for a share of the royalties. By 1906, the company had secured coal mining rights in East Kent sufficient, it was said, for 20 collieries.
East Kent Colliery Company also was part of Burr’s portfolio and its holdings included, Shakespeare and Snowdown Collieries. Shakespeare Colliery was sunk in 1896, but had not proved viable and was finally abandoned in December 1915. However, Snowdown, north of Dover, saw the first commercial East Kent coal raised on 19 November 1912. About that time, Burr announced the intention of floating a new company, as a subsidiary of Kent Coal Concessions, to ‘exploit undeveloped areas of East Kent.’
A previous similar floatation had not been a commercial success and the Company Board were not happy. The situation came to a head at a meeting on 31 July 1913 when Burr, along with his son, Dr Malcolm Burr, were ‘retired’ from the Board. The remaining directors consolidated Kent Coal Concessions with allied companies including Kent Collieries Ltd that had extensive mineral rights and had been undertaking mineral exploration. Towards the end of 1913 the giant steel firm, Dorman Long, in which Cowdray was involved, reported that they held 30,000 shares in the Channel Collieries Trust Company, whose holdings included the East Kent Colliery Company, part of the Burr portfolio. Borings had confirmed the existence of iron stone. Dorman Long also had interests in Kent Collieries Ltd.
Just prior to World War I (1914-1918), in May 1914, Burr attempted to raise £77,000 in debentures and £800,000 in income bonds for his East Kent Colliery Company. However, little interest was shown and the holdings were handed over to Kent Coal Concessions, by the Official Receiver, with the remit to consolidate. Following consolidation the company held mineral rights under some 20,000 acres of East Kent. In December 1917, Burr was declared bankrupt with debts amounting to £53,176 but he died in September 1919 age 70.
At Dorman Long & Co.’s AGM held in August 1917, it was reported that their investments, through the Channel Collieries Trust Ltd, were a satisfactory £877,304, even though the War had stopped any further excavations. Albeit, with the consent of the Treasury, a fusion of the different East Kent coal interests was agreed with the two chief companies, Kent Collieries Ltd and the Channel Collieries Trust put into voluntary liquidation. Out of this, the Channel Steel Company was formed with a capital of £750,000. It was reported to the assembled shareholders that it was the existence of a large deposit of ironstone in East Kent that had provided the name of the new company.
Sir William Crundall – Chairman of Dover Harbour Board;
Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray – whose company, Pearsons, had successfully tendered to build the Admiralty Harbour,
Sir John Jackson who had been involved in the building the Admiralty Harbour. The railway line was generally known as the Pearson Line.
The railway line was generally known as the Pearson Line.
The company had applied, in 1914, for the renewal of their powers to carry coal through the streets of Dover with a view to extending the line from the Western docks to the Eastern Dockyard. The Town Council opposed this, but due to outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), the case was deferred. In order to carry explosives to war-ships berthed in the Camber, at the eastern Dockyard, the War Office decided to build a Sea Front Railway, using the powers that were likely to have been awarded to the Light Railway Company.
Pearson’s successfully tendered and work on what was to become the Sea Front Railway was eventually started in 1918. Single-track and running the length of the promenade from the Prince of Wales Pier to the Eastern Dockyard, the lines that had been used for the Pearson Line and belonging to the Light Railway Company, were taken up and used. It had passing loops and catch points so that trains could run in both directions but soon after the line was laid an accident occurred so a low fence was erected on each side.
Following the death of Sir John Jackson, in December 1919, the Light Railway Company was taken over by the Channel Steel Company. They applied, in 1920, to run a line from the Sea Front Railway at New Bridge, along Camden Crescent, then Liverpool Street (now the rear of the Gateway flats), and following the base of the cliffs to Eastern Dockyard. It was expected that the cliff side residences of East Cliff and Athol Terrace would be demolished.
At the Eastern Dockyard it was envisaged that a railway station would be built and the previously cut road would become a railway track that through a newly constructed tunnel, would join the track of the old Pearsons line. This would then be extended Sea Street, St Margaret’s where another station would be built. The line would then cross the countryside to join the Dover-Deal railway line at Martin Mill.
The new proposal was given outline approval by Dover Corporation with the preference for the construction to be a road not a railway track. This was due to the continuing rise in unemployment in the town – a situation that was prevalent throughout the country at the time – more men could be employed to build a road then a railway. If, however, the company were mindful to create a railway then, the Corporation said, their preference was for the facility to be a tramway, similar to that, which already existed in Dover at the time. Finally, whatever the company decided, colliery trucks could only be used on land purchased by the company and the track could not go through the town.
The Company chose the road option following the route given in the outline proposal. It was to be 50feet (16 metres) wide with a 15-feet (5 metres) wide pavement on each side. The estimated cost was £43,000 and it was expected to provide employment for up to 300 men. The council suggested that Pearsons paid one third, the Corporation a third and it would be expected that the government’s Unemployment Grants Committee would pay the remainder.
In the autumn of 1922, Pearsons joined forces with steel makers Dorman Long, to form Pearson & Dorman Long Company and take over most of the rights from the Kent Coal Concessions. The latter company had been set up by Arthur Burr, the East Kent mining entrepreneur, in 1896 with the purpose of buying potential underground coal fields but not surface land. By 1906, the company had secured coal mining rights in East Kent sufficient, it was said, for 20 collieries. Burr’s large portfolio of mining associated companies in East Kent were consolidated in 1913 under the name of Kent Coal Concessions. The giant steel makers, Dorman Long held 30,000 shares in the consolidated company as borings had confirmed the existence of iron stone. In 1917, a partial consolidation had created the Channel Steel Company and included Snowdown Colliery. Although Kent Coal Concessions did retain some mineral rights, due to the economic depression no one was interested in leasing them and in 1925, the company folded.
Having amalgamated the newly styled Pearson Dorman Long company immediately started the preliminary work on what resulted in Betteshanger Colliery. However, as they did not own the surface land they were unable to sink the pit. Albeit, through the subsidiary, Channel Steel Company, they proposed building a steel works between Dover and St Margaret’s adjacent to the proposed new road and Dover Corporation gave their approval.
The council applied to the Unemployment Grants Committee stating that the cost for the new road was £56,000. The Committee asked for the plans to be modified and suggested that the Ministry of Transport and Kent County Council (KCC) should contribute towards the costs. While these applications were being made the road was put on hold. During the winter of 1923-24, the revised estimate had increased to £129,000 but government financing was not forthcoming.
On 29 September 1923, the Admiralty formerly handed the port over to the Dover Harbour Board (DHB), still headed by Sir William Crundall. This included the Sea Front Railway line but the Eastern Dockyard was retained by the Admiralty and let on lease to Stanlee Ship-breaking Company. The Camber was retained for Admiralty purposes.
During spring and summer of 1924, Dover’s Mayor, Richard Barwick, and the Town Clerk, Reginald Knocker, visited various government departments laying before them the urgent need for unemployment relief. The Ministry of Transport relented and sanctioned the borrowing of £45,000. In the autumn of 1924 sites near Kingsdown were put on the market through Protheroe and Morris of Cheapside, London. Channel Collieries Trust held the mineral rights under the property and the sites were bought by Pearson Dorman Long – at last, they could sink Betteshanger Colliery.
Unemployment continued to rise and in 1925 DHB applied to Parliament to close Dover harbour’s Western entrance. They wanted to run a railway line along the Southern Breakwater to load Kent coal onto ships for export from there. However, the disparity in exchange rates between the UK and the Continent meant that the country was importing coal and the application came under a lot of criticism.
On the subject of Exchange Rate parity and the negative effect it was having on British industry, Sir Arthur Dorman made a powerful and well reported speech (Economist 19.12.1925). He begged the government for equal parity in the exchange rates but the response was: ‘a strong £ was the sign of a strong country.‘ Pearson Dorman Long wrote to the council saying that they could no longer afford to contribute to the cost of the road.
Cheap imports of coal continued to affect the domestic industry but in February 1926, the government did give a grant of £2m to the Kent coalfields. However, at midnight on 3 May saw the beginning of the General Strike. In October, that year, the council finally heard from the Unemployment Grants Committee through a letter sent to the town’s Member of Parliament (1922 -1945), Major the Hon. John Jacob Astor. The Committee had declined to provide a grant for the East Cliff Road, the reason given was that ‘unemployment in Dover was not sufficiently exceptional to warrant relief.’ It was generally felt that the refusal was retaliatory because East Kent miners had joined the national strike.
Richard Tilden Smith, who had been involved in a bitter legal action against the Dover, St Margaret’s and Martin Mill Light Railway Company in 1913, bought Tilmanstone Colliery from the Official Receiver in November 1926. At the same time an application was made by Tilmanstone (Kent) Collieries Ltd for the right to carry an aerial ropeway for a distance of 6½ miles (this was stated in the original application) from their colliery. This was to include a tunnel being cut through the cliffs to the Eastern Dockyard. The proposed course extended over land owned by 18 different personages one of which was Southern Railway. Although permission was granted, Southern Railway, and the Pearson, Dorman Long’s Channel Steel Company appealed but this was overturned and works started.
In 1927 Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, died. Under the 1896 terms of agreement between the War Department and Pearsons, the line from East Cliff to Langdon Hole had to be restored to its original condition. In May 1929, the War Department took legal action forcing Channel Steel Company to pay £1,300 compensation for the breach of covenant. The next month, the same Department sold the land to … the Channel Steel Company!
At the same time, Tilden Smith leased 24 acres of land at Langdon Hole from the War Department for cement works that would utilise chalk from Dover’s white cliffs. He also planned steel and brick works nearby – that was to be part of his plan for East Kent to become the New Industrial Eden. While on 17 March 1927, Southern Railway sought permission to carry coal on the Sea Front Railway and along the Eastern Arm of the Eastern Dockyard to specially built giant bunkers.
Tilden Smith’s, now 7½ mile, aerial ropeway from Tilmanstone colliery to the Eastern Arm was formerly opened on 14 February 1930. The ceremony was simple as Tilden Smith had died suddenly in the House of Commons on 18 December 1929. The tunnels, through which the ropeway ran to the Eastern Arm, can still be seen.
Bunkers were built but in August 1928 a huge coal staithe to be installed at the end of Eastern Arm, was commissioned by Southern Railway. It was built of ferro-concrete by the Yorkshire Hennebique Construction Company and held 5000-tons of coal. The Staithe was fitted with electronic discharging mechanism that enabled a vessel to be loaded with 500 tons of coal an hour and cost £22,000.
DHB withdrew its proposal to close the Western entrance and focused on increasing the number of coal sidings at the Eastern Dockyard. It was clear that this was to enable the export of coal from Pearson Dorman Long’s Snowdown and Betteshanger collieries. The electronic coal staithe officially started operating on 19 April 1932. The first ship was Dover’s steamer Kenneth Hawksfield, which was loaded with 2,450 tons coal from Snowdown Colliery.
Although it was suggested that a rail link would be built through a tunnel from the Eastern Arm to join the Deal railway line at Kearsney, until such time the Sea Front railway was to be used. It was anticipated that the railway would be in use 14-hours a day and would carry 800,000tons of coal a year together with scrap iron and oil for refuelling ships. The coal was transported on the Sea Front Railway.
The first train from Snowdown Colliery at 09.00 and in the next 23-hours, 18 trainloads of coal was carried on the Sea Front Railway line choking its whole course with dust. 17,000 Dovorians signed a petition that was sent to the House of Lords. Parliament restricted the use of the Railway to carrying a maximum of 500,000 tons of coal a year and only during day light. In 1933, Parliament approved a DHB Bill for a 1.75-mile railway line from the Kearsney junction, on the Deal line, through a tunnel to the Eastern dockyard. Although this would have obviated the need of the Sea Front Railway to carry coal, with the death of Sir William Crundall, the Chairman of DHB, in 1934, the scheme was abandoned as too expensive.
On 1 April 1934, Dover Borough municipal boundaries were extended bringing in to the Borough, Eastern Dockyard and Arm but the cliffs overlooking the area remained part of the Rural District. That same year, the council resurrected the idea of finishing the Cliff Road to St Margaret’s utilising the earlier Light Railway Company’s permit. This had been renewed every year and was given added impetus in 1937 when, due to war preparations and the shortage of scrap iron, the remaining track of what had once been the Pearsons line was lifted.
Following the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), the War Office instigated the building of the Martin Mill Military Railway, operated and manned by the Royal Engineers and using diesel locomotives. The line followed the original Pearsons route from Martin Mill to a point called RDF Junction, about 900 feet ( 275 metres) past the then Dover-Deal road bridge. Here it divided, with the ‘main line’ turning north-east to service the guns, Winnie and Pooh. Passing beneath Winnie’s gun barrel it crossed the St Margaret’s – Martin Mill Road to Pooh’s position.
A second line, from the RDF Junction, went straight ahead for about half a mile, then in a north-east direction for another half a mile. This served the Wanstone and South Foreland Batteries. The battery close to the Dover Patrol Memorial, Point at Leathercote Point, was served by a branch line from Decoy Junction – this was named after a dummy Winnie, on the ‘main line’.
Winnie and Pooh were two 14-inch ex-naval guns manned by the Royal Marines and were capable of firing their missiles across the 21-mile wide Dover Strait to France. Winnie was installed during the Battle of Britain, in 1940 on St Margaret’s golf links and was soon after joined by Pooh, located along the Kingsdown Road.
In August 1942 Jane and Clem, two 15-inch guns, came into operation overlooking Fan Bay Battery, an emergency battery with three six-inch guns. Jane was originally designed for HMS Repulse and named after a Daily Mirror cartoon character. Clem was said to be named after the Labour leader Clement Attlee (1883-1967) or Winston Churchill’s (1874-1965) wife Clementine (1885-1977)! These were wire wound guns made of a composite of steel and steel wire. The construction was introduced in the 1890’s to deal with the increased pressures in the barrel caused by the use of the then new propellant – cordite. Radar was installed and linked with the guns that proved successful.
There were also three 13.5-inch calibre railway guns manned by Royal Marines and called Gladiator, Piecemaker and Sceneshifter. During periods of inaction, these guns were normally hidden in the Guston tunnel but sometimes in tunnels at Shepherdswell and Martin Mill.
The Battery at South Foreland was equipped with four 9.2-inch guns, while near the Dover Patrol Memorial was the Bruce gun. An experimental, hypervelocity gun built by Vickers and weighing 86-tons. The barrel was 60 feet long and could fire a shell weighing 256lbs over a distance of 100,000 yards – 57-miles. However, it was never fired in anger due to the enormous pressure affecting the shell fuses causing some to explode prematurely in mid-flight. All the real guns were hidden under camouflage netting, while dummy ones were partially concealed on the cliff top site, which accounts for the reason why the cliff top is pitted with craters.
By late 1944, the operational use of the Martin Mill Military Railway was declining, only being used to move stores and equipment. Following the end of hostilities, the Light Railway Company resumed management and some of the track was sold for export to Tanganyika as part of the ill-fated Groundnut Scheme (1947-1951). However, beyond that and seeking repeated extensions, nothing else happened and in 1952, the company officially ceased trading.
By that time, the route across the cliffs had become a favourite walk but in the spring of 1954, due to the Cold War, the military began erecting a 5-foot chestnut fence on either side of what had been the 6-foot wide track. Vigorous protests were made and the military agreed to remove the fence from the seaward side except where it enclosed military installations. Three years later the Big Guns – Jane, Clem, Winnie and Pooh were dismantled and uprooted from their reinforced concrete emplacements. The smaller guns were also removed.
About 200 acres of land, which had been commandeered by the military between Dover and St Margaret’s, was de-requisitioned following the stand-down of Coastal Artillery in 1956. Much of the remaining railway track was lifted although the rails and bridges at the Martin Mill end were still in situ in 1960. At that time, the Ministry of Transport was considering using the track for a motorway approach to Eastern Docks.
Finally, during the post-war period, Marine Parade was widened and the Sea Front Railway safety fence was removed. In order to tell tourists to remove their parked cars off the track, a man with a red flag walked in front of the trains! Robert Eade, Dover’s Mayor in 1961, was one. By that time freight traffic, using the service was declining and the last train – a diesel locomotive pulling three wagons, ran on the 31 December 1964. The lines were eventually covered with tarmac.
doverhistorian.com/2013/11/07/dover-st-margarets-and-mart...
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As its common name implies, the blue morpho butterfly’s wings are bright blue, edged with black. The blue morpho is among the largest butterflies in the world, with wings spanning from five to eight inches. Their vivid, iridescent blue coloring is a result of the microscopic scales on the backs of their wings, which reflect light. The underside of the morpho’s wings, on the other hand, is a dull brown color with many eyespots, providing camouflage against predators such as birds and insects when its wings are closed. When the blue morpho flies, the contrasting bright blue and dull brown colors flash, making it look like the morpho is appearing and disappearing. The males’ wings are broader than those of the females and appear to be brighter in color. Blue morphos, like other butterflies, also have two clubbed antennas, two fore wings and two hind wings, six legs and three body segments -- the head, thorax and abdomen.
Implied circulation patterns for the massive Saturn storm as interpreted/speculated from the false color methane image composite taken by Cassini on Jan 12, 2011. (The circulation pattern is consistent with earlier images also taken by Cassini).
The main storm (white oval) is a large cell rotating clockwise in the northern hemisphere (thus anticyclonic high pressure outflow). Zonal flow coming in from the east is pulled around and into the storm center along the SE edge of the storm. Along the NE, the upper easterly belt winds pull and stretch this edge along the belt/zone margin. With anticyclonic eddies (looking like little tadpole shapes) on the eastern side. Along the SW and spotted westward, larger deep (blue) cyclonic vortices can be see. Directly W of the storm, presumably in the "wake region" high clouds with an overall anticyclconic nature can be seen peeling off towards the W.
Overall, this pattern is similar to the anticyclonic Great Red Spot in Jupiter's atmosphere.
North is at top in the images.
Images credit: NASA / JPL / Space Sciences Institute / composite, interpretation and graphic prepared by Mike Malaska
( Photo from Black's Law Dictionary, (8th edition) )
The opinions expressed below, (and in connection with all my citations of this reference), are mine . They are not intended to represent or imply those of Black's Law Dictionary's editors or its publisher .
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( I miss Senator Robert C. Byrd ... )
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Here, in part on the basis of Article VI, i attempt to broaden and deepen an argument i have been forming that the United States Military has a right, (even an obligation, at this point in history), to intervene in the succession of the American Presidency . For background, please see the following posts on this stream :
A Constitutional argument based upon Article IV Section 4 .
A Madisonian argument based upon a letter to Thomas Jefferson .
A futurist argument : "Regarding the Great Filter"
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First i cite , [with adaptations for clarity] : Article II Section 2 Paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution :
"[The President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint [...] Judges of the supreme Court"
I ask : Does the Senate's current, (majority), leadership construe "Consent" to mean that they can refuse to consider, as a body, whether they do Consent ; by holding hearings and scheduling a floor vote in a timely manner ?
I now highlight, from Paragraph 3 of Article VI, (pictured in this post), the following :
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned [...] shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution"
From the United States Senate website i cite the United States Senate's Oath of Office ; (active since 1884, it applies to all current members) :
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."
In light of the above Oath, i ask :
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Was not the Senate's intentional refusal to hold hearings and a confirmation vote for Merrick Garland, (President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia), whose nomination was before the Senate for 293 days, (by more than 2 fold, the longest-pending Supreme Court nomination in American history), an act of subordinating their Oath of Office to (potential) partisan advantage, (or at least to the evasion of partisan disadvantage), on the part of the Senate's Republican-Party leadership ?
Was it not, therefore, an act of Insubordination before the Constitution of the United States ; which, per Paragraph 2 of Article VI, above, "shall be the supreme Law of the Land" ?
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By doing so, the Senate's Republican-Party leadership has, extra-Constitutionally in my opinion, compromised the working effectiveness of the United States Supreme Court during session(s) ; in the apparent hope of receiving a different nominee, from a different President, whom may be more to their political liking .
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I now address the Debt Ceiling Crisis of 2013, and its accompanying government shut-down . It is my opinion that during this, the Rebublican Party leadership of the United States House of Representatives, (and rank and file, where they voted with the leadership on this issue), subordinated their oath of office, (under 5 U.S.C. §3331 ; quoted below and active since 1966) ---
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“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
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--- to the pursuit of a partisan agenda ; (budget cutting) . In doing so, i believe that they, likewise, commited an act, (or acts), of Insubordination before the Constitution of the United States . My feeling is that, likewise, this is an impeachable offence . I note, however, that the House leadership has changed since then, (ironically, as i hear it and it appears to me, for reasons of the perception of their having insufficient partisan fervor), but much of the rank and file has not .
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But even assuming that the above would constitute valid grounds for the impeachment and conviction of United States Senators and Representatives, one is up against the following :
I cite Article I Section 2 Paragraph 5 :
"The House of Representatives [...] shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."
I cite Article I Section 3 Paragraph 6 :
"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments."
As the Republican Party now controls both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, there would seem to exist a conflict of interest if Republican members were to take up the task of considering the impeachment of their own party's Senate leadership, if not of majority-party members the House rank and file besides . A Gordian conflict of interest, (in my opinion) . Rightly or wrongly, i feel that, (in the foreseeable political environment, situations proceeding along their current paths), the probability that the Republican Senators and Congresspersons would be impeached by the Republican-led House and convicted in the Republican-led Senate, for subordinating the Constitution to the pursuit of Republican Party advantage, is close to 0 .
Now, the situation proceeding as (i feel was) Constitutionally intended, the voting public would weigh this insubordination within our collective mind --- as advised by a neutral and inquisitive press --- and, if so persuaded, would vote in larger numbers for candidates other than those of the Republican Party in upcoming elections ; thus reversing this advantage and opening a more realistic path to the consideration of impeachment in the future .
However, (as i have been arguing in the posts linked at the head of this post), i have no confidence that the official returns are sufficiently faithful to the expressed intent of the voters for such a Constitutional solution to seem viable to me . Indeed, i imagine that part of the (potential) partisan advantage gained, (intentionally or otherwise), by the unConstitutional refusal, (as i see it), to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland ... was the absence of a reliable center-left 5th vote in the case of a challenge to current voting-system methodologies --- particularly --- the use of computerized systems running trade-secret software on trade-secret hardware to record the vote in a manner invisible to the voter for counting in a manner invisible to the public . A vote, (and thus decision), which i feel would have upheld such a challenge .
Thus, rightly or wrongly, i see this Gordian Conflict of Interest as a knot which the United States Military may be the only power left with the ability and the right --- as i see it, for they have not, (to my knowledge), subordinated their similarly worded oaths --- to cut .
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As i see it, another hurdle which must be overcome is the following ; i cite Article I Section 5 Paragraph 1 :
"Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members"
Obviously in my opinion : In the hypothetical case that a majority in the U.S. House or U.S. Senate, (or both), would be or have been established, (in part), due to fraudulent election practices of which its leadership would be or have been, (hypothetically), aware ... a successful challenge to that majority, by questioning the election practices involved in establishing it from within the chamber, or through any process relying upon the approval of that chamber, would seem a very low probability event .
In that context i find the following youtube video from 2004 interesting : Peter King, "We'll take care of the counting."
I also find the 2010 South Carolina U.S. Senate race interesting ; particularly its Democratic Primary . The website verifiedvoting provides South Carolina polling place methodology information back to 2012 . If this methodology had also been in place for the 2010 Primary, the return may represent an exploitation of the vulnerability to representative democracy in America that i see or imagine, (involving computerized systems) ; one that would be, (in my opinion, or have been), worthy of investigation .
It may or may not be worth noting that Jim DeMint, the Republican Party candidate whose campaign triumphed easily over the deeply flawed Democratic Party nominee-apparent, is and/or has been, (in my opinion), a notable figure within the Republican Party, and the right wing of American political culture more broadly .
I do not know whether the Obama Justice Department dedicated resources to politely asking the voters in the 2010 South Carolina Democratic primary it they would, "voluntarily and please", reveal how the recall having voted ; but from a "lessons learned" perspective, i imagine this might have proven invaluable even if it was, (at the time, perhaps), against their better judgement to pursue a case to the Supreme Court over the matter .
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Further hurdles are to be found in Article I Section 8 Paragraphs 11 and 14 ; condensed as follows :
"The Congress shall have the Power to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water."
"The Congress shall have the Power to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces."
Under normal circumstances these are very beneficial paragraphs, intended to predispose the country to rule by the principle of representative democracy, (of which Madison may have considered the Legislative Branch the heart) ; rather than by the principle of military force . But, (as i argue in the Madisonian link at the top of the page), representative democracy is broadly vulnerable to misrepresentation of the expressed intent of the voters at the polls . Factional interest and personal ambition was always assumed ... but to the extent that misrepresentation of the will of the electorate may also be in progress, (i believe) we would face the prospect of rule, ultimately, by the principle of criminal interest(s) instead .
Under almost any imaginable circumstances, i am certain that Congress would move with vigor to declare Military intervention which thwarts the Party-interest of its majority to be unlawful and treasonous . But so, in my opinion, would be the placement of disabling restriction(s) upon the Military as and if it sought to rescue representative democracy in the United States --- and in so doing, to honor the oaths of all its personnel --- if those legislators doing so knew that they were acting to preserve office-holdings and majorities in defiance of the will of the electorate .
I believe that military intervention in the succession would precipitate a Constiutional crisis of proportions not seen since the Civil War ; (and it may, even, precipitate a Second Civil War) . But in my opinion, at least it would be honest to the extent that people would know what was happening . What i see or imagine i see is, instead, the death of the American Republic, in a manner that only insiders may know, (factually), is happening .
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