Lal Mahara, site is an important Islamic Architecture site dated back to 11th and 12th centuries A D. The site consists on eleven monumental tombs and more than 120 graves. But only four tombs and some graves in dilapidated condition were surviving at the time of protection while the rest seven tombs were completely razed to ground only their traces are visible. The rest four tombs have been preserved and restored only. Presently the site is well preserved and free from encroachment. Tree plantation as a barrier against weather affects as well as to restrict fresh burial (modern and ancient graveyard) has been provided. However keeping in view gradual development activities i.e. housing and agricultural in close vicinity it is necessary to take necessary measures to safe guard the site from any encroachment as well as bad effect of excessive irrigation resulting water logging in future. Features: Architectural features of these tombs are worth to mention. In these corner turrets have provided to tomb 1 and tomb 2 are square in plan. While the other two are without corner turrets and square in shape. Here cut and dressed brick work have applied while blue color tiles have utilized for decoration purposes. Furthermore, all the square chambers have converted into octagons by producing squenches. Deptt of Archaeology conducted conservation work in a large scale and preserved all these four tombs while domes are missing.

Remarks: This graveyard site is well preserved site. From southern side iron grill has provided while to all four sides plantation further strengthened its boundaries. Moreover a local chowkidar (Gulu) is performing his duty on the site.Lal Mahra, Grave Yard

I hope you're confused. All, most, some, or a little bit will be revealed in Future Days.

To control Information Technology (IT) costs we think about and act within the enterprise as a whole, in part because we sell enterprise and mid-level solutions. We apply an Enterprise Architecture (EA) strategy which at the top level is comprised of infrastructure and communication considerations. This is not just about technical infrastructure, defined or designed by IT, because it is highly likely that such individual solutions (one offs) will not align to core business strategies (vertical needs verses horizontal needs spanning the whole company).

 

It is not really possible to do this, that is consider the entire company's needs, without significant participation by the business for which we use terms such as Solution Delivery or Product Management. Product and program managers from a solution delivery framework gather information, report back to the business, and return to apply the business strategies to align with short, medium, and especially long term business goals.

 

This business and implementation strategy focus is a change agent, to reduce siloed thinking, and achieve more horizontal capability across units. We reduce multiple applications, which take time to manage and maintain, and where it makes sense, fold them into one. Because we take security and privacy of our customers very seriously, any applications which may be at risk have been identified and are brought up into our standards. The process of combining risk management goals, application and data reduction streams saves money, although the process of so much change at once can be stressful at the unit, project, and personal levels.

 

We seek to empower self-service among our partners, customers and employees, for access to all kinds of information they need, and internally reduce redundant data stores, for example referring to customers by one identifier if possible. This is especially challenging in our partner relationships with multiple data stores that contain similar information about customers which are identified in completely different ways. This is the reason for serious data modeling and tight or loose coupling where needed – to retrieve and move information back to the partner systems. We leverage Microsoft software, and then buy, build, minimize or reuse existing systems.

 

In order to be more successful in our efforts to control IT costs we strive to increase flexibility among existing staff and provide rewards for strategic thinking – this strategic thinking aligns along company-wide goals. We need people with the right skills who work in efficient methods, only including the people who need to be included to make decisions or act. In fact we need to change confrontational and passive aggressive behaviors internally to collaborative personality styles – changing the organizations culture is doable but difficult. For more information I recommend reading "The Heart of Change" by Kotter and Cohen.

 

The technologies we invest in to help control IT costs are our own. We custom write stuff served up on Microsoft servers and plan to use SharePoint as the UI for our new change request tool. We are substantially reducing and eliminating the number of different applications (SQL stored procedures or XML Blobs mostly) we use and maintain on a daily basis. We are moving from C++ to C#/.NET (C Sharp and .Net technologies).

 

We use Microsoft software as our strategy to control IT costs - it is easy to manage, and has great support. Some team members keep an eye on relevant Open Source software as competitive analysis. When we use it, we know not only how but why.

 

Our company is getting the maximum value from its data center investment because we have not invested to the level we need for our infrastructure. We expect to remediate this lack of investment after deploying skilled, thoughtful product managers with the right combination of education and practical experience to assist in this effort through the next couple of years.

 

What is our organization doing to maximize the value from its data center investment? In addition to the other things mentioned we outsource development and support to India, Israel, and developing countries, etc. We also are making use of tax advantaged locations for large savings in transactions.

 

We are adding metrics and measurements by which we evaluate not just personal progress but internal and external customer satisfaction with our IT initiatives on a project by project basis to self-improve.

 

The practices which enable us to maximize value from our IT investment are varied and multifaceted. To maximize ongoing investment we are adding solution delivery strategies, planning ahead, and aligning IT with company-wide goals. Of course in our space we have some unique issues, and as a public company even more so. One thing that may surprise you is some of our projects we do end to end locally because of how critical success is. We leverage our best, most successful local managers to produce projects and design larger scale solutions if we determine it is the best strategy – so in this way we are flexible – we don't just out source everything.

 

We are in the process of reducing the number of applications we need to maintain, and where it is appropriate fold one into another so long as the user interface or back ends do not become unmanageable. We are making over our change request platform from top to bottom which we feel will enable quicker turnarounds on change requests – it is both loosely and tightly coupled where it needs to be. For the presentation layer we choose Microsoft SharePoint.

 

Conversely, what factors are inhibiting our organization from reaping the maximum value from its data center investments? The factors inhibiting the maximum value include a lack of foresight in strategic planning for long term goals –

 

1. Putting temporary things together to just meet immediate needs.

 

2. Focusing on small details and not seeing the big picture.

 

3. Lack of metrics to evaluate progress, process, and client / customer / partner success.

 

4. Unwillingness of team members to change or promote change even when it is in their and the companies' best interest.

 

5. Having too many data centers, identifying customers in too many ways.

 

How important is productivity within the IT function in our efforts to control IT costs and maximize our data center investment? Functionality, capacity, and reliability far outstrip productivity, but that is only because we have already hit very high productivity goals and exceeded them. Here are some of the metrics we examine:

 

Metrics

 

Percentage of project budgeted costs

Scope requirements

Total cost of ownership

Traceability

Defects rate (sev1, sev2, sev3 bugs - zero tolerance for sev1)

Completed requirements

Customer satisfaction scores (cust sats)

Schedule slippage

Flexibility of management styles

End-to-end throughput time per client-side user request

System extensibility

Scalability

Maintainability

Defects per thousand lines of code (KLOC or by function)

Support functionality and documentation availability, and completeness prior to launch

Rates of failure

Restoration (emergency)

Availability

Test effectiveness

Business acceptance

System acceptance (signoff)

Average turn around time for service and change requests

Number of security or privacy defects (last two should be zero tolerance in launch candidates)

Number of post freeze change requests

Among the mandatory metrics used are peer review effectiveness of code, and post mortems and overall customer satisfaction. In other words we do not consider just ontime delivery of products, enhancements, or new functionality.

 

What is our organization doing to improve productivity within its IT function?

Getting the right people – some people grew with us or came to us with deep knowledge from the school of hard knocks – work experience – we seek to capture the most knowledgeable and either increase their education or find those with both practical work experience and advanced degrees. Good thing this is Seattle with its heavily educated population. New programs at the university level such as Informatics and Information Management are producing the people we need – not just MBAs or Master of Comp Sci - because so much of our development work we outsource to India and developing countries, and IT is not traditionally closely aligned with marketing or sales. We do outsource much of the development work as is possible.

 

The undergrad Informatics and Master of Science in Information Management programs at the University of Washington are housed in Mary Gates' Hall, renovated and named in honor of Bill Gate's late mother, it's headed by Mike Crandall (Dublin Core, Microsoft, Boeing). So you can see this is the direction we are going regionally, because that is where the spend is. Another great information school is at the University of California at Berkeley, housed in one of the oldest and most architecturally beautiful collegiate buildings on the west coast, South Hall. On the physical level all Berkeley had to do is add wireless. Excellent academics such as the seminal thinker Dr Michael Buckland are there at Berkeley, and business leaders such as Mitch Kapor. Industry wide I think iSchools are having an effect, adding a more well rounded, even playful culture to high tech operations.

 

Improving and opening the culture is important. Having a shared lexicon is one of the benefits of educated people; those with MSIM (master of science in information management), Informatics, technical MBA degrees can comunicate effectively with highly technical people - this can produce enormous savings and long term cost benefits. Increased, clear, enthusiastic communication saves IT costs.

 

In strategy meetings, for example, we often include Enterprise Architects to assist in stack ranking program and project development, because this helps reduce redundant systems.

 

Our organization's ability to measure the return on investment (ROI) or success of its IT investments is “Fair but mixed,” we want ROI to be easily measureable and this means evaluating the correct things, asking the right questions in the first place, not following other organizations techniques, although we examine them as examples.

 

We are adding ways to evaluate our ROI – we do use business analysis methods. There is always an identifiable way to analyze and measure the relationship of what something costs even if it appears intangible such as Brand protection.

 

Considering the strategic and tactical stuff we are doing, at the core, creativity is what drives our success. Creativity is always a very difficult thing to measure. In fact it could be said that if you try, you are barking up the wrong tree. However creative thinking around practical goals has provided us success. This is where the ideas around flexibility and being very responsive come to play.

 

We have found very very high ROI around outsourced projects because they must be clearly defined within the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) compliance.

 

Those people who actually think out of the box are oftentimes not recognized by co-workers and management. Change is perceived as negative among full time staff. We seek to show support for both full time employees and consultants, and change this view and enhance their ability to communicate ideas. That is why our management keeps an open door policy. Unfortunately like any other policies the hazard is that individual managers must believe in our policies around openness and creativity; such self-selecting polices are impossible to enforce.

 

Our organization uses balanced scorecards, Six Sigma and other types of internally derived quantitative value measurement methods to measure the ROI or success of our IT investments.

 

The continued use of these methods we expect will substantially improve the management and measurement of our IT investments. Some of the metrics are at the discretion of the product or program manager, others are mandatory. In part we have some success- at issue is adopting metrics and measurement as well as Enterprise Architecture and engaging with open arms increased strategic thinking and planning.

 

Senior management must come together and present a unified strategy for the entire company – which is a top down management style but it must be embraced from the bottom up. This is within a framework of enforced change as we seek to achieve excellence in all of our business units, especially in core infrastructure – those units which either produce money, or cost money. Some of our key investments we know are lost leaders, but other research will more than make up for those. Enforced change in this context means business units receive minimum budget until they comply.

 

We are still feeling the effects of the changes the Web brings in enterprise directly and for our customers; we continue to learn from the effects of communities and communication via the Web. The opportunities for growth are so enormous that it is all the more important that we curb spending where it is not required and apply it as much as possible to grow in creative arenas which still have huge untapped profit potential. It is not just about money, among hard core technologists – those who really love it – money is secondary in many ways - it’s about the fun stuff technology can bring as well as the benefit to serve humanity that technology brings.

 

High tech, information technology, and software development have made some strides to maturity but we are still learning new things; it will be a learning industry, discovering and inventing stuff for a long time to come.

 

p.s.

Enforced Change is a radically different challenge, and promises different ways of looking at human-to-human, individual-to-corporation, corporate-to-corporate, human-to- computer interactions, etc, which I plan to cover in future articles, so stay tuned!

  

Wall Street Journal

Navy Day in New York, 1945

The biggest display of military might the nation had ever seen.

By Elliot Rosenberg

Oct. 26, 2015 6:48 pm ET

 

Seventy years ago, on Oct. 27, 1945, New York City was the site of the most spectacular homefront display of American military might the nation had ever seen. Navy Day was in effect a monumental victory lap, coming seven weeks after the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri.

 

Now the “Big Mo” and other stars and supporting players from the Pacific Fleet had come home. Along a six-mile stretch of the Hudson River, 47 warships gathered—battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines and submarine chasers.

 

President Truman was there. So was I. About 3.5 million people crowded along Manhattan’s West Side, with another 1.5 million viewing from New Jersey, according to press reports. Joining the USS Missouri, with its 16-inch turret guns bristling from its 56,000-ton frame, were the USS New York (an older battle wagon) and the USS Enterprise, the only aircraft carrier that had been active from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day.

 

At midafternoon, President Truman boarded a destroyer for a two-hour review of the assembled firepower. Twenty-one-gun salutes boomed from many of the vessels. Overhead, 1,200 Hellcat and Corsair fighters, Avenger torpedo planes and Helldiver bombers circled in 12-mile ovals. For half-hour spells on two successive nights the ships turned on their 24-inch and 36-inch searchlights, sending brilliant blue-white beams, with millions in candle power, flashing across the sky and illuminating the city’s skyscrapers. No fireworks display could compare.

 

Many of the ships initially moored at piers along the river, welcoming visitors, and tens of thousands clambered aboard. The Missouri was the biggest celebrity; visitors especially wanted to see a small starboard-deck plaque that read: “Over this spot on 2 September 1945 the instrument of formal surrender of Japan to the Allied Powers was signed.”

 

By the time my father was off work and able to take me to see the naval display, the ships had left their piers and lined up in mid-river. Navy launches ferried civilians to visit them, and my father and I were among the lucky ones.

 

I would have preferred to see the Big Mo, but the Enterprise was a worthy consolation prize. I marveled at being aboard an aircraft carrier, previously known only through movies like “Wing and a Prayer” and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” The rectangular expanse of the flight deck. The squadrons of planes bunched together, wings folded. The rows of antiaircraft guns lining its rim. A large poster provided some Enterprise statistics: 911 Japanese planes shot down, 71 ships sunk, 192 more ships damaged or sunk.

 

After Oct. 27, the Navy fleet gradually dispersed. Elsewhere that fall, the Soviet Union was scrambling to develop an atomic bomb, and the Korean peninsula was about to be sliced at something called the 38th Parallel. Vietnam was still a faraway French outpost in Indochina. And Afghanistan and Iraq barely registered in the mind of at least one New York schoolboy, who had witnessed Navy Day and come away certain that America could still lick any international bully on the planet.

 

Mr. Rosenberg is the author, with Louis Eisenstein, of “A Stripe of Tammany’s Tiger” (Cornell University, 2013 paperback).

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

History

United States

Name:USS Midway

Namesake:Battle of Midway

Ordered:1 August 1942

Builder:Newport News Shipbuilding

Laid down:27 October 1943

Launched:20 March 1945

Commissioned:10 September 1945

Decommissioned:11 April 1992

In service:1945

Out of service:1992

Stricken:17 March 1997

Nickname(s):Midway Magic

Status:Museum ship at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego, California

Notes:Only carrier museum in the United States from WW2 that is not of the Essex class

General characteristics

Class and type:Midway-class aircraft carrier

Displacement:

 

45,000 tons at commissioning

64,000 tons at decommissioning

 

Length:1,001 ft (305 m)[1]

Beam:

 

121 ft (37 m)

136 ft (41 m), 238 ft (73 m) at flight deck after modernization

 

Draft:34.5 ft (10.5 m)

Propulsion:12 boilers, four Westinghouse geared Steam turbines[2]

Speed:33 kn (61 km/h; 38 mph)

Complement:4,104 officers and men

Armament:

 

As Built:

18 × 5"/54 caliber Mark 16 guns,

84 × Bofors 40 mm guns,

68 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons

After Refit:

2 8-cell Sea Sparrow launchers,

2 Phalanx CIWS

 

Aircraft carried:137 theoretical, 100 (1940s–50s), 70 (Vietnam–retirement)

 

USS Midway (CVB/CVA/CV-41) is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. Commissioned a week after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal. She operated for 47 years, during which time she saw action in the Vietnam War and served as the Persian Gulf flagship in 1991's Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned in 1992, she is now a museum ship at the USS Midway Museum, in San Diego, California, and is the only remaining inactive U.S. aircraft carrier that is not an Essex-class aircraft carrier.

 

Service history

 

Midway was laid down 27 October 1943 in Shipway 11 at Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Virginia; launched 20 March 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Bradford William Ripley, Jr.; and commissioned on 10 September 1945 (eight days after the Surrender of Japan) with Captain Joseph F. Bolger in command.

 

After shakedown in the Caribbean, Midway joined the U.S. Atlantic Fleet training schedule, with Norfolk as her homeport. From 20 February 1946, she was the flagship for Carrier Division 1. In March, she participated in Operation Frostbite testing the Ryan FR Fireball and helicopter rescue techniques for cold-weather operations in the Labrador Sea. In September 1947, a captured German V-2 rocket was test-fired from the flight deck in Operation Sandy, the first large-rocket launch from a moving platform, and the only moving-platform launch for a V-2. While the rocket lifted off, she then tilted and broke up at 15,000 feet (4,600 m).[3]

 

On 29 October 1947, Midway sailed for the first of her annual deployments with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Between deployments, Midway trained and received alterations to accommodate heavier aircraft as they were developed.

 

In June 1951, Midway operated in the Atlantic off the Virginia Capes during carrier suitability tests of the F9F-5 Panther. On 23 June, as Cdr. George Chamberlain Duncan attempted a landing in BuNo 125228, a downdraft just aft of the stern caused Duncan to crash. His plane's forward fuselage broke away and rolled down the deck, and he suffered burns. Footage of the crash has been used in several films, including Men of the Fighting Lady, Midway, and The Hunt for Red October.[4]

 

In 1952, the ship participated in Operation Mainbrace, North Sea maneuvers with NATO forces. Midway had an angled runway painted on the flight deck in May for touch-and-go landings following the pioneering trials of the technique aboard HMS Triumph. Successful demonstration of the possibilities caused widespread adoption of the angled flight deck in future aircraft carrier construction and modifications of existing carriers.[3] On 1 October, the ship was redesignated CVA-41.

 

Midway cleared Norfolk 27 December 1954 for a world cruise, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope for Taiwan, where she became the first large carrier in the 7th Fleet for operations in the Western Pacific until 28 June 1955.[3] During these operations, Midway pilots flew cover for the evacuation from the Quemoy-Matsu crisis[5] from the Tachen Islands of 15,000 Chinese nationalist troops and 20,000 Chinese civilians, along with their livestock.

Apartheid Incident

 

Controversy arose during the cruise when Midway docked in Cape Town, South Africa. Democratic senator Herbert Lehman sent a telegram to Secretary of the Navy Charles Thomas when he learned of a supposed United States Navy plan to segregate 400 non-European members of the crew of Midway while she was in Cape Town. Fellow Democrat senator Hubert Humphrey soon joined Lehman, additionally sending a letter to the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, asking that "immediate steps be taken to see that equal treatment is given to American service personnel allowed shore leave in South Africa, or eliminate Cape Town as a port of call", and that: "To me this is a shocking of discrimination that should not be tolerated by our Government. Every American soldier or sailor is an American regardless of race, colour or creed, and is entitled to be respected and treated as such anywhere in the world."[6]

 

An anonymous Navy official stated that the Department of the Navy did not know of the arrangements that were to be made between the officers of Midway and South African authorities, and that African-American members of the crew would not be segregated while still aboard Midway.[6]

 

Clarence Mitchell Jr. also urged Thomas not to allow Midway to dock at Cape Town. James H. Smith Jr., Acting Secretary of the Navy at the time, replied that the stop at Cape Town was merely to "satisfy an operational logistic requirement" and that it was customary to observe local laws and regulations while visiting foreign ports.[6]

 

Captain Reynold Delos Hogle of Midway stated that while in port, Midway would be United States territory and federal United States laws would apply. In the end, the crew of Midway were not made to abide by Apartheid, saying that "At Hartleyvale this afternoon and at the concert to-night, European and non-European members of the crew have been asked to attend. There will be no segregation whatsoever".[6]

Modernizations

 

On 28 June 1955, the ship sailed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where Midway underwent an extensive modernization program (SCB-110, similar to SCB-125 for the Essex-class carriers). Midway received an enclosed hurricane bow, an aft deck-edge elevator, an angled flight deck, and steam catapults, returning to service on 30 September 1957.[3]

 

Home ported at Alameda, California, Midway began annual deployments bringing McDonnell F3H Demons, North American FJ-4 Furys, Vought F-8 Crusaders, Douglas A-1 Skyraiders, and Douglas A-3 Skywarriors to the 7th Fleet in 1958, and into the South China Sea during the Laotian Crisis of spring 1961. During the 1962 deployment, Midway recorded her 100,000th arrested landing[3] as the ship's aircraft tested the air defense systems of Japan, Korea, Okinawa, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Midway again sailed for the Far East 6 March 1965, and from mid-April flew strikes against military and logistics installations in North and South Vietnam including the first combat use of AGM-12 Bullpup air-to-surface missiles. On 17 June 1965 two VF-21 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs flying from Midway were credited with the first confirmed MiG kills of the Vietnam conflict using AIM-7 Sparrow missiles to down two MiG-17s. Three days later, four of Midway's A-1 Skyraiders used the Thach Weave to down an attacking MiG-17.[3]

 

Midway lost an F-4 Phantom and two A-4 Skyhawks to North Vietnamese S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missiles before returning to Alameda on 23 November to enter San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard on 11 February 1966 for a massive modernization (SCB-101.66), which proved expensive and controversial. The flight deck was enlarged from 2.8 to 4 acres (11,300 to 16,200 square metres (122,000 to 174,000 sq ft)), and the angle of the flight deck landing area was increased to 13.5 degrees. The elevators were enlarged, moved, and given almost double the weight capacity. Midway also received new steam catapults, arresting gear, and a centralized air conditioning plant. Cost overruns raised the price of this program from $88 million to US$202 million, and precluded a similar modernization planned for Franklin D. Roosevelt. After Midway was finally recommissioned on 31 January 1970, it was found that the modifications had hurt the ship's seakeeping capabilities and ability to conduct air operations in rough seas, which made further modifications necessary to correct the problem.[3]

Return to Vietnam

 

Midway returned to Vietnam and on 18 May 1971, after relieving Hancock on Yankee Station, began single carrier operations. Midway departed Yankee Station on 5 June, completing the vessel's final line period on 31 October 1971, and returned to the ship's homeport on 6 November 1971.

Midway en route to South-East Asia in April 1972

 

Midway, with embarked Carrier Air Wing 5 (CVW 5), again departed Alameda for operations off Vietnam on 10 April 1972. On 11 May, aircraft from Midway, along with those from Coral Sea, Kitty Hawk, and Constellation, continued laying naval mines off North Vietnamese ports, including Thanh Hóa, Đồng Hới, Vinh, Hon Gai, Quang Khe, and Cam Pha as well as other approaches to Haiphong. Ships that were in port in Haiphong had been advised that the mining would take place and that the mines would be armed 72 hours later.

 

Midway continued Vietnam operations during Operation Linebacker throughout the summer of 1972. On 7 August 1972, an HC-7 Det 110 helicopter, flying from Midway, and aided by planes from the carrier and from Saratoga, searched for the pilot of an A-7 Corsair II aircraft from Saratoga, who had been downed the previous day by a surface-to-air missile about 20 mi (32 km) inland, northwest of Vinh. Flying over mountains, the HC-7 helicopter spotted the downed aviator with her searchlight and, under heavy ground fire, retrieved him and returned to an LPD off the coast. This was the deepest penetration of a rescue helicopter into North Vietnam since 1968. By the end of 1972, HC-7 Det 110 had rescued 48 pilots, 35 in combat conditions.

 

On 5 October 1973, Midway, with CVW 5, put into Yokosuka, Japan, marking the first forward-deployment of a complete carrier task group in a Japanese port, the result of an accord arrived at on 31 August 1972 between the U.S. and Japan. The move allowed sailors to live with their families when in port; more strategically, it allowed three carriers to stay in the Far East even as the economic situation demanded the reduction of carriers in the fleet. CVW 5 became based at the nearby Naval Air Facility Atsugi.[3]

 

For service in Vietnam from 30 April 1972, to 9 February 1973, Midway and CVW 5 received the Presidential Unit Citation from Richard Nixon. It read:

 

For extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty in action against enemy forces in Southeast Asia from 30 April 1972 to 9 February 1973. During this crucial period of the Vietnam conflict, USS MIDWAY and embarked Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE carried out devastating aerial attacks against enemy installations, transportation, and lines of communications in the face of extremely heavy opposition including multi-calibre antiaircraft artillery fire and surface-to-air missiles. Displaying superb airmanship and unwavering courage, MIDWAY/CVW-5 pilots played a significant role in lifting the prolonged sieges at An Lộc, Kon Tum, and Quảng Trị and in carrying out the concentrated aerial strikes against the enemy's industrial heartland which eventually resulted in a cease-fire. By their excellent teamwork, dedication, and sustained superior performance, the officers and men of MIDWAY and Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE reflected great credit upon themselves and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."[7]

 

Aircraft from Midway made the first MIG kills in the Vietnam War, and the last air-to-air victory of the war. On 17 June 1965, aviators of Midway's Attack Carrier Wing 2, VF-21 downed the first two MiGs credited to U.S. forces in Southeast Asia.[8] On 12 January 1973 a combat aircraft from Midway made the last air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War.[8]

Operation Frequent Wind

 

On 19 April 1975, after North Vietnam had overrun two-thirds of South Vietnam, Midway, along with Coral Sea, Hancock, Enterprise and Okinawa, were sent to the waters off South Vietnam. Ten days later, U.S. 7th Fleet forces carried out the Operation Frequent Wind evacuation. Midway, which had offloaded half of the ship's regular combat air wing at NS Subic Bay, Philippines, steamed to Thailand and took aboard eight CH-53 from 21st Special Operations Squadron and two HH-53 helicopters from 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron.[9] As Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, these helicopters ferried hundreds of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese people to Midway and other U.S. ships in the South China Sea.

 

On 29 April 1975, Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) Major Buang-Ly (also spelled Buang Lee) loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island. After evading enemy ground fire, Buang headed out to the South China Sea, found Midway, and began to circle overhead with his landing lights turned on. Midway's crew unsuccessfully attempted to contact the aircraft on emergency frequencies. When a spotter reported that there were at least four people in the two-seater aircraft, all thoughts of forcing the pilot to ditch alongside were abandoned. After three tries, Major Buang managed to drop a note from a low pass over the deck: "Can you move the helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly for one hour more, we have enough time to move. Please rescue me! Major Buang, wife and 5 child." Captain Larry Chambers, the ship's commanding officer, ordered that the arresting wires be removed and that any helicopters that could not be safely and quickly moved should be pushed over the side. He called for volunteers, and soon every available seaman was on deck to help. An estimated US$10 million worth of UH-1 Huey helicopters were pushed overboard. With a 500-foot (150 m) ceiling, 5-mile (8.0 km) visibility, light rain, and 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) of surface wind, Chambers ordered the ship to make 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) into the wind. Warnings about the dangerous downdrafts created behind a steaming carrier were transmitted blind in both Vietnamese and English. To make matters worse, five more UH-1s landed and cluttered up the deck. Without hesitation, Chambers ordered them scuttled as well. Captain Chambers recalled that the aircraft cleared the ramp and touched down on center line at the normal touchdown point. Had he been equipped with a tailhook he could have bagged a number 3 wire. He bounced once and came stop abeam of the island, amid a wildly cheering, arms-waving flight deck crew.[10]

 

Buang was escorted to the bridge where Chambers congratulated him on his outstanding airmanship and his bravery in risking everything on a gamble beyond the point of no return without knowing for certain a carrier would be where he needed it. The crew of Midway was so impressed that they established a fund to help him and his family get settled in the United States.[11] The O-1 that Major Buang landed is now on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.[12] Major Buang became the first Vietnamese pilot ever to land on an aircraft carrier deck.

 

Upon completion of ferrying people to other ships, Midway returned to Thailand and disembarked the Air Force helicopters at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield. The CH-53s then airlifted over 50 RVNAF aircraft to the ship.[13] With almost 100 helicopters and aircraft of the former RVNAF aboard, the ship steamed to Guam where the aircraft and helicopters were offloaded in twenty-four hours. While transiting back to the Philippines to pick up the ship's air wing, Midway was rerouted to act as a floating airfield in support of special operation forces rescuing the SS Mayagüez. Midway picked up the ship's regular air wing again a month later when the aircraft carrier returned NAS Cubi Point, Philippines.

After Vietnam

 

On 21 August 1976, a Navy task force headed by Midway made a show of force off the coast of Korea in response to an unprovoked attack on two U.S. Army officers who were killed by North Korean guards on 18 August. (The U.S. response to this incident was Operation Paul Bunyan). Midway's response was in support of a U.S. demonstration of military concern vis-à-vis North Korea.

 

Midway relieved Constellation as the Indian Ocean contingency carrier on 16 April 1979. This unscheduled deployment was due to USS Ranger colliding with tanker Liberian Fortune near the Straits of Malacca, with Midway taking over Ranger's mission while she went in for repair. Midway and her escorts continued a significant American naval presence in the oil-producing region of the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. On 18 November, the aircraft carrier arrived in the northern part of the Arabian Sea in connection with the continuing hostage crisis in Iran. Militant followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had come to power following the overthrow of the Shah, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on 4 November and held 63 U.S. citizens hostage. Midway was joined 21 November by Kitty Hawk, and both carriers, along with their escort ships, were joined by Nimitz and her escorts on 22 January 1980. Midway was relieved by Coral Sea on 5 February.[3]

Missions in the 1980s

 

Following a period in Yokosuka, Midway relieved Coral Sea 30 May 1980 on standby south of the Cheju-Do Islands in the Sea of Japan following the potential of civil unrest in the Republic of Korea.

 

While transiting the passage between Palawan Island of the Philippines and the coast of Northern Borneo on 29 July, the Panamanian merchant ship Cactus collided with Midway. Cactus was 450 nautical miles (830 km) southwest of Subic Bay and headed to Singapore. The collision occurred near the liquid oxygen plant and two sailors working in the plant were killed and three were injured. Midway sustained light damage and three F-4 Phantom aircraft parked on the flight deck were also damaged.[8]

 

On 17 August, Midway relieved Constellation to begin another Indian Ocean deployment and to complement the Dwight D. Eisenhower task group still on contingency duty in the Arabian Sea. Midway spent a total of 118 consecutive days in the Indian Ocean during 1980.

 

On 16 March 1981, an A-6 Intruder from VA-115 aboard Midway sighted a downed civilian helicopter in the South China Sea. Midway immediately dispatched HC-1 Det 2 helicopters to the scene. All 17 people aboard the downed helicopter were rescued and brought aboard the carrier. The chartered civilian helicopter was also plucked out of the water and lifted to Midway's flight deck.

 

On 25 March 1986, the final carrier launching of a Navy fleet F-4S Phantom II took place off Midway during flight operations in the East China Sea. The Phantoms were replaced by the new F/A-18 Hornets.

 

Midway continued serving in the western Pacific throughout the 1980s. In order to alleviate persistent seakeeping issues, Midway received hull blisters in 1986. During her 1986 refit (named "Extended Incremental Selected Repair Availability"), blisters were added to improve the ship's stability. The modification proved unsuccessful, and actually increased the ship's instability in rough seas. She took water over the flight deck during excessive rolls in moderate seas, thereby hampering flight operations. Before another $138 million refit was approved to rectify the stability problems, it was even proposed to decommission Midway. Nevertheless, she had earned herself the nickname "Rock'n Roll carrier". During a typhoon while in the Sea of Japan during the Olympic Games in Korea, October 8, 1988, Midway, which was not supposed to be able to survive more than 24 degrees of roll, sustained a 26 degree roll and withstood it.

 

On 30 October 1989 an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft from Midway mistakenly dropped a 500 pounds (227 kilograms) general-purpose bomb on the deck of Reeves during training exercises in the Indian Ocean, creating a 5-foot (1.5 m) hole in the bow, sparking small fires, and injuring five sailors. Reeves was 32 miles (51 km) south of Diego Garcia at the time of the incident.[14]

 

Disaster struck Midway on 20 June 1990. While conducting routine flight operations approximately 125 nautical miles (232 km; 144 mi) northeast of Japan, the ship was badly damaged by two onboard explosions. These explosions led to a fire that raged more than ten hours. In addition to damage to the ship's hull, two crew members were killed and 9 others were wounded;[15] one of the injured later died of his injuries.[16] All 11 crewmen belonged to the at sea fire-fighting team known as the Flying Squad. When Midway entered Yokosuka Harbor the next day, 12 Japanese media helicopters flew in circles and hovered about 150 feet (46 m) above the flight deck. Three bus loads of reporters were waiting on the pier. About 30 minutes after Midway cast her first line, more than 100 international print and electronic journalists charged over the brow to cover the event. The news media made a major issue out of the incident, as it happened amid several other military accidents. It was thought that the accident would lead to the ship's immediate retirement due to her age, but instead Midway was retained to fight in one last major conflict.

Operation Desert Storm and the 1990s

 

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait and U.S. forces moved into Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield to protect that country against invasion by Iraq. On 1 November 1990, Midway was again on station in the North Arabian Sea being the carrier of Battle Force Zulu (which included warships from the US, Australia, and other countries), relieving Independence. On 15 November, the aircraft carrier participated in Operation Imminent Thunder, an eight-day combined amphibious landing exercise in northeastern Saudi Arabia which involved about 1,000 U.S. Marines, 16 warships, and more than 1,100 aircraft. Meanwhile, the United Nations set an ultimatum deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.

 

Operation Desert Storm began the next day, and the Navy launched 228 sorties from Midway and Ranger in the Persian Gulf, from Theodore Roosevelt en route to the Gulf, and from John F. Kennedy, Saratoga, and America in the Red Sea. In addition, the Navy launched more than 100 Tomahawk missiles from nine ships in the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Desert Storm officially ended 27 February, and Midway departed the Persian Gulf on 11 March 1991 and returned to Yokosuka.

 

In June 1991, Midway left for her final deployment, this time to the Philippines to take part in Operation Fiery Vigil, which was the evacuation of 20,000 military members including their families from Clark Air Base, on the island of Luzon, after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Midway, along with twenty other U.S. naval ships, ferried the evacuees to the island of Cebu, where they were taken off the ship by helicopter. After taking part in the evacuation, the aircraft carrier once again returned to Yokosuka.

 

Final cruise

 

In August 1991, Midway departed Yokosuka and returned to Pearl Harbor. There, she turned over with Independence, which was to replace Midway as the forward-deployed carrier in Yokosuka. Rear Admiral Joseph Prueher and the staff of Carrier Group ONE cross-decked from Independence. Pruher was the last admiral to break his flag on Midway. She then sailed to Seattle for a port visit. The ship then disembarked "tigers" (guests of crew members) before making her final voyage to San Diego.

 

Midway was decommissioned at Naval Air Station North Island on 11 April 1992 in a ceremony in which the main speaker was Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. The ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 March 1997. During decommissioning, Midway, her sailors, and their families were filmed for the movie At Sea, a documentary on carrier life shown only at the Navy Museum in Washington, D.C.

 

On 30 September 2003, ex-Midway began her journey from the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, Washington, to San Diego, California, in preparation for use as a museum and memorial. The aircraft carrier was docked in early October at the Charles P. Howard Terminal in Oakland, California, while work proceeded on the Broadway Pier in downtown San Diego. On 10 January 2004, the ship was moored at her final location, where she was opened to the public on 7 June 2004 as a museum. In the first year of operation, the museum had 879,281 visitors, double the expected attendance.

 

On 11 November 2012, a college basketball game between the Syracuse Orange and the San Diego State Aztecs was played on the flight deck. The Orange won, 62–49.[17]

 

On 15 July 2015, museum personnel were evacuated from ex-Midway due to smoke caused by an apparent fire. The San Diego fire department responded quickly, but no fire was found, and the museum was able to open for the day on schedule.[18]

Awards and decorations

 

Presidential Unit Citation Joint Meritorious Unit Award Navy Unit Commendation

with three stars Meritorious Unit Commendation

with two stars

Navy E Ribbon with

wreathed Battle "E" device Navy Expeditionary Medal

with three stars China Service Medal American Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal Navy Occupation Service Medal National Defense Service Medal

with two stars Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal

with six stars

Vietnam Service Medal

with four stars Southwest Asia Service Medal

with two stars Humanitarian Service Medal Sea Service Deployment Ribbon

with sixteen stars

Republic of Vietnam Meritorious

Unit Citation (Gallantry Cross) Republic of Vietnam Campaign

Medal Kuwait Liberation Medal

(Saudi Arabia) Kuwait Liberation Medal

(Kuwait)

I fed the sheep. Thought "omg those sunset clouds got wonderful colours from apricot to pink." Ran inside the garage I live in and got camera and tripod. Out again and down to the east of the property. My hands were frozen. They freeze very fast. It took me about 5 minutes to place the tripod and attach the camera. Then those apricot to pink clouds were GONE. Cursing like a coachman I ran towards the north where one last cloud was collapsing colourwise. I took this photograph. But it's not nearly as impressive as the clouds had been 5 minutes before. I got to do this a bit faster in future.

nothing fancy or extremely elaborate...just slender hips...i also used XP's skeleton thata gives a better look to the body...

 

DOWNLOAD

mega.co.nz/#!TQtkACBZ!Q8kGnHaIqjDEnIXYCfe34UZ06-Vtqov15HL...

 

DISCLAIMER:

"since this work replaces meshes is currently not 100% compatible with body modifications as CBBE or UNP for a simple metter of nif shader settings,.. to make such modifications work properly with these textures you need to open respective cbbe/unp nif files for this set and change specularity and glossness values as in nifs inluded here.

compatibility patches may be added in future and if someone wants to make his own patch and upload is wellcome, always asking permission when needed and giving proper credits to original meshes authors.

"

So thankd to Amidianborn C120

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, Ufford, Suffolk

 

Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.

 

But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle. You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses. In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.

 

The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.

 

The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.

 

Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage. I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.

 

On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.

 

Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.

 

As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.

 

Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them. So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.

 

In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.

 

The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.

 

The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.

 

Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.

 

Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.

 

It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.

 

Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing. But there was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.

 

Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.

 

While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals.

 

High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago.

 

The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.

 

Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard. It depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh.

 

Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciation, although it is the figures above which are most extraordinary. They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.

 

Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert. However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I also think that the images of heads below may be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.

 

High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.

 

There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and although it no longer maintains its high Anglo-catholic worship tradition, it is is still kept in high liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.

"I see you!"

 

The question is: "Did you see me?"

 

After a lot of conversations with different people and some serious thoughts about the use of social media and my intention to use it in future for another project of mine, I decided to give it finally a try (since many of you are still there).

 

You can find me on Instagram under my username kevin.j.walter or my pictures via #skywalter

 

I'll upload older stuff of mine but also any new progress, be it on Barad-dûr or Enterprise D or on different things I'm currently working on!

 

Hope to "see you" there as well as here!

 

- K.

 

________________________________________________

 

A huge thank you to Marshal Banana for editing this picture!

When I hit the ACT in 2012 I swung by the SITA yard in Hume a few times to check out what was happening. As per my initial investigation via Google street view, I spotted a number of old Riteway bodied front-lifts parked up inside the gates. However, I also spotted 2 very young looking 6x4 Pegasus/ACCO FLs, one of which features in the picture. It seems the company was in the process of upgrading the fleet, with these two the then latest arrivals. I’m sure by now there are probably no more Riteways left in the ACT C&I fleet, quite likely now a group of these 6x4 ACCOs, maybe even a couple of twin steers. It would’ve been cool to catch one of these trucks in action, but unfortunately I never managed to stumble across one during my visit. I’m also going to miss these signature green bodies and that bright SITA logo in future!

I wasn't here for long time. Sorry. I'll be a good girl in future :)

Processed with CameraBag 2

 

The Kingsmac rose, specially bred to celebrate King's School Macclesfield's 500th anniversary, has won a prestigious international prize. A blushing variegated hybrid in peach, honey and apricot, it has won a Silver Medal at the Hague Rose trials and is tipped to win the top prize in future years. The rose was bred by Fryer’s Roses in Knutsford, one of the top 20 roses breeders world-wide, and was chosen from thousands of entries from across the globe

 

Walthamstow, East London, UK

Between the fisheye, the long exposure on the water, the colors and the processing - it just reminding me of something you would see in a sci-fi movie. I think if you have a fisheye lens, this is one of those spots you have to photograph.

 

Today marks the end of WDW Photography but the beginning of the Disney Photography Blog! Cory and I have been working hard on this project but think the new site has been worth the work. We also are launching the Disney Photography Forums today and hope you will stop by and register. There are a lot of changes to the site, which we think you will enjoy.

 

Thanks!

 

Disney Photography Blog | Discussion Forum | Fireworks Photography eBook

Check this model in 3D on Mecabricks

 

– Why have I chosen RSS Korolev? Every captain wants such ship. Fast. Huge. Convenient. Never mind, I m just joking. Someone else would say something about a new frontier and a spirit of discovery. As for me, it s just a new experience. You know, if you are captain, it s almost impossible to find anything except cargo ship. Or a liner for the lucky ones. It s not bad, but those routine delivery missions are too identical. Fly somewhere, take cargo, go back, repeat. This research voyage is completely different. Much more responsibility. There are larger cargo ships, but the crew is always low, a couple of dozens at the biggest ones. And all of them are captain s subordinates. Captain is a god on his ship. Here… everything is different. Hundreds of scientists are not just passengers. I have to change course if some astronomer finds some unusual star or if a biologist decides to scan particular planet for life. It s a bit annoying. Some more conservative person could find such situation real headache. But I don t want to return to the freighters.

– They can say everything they want, but NavSystems was a general sponsor of this mission. So our aim is establishing new hyperspace routes and correcting old ones. Most expansive and complicated equipment of this ship are all kinds of hyperspace scanners. Laying a new route isn t a simple task. You have to keep in mind many factors to make it fast, reliable, safe, economic. And profitable for company. Days, when ship had to have huge powerful expansive computer onboard to calculate hyperjump, are gone. Companies like NavSystem provide access to their servers to make calculations as simple as it possible. Global hyperspace beacon network collects all necessary data; servers process it and give all parameters of a jump for a fair payment. This entire infrastructure has high running cost, so we can t do it for free.

– Those bastards from the “navigators guild” think they are masters here. But most of them don t even understand that their precious hyperroutes are useless if nobody wants to use them. Every journey needs a reason. The most common and obvious one is valuable resource deposit. Humanity needs more resources for further expansion. That s why we should check every possible planet, moon or asteroid belt. Moreover, every planet is unique and can tell scientists something new and may be important. We ve already done several discoveries. But “navigators” always hurry us up if they find star system useless for them. We must do something.

– This expedition has already given us good results. We collected tons of information and statistics. It will help for new colonists a lot. Some people hope we can find one more earth-like planet. It will be a great success. However, we checked thousands of planets and none of them is suitable for human without any special equipment. We even found some samples of life, but it were just bacteria and a couple of simplest seaweeds. Space is a dead place. I hope we can change this in future.

Formerly a Lord of Edelis, and one of the few of that order to survive that country's downfall. With his country now conquered by the Teraxian Empire, he is responsible for the upbringing of the rightful king, Prince Cade.

 

Another SALVATION WIP. Not quite in the same league as the past two. The torso design might be reused in future.

Delaine, Bourne 159 (AD65 DBL) heads for home out of service - a reminder that this immaculate operator is still very much of the here-and-now. One wonders what examples of the current fleet will find their way into the heritage collection in future years.

 

25/09/2021, posted 28/09/2021.

Super excited that I was not only able to get a retro style bathing suit, but guessed my size online and it actually fit perfect! I have a few others in future sessions down the road (it is summer after all!).

As engineer Manuel Aiple moves his gauntleted hand, the robotic hand a few metres away in ESA’s telerobotics laboratory follows in sync.

 

In future, the hope is that human controllers can manipulate orbiting robots or planetary rovers in a similar fashion, across hundreds or thousands of kilometres of space.

 

Based at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the lab aims for robot operators to feel as though they are right there – up in orbit or down on a planet.

 

Stereo cameras offer 3D vision and the operator feels force-feedback, as found in high-end video game joysticks, to gain a working sense of touch as the robot manipulates objects.

 

This summer, ESA’s latest ATV space freighter will deliver the Lab’s Haptics-1 experiment to the International Space Station, testing how feedback operates in microgravity, as a prelude to demonstrating orbit-to-ground telerobotic control.

 

Credit: ESA-Guus Schoonewille

Lego fw 190D10 designed by Dieter89, looked like no one build his fw before so I did. It’s a great design and learned a lot new technics that I will use in future plane builds.

 

Small easter egg in the back ;)

A pair of Black Headed Gulls watching the kerfuffle as people chucked bread into the lake for assorted birds.

 

Always busy at weekends and school holidays, Needham Lakes can test one's patience at times, and now there's an ice-cream van adding to the noise of screaming children etc etc!

 

Okay, okay, I'll just avoid the lakes at above times in future! 😁

Nothing is as satisfying as the sound of an obnoxiously loud motorcycle being crunched into a nice neat cube of scrap!

 

For more photos, see the full set.

Switches/Turnouts/Points are one of the weakest areas in building realistic and reliable layouts. The TLG R40 switch is quite limited in potential configurations and has severe geometry due to its R40 radius. It does not combine to make a crossover at a nominal 16-stud centreline and the diverging route does not integrate into a nominal curve radius. To overcome these limitations, I have designed a switch concept called a "Medium" switch. I chose the name "Medium" because it fits in between the TLG R40 "Short" switch and a (yet undesigned) "Long" switch. The design requirements were as follows:

 

▪ Nominal 8s interval boundaries

▪ Integrates into a 16s centreline crossover without modification

▪ Integrates into a 16s interval radius

▪ 22.5º crossing vee / diverging route angle to support return curves

 

When designing this switch, it became apparent that the 16-stud convention and 22.5º sector angles do not overlap well from a geometry point of view. Designing a switch to make a clean crossover was easy. Designing it to support a return curve back to a 16-stud centreline *and* within an 8-stud lateral grid was not! It turns out that in addition to the switch itself, a new straight track element is required to realign the geometry of return curves back to a nominal 8-stud interval grid. After some analysis of various track configurations, a "2/5 Straight" or "6.5-stud Straight" element was required. In actual fact it is 6.48x studs long for minimal alignment error; however, even at 6.5x it is within the mechanical tolerances of track construction. This element is very nearly the familiar ratio of 2/5 which we use for SNOT building techniques. It is in fact a partial ratio of the standard 16-stud straight, i.e. 2/5 x 16 studs = 6.4 studs. This new straight element makes possible a variety of return curve configurations with several standard (R56, R72, R88) radii as well as providing alignment for stacked yard ladders.

 

In future, I intend to design a so-called "Long" switch which has a diverging route at 11.25º. I haven't worked out all of the geometry; however, I am hoping it will fit within the "system" similar to the "Medium" switch.

 

You can download (at your own risk!) these "add-on" elements for BlueBrick from my website at www.brickdimensions.com/resources/trains.

 

Happy layout planning and feedback/improvements/suggestions/etc. more than welcome!

Remnant vegetation in future drainage channel.

These some weed in here, but there is also plenty of Common Nardoo and Juncus. The Nardoo is very hard to grow but seems to be doing very well here

Nikon D800, Nikkor 24mm, AI-s

This is a continuation of the previous extinct birds plate in www.flickr.com/photos/10770266@N04/5043889621/

 

The species represented here are:

 

1. Alaotra grebe (Tachybaptus rufolarvatus)

This small waterfowl was endemic to lake Alaotra in Madagascar and have the sad "honour" of be the last bird declared extinct. Last record was in 1985 and the bird was declared extinct in march 2010, before that, the last declared extinct bird was the po'o-uli, treated in this same plate (number 5). Form this bird exist only one photograph of an alive bird. Causes of extinction are habitat destruction and introduced predatory fishes. Also hybridation with the widespread Little Grebe (T. ruficollis) played, but as this alwas happened before human destruction of Madagascar, this last fact only can damage a previously damaged population. In the Lake Alaotra also lives an endemic pochard (Aythya innotata) that was declared extinct, but in 2006 I readed that it was rediscovered alive so my hopes for the grebe aumented. However the grebe don't had the same luck as the pochard.

 

2. Red-moustached fruit dove (Ptilinopus mercierii)

This pigeon, as colorful as other fruit doves, lived once in Marquesas islands in Polynesia. This bird had two different subspecies but both are extinct now. It was extinct due to predators introduced by humans: owls, cats and rats.

 

3. Crested shelduck (Tadorna cristata)

This magnific duck lived in eastern Asia. Last reliable record was in 1964 although many sight was reported in recent times, so is slightly possible that the bird is not extinct. Direct hunt and habitat loss are the causes of its extinction.

 

4. Red rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia)

One more of the many Mauritius bird that, as the dodo, was killed after the discovery of the Western Indian Ocean islands by occidental explorers. Rails (family Rallidae) seems to have one of the highest tendence to extinction, probably because many are reluctant to fly, or even unable (the Red Rail was flightless), as well as sensitive to habitat destruction and often chased for food. Red Rail was known from bones, old paintings and descriptions. It was discovered around 1600 and it't known than a number to alive ones was brought to Europe. This bird was extinct by direct hunt for food. Also introduced pigs helped, eating eggs and chicks. Around 1700 the bird was disappeared.

 

5. Po'o-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma)

This is the last bird species to die with an exact extinction date, the 28th November 2004. As many other Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae), that became extinct or are being extincted now, this bird suffered a lot the diseases caused by introduced mosquitoes in Hawaii. It was discovered in 1973 with a population estimated of 200 individuals, but in 2002 only three birds left, one female was captured and brought to a zone where lived the last male. But the female flew away to her own territory in next day. In 2004 was planned to capture the three birds and bring to a recovering center. So the male was captured and brough to the center, but none female could be captured before the male died of avian malaria, three months after captured. Probably these two females died too.

 

6. Bonin grosbeak (Chaunoproctus ferreorostris)

This finch was seen only in Chichi-jima island in the Bonin Islands (Japan). Discovered in 1827, three years after the island was used by whale killers, and in 1854 an expedition don't found the bird anymore, that probably died because of the introduced predators and other destructive animals: pigs, rats, dogs, goats, sheep and cats. Like the Bonin Thrush (Zoothera terrestris), the bird disappeared from these islands, and then, from the world. Now we count with about 10 taxidermy specimens.

 

7. Bachman's warbler (Vermivora bachmani)

A small colorful insectivorous from North America that was not seen since 1988. Probably is extinct due to habitat destruction, but as recently as in 2002 a female bird was filmed in Cuba and could belong to this species.

 

8. Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis)

Almost as well known as the dodo between extinct birds, due to its North American origin and the dramatic, almost impossible to believe, human stupidness of its extinction. This beautiful parrot was the only North American parrot, living even in temperate climates. Flocks of thousands of birds flew in the past in the sky, feeding overall in the fruits of Xanthium strumarium, an invasive weed that grows in cultivation fields. But the humans saw the parakeets in these fields and authomatically thinked that the bird feeds on the plants that they grow, instead of the weeds. So a giant persecution started and farmers killes thousands and thousands of this bird every day. Parrots are amongst most intelligent birds and they have personality and strong feelings. When Carolina parakeets are shot and killed, other parakeets go close to the died bodies trying to reanimate, in an unusual solidary behaviour. Then the farmers kill them more and more and more parakeets come to cry for the deads and are killed again attracting more parakeets etc... this never stop until last parakeet was killed. Last wild Carolina parakeet was killed in 1904, and captive ones lived a bit more, last individual in the world, "Incas", died in Cincinnati zoo in 21th February 1918, while the last female, "Lady Jane", died a year before in same zoo. "Incas" died in the same enclosure than the last Passenger Pigeon (number 13), died four years before. This parakeet breeded very well in captivity and much more could have been done for keep them in worlds zoos. Other causes of extinction was destruction of forest and introduction of european Honey Bee, that takes the nesting places.

 

9. Labrador duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius)

This marine duck of North America had a lifestyle similar to the eiders, harliquin ducks and scoters. The last sight was on 1878, three years before the last preserved individual was shooted. Causes of extinction are not clear, hunt for food is a reason but the bird is reported that don't tastes good. Collectong of eggs and killing for feathers can also be a reason, as well as decreasing of some mollusks by overcollecting.

 

10. Guam flycatcher (Myiagra freycineti)

I choosed this bird because I found good photos of them alive, beucase it's extinction is very recent. The only cause of it's extinction is the introduction of a predator, the Brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis) . Last sight of this bird was in 1983.

 

11. Raiatea parakeet (Cyanoramphus ulietanus)

Like some other parakeets in this genus, C. ulietanus is gone. It was endemic to Raiatea island in Polynesia. This bird is only known by two collected specimens, and was not seen anymore after 1773. Probably it disappeared due to forest destruction, direct hunt and introduced predators.

 

12. Pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea)

This atonishing duck from India is extinct since 1950's. Always was a rare bird and no much is known about it, probably its evanishing is due to habitat destruction. Last shooted individual was on 1935. Exist a photo of several alive pink-headed ducks in captivity in Foxwarren Park, England, taken about 1925.

 

13. Passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)

Probably the most famous extinct bird after the dodo. Similar to Carolina Parakeet in their distribution, habits, and way and date of extinction. Passenger pigeons formed the largest bird focks ever, that can reach even more than TWO BILLION birds!!!!!! The flocks destroy branches with its weight. Despite that, now we don't have none more than taxidermy specimens. The birds was first chased as a cheap meat for slaves and poors, decreasing quickly the number of pigeons, and forest destruction deleted the pigeons habitat. Last wild bird was seen on 1900, and "Martha", the last passenger pigeon, died in Cincinnati Zoo in 1914.

Much more info at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon

 

14. Greater akialoa (Hemignathus ellisianus)

As is said in number 5, and in the other plate about the Mamo (Drepanis pacifica), the Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanididae) lost many species and many are disappearing now, and the major cause are the diseases transmited by introduced mosquitoes. The genus Hemignathus count with several olivaceous medium-sized birds with long curved bills, some of them still alive, but mainly extinct. The greater Akialoa was the one with longest bill. It had three subspecies, all of them extinct. Between all subspecies it inhabited islands of Oahu, Lanai, Molokai and Maui. Last record was in 1969, in Kauai. Like other Drpanididae, this species disappeared due to diseases and habitat destruction.

 

15. Robust white-eye (Zosterops strenuus)

This bird was endemic to Lord Howe island, near Australia. Probably it disappeared due to the introduction of black rats in the island. In 1923, the bird was extinct. Another species of white-eye, Zosterops lateralis, are still alive, but the subspecies of Lord Howe island is threatened.

 

16. Slender moa (Dinornis giganteus)

Moas are some of the most fascinating extinct birds. They formed a family of about 12 species of giant flightless birds endemic to New Zealands. The smallest species, Euryapteryx curtus, is not bigger than a chicken, while the biggest, Dinornis giganteus, was the tallest bird ever in human times, more than 3 meters high. Almost all moas was extinct when first Maoris arrived to New Zealand, coming from Polynesian. At least three species: Dinornis robustus, Emeus crassus and Megalapteryx didinus, passed the frontier of the XVI century, and was probably seen by the first Europeans that arrived to the islands in XVII century. Moas evolved in the island due to absence of any large mammal, and was predated by the also extinct Haas't eagle (Harpagornis moorei) before Maoris extincted this eagle.

Moas was scarce even before the arrival of Maoris to New Zealand, and maybe they could be extinct now without human help.

Moas are similar to Kiwis because they lost completely the wings. Is supposed that Kiwis are the closest living relatives. Several bones of many species was founs, as well as some feathers, and even a mummified head of Megalapteryx didinus.

Here can be seen a size comparison between skeletons of Ostrich, the largest living bird, and Dinornis giganteus.

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Kiwi,_ostrich,_Dinornis.jpg

 

17 Ryukyu wood pigeon (Columba jouyi)

This nice bird was endemic of Okinawa islands in Japan. It was extinct due to habitat destruction. Last record of this species is on 1904. If any remaining bird left, the complete destruction of the forest of these islands by milician settlement prerpairing for World War II, destroyed for sure the last of these pigeons.

 

18. Liverpool pigeon (Caloenas maculata)

This amazing creature is known by only two taxdermy individuals, one of which is lost, the other is conserved in Liverpool Pigeon and without any kind of location data. Pressumably it was collected in South East Asia, where lives the only close relative today, the Nicobar Pigeon.

 

19. Oahu O'o (Moho apicalis)

Moho is a fantastic genus with 4 species endemic to Hawaii islands, all of theme are already extinct. The O'os species are black, with long and curved bill, yellow plumes in the body and a strange tail. As in Hawaiian honeycreepers (see number 5 and 14), these true honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) suffered the diseases transmited by introduced mosquitoes, as well as habitat destruction, and direct chase for feathers. The Oahu o's (Moho apicalis) was extinct in 1837, the Molokai o's (M. bishopi) in 1904, the Hawaii o'o (M. nobilis) in 1934 and the Kauai o'o (M. braccatus) in 1987.

 

20. Mauritius blue pigeon (Alectroenas nitidissima)

The history is repeated among all these Mauritius, Comores and Seychelles birds. The dodo is the most famous but much more birds of the tropical western Indian Ocean islands was gone at same time. Only three taxidermy specimens rest now. Last specimen shooted was in 1826 and is one of the three remaining stuffed specimens, probably the species only lived few years more. Habitat destruction, direct hunt, and predation by introduced monkeys are probably the causes of extinction.

 

21. Atitlan grebe (Podilymbus gigas)

This bird, very similar to the common and widespread Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) but much bigger and unable to fly, was restricted only to the Atitlan lake in Guatemala. Probably it have the most well documented history of decline and extinction between birds. It also count with the best photo ever made to an alive specimen of an extinct bird now. Causes of extinction are destruction of the nesting areas, introduction of large predatory fishes that compited with the adults for food and chased the chicks, and an earthquacke that reduced the water level of the lake in 1976. The last two birds were seen in 1989.

 

22. Red-headed macaw (Ara erythrocephala)

As said in the other plate for Ara atwoodi, this is only one of the many extinct macaws of the Caribbean islands. Like other macaws, this one from Jamaica is hypothetical due to the lack of reliable registers: it's known only by descriptions. Probably it was hunted for foor and as pet until extinction in early XIX century.

 

23. Choiseul pigeon (Microgoura meeki)

This atonishing bird, as his name says, resembles very much a miniature version of the New Guinean crowned pigeons, Goura spp. It lived on Choiseul island in the Solomon Islands. In 1904 six individuals and an egg was collected and sent to a museum. Causes of extinction are human hunt and predation by introduced cats and dogs.

 

Many more species of birds was extinct by humans between XVI and XXI centuries. This and the other plate are only a small part. Since XVII century the number of extinct birds is of 165. And this is only birds! Counting other animals, plants, fungus, etc. a species are disappearing now EVERY 15 SECONDS!!!!

 

Much more birds species are evanishing now and will do in the future. We must put as many effort as we can for protect them.

Found image. I am not sure what this photograph represents. Is this a class from a rural background learning a craft that may help them to earn a living in future or is it a group being given an art lesson.

And here is the final wrap up for the Lego Dragons Contest we hosted! :)

 

Steel Dragon: Awarded to Deus Otiosus for the overal performance in the most/highest quality builds.

Lightning/Glass Dragon: Awarded to Angeli for his Mirage Dragon.

Steam Dragon: Awarded to V&A Steamworks for his wonderful steampunk dragon.

Dont forget to check out our other winners!

  

Thanks everyone for participating in our contest, and we hope to see you again in future contests! :D

 

Few days ago I was out to shoot some milky way photos.

I was astonished what difference it really makes when shooting in a less light polluted area. Even here there was still quite an amount of light pollution, but much less than in my usual suburban sky. At around midnight the milky way was visible even to the naked eye as a blurry something in some regions of the night sky (beside thousands of stars). This one was shot with high ISO, so I had some noise in the image which I tried to remove as good as possible in post processing. I hope to get a more crisp image in future night shots.

 

A few years ago I acquired several Leitz items including a 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 (screw mount) lens from 1958. Although I have generally been very pleased with the performance of the Leitz lenses I own, the Hektor produced images with a very disappointing lack of sharpness unless closed well down (beyond f/11).

 

The Hektor is not the Leitz lens with the finest reputation. Not knowing much about Leica in general at the time: I just assumed my sample was typical, and ceased using it for the most part.

 

Fast forward to 2022 and my IIIf had become one of the cameras I most often used. So I decided to revisit the Hektor. Once again, although I obtained one or two decent photos with it stopped almost fully down, sharpness was mostly, very poor. So poor, in fact, that I concluded my sample must have been compromised in the past, in some way, by persons unknown. I just couldn't see Leitz sending such a poor optic out the door. Wide open, it was diabolically bad. Indeed, a few hours of online research turned up plenty of images made with other 13.5cm Hektors which were a great deal better than those produced by my own, at any aperture.

 

Fortunately, the 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 is one of the most affordable of all Leitz lenses and copies are readily available. In late 2022 I purchased another example from a trusted seller (who was kind enough to take some digital test images with the lens for me, prior to ordering it). Having been once bitten, I decided that some basic test images with the new example (also, a 1958 build), were worthwhile, to obtain some first hand data about its behaviour at all its apertures from f/4.5 to f/32.

 

Thus, this series of ostensibly identical images of Hobart's (in)famous Tasman Bridge, which I made at Lindisfarne on the Eastern shore of the River Derwent in February 2023.

 

I make no claim to the series being a definitive benchmark for the characteristics of the 13.5cm Hektor. The images were made because of my own curiosity, to inform my use of the new lens in future. That said, I have shared them here in case they might be helpful for other film photographers.

 

Friday 3rd February 2023.

Camera: Leica IIIf RD 35mm Rangefinder (1952).

Lens: Leitz 13.5cm Hektor f/4.5 (1958).

Film: Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125 35mm black & white negative.

Exposure: 1/50 @ f/4.5.

Development: ID-11 1 + 3 20C/21m.

 

Other details:

A Leitz APDOO accessory self timer and Linhof tripod were used to release the shutter without reducing stability. The Hektor couples accurately to my well-adjusted IIIf rangefinder at infinity, and was set to its infinity stop for these photos. Only shutter duration and aperture were altered between images, to maintain a nearly equivalent amount of exposure for each image during the series.

 

The processed film was scanned using a well set up Epson V700 at 3200ppi 16 bit depth and saved as tiff. Each image was very slightly cropped to remove any film rebate acquired during the scan to the standard 35mm format 3:2 ratio, and very slightly reduced in size to 15 x 10 inches at 300ppi resolution using a bicubic sharper resizing algorithm in Photoshop 2020. Minor adjustments were made to brightness and contrast in several cases, (to compensate for any slight variations in exposure resulting from the slowly changing evening light levels and the Leica's not completely linear scale of shutter speeds).

 

The edited tiffs were resized to 2400 x 1600 pixels using bicubic sharper resizing again, sharpened with a 2 pixel high pass filter, and saved as RBG jpegs with minimum possible compression before being added to Flickr.

 

COPYRIGHT 2023 TASMANIA FILM PHOTOGRAPHY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Just trying a new background for taking photos in future

Stagecoach East Kent route 123 from Ashford to Biddenden will be withdrawn after 10th February 2023. A victim of council cuts blighting the whole country, not just Kent. A school service will cover part of the route. But essentially in future you are obliged to drive. If you can't drive or can't afford to (or don't want to because you actually care about the planet), then tough luck.

 

This was, and still is the only Steampunk build that I have been able to execute to my satisfaction. Hopefully I'll be happier with my results in future!

I would like to invite participation in this project. If you wish to take part, anonymously if you prefer, please send your `confession' to the following address:

 

Dr John Perivolaris

Grouse Lodge

Dippen

Isle of Arran

KA27 8RW

Scotland

United Kingdom

 

You are free to interpret the term `confession' as freely as you wish. Your `confession' may be textual, photographic, artistic, or object-based, or even a combination thereof.

 

Participation implies that you are willing to have your `confession' included, credited or anonymously, in future online/physical publication and/or exhibition.

Another shot of the monorail track in Future World with the Imagination! pyramid in the background.

 

HDR from three exposures (0, -2, +2).

JiuZhaiGou Valley in Tibet Autonomous Region TAR PRC .See larger image at www.flickr.com/photos/wittysam/8104583584/ A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE and a scenic area in TIBET. TAR. 2nd most beautiful place on the Habitable Earth after Himalayas for me.

  

Another Wonder of World explored at JZH UNESCO TOUR 2012 4 days -

A concise practical guide to visit the places mentioned in my second published book "111 Miraculous WONDERS OF WORLD you must see when you alive" Download it to your mobile or better print it and use the info while exploring the places.

 

Jiuzhaigou Valley (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: Jiuzhàigou; literally "Valley of Nine Villages"; Tibetan: ???????????????, Wylie: gzi-rtsa sde-dgu, ZYPY: Sirza Degu)

 

GO TO TRAVEL TIPS MARKED WITH SIGNS AND HEADERS LIKE THIS

 

#############

Travel Tip 1, 2....9...

 

BELOW IN DISCRIPTIONS TO SKIP TO MAIN PLACES TO SEE RATHER THAN ALL IMPORTANT TIPS.

 

***I suggest read all tips before you start your journey at least you are not referring to loads if information like I did. Have a excellent trip !!!

 

As per me JUIZHAIGOU valley ( 88 kms from JZH Airport )in particular & nearby HUANGLONG ( 53 kms from JZH Airport )is MOST BEAUTIFUL and MOST SCENIC PLACE IN CHINA and even around the WORLD the very reason it makes to the 111 WOW book i am writing. This UNESCO World Heritage Site of natural order is worth a visit more than even New 7 Wonders of World and Nature from my viewpoint and experience of travelling to 70+ Countries till date in year 2012. This travel advise is based on my 6 th Year of World Travel & 16th year of total travel experience & i can say it loud and clear that out of all my travels to China's major destinations and provinces around major cities which I travelled in

PRC People Republic of China Hongkong and Tibet Autonomous Region like

 

PEKING-BEJING

PUDONG-SHANGHAI Province-level Municipality

HANGZOU City ZHEJHING Province

JIUZHAIGOU

JIUZHAIGOU Valley

JIUZHAIGOU COUNTY

Formerly called Nanping County

HUANGLONG

Huanglong Valley

Tibetan Plateau

Min Mountains

Tibetan Plateau East, or Qinghai-Tibetan (Qingzang) Plateau

Tibet Autonomous Region(TAR), Tibet or Xizang level autonomous region 1965 administrative region & 1951 Province Level PRC

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture capital Barkam town (Ch. Ma'erkang)

Qinghai

SICHUAN Province

Guangzhou Guangzhou or Canton or Kwangchow ( capital )

Guangdong province

CHONGQING

CHEGDU

Hong Kong

and my 15 th visit to China in last 6 years

 

It is a nature reserve and national park located in northern Sichuan province of southwestern China. Jiuzhaigou Valley is part of the Min Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and stretches over 72,000 hectares. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls, colorful lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Its elevation ranges from 2,000 to 4,500 metres (6,600 to 14,800 ft).

 

Jiuzhaigou Valley was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997. It belongs to the category V (Protected Landscape) in the IUCN system of protected area categorization.

 

Jiuzhaigou Valley ( or in short Jouzhai) Scenic and Historic Interest Area

 

Can travel to this another UNESCO site together depending on time if you have one extra day availability -

Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area ( Near to JZH airport )

****you may not be able to cover all or any part of this area if you have less than 20-24 hours effectively from time you land in JZH airport to time you leave JZH airport. But you can take a 1 or 2 hour drive on the other side of route when you reach JZH airport area after travelling from historic site to JZH airport while heading back to your destination provided you taking last flight of the day which approximately leaves at 19.20 hrs.

 

*****I had no time to explore this area this time as It takes one full day or 10 hrs to cover 2/3 rd of Y shaped area of JZH valley. and another day to cover rest of Y shaped valley.And another day to cover Huanglong area. So I cud cover only this shape "/ " rather than complete scenic area in "Y" shape which is major scenic area. And tour from hotel is 2 N / 3 Days if boarding from CKG at say 2000 Yuan

 

**** This trip of just 2 days in my 6 days off from work actually 4 days and effectively 32 hours from time I start from CKG hotel and back to Hotel had cost me near 4500 YUAN but as per details below it may cost around 3500 Yuan minimum in total excluding food gifts books but including taxi ( 300 Yuan one way from JZH to JZH valley near entrence of historical area) and air tickets ( 1024 Yuan one way ) and hotel stay ( between 200-300 Yuan if pre-booked or 400 Yuan if walk in guest on budget rate hotel ) but even lesser if you have airline discounts and ID90 Z fare tickets. But no matter how much you pay you travel or not it's allready a Wonder of World and supreme natire at its best is there presently as i have eye witnessed it but not sure with very high infux of toyrists its gonna be same in future. Included in my book 111 WOW

 

Details :

Taxi Hotel to CKG airport and back: Taxi + Tips

70+15=85 multiply by 2 = 170 Yuan

 

Airfare If taking urgent flight Check in without pre-booking:

1024 multiply 2 = 2048 Yuan

 

Taxi to hotel near JZH valley historic area enterence from JZH airport ( 1- 1.5 hours by car): two way

300 Multiply by 2 = 600

 

Hotel Stay including break fast 200 to 400 to more depending on hotel type for no of nights planned

 

Food Drinks Travel equipment extra

 

*** the valley inbetween MAIN JZH historical site and JZH airport is also very scenic try to travel back 3 hours before flight departure time and when its not dark to take nice pictures of townships and cultural resorts on way to airport *** you can see many views of Honglong Scenic area which is near to airport but on other direction of Jiuzhiagou scenic area and even bird eye view from aircraft when your take off from JZH.

 

My first 2 Day trip from CKG to JZH and 12 th to China in last 6 years Details-

 

Travel by Sichuan airlines CKG ( CHONGQUING JIANGBEI INTERNATINAL AIRPORT ) to JZH ( JIUZHAI HUANGLONG AIRPORT ) and back to CKG,

 

1st day -

Flights I took CZ8181 ( last flight for day from CKG to JZH) by CHINA AIRLINES )

 

2nd day

Flights I took

JZH to CKG flight nos C3U8515 departing at 7:20 pm Arrival at 8:35 pm by SICHUAN AIRLINES

 

About JIUZHAIGOU-

 

Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve Jiuzhaigou (??? Jiuzhàigou) is a nature reserve in the north of Sichuan province in south western China. It is officially known as Jiuzhai Valley in English. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes scenic valleys and also as the habitat of giant pandas though due to excessive tourism potential of area you may not find then easily or not at all . You can see pandas in Chengdu breeding Center and in Chingqing Zoo though. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

 

Jiuzhai Valley (Jiuzhaigou) is a major feature of the Sichuan Scenic Area, located 350 km north of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Jiuzhaigou is at the northeastern end of this scenic area in the Min Shan mountains. It is part of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.

 

***** ( very important point ) The main scenic area stretches 80 km (50 mi) long in the form of a letter Y comprising of three main valleys - Shuzheng, Rize and Zechawa covering 720 km² (278 mi²) and offering stunning views of lakes, waterfalls, and mountains. The name means "Valley of Nine Villages", derived from the 9 ancient Tibetan villages that call it home. Its highest point is 4,700 m (15,420 ft) above sea level, with *****the main sightseeing areas between 1,980 m and 3,100 m (6,500-10,170 ft).

 

*****So plan your walk and views of popular and most beautiful lakes considering this altitude range in mind and the list of notable lakes I wrote below.

 

History-

 

The remote region was inhabited by various Tibetan and Qiang peoples for centuries

 

Landscape, geology and hydrology-

 

Jiuzhaigou's best-known feature is its dozens of blue, green and turquoise-colored lakes. Originating in glacial activity, they were dammed by rockfalls and other natural phenomena, then solidified by processes of carbonate deposition (travertine). Jiuzhaigou's water has a high concentration of calcium carbonate, making it so clear that the bottom is often visible even at high depths. The lakes vary in color and aspect according to their depths, residues, and surroundings.

 

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Travel Tip 1 -

 

*****YOU NEED A iPhone application named LONELY PLANET OFFLINE TRANSLATOR CHINESE ENGLISH and a car iPhone charger to charge your gadget in car or buy a battery pack to extend your iPhone battery life

 

I

***** { very important point } To make the most out of your one day in the valley, buy the ticket at 7AM and take the bus up the right of Y shaped valley as shows on the map in back of ticket to Primeval Forest (*** should be your first point to start your travel early morning as per my experience even in sept month . Try to be at counter no later than 6.30am and take tickets by 6.45 and take first bus starting at 7 am as it will get very crowded by say even 7.30 am or anytime later in the day .

 

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Travel Tip 2-

 

***** Carry a wind cheater or umbrella and water bottle and juices in a small back pack as you gonna walk a lot whole day as distance from one end of Y shaped valley to entrance is like 30 kms and overall valley is spread across 80 Kms but my tips will help you see the best of best in this valley in say one day with your trip starting at 7 am and ending in by 3 pm for 8 hours combination of walk and bus hopping. Only advisable if u heading back to airport the same day ( this is for shortest one day visit to Jiuzhiagou) (**to see entire valley and all it's scenic points you may need 3 days or more to stay here and even one more day to cover Huanglong scenic area )

***You can even buy water and umbrella and Rain cheater at highest point of forest..

 

***In my first trip to area i had just one day so i finished all i could till 3 pm and then I took bus back to entrance to start for airport at 3.30 pm sharp. Saw areas on way in quick mode and saw some areas of Huanglong near to airport before taking last flight to CKG.

 

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Travel Tip 3 -

 

After reaching Primeval Forest which is last point on the bus route You took early morning

 

****Walk the trail around the forest then walk the forest path down to Swan Lake.

 

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Travel Tip 4 -

 

***** I took first bus to the top of Y shaped valley on right side where there is Primeval Forest and then headed to SWAN lake by foot yourself to place called” Pearl Shoal” creating a noisy bubbling cascade which from a distance looks like a shawl of pearls draped across the hillside. The falls have a drop height of 21 m (69 ft) and are 162 m (532 ft) wide providing a spectacular display.

 

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Travel Tip 5-

 

****I did all in one day. I took bus to highest point of the Y shaped map if this scenic area where lakes like Panda lake exist. Go to 3000 meters up till the point bus takes higest. Then trek down to lakes i mentioned below in this practical guide.i wish i had mire days to stay but since my holiday was just four days i could cover only major portion if it. But will be travelling again in my next leave. Tickets are only valid for one day.

 

*With a bus pass you can take a bus to all of the sites within the park. Your pass gives you access to an efficient hop-on hop-off bus transport system. Every few minutes a bus will come to a site to pick up passengers.

 

*Don’t miss the last bus or you must walk out!

 

*****{ very important point} An effective way to use the system is to take the bus to the head of Rize valley and walk back towards the entrance and Administration building. Walking is a great option in the park, as wooden-plank trails wind through the lakes and forests. It is best to combine walking with taking the bus as the park is quite large and you won't be able to cover enough ground on foot.

 

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Travel Tip 6 -

 

Jiuzhaigou has some 114 Lakes and waterfalls.

 

***** [ very very important points for shortest obr day travel to the area ]

 

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Travel Tip 7****** -

 

*****Here are a selection of scenic locations to visit:

 

See and Do

 

An effective way to use the system is to take the bus to the head of Rize valley and walk back towards the entrance and Administration building. Walking is a great option in the park, as wooden-plank trails wind through the lakes and forests. It is best to combine walking with taking the bus as the park is quite large and you won't be able to cover enough ground on foot.

 

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Travel Tip 7 -

 

Long Lake -

 

Is at the head of the Zechawa valley. At an altitude of 3,060 m (10,039 ft) this is the biggest and deepest lake in Jiuzhaigou. The lake has a surface area of approximately 30 sq km’s (12 mi) and an average depth of 44 m (144 ft). On clear days its dark wooded hillsides and blue waters are viewed against the backdrop of the 5,000 m (16,404 ft) snow capped Min Shan mountains. This lake has no major inflow and receives its water from underground sources. The local Tibetans have their own name for this lake, which translates, to “The Lake that never dries out.” Take the bus to the Long Lake and Jade Colored Pool because it is too far to walk to.

 

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Travel Tip 8 -

 

Five Colour Pool -

 

Also known as the Jade pool, is a small lake of 5,600 sq m (60,000 sq ft) at an altitude of 2,995 m (9,826 ft) and with an average depth of 6.6 m (21.5 ft). It is fed by underground streams from Long lake. Although small this lake must be rated as having one of the most varied and intense colour ranges of Jiuzhaigou and should not be missed. The lake systems in the lower parts of Zechawa valley are seasonal and are often dry in summer. Walkways are provided from Long Lake to a bus pickup point just passed the lower seasonal lake.

 

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Travel Tip 9 -

 

Grass Lake-

 

Grass Lake at 2,910 m (9,547 ft) is the highest lake in the Rize Valley. The valley here is narrow and steep. The lake was formed as a result of an ancient mudflow about 10,000 years ago and travertine sedimentation. The lake is shallow with large evergreen grassy beds.

 

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Travel Tip 10 -

 

SWAN LAKE-

 

At an elevation of 2,905 m (9,530 ft) Swan Lake is surrounded by high rocky cliffs that drop vertically into the lake. The lake takes is name from large numbers of migratory swans that visit it each year.

 

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Travel Tip 11 -

 

Arrow Bamboo Lake -

 

Is the first of the deep lakes. Set at an altitude of 2,680 m (8,793 ft) and 6 m (20 ft) deep it has a surface area of 170,000 sq m (1,830,000 sq ft). An unusual characteristic of this lake is that it never freezes even when the

 

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Travel Tip 12 -

 

Panda Lake -

 

100 m (328 ft) lower is completely covered in snow and ice. The lake is surrounded by Bamboo groves and together with the Panda Lake.

Panda Lake has an average depth of 14 m (46 ft) and as its name implies is in the heart of panda country. This 90,000 sq m (969,000 sq ft) lake at 2,590 m (8,500 ft) altitude is surrounded by bamboo forests and a mix of deciduous and coniferous woodland. This vivid green lake becomes a feast of colour in the autumn. The lake is home to many small and curious Songpan Naked Carp that gather in large numbers when a leaf or pebble falls into the lake. The fish are protected and must not be fed by visitors.

Water exits Panda Lake via the spectacular Panda Falls. These narrow falls have a drop height of 120 m (393 ft) and cascade down to the

 

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Travel Tip 13 -

 

“Five Flower Lake”-

The most beautiful one-

 

Over a series of travertine terraces. A well-maintained wooden walkway allows visitors to descend beside the falls providing a unique way of seeing the spectacle.

Five Flower Lake at 2,472 m (8,110 ft) and just 5 m (54 ft) deep is referred to as the soul of Jiuzhaigou. Its shallow cyan coloured waters provide the visitor with an outstanding display of is bottom sediments containing trees, bushes, and leaves in great array. Its waters drain via the peacock riverbed, claimed locally to be the shortest and most beautiful river in the world, to one of Jiuzhaigou’s most appealing waterfalls. The “Pearl Shoal Falls”

 

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Travel Tip 14 -

 

Pearl Shoal and Pearl Shoal Falls -

 

Are best viewed by taking the walkway. This takes visitors across the “Golden Bell Lake” and “Pearl Shoal” down the left side of the falls then across the base of the Falls to “Mirror Lake”. The shallow waters rush over the 160-m (525 ft) wide travertine shelf called” Pearl Shoal” creating a noisy bubbling cascade which from a distance looks like a shawl of pearls draped across the hillside. The falls have a drop height of 21 m (69 ft) and are 162 m (532 ft) wide providing a spectacular display.

 

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Travel Tip 15 -

 

Mirror Lake -

 

Is so named because of its ability to reflect the images of the surrounding mountains and forests. The lake at an altitude of 2,410 m (7,907 ft) is in a sheltered section of the valley running east west which produces its glassy reflective surface.The Lake was featured in the Zhang Yimou movie Hero. The outflow of “Mirror Lake” is through the “Rize Gully” a travertine ramp of small ponds and natural bonsai trees and bushes that lead directly to one of the great sights of Jiuzhaigou . The Nuorilang waterfall.

 

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Travel Tip 16 -

 

Nuorilang Falls-

 

The Nuorilang Falls are situated, at an altitude of 2,365 m (7,760 ft), at the junction of the Zechawa, Rize and Shuzheng valleys. Best viewed from the Shuzheng valley road the 250-m (820 ft) wide veil of water flows out of the thick shrubs and bushes of Rize Gully to drop 24 m (79 ft) into a small ravine below the road.

 

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Travel Tip 17 -

 

Rhinoceros Lake -

 

At 2,315 m (7,696 ft) and with a surface area of some 200,000 sq m (2,153,000 sq ft) is the largest lake in the Shuzheng valley, and also the deepest with an average depth of 12 m (39 ft). The lake derives its name from a legend that tells of a monk from Tibet riding a rhinoceros. When the monk came to this lake he was so entranced with the local scenery that he accidentally rode his rhinoceros directly into the lake.

 

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Travel Tip 18 -

 

Shuzheng Village-

 

Bedecked with prayer flags, is one of the nine Tibetan villages that give Jiuzhaigou its name. Situated above the Shuzheng Lakes it is easily accessed from the roadway. Here you can visit a traditional Tibetan home and drink “Yak Butter tea“. The steep main street is lined with shops selling trinkets, Tibetan artifacts and souvenirs.

Shuzheng Lakes and waterfalls are at 2,215 m (7,268 ft) the lowest series of lakes in Jiuzhaigou; Spread across the valley this series of small lakes and waterfalls cascade down the lower valley and drain directly into Baishui Jiang.

 

The last three features are the

 

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Travel Tip 19 -

 

Sleeping Dragon Lake-

,

 

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Travel Tip 20 -

 

Reed Lake -and

 

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Travel Tip 21 -

 

Bonsai beach-

 

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Travel Tip 19 -

 

Sleeping Dragon Lake -

 

Contains a large travertine shelf that extends across the floor of the lake. Locals say it looks like a sleeping dragon and that the head and tail seem to move as the wind ripples the lake surface.

 

***Jiuzhaigou is all about seeing! The colours of its lakes, trees and mountains are breathtaking and defy adequate description. The altitude changes within the valley to create continual variations of flora, which give each lake and waterfall a unique quality.

 

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Travel Tip 22 -

 

Although Jiuzhaigou is a great place to visit at any time of the year Spring and autumn are best. Winter provides many magnificent sights with frozen lakes and waterfalls, but the day temperatures are very low and accessibility by road is neither easy nor guarantee-able. Summers can be slightly crowded with beautiful sunshine in the early parts and it often rains in July and August. The fresh air and lack of humidity make it a great break from the city. Autumn is, in many opinions, the pick of the seasons. In late September through October to early November the colour contrasts of red and gold leaves set against the greys of the Bamboo forest and the dark greens of the conifers provide the perfect backdrop to the blue, cyan and vivid greens lakes

 

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Travel Tip 23 -

 

The buses are frequent and sometimes crowded during the peak season, running from early morning until the park closes

When entering the park you will be herded effectively and politely into one of the many queues waiting for transport. Once in the system you are a free agent with respect to where you go and what you see.

 

*****In 2007, over 2.5 million people visited Jiuzhaigou. The site averages 7,000 visits per day

 

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EXTRA INFO-

 

**Flora and fauna

 

Jiuzhaigou's landscape is made up of high-altitude karsts shaped by glacial, hydrological and tectonic activity. It lies on major fault lines on the diverging belt between the Tibetan Plateau and the Yangtze Plate, and earthquakes have also shaped the landscape. The rock strata is mostly made up of carbonate rocks such dolomite and tufa, as well as some sandstone and shales.

The valley includes the catchment area of three gullies (which due to their large size are often called valleys themselves), and is one of the sources of the Jialing River, part of the Yangtze River system. The area covering 720 km² (278 mi²) of the Minshan mountains provides the catchment for the water system of Jiuzhaigou.

 

The park is the natural habitat for two of China’s most treasured endangered species – the Giant Panda and the Sichuan Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey (???). However, due to the park's size and the number of tourists, the chances of seeing them are slim. About 20 pandas reportedly live within the boundaries of the park. There is probably higher chance of seeing them in Zaru Valley, the valley dedicated to eco-tourism as of July 2009. In the main valleys you are more likely to see other creatures including birds (140 species have been recorded here), insects and fish.

 

Nearly 300 km² (115 mi²) of the core scenic area is covered by virgin mixed forests. The flora changes greatly with altitude. In the lower regions of the valley, grasses and reeds abound. These are quickly replaced by bamboo forests which in turn give way to deciduous trees and conifers at the upper end of the valley

  

Beyond them the rocky slopes and snow-capped peaks of the Min Shan range dominate the view.

 

Climate-

 

The scenic area of the park is situated at a height of between 2,000 and 3,000 m (6,562-9,843 ft). In summer the winds blow predominantly from the south and in the winter from the north. The following table shows the average monthly temperature and rainfall.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Temp (°C) 1.7° 4.4° 9.3° 14° 17.2° 19.7° 22° 21.8° 17.5° 13.2° 7.7° 3°

Average Precipitation (mm) 15 24 36 43 87 96 104 82 76 54 26 18

Umbrellas and wet weather clothing as well as sun protection and hats are highly recommended as the weather at these altitudes can be fickle.

[edit]Get in

 

The main departure points for a visit to Jiuzhaigou are Chengdu - the capital city of Sichuan, famous for its Panda Breeding Centre - Chongqing and Xi'an. Although Jiuzhaigou is only around 350km from Mianyang, and 460km from Chengdu (as the crow flies), the journey takes between 8 and 11 hours due to the winding mountain roads through some spectacular scenery along the valleys of the Fu or Min rivers. Many tour companies break the journey into two components with overnight stops either at Mianyang or Maoxian.

Important note: following the Sichuan earthquake of 12 May 2008, the road to Juizhaigou via Wenchuan and Maoxian is not recommended. The road between Chengdu and Wenchuan is excellent but Mao Xian - Chuan Zhu Si is undergoing landslide prevention and road widening works. As of September 2009, the bus from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou can take up to 17 hours (!) although this is the exception rather than the norm. The regular time is 7-11 hours now that some of this work has been completed. During National Week 2009 the Chinese government was not allowing foreigners to travel to jiuzhaigou by road in any form. These restrictions were lifted again as of 10 October 2009.

If the area has experienced heavy rain, the mountain road to Jiuzhaigou may be closed. This can mean that there may be a delay as traffic backs up to wait for the road to reopen. In extreme cases, the road may not reopen at all, meaning that the bus and its passengers will have to spend the night in the non-descript Dujiangyan City, trying again in the morning. This was the case on one occasion in June 2011. If you are travelling during these conditions, you may have to be very flexible with your itinerary.

Flights between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou Huanglong airport (IATA: JZH) are available on Air China, Sichuan Airlines, South China Airways and China Eastern. As of October 2009 direct flights are also available from Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou on Sichuan Airlines. Jiuhuang airport is about a 1.5-hour drive from the park entrance. This can be done by taxi or mini-bus.

Most visitors access Juizhaigou by road.

From Mianyang an early morning start gets you to Jiuzhaigou township in time for dinner and the Tibetan cultural show (¥120-320). The route initially follows the deep valley of the Fu river then over Longmen shan (Dragon gate mountain) to Qingchuan and Wenxian before reaching Jiuzhaigou County Town nestled in the valley of the Baishui river. The mountain and river views make even the journey a worth while tourist experience.

Public Bus services are available from the Xinnanmen and Chadianzi bus stations in Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou with 2 or 3 departures from each station daily depending on demand. Ticket price is approximately ¥110-145.

There are daily buses to the park from Songpan, and Huanglongsi National Park.

Taxi: If there are a few people, it may make sense to charter a taxi to/from where you're going. Fares of ¥600-700 to Langmusi have been reported. It is also reportedly possible to take a taxi to/from Chengdu for around ¥1200, which is probably cheaper than flying for 3 people and much more comfortable than a bus.

 

During peak season is ¥220 which includes an insurance fee of ¥3. Disabled visitors, Seniors between 60 and 70 years of age, students and soldiers get a discount price of ¥170. Children no taller than 1.3 m in height, government servants, and seniors over 70 get in free.

A one day bus ticket costs ¥90. Bus tickets are not mandatory. Many people choose to buy one as it is over 30 km from the entrance to the top of the park. There is a sign inside the park saying that if you then decide you want to buy a bus ticket inside you have to pay ¥140.

if you want to save the money of the tickets, you can walk till the main tourist center(about 10 km - a nice walk) and from there just go with the buses.

the Conductors don't check for tickets from there.

Previously there were two day tickets that are no longer on sale during the peak season. These are on sale in the off peak season.

Off peak ticket prices: Entry – ¥80 N.B. In the dry season (February) many of the wooden trails in the park are closed and marked as fire hazards. It is possible to walk on the roads in the park although there are some signs saying this also isn't formally allowed. The only other option is to bus around the park.

Student / OAP Entry – ¥70

One Day Bus ticket: ¥80

Winter 2nd day entry ticket: ¥20 (must be purchased at the same time as the first day's ticket)

 

Get around-

 

There are plenty of taxis in Jiuzhaigou. There are also mini-buses (they really are minivans) to the most popular tourist destinations in the Jiuzhaigou region. Car Rentals are also available and range from ¥500-900per day.

Perhaps the easiest way to get around without a tour guide is using one of the "self service travel websites" that are really popular with young Chinese tourists who are not looking to travel with a tour group. Unfortunately for people who cannot search the web using Chinese characters (pin yin does not work very well) these sites are near impossible to find. On these sites you can buy tickets to local cultural events, arrange for pick up service, rent cars, arrange for tour guides, and finding Tibetan local host families for a cultural experience. However, they are extremely hard to find with names that are usually just strings of letters and numbers like cq966.com. The mentioned website is actually ran by locals attached to Chang Qing (??)hotel - one of the two hotels (other is the Sheraton) with the most credibility among tour guides within Jiuzhaigou proper. You can email these websites in English or contact them through MSN and they will be able to respond. Most local hotels are also good sources for advice on how to get around Jiuzhaigou but only a few speak languages other than Tibetan and Chinese

[edit]Inside the park

For environmental protection reasons, no personal transport, not even bicycles, are permitted within the park.

 

Around the local area

Public buses run from the centre of the town to Chengdu, Huanglong, Chadianzi, Jiangyou and Songpan. For up-to-date bus schedules and travel options from Jiuzhaigou the best place to check is the Jiuzhaigou official website

From Chengdu the public bus costs between ¥110-145 and takes around 10-13 hours.

 

Buy-

 

Shuzheng Village

There are lots of Tibetian trinkets that could entice the younger ladies. There is a shop next to the entrance which sells a good collection of postcards and reading materials about the park itself.

 

Eat-

 

Being a UNESCO World Heritage Park in China does not mean it is fully decked out for non-Chinese visitors. There is a centrally located, sort of a HQ area with a restaurant serving buffet lunch. Typically Chinese stir-fry dishes. At the entrance, there is a Chinese fast food outlet serving fried chicken, and vendors selling ramen and other types of instant noodles.

A one-day stock of muesli bars and a flask of tea or coffee would help, especially if you plan to take in all the heavenly sights on foot, through the wooden planked pathways. In autumn and spring, the temperature is suitable for resting along the wooden plank path while having a nice warm drink while you wait for the lighting to be just right for your next photo shoot.

note - the food and drink in the Reserve is very expensive (dish of rice about ¥30, noodles ¥15, Small bottle of water ¥5) so it's a good idea to obtain supplies in the shops outside before you enter.

 

Drink-

 

There are many areas to drink. You will find one of the best local Tibetan tradition is to drink Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian bian jie (???) which is one of the most famous cobblestone roads in China.

6868 bar, (Just past the Sheraton off main road in the small town there). Any cab driver should know this place. Typical chinese-style club, with a dance floor, private rooms, and lots of tables with drinking games. If you want to drink with the locals, worth checking this place out...remarkably good light system and sound system for the rural area.

 

Sleep-

 

Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian

Five Flower Lake

Despite whatever they tell you, lodging in the park is illegal.

 

Lodging-

There are no hotels or commercial accommodation within the park. It used to be possible to stay at the home of a local villager for a small fee. The authorities however do not approve of the practice and as such it is not recommended.

There are now a number of 5 star, 4 star and 3 star hotels and cheap hostels just outside the park.

The price for a 5 star hotel such as the Jiuzhaigou Xilaideng International is from ¥600-1,000. Also there is a Sheraton that can be had for about ¥500-800/night through travel agents.

For 4 star hotels like Chang Qing binguan (????), the Geshang hotel, the Chinese Travel hotel, and the Golden Harbour Hotel room prices are from ¥400-900.

A 3 star hotel such as the Xing Long binguan(????), Qianhe Hotel etc. is from ¥300-800.

A lot of the hotels have different level "rooms" within the hotel which are priced accordingly. Thus you see a great deal of price ranges within the same hotel.

Prices vary according to the season and booking in advance is essential. Provided you speak and read mandarin bookings and purchase of tickets can be done online at [www.jiuzhaigouvalley.com].

There is one authentic homestay [2] (others are "Tibetan themed" often outside owned) run by a local family a 15 mins drive from the park entrance. They do not have a website but they can be contacted at [3]. There are also two hostels in the immediate area.

There are a number of cheap hostels to the West of the park entrance. You should be able to get dorm rooms for around ¥35 and double bedrooms for ¥100.

One that is the sister hostel of Sim's in Chengdu comes recommended (wifi, hot water, nice staff):

Uncle Jiang's family house, Peng Feng Village, Jiuzhaigou Park Entrance. They have free pick-up and offer packed lunches (sandwiches) for ¥20.

Using the local travel websites will allow you to purchase price for cheaper, kind of how the aggregate websites will allow you to get a room for cheaper. However, they are pretty hard to find unless you search with Chinese characters.

There is lodging located in the villages along the street outside the park entrance. For budget travelers the best option is the Jiutong Bingguan (????) located next to the bus station. Touts crowd around arriving buses and can lead you to alternative budget options.

 

Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian

Five Flower Lake

Despite whatever they tell you, lodging in the park is illegal.

 

Camping-

 

As of July 2009 hiking and camping have been made available within the Zaru Valley [4] of the national park. Zaru Valley has an amazing 40% of all the plant species in the whole of China and if you are to see any of the wildlife of the national park, this represents the best chance. The main hike is a 3-day hike, following the pilgrimage of the local Bebbo Tibetan Buddhists around the 4,500 m+ (14,764 ft+) Zhayizha Ga Mountain.

 

Stay safe-

 

The highest tourist destinations reach heights above 3,100 m (10,170 ft) and altitude sickness is a possibility.

In the winter months the park is extremely cold and it is necessary to dress warmly. Having said that, in the winter sunshine you could possibly strip down to a t-shirt in the bright winter sun shine - in the shade you'll need to layer up again however!

Chinese tourists dread standing in line and there is a lot of pushing and shoving getting on and off buses. Make sure you don't get pushed in front of an oncoming bus. Crowded trails can also be dangerous and if you walk on the edge of a path it is likely a shoulder or elbow with push you off. To really enjoy your time in the park you should walk on the trails on the opposite side of the lakes from the roads. These trails have considerable less tourists and you can really experience the serenity of the national park there.

English is not widely spoken in Juizhaigou.

 

Get out-

 

Everyday there are buses going to Songpan at 7:20AM and take two hours, Chengdu (10 hours) and Huanglong National Park. Bus times vary from time to time. It is best to keep an eye on the Jiuzhaigou website [5] for up-to-date times.

 

This is a guide article. It has a variety of good, quality information about the park including attractions, activities, lodging, campgrounds, restaurants, and arrival/departure info.

 

Plunge forward give your info and contributions in comments to make it a star!

 

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence by Wikipedia Wikitravel SunDeepKullu .com Phototube .co

  

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The Germans take their beer very seriously.

 

The Reinheitsgebot ( literally "purity order"), sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" in English, is the collective name for a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best-known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ from the 1516 Bavarian version.

 

Furthermore, we wish to emphasize that in future in all cities, market-towns and in the country, the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water. Whosoever knowingly disregards or transgresses upon this ordinance, shall be punished by the Court authorities' confiscating such barrels of beer, without fail.

Berlin boasts two zoological gardens, a consequence of decades of political and administrative division of the city. The older one, called Zoo Berlin, founded in 1844, is situated in what is now called the "City West". It is the most species-rich zoo worldwide. The other one, called Tierpark Berlin ("Animal Park"), was established on the long abandoned premises of Friedrichsfelde Manor Park in the eastern borough of Lichtenberg, in 1954. Covering 160 ha, it is the largest landcape zoo in Europe.

 

Rund 15 Prozent der Erdoberfläche werden von Savannen bedeckt. Damit gehören sie zu den größten und wichtigsten Lebensräumen des Planeten. Seit dem 26. Mai 2023 wird Besucher*innen im Tierpark Berlin ein Einblick in diese faszinierende Landschaft gewährt und sie können mehr über die unterschiedlichen Bewohner der ostafrikanischen Savanne und ihren natürlichen Lebensraum erfahren.

Ein wahrer Höhepunkt der neuen Tierpark-Savanne ist der 120 Meter lange Giraffenpfad: Hier werden die Gäste den bis zu fünf Meter hohen Grazien der Savanne zukünftig auf Augenhöhe begegnen können – wer sich traut, bahnt sich den Weg durch den Wald bis zu den Aussichtsplattformen über eine abenteuerliche Hängebrücke. Der Tierpark Berlin erreicht mit der Eröffnung der Afrikanischen Savannenlandschaft ein neues Etappenziel auf seinem Weg zu einem Zoo der Zukunft. Seit knapp neun Jahren wird der 1955 gegründete und 160 Hektar große Tierpark Berlin zu einem naturnahen Geozoo umgebaut. Um einen Einblick in den Lebensraum der einzelnen Tierarten und deren Interaktionen, Besonderheiten und Problematiken zu ermöglichen, werden die Tiere im Tierpark größtenteils nach geografischen Gesichtspunkten zu sehen sein.

 

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Around 15 per cent of the earth's surface is covered by savannahs. This makes them one of the largest and most important habitats on the planet. Since 26 May 2023, visitors to Tierpark Berlin have been given an insight into this fascinating landscape and can learn more about the different inhabitants of the East African savannah and their natural habitat.

A true highlight of the new zoo savannah is the 120-metre-long giraffe trail: here, guests will be able to meet the up to five-metre-high graces of the savannah at eye level in future - those who dare will make their way through the forest to the viewing platforms via an adventurous suspension bridge. With the opening of the African Savannah Landscape, Tierpark Berlin has reached a new milestone on its way to becoming a zoo of the future. For almost nine years, the 160-hectare Tierpark Berlin, which was founded in 1955, has been transformed into a near-natural geozoo. In order to provide an insight into the habitat of the individual animal species and their interactions, peculiarities and problems, the animals in the zoo will largely be seen according to geographical aspects.

 

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Mugbil Al-Thukair was likely photographed in his bedchamber at his house in Manama, sitting on a prayer rug with a pious wistful countenance in a dapper embroidered silk Jubbah (open coat) and an ornate Cashmere Ghutra Shawl (headdress) fastened with the obsolete thick Najdi Agal (headband), the distinctive formal attire once worn by wealthy Arab merchants and tribal chieftains in Central Arabia and the northern Arabian Gulf in the early twentieth century as Al-Thukair supposedly was facing a Victorian colonial Anglo-Indian Raj four-poster teak wood bed (palang) surrounded by all the trappings of wealth typifying the lifestyle of a Gulf-rich pearl merchant and his household at the time, such as the open Indian teak wood wardrobe cabinet with an inside mirrored door on the left where a visible Cashmere Ghutra Shawl hangs from an open wardrobe drawer, a Victorian glass-shaded gas lamp in the right corner next to a pendulum clock in the back of a reclining wooden cane chair with its vertically striped cushion and several sitting chairs stacked high with books together with a variety of Persian rugs and carpets strewn across the floor during Jacques Cartier's second extended visit to Bahrain (from the 14th to the 26th of March 1912) the focal point of his Arabian Gulf pearl purchasing trip on Thursday, the 16th of March, 1912.

 

(Mugbil Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thukair was born in 1844 in the rural town of Unaizah in the Al-Qassim region in northern Najd, Central Arabia as Al-Qassim has always been considered the agricultural heartland of the Arabian Peninsula known since pre-Islamic times as the "Alimental Basket" or granary of Arabia for its abundant agricultural assets into a prestigious erudite family of merchants widespread across Arabia and the Fertile Crescent with a trading history that could be traced back to the early eighteenth century from a young age Al-Thukair was endowed with natural business acumen combined with deep intellectual and literary interests following in the footsteps of generations of his family's enterprising male offspring which drove him first in 1867 at the tender age of 23 to the prosperous port town of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast of Arabia with its bustling market and cosmopolitan outlook the obvious first choice for any ambitious young man from the hinterlands of Arabia mainly Najd in those days where he began to make his mark as a budding young merchant at the same time exploring any available business opportunities in the port cities and towns of the Near East (Middle East) and those in the neighbouring Indian subcontinent principally in the newly British-founded port city of Bombay (Mumbai), the quickly burgeoning commercial hub on the Arabian Sea, the main western gateway to India and the key gathering place for Arab merchants and their families from Arabia in the subcontinent forming a dynamic expatriate Arab community that would continue to exist from the mid-nineteenth century until India's independence from Britain in 1947 Bombay also provided a good head start for scores of young merchants from the Arabian Peninsula at the time some of whom became well-known household business names across the region most notably Alireza of Jeddah, Alghanim, Al-Kharafi and Alshaya of Kuwait among others, spurring young Al-Thukair to learn Hindi, the pre-oil seafaring age's business lingua franca in the Arabian Peninsula since the majority of Arabia's trade passed through Indian entrepôts and in due course he became proficient in the essential business language, the thriving port city of Basra in southern Iraq was yet another desirable alternative business opportunity for Al-Thukair, a familiar business destination for his family for many decades and a second adopted domicile for several family members as Iraq's only maritime gateway to the rest of the world, often visited by him in the early to mid-1870s while en route to Iraq's only port on the Arabian Gulf his ship would stop at Bahrain one of the three major ports of the Arabian Peninsula in the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries (the other two were Aden and Jeddah) allowing him during the few hours interval between passengers and cargo disembarkation and embarkation to wander around the town of Manama the cosmopolitan commercial hub on the main island of the Bahraini archipelago examining closely along the way Manama's ethnically diverse purveyors of bountiful goods from all over the world meanwhile assessing the business possibilities of the Bahraini market especially its booming pearl trade prompting him to dabble in the lucrative commodity with great success as part of his general trading business interests and after spending ten years in the coastal town of Jeddah now as a seasoned well-established general merchant Bahrain beckoned as the centre of the pearl trade in the Arabian Gulf and beyond a pioneering position consolidated by possessing in its northern waters the richest pearl oyster beds in the Gulf renowned worldwide for producing the finest quality pearls for their iridescent lustre, size and variety of colours making it the place of choice for anyone wishing to try his luck in the pearl business back then which was the mainstay of the Arabian Gulf economy prior to the discovery of oil similarly sundry of his Central Arabian Najdi merchant counterparts from the austere Arabian inland such as Algosaibi, Al-Ajaji, Al-Qadi and Al-Bassam were lured to Bahrain by the country's newfound political stability following the accession of the young, astute and literarily inclined Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa (1848-1932) to the throne in 1869 ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity after decades of turmoil and instability as reflected in the renewed confidence and heightened profitability prospects of the Bahraini pearl market driven by increasing international demand particularly in the West for high-quality natural pearls from the Arabian Gulf as rapidly soaring demand propelled pearl prices to unprecedented heights against such a heady backdrop Al-Thukair decided in 1877 at the age of 33 to relocate to Bahrain with his immediate family consisting of his wife and two young sons Abdullatif and Abdulmuhsin, a decision that would change his life forever Bahrain with its lush date palm groves and freshwater springs proved to be more suitable to his agrarian temperament than arid Jeddah though comparable to its vibrant multicultural and multi-ethnic society as it was the closest thing to a second home for the mature aspiring assiduous merchant after his beloved birthplace of Unaizah within a matter of years after arriving in the small island country he managed to become a leading pearl merchant and a highly esteemed public figure well-known for his philanthropic disposition, honest dealings, impeccable integrity and intellectual prowess so much so that he was dubbed "The Pride of Merchants" by the Bahraini business community he also took on the role of honorary chairman of the Manama business community and the titular head of the Najdi diaspora in Bahrain as a natural progression of his tremendous entrepreneurial successes and admirable character traits due to this exalted social status and the large network of highly influential personages he cultivated throughout the region Al-Thukair became increasingly sought-after as an arbiter of disputes including those of a political nature in Bahrain and elsewhere in the region but among the many scattered instances of his arbitration cases in the declassified annual Gulf reports from the British Archives, the following case from the latter stage of his life in Bahrain is one of the most striking examples of his high-level arbitrations where a family of illustrious clerics and judges resorted to his conscientious arbitration when asked by Ibrahim one of the two younger brothers of Bahrain's highest religious Muslim authority for nearly half a century the eminent cleric and unofficial supreme judge Sheikh Qasim Al Mehza (1847-1941) dubbed the "chief judge" unanimously by adherents of both Sunni and Shiite cross-sectarian Muslim denominations of Bahraini society for his scholarly knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence to intercede between the two younger siblings one of whom Ahmed was a highly respected cleric in his own right the first Bahraini graduate of the Al-Azhar of Cairo in 1887 and ironically their elder brother the highly learned cleric and judge Sheikh Qasim, here is the next slightly edited citation from the British Gulf residency report of 1912 concerning local Bahraini affairs from 1st to 30th September, exact date unspecified (A difference over the ownership of a plot of land and a shop recently arose between Sheikh Qasim Bin Mehza and his two brothers Ahmed and Ibrahim and the two parties were not on speaking terms. At the request of Ibrahim, Sheikh Mugbil and Yusuf Kanoo intervened and succeeded in arranging a comprise) correspondingly he was acting as an unpaid adviser, interlocutor and mediator to some of the Arabian Peninsula's rulers as attested by one of the earliest documented references to Al-Thukair in the British Archives in late 1888 and early 1889 where he was linked to a series of accounts dealing with the recurring violent hostilities between the neighbouring Sheikhdoms of Qatar and Abu Dhabi in which he acted as a go-between on behalf of Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) the first British-recognised Qatari ruler independent of Bahraini suzerainty and founder of the Al-Thani ruling dynasty to help broker a peaceful settlement between the two parties and other key players in the conflict including the Al Rasheed the then rulers of Arabia's northern region of Ha'il and their Ottoman backers both of whom intervened on behalf of the Qatari side, from early on as a middle-aged man Al-Thukair had gained recognition as an ethical impartial figure and a reliable confidant to the majority of the rulers in the Arabian Gulf as demonstrated in numerous instances in this mini-biography of the man, the following two edited extracts are part of a comprehensive report on the latter stage of the long-drawn fitful hostilities between Qatar and Abu Dhabi covering the period from March 1888 to June 1890 by the British Gulf residency in Bushehr Persia (Iran) on the bloody conflict which involved lengthy correspondence between the British political agent in Bahrain and his superior the political resident in Bushehr where Al-Thukair is frequently mentioned, a conflict that started as a random mid-sea raid by Qatari corsairs on an Abu Dhabi-owned pearl fishing vessel in Qatari waters killing all of its crew presumably around the year 1880 escalating into a prolonged fierce enmity between Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (r. 1855-1909) ruler of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) ruler of Qatar spiralling into uncontrollable atrocious carnage and depredation reprisals manifested in the thrice sacking of the Qatari capital Doha during the third of which Qatar ruler's son Ali was killed and the multiple sackings of the sedentary communities of Abu Dhabi's western region of Al Dhafra and other towns between 1880 and 1892 the first extract is a full-text letter while the second consists of the last two paragraphs of a longer letter the first of which is as follows (No. 10, dated the 20th January 1889. From-The Residency Agent, Bahrain. To-The Political Resident, Arabian Gulf. After compliments. I beg to send herewith a copy of a letter sent by Qasim Bin Thani (ruler of Qatar) to the Chief (ruler) of Bahrain with a special messenger who has also brought a number of other letters giving welcome tidings to Muhammad Bin Abdulwahab (Al-Faihani), Mugbil (Al-Thukair) and (Abdulrahman) Bin Aidan; and mentioning the number of people who were slain out of the inhabitants of Liwa (the Al Dhafra region is centred on the large Liwa Oasis in Abu Dhabi's westernmost domain); viz., 520 persons; and that they took from them large booty and numerous camels and that Sheikh Qasim returned safely with his army. I hear from reports that Sheikh Qasim lost 8 men killed. Others say 48, others again 110. But as yet there is no correct report as since the arrival of this messenger no one has come from Qatar owing to heavy "shemall" (northern gusty) winds. It is stated that Sheikh Qasim has not yet reached Al-Bidda (Doha). I hear that Isa Bin Ziyab a cousin of Sheikh Zayed Bin Khalifa (Al Nahyan) has arrived in Bahrain from Abu Dhabi and interviewed the Chief (ruler of Bahrain). According to what he says there are not so many people at Liwa and that Sheikh Zayed had not received any report of Sheikh Qasim's proceedings from Qatar to Liwa or any other place. I shall make further reports when I receive any fresh news) the second extract is as follows (No. 52, dated the 28th of March 1889. From-The Residency Agent, Bahrain. To-The Political Resident, Arabian Gulf. I have seen a letter from Qasim (ruler of Qatar) to Mugbil (Al-Thukair) in which the writer says that he is prepared to meet Zayed (ruler of Abu Dhabi) and that he is not afraid of his advance; on the contrary that he will himself march out to attack Zayed in case the latter should not advance against him. In that letter he also wishes Mugbil to believe that Ibn Rasheed (ruler of Ha'il in northern Arabia) will not fail to fulfil his promise. The date of this letter is 17th March. It is apparent that Qasim wrote that letter before the arrival of Nafi (Ibn Rasheed messenger) My own opinion is that if the news about Zayed's advance be true and also that if Qasim be supported by the Turkish soldiers, Zayed's forces will have hard work before them; for Qasim is regardless of expense and the Turkish soldiers are greedy as is known. Their number at Al-Bidda (Doha) is 250) the previous references were among several in this special report to Al-Thukair's top-level intermediation in this particular bloody conflict a small sample of his early political intermediation in regional affairs that would last until he unwillingly left his second adopted homeland Bahrain in mid-1917 but in connection with his frequent interactions with the rulers of the Arabian Peninsula the most significant of those were Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa (r. 1869-1932) of Bahrain, Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani (r. 1868-1913) of Qatar and Abdulaziz Ibn Saud (r. 1902-1953) ruler of Najd and its dependencies who was styled as such from the 13th of January 1902 onwards after the subtle young industrious scion of the House of Saud succeeded in recapturing the ancestral seat of power of his forefathers, the then small town of Riyadh from the bellicose Ottoman-backed Al Rasheed ruling clan of the northern Arabian region of Ha'il in an audacious dawn attack, the future king of what would become the sprawling Kingdom of Saudi Arabia perceptibly in the course of time Al-Thukair became such a revered sage that the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa asked him to be one of the signatories of a solemn pledge of allegiance deed to his eldest surviving son the 24-year-old newly appointed crown prince and future ruler Sheikh Hamad (r. 1932-1942) on 8th October 1896 following the untimely death of his eldest son and heir apparent Salman near Riyadh in Najd Central Arabia three years earlier on his exhausting perilous long land journey home from the Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca during the formal investiture ceremony for the crown prince an honour reserved for only a select few high-ranking merchants from the highest echelons of the Bahraini business community who were recognised as pillars of society outside the ranks of senior members of the ruling family, tribal chieftains and clergy leaders amongst whom were Hussain Bin Salman Matar (1817-1911) and Ahmed Bin Muhammed Kanoo (1835-1905) as for Al-Thukair's aforementioned special relationship with Ibn Saud the marriage of his niece Lulwa the daughter of his brother Yahya to Ibn Saud solidified that relationship enabling him to negotiate on behalf of Ibn Saud a favourable agreement with the Ottomans on the withdrawal of their garrison from the Al-Hasa Oasis and its environs in eastern Arabia which would become part of the future eastern province of Saudi Arabia as Ibn Saud was poised to take control of the oasis in mid-1914 soon before the outbreak of World War One given that by the year 1890 after more than a decade of his arrival in Bahrain Al-Thukair began to pursue in earnest his profound and ardent passion for spreading knowledge and learning an indelible lifelong characteristic of his initially by starting a literary salon at his house in Manama similar to that of his friend and first cousin to the ruler of Bahrain classical poet and intellectual Sheikh Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Al Khalifa's literary salon in Muharraq and those of several educated and well-travelled merchants and ruling family members in both Manama and Muharraq Bahrain's former political capital from 1810 to 1923 however the literary salon of Al-Thukair was rather different from its local counterparts in that it was more educationally oriented than the others by allocating a well-furnished spacious room in his house as a permanent location for the salon equipped with a relatively sizable varied library whose contents were kept in its wall alcoves as it was the antecedent of his most ambitious cultural and educational project ever the "Bahrain Literary Society" twenty-three years later since those literary salons (clubs) collectively played a discernible educational role as they were haunts for the knowledge-hungry local literate young men prior to the establishment of formal education following the end of the First World War furthermore Sheikh Ibrahim requested Al-Thukair to be the principal supplier of Arabic periodicals in Bahrain by making use of his network of regional business agents to acquire popular newspapers and magazines from the Levant and Egypt, therefore he took it upon himself to supply all of the needs for published materials of other literary salons as a courtesy moving in the same vein he also vigorously sponsored the publication of seminal literary and theological works from the Arab Islamic mediaeval heritage as well as non-formal charity schooling and public libraries well-stocked with diverse books and respected periodicals largely from the Levant and Egypt (such as Al-Muqtataf, Al-Mu'ayyad, Al-Hilal, Al-Manar and others) in both Bahrain and his birthplace of Unaizah in addition to his educational and cultural dissemination efforts he was acutely sensitive to the daily hardships of ordinary impoverished and marginalised people as evidenced by the next edited excerpt from the 1910 British Gulf residency report (Almas, Negro the Confidential Adviser of Sheikh Isa (ruler of Bahrain) died on 11th January and was replaced by Ali Bin Abdullah (Al-Obaidli) on the advice of Ali Bin Abdullah, Sheikh Isa called upon house owners to produce the sanads (Arabic singular title deed: سند, Romanised English plural: sanads) in virtue of which they held their property on their failing to do so they were evicted and no consideration was paid to the period of possession, Sheikh Mugbil Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thukair protested to Sheikh Isa against this measure as it pressed hardly on the poor the protest had the desired effect and the Sheikh (ruler) promised to refrain from such actions in the future) the abrogation of the ruler's decree in the past incident is the definitive indication of the unflinching deference accorded to Al-Thukair by everyone who came into contact with him from those in power to the ordinary man in the street he was also involved in a wide range of philanthropic activities that were not confined to the conventional charity act of almsgiving since he was a practical man who took a number of practical steps to assuage human suffering in any way he could defying common human prejudices among his various practical philanthropic contributions in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf was the commissioning of a water well next to his house in Manama around the year 1900 akin to the undertakings of prominent fellow local pearl merchants Salman Bin Hussain Matar (1837-1944) and Muhammad Bin Rashid Bin Hindi (1850-1934) of Muharraq who attempted to alleviate some of the freshwater supply predicament that plagued Bahrain's urban dwellers predominantly those of Manama and Muharraq the two main densely populated towns in the small island nation at the turn of the twentieth century where the majority of the population had difficulty securing their daily domestic supply of freshwater owing to the lack of potable drinking water infrastructure in Bahrain and much of the Near East as in many other parts of the globe including some of the underdeveloped regions of the Western world in the early part of the twentieth century despite the fact that Bahrain had abundant freshwater resources unlike some of its Arab Gulf neighbours a small example of the central socioeconomic roles that rich mercantile elites played throughout Arab polities in the Arabian Gulf before the discovery of oil and the subsequent establishment of the modern welfare state Al-Thukair also tended to the spiritual needs of the inhabitants of his neighbourhood in Manama at roughly the same time he commissioned the water well he financed the renovation of an old dilapidated bijou Mosque within the vicinity of his house dating back to the late seventeen hundreds placing a nearby shop he owned as a charitable endowment for the Mosque which the locals of the area after him affectionately called Mugbil Mosque even though he was not its original builder he was also instrumental in locally funding the construction of Bahrain's second hospital after the opening of the "American Mission Hospital" in Manama on 26th January 1903 at the request of the British to fulfil their envisaged "Victoria Memorial Hospital" between 1902 and its formal opening on 9th November 1906 to commemorate the late Queen Victoria (defunct since 1948) situated in the Ras Rumman area in Manama south of the British political agency (present-day British Embassy) by rallying other leading merchants to contribute to this vital medical project as Bahrain was in desperate need of a quarantine medical facility to combat the rampant spread of recurring deadly epidemics specifically plague, cholera and typhus as reported in the British Gulf residency report of 1902 this is a slightly edited excerpt from the detailed report dated 23rd August 1902 by J. C. Gaskin, Esq, Assistant Political Agent, Bahrain where Gaskin was delegated by his superiors in the British Indian government the task of securing funds for the proposed hospital locally by taking the pulse of the local mercantile elite through cosying up to rich local merchants chief among them Al-Thukair to enlist their financial assistance in building the hospital, stated as follows (I would venture to report that since the receipt of your communication I have spoken on the subject to some of the leading native merchants and from their replies to me I got the impression that they would give liberal donations towards the hospital: and subsequently Haji Mugbil Al-Thukair the leading Bahraini merchant called on me and offered to subscribe R1,000. (One thousand rupees) Haji Mugbil's handsome offer will influence the native merchants who usually follow his lead) in recognition of his role in securing local funding for the hospital British colonial authorities invited Al-Thukair along with other donors to the hospital opening ceremony, the following edited excerpt from the British Gulf residency report for the year 1906-1907 formulated by the British political agent in Bahrain Captain F. B. Prideaux sheds light on the event (on the 9th November 1906 advantage was taken of the presence of the Political Resident (Major P. Z. Cox) in the Arabian Gulf to hold a public meeting for the opening of the Victoria Memorial Charitable Hospital nearly all the contributors to the Rs. 21,000 which the construction had cost were present on the occasion as were also the Chief (ruler) of Bahrain and his sons after the Resident had delivered a short extempore speech, the leading Arab merchant Haji Mugbil Al-Thukair read a reply expressing gratitude to the British Government for their interest in and protection of Bahrain and wishing long life to the Ruler Sheikh Isa Bin Ali) for some the antagonistic stance of Al-Thukair towards the British as expounded in detail further in the text seemed contradictory as he gladly collaborated with them in their efforts to secure funding for the construction of the said hospital in tandem with their other measures to improve public sanitation and hygiene to help curb the spread of virulent diseases in Bahrain's two major towns Manama and Muharraq as he saw his sporadic cooperation with the advanced British in a different light as he would endorse any attempt to better the lives of ordinary Bahrainis even if it meant occasionally cooperating with a foreign colonial power he vehemently opposed in that sense he was a modern practical man, it could not be denied that the least tangible of his philanthropic efforts but perhaps the most life-changing for those affected by it was the hidden assistance he rendered in paying off the debts of struggling insolvent merchants in Bahrain and across the Arabian Gulf with a special priority given to his own debtors who either had their debts temporarily reprieved or cancelled altogether as in this revealing slightly edited citation from the 1913 British Gulf residency report asserting the regional scope of his business interests dated 5th of May 1913 stating as follows (Sheikh Qasim Bin Thani (ruler) of Qatar has asked Yusuf Kanoo to use his influence with Sheikh Mugbil Al-Thukair in bringing about an amiable settlement between the latter and his Qatar debtors who are unable to pay their debts on account of the dullness of the pearl market) surpassed only by Bahrain's preeminent pearl merchant of all time dubbed by the Bahraini people "Father of orphans and protector of widows" for his unequalled altruism and magnanimity Salman Bin Hussain Matar, yet his most important legacy was the founding in mid-1913 of the first officially recognised Literary Society in Bahrain as touched upon earlier located in close proximity to the American Mission Bible Bookshop in Manama on what is now Sheikh Isa Al Kabeer (Isa the Great) Avenue in its own special-purpose premises inaugurated under his patronage and with the full endorsement of the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa and the moral support of a number of local literary figures and dignitaries led by Bahrain's foremost literary figure in the early twentieth century the acclaimed classical poet Sheikh Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Al Khalifa (1850-1933) in conjunction with Al-Thukair's younger and trusted energetic friend, the influential comprador merchant and shrewd entrepreneur founder and sole owner of Bahrain's first Western-style Bank in 1890 a true man of the world the maverick Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo (1861-1945) this society was not merely an ordinary Literary Society but a modern educational institution in the true sense of the word a wellspring of radiance for the Bahraini people at the time comprising an extensive library, a school for teaching Arabic, English, mathematics and Islamic theology and a lecture hall ably managed by the gifted 33-year-old Al-Azhar graduate educator Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Mana (1882-1965) who would become the first chairman of the Directorate of Knowledge (Ministry of Education) in the newly-established Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the future judge and Grand Mufti (jurisconsult) of Qatar handpicked by Al-Thukair to undertake the onerous task of transforming this institution into a beacon of enlightenment and forward-thinking in a short period of time one of the many cultural contributions of the educated and enlightened Bahraini business elite who were at the vanguard of modernity and progress in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through their previously mentioned literary salons and also through their lesser-known but no less important financing of numerous free of charge non-formal local schooling initiatives as those were among the earliest semi-modern organised educational institutions to tackle the prevalent illiteracy in Bahrain other than the existing traditional Quranic schools strikingly among the several non-formal schools of the time one stood out as the first female-founded charity school in Bahrain and most likely the entire Gulf established on the island of Muharraq the former capital of Bahrain in 1887 by the noblewoman and philanthropist heiress Sheikha Saida Bint Bishr (1834-1892) who defied all expectations of traditional domestic roles for women in the highly patriarchal society of late-nineteenth-century Bahrain by allocating the revenue of a date palm orchard she owned in Manama as an endowment for the school eponymously named after her nevertheless some of the independent charity schools date back to the early part of the nineteenth century since the earliest recorded charity school in Bahrain was that of Sheikh Isa Bin Rashid in Muharraq in 1829 an eminent cleric of the Island of Muharraq predating the reign of Sheikh Isa by forty years however this proliferation of educational initiatives noticeably in the last third of the nineteenth century was the fruit of the long-lasting stability of Sheikh Isa's reign the role of the Bahraini business elite was not limited to just paving the way for the establishment of modern education but also was directly involved in the development of Western-influenced formal education leading to the opening of the first elementary school for boys in Muharraq in 1919 followed by another for girls in 1928 also in Muharraq with a nine-year gap where some of the senior members of the said elite (such as Matar, Algosaibi, Al-Zayani and Fakhro) served on the first governmental educational regulatory body in the modern history of the country the education supervisory committee (the forerunner of the Ministry of Education) which oversaw the development of the nascent government's educational system chaired by Sheikh Abdullah (1883-1966) the youngest son of the ruler of Bahrain in the honorary position of minister of education, the first and only local state official to hold such a position under British colonial rule in Bahrain this exception was made due to the high status of its occupant considering he was the son of the ruler since the office of a minister was a symbol of sovereignty in an independent sovereign state which was not the case with Bahrain an office he would continue to occupy until his death in 1966 the education committee continued as the main financial backer of education in Bahrain by financing the construction of schools across the country since its formation in 1919 until the mid-1930s when the Bahraini government became financially self-sufficient as a result of stable oil export revenues lastly allowing the government to replenish its empty coffers permanently resolving the protracted financial problems that had beset the Bahraini government for decades rendering it a thing of the past simultaneously with the establishment of formal education in 1919 another milestone was the creation of the first partially elected municipal councils in both Manama and Muharraq which were dominated by elected and appointed senior members of the Bahraini business elite who played a crucial role in sponsoring a number of infrastructure projects in the country including the Manama port project in 1919 as happened in the pre-oil era throughout the Gulf as the 1920s and 1930s saw the gradual emergence of the modern Bahraini bureaucratic centralised state and good governance replacing the existing centuries-old obsolete mediaeval fiefdom system an inexorable obstacle to human development in its entirety anywhere in the world of the early twentieth-century industrial age, it would be misleading not to mention the facilitating quintessential role of Britain in bringing those reforms to fruition as represented by the four most influential British colonial administrators and officers in the British colonial history of Bahrain whose contributions to the establishment of modern Bahrain could not be ignored or underestimated under any circumstances serving consecutively one after the other starting with the delicate and focal preliminary task of the wily Arabist and orientalist military commander and intelligence officer Captain N. N. E. Bray (1885-1962) as a political agent in Bahrain from November 1918 to June 1919 with clear directives to "seek the amelioration of the internal government by indirect and pacific means and by gaining the confidence and trust of the Sheikh (ruler)" followed by Major H. R. P. Dickson (1881-1959) with a brief yet extremely productive tenure from 1919 to 1920 he would later serve as a political agent in Kuwait from 1929 to 1936 then succeeded by the demoted from Colonel to Major for recklessly violent behaviour in post-World War One Iraq, inadvertently responsible for single-handedly igniting the first spark of what would become "The Iraqi revolt against the British" also known as the 1920 Iraqi Revolt or the Great Iraqi Revolution, the disgraced Anglo-Irish Clive Kirkpatrick Daly (1888-1966) with his divisive and controversial tenure from 1921 to 1926 and finally Charles D. Belgrave (1894-1969) who served as an administrator and financial adviser to the ruler of Bahrain in the newly created office of the "Adviser" to purposefully overshadow the increasingly unpopular post of the political agent for its association with Daly's heavy-handed colonial rule, Belgrave's long tenure from 1926 to 1957 is seen by historians as a consolidation of the modernising reforms of his predecessors particularly Daly, whom Belgrave held in high regard where the reforms gained more momentum following the steady flow of oil revenues after the discovery of the essential commodity in 1932 as all four carefully chosen highly competent and hardy tricenarian Arabist officers were assigned by the British Government with specific instructions to introduce all required administrative reforms at their own discretion in line with the broader British regional strategy of placating the growing social discontent among the disenfranchised lower classes by redressing the pressing multigenerational injustices in Bahraini society specifically in the semi-feudal systems of pearl fishing indentured workers and agricultural farmers coordinating their reforms with the financial and moral support of the cooperative Bahraini business elite under such circumstances the first batch of reforms in education, municipal and fiscal sectors was implemented almost immediately after Bray's assisting initiative by Dickson, whereas customs, judiciary, police and land reform fell to the authoritarian Daly while Belgrave is credited with creating several new government departments including the "Directorate of Religious Endowments" in 1927 his first significant reform after assuming office as a financial adviser to stem the chronic unfettered corruption of some of the local clergy whom the government entrusted to administer religious endowments (waqf) without any supervision or legal accountability followed by the slow process of his decades-long vital initiative to develop modern public utility infrastructure for electricity, water and telephone services which commenced effectively in early 1928 he was also instrumental in securing the oil concession that led to the discovery of oil in 1932 but his everlasting achievement was the founding of the "Minors Funds Directorate" in 1932 to protect the inheritance rights of orphans and widows, a life-changing cross-sectarian institution in the service of the Bahraini people operating without interruption since its inception the first governmental institution of its kind in Bahrain and Belgrave's most enduring legacy however Belgrave faced fierce and persistent opposition from deeply conservative reactionary and corrupt elements within the Sunni and Shiite cross-sectarian main religious composition of Bahrain who sought to obfuscate and obstruct the introduction of such a governmental institution as those elements had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, deeming such a move as tantamount to heresy but Belgrave's dedication and perseverance prevailed in the end, sadly for many Bahrainis this remarkable feat of his remains a little-known historical fact the upcoming excerpt is one of numerous recurring instances in Belgrave's diary on this motion from 20th February 1931 until it was ratified on 15th January 1932 by the deputy ruler Sheikh Hamad less than a year before his accession to the throne on 9th December after being put forward for public debate by the government involving the wonted religious and mercantile elites of Bahraini society as alluded to earlier illustrating the great lengths Belgrave went to for the creation of this totally new governmental regulatory body with no precedent at least in Bahrain (Sunday 17th Jan 1932 Called on Yusuf Kanoo in the morning and discussed with him the question of the Proclamation which we are issuing ordering all wills to be registered with the Government and no persons to administer estates without getting permission from Government. It will to a certain extent safeguard the rights of widows and orphans who at present are being robbed wholesale) but the timing of the urgency in implementing the reforms cannot be overlooked as it coincided with the execution on the ground of the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot agreement on dividing the legacy of the vanquished Ottoman Empire between the two main World War One victorious powers, Britain and France giving birth to the ubiquitous British coined term "Middle East" recognising the fact that the Hejaz, the western region of the Arabian Peninsula where the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are located was once under direct Ottoman rule and that the Peninsula as a whole was and still is considered an extension of Iraq and the Levant in addition to achieving sustainable political stability in the Gulf as the advanced western Arabian frontier of the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent the jewel in the crown of the British Empire in the final analysis, the seemingly avowed altruistic goals of the reforms in Bahrain were part of the colonial "grafting process" reform assimilation policy of Britain through tactfully transplanting British hegemonic ideas into the newly formed Middle East as in other parts of the British Empire in contrast to its fellow draconian and pompous French to ensure the long-term strategic interests of Britain in the aftermath of World War One, thus everything the British undertook was to this end, Al-Thukair was concerned not only with the spread of modern learning and science but also with the introduction of modern technology in the region as he was either the first or second local to own a motor car in Bahrain in 1908 ten years before the supposed official arrival of the first motor vehicle in the country as recorded in the travel diary of international jeweller Jacques Cartier of the iconic Parisian Cartier jewellery house during his second visit to Bahrain in March 1912 among his numerous noble deeds was the utilisation of his high social status as a business doyen, arbiter of disputes and man of letters both locally and regionally in mustering financial and moral support for the Libyan resistance in the wake of the Kingdom of Italy's bloody invasion of Ottoman Libya in October of 1911 and Mussolini's subsequent genocidal fascist settler colonial regime of this vast sparsely populated North African Arab desert nation where Al-Thukair successfully raised twenty thousand rupees in relief aid donations in Bahrain and elsewhere in the Gulf with the effective collaboration of the motivated cleric and merchant Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani (1863-1925) who travelled to Lengeh (an Arab coastal town in modern-day Iran) and Dubai as part of a Gulf-wide fundraising campaign for the embattled Libyans of Tripoli to be forwarded after the end of the subscription on the steamship SS. "Patiala" on 8th July 1912 to the Ottoman Red Crescent Society in the Iraqi city of Basra to be sent from there via Egypt to Tripoli, Libya as stated in the following are slightly edited excerpts from the 1912 British Gulf residency report concerning the Turco-Italian war and local and regional reactions to it from February and July respectively the first describes Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani's tireless zeal for collecting donations for the Libyan cause while the second describes Al-Thukair's delivery of those donations, it was clearly a collaborative effort rather than a single individual endeavour however this is not meant to diminish the efforts of Al-Thukair as he was either the driving force behind all of those initiatives or an integral member of the majority of them the first excerpt is as follows (The Arabs of Muharraq incited by an influential Mullah Sheikh Abdulwahab (Al-Zayani) have opened a subscription list for The Red Crescent Society in order to help it in bringing succour to the wounded in Tripoli. So far about Rs. 5,000 have been collected. This sum will be largely increased if the Arabs of Manama, Budaiya and Hidd join in as they have promised to do. The same Mullah is stated to have paid visits to Lengeh and Dubai about a month ago. At Lengeh he succeeded in collecting some 5,000 rupees but met with no success at Dubai where the people were sceptical as to the probability of the money ever reaching its ostensible destination) while the second as with the first shows the British meticulous documentation of the conclusion of the initiative (Sheikh Mugbil Al-Thukair forwarded on the 8th of July per SS. "Patiala" the sum of Rs. 20,000 being the total amount of subscription raised in Bahrain for the Red Crescent Society to Basra for transmission to Tripoli via Egypt) leading to the incensing of the British colonial authorities in Bahrain against him he also played a significant role in the Bahraini relief campaign to provide financial aid to the displaced Muslim refugees of the Balkan war precipitated by the raging Turco-Italian War over Ottoman Libya the "Balkan League" was formed in 1912 under the auspices of the Russians with the aim of putting an end to the Ottoman presence in the Balkans once and for all resulting in the ethnic genocide of nearly one and a half million Balkan Muslims with more than four hundred thousand refugees fleeing to Anatolia as news of the harrowing atrocities reached Bahrain cleric and pearl merchant Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani referred to earlier one of Bahrain's most revered national figures in the early twentieth century the leader of the first Bahraini independence movement from Britain at the turn of the twentieth century set up a fundraising refugee relief committee with the full backing of the ruler of Bahrain Sheikh Isa Bin Ali Al Khalifa who launched the donation fundraiser with the generous sum of ten thousand rupees appointing Al-Thukair as secretary-treasurer of the committee who rose to the occasion by exerting immense efforts to garner financial aid for the displaced Muslim refugees by exhorting the Bahraini populace to donate to their stranded Muslim brethren through his eloquent oratorical motivational skills, thus by the end of the fundraising the accumulated amount had risen to well over a hundred and four thousand rupees a sizable sum for a tiny country the size of Bahrain in the early twentieth century Sheikh Abdulwahab Bin Heji Al-Zayani and Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo were entrusted by the committee with the task of faithfully delivering the donations to the representative of the Ottoman Governor of Iraq in the Iraqi port city of Basra on 28th December 1912 according to the 1912 report of the British political agency in Bushehr compiled by a number of political agents in the region including Captain D. L. R. Lorimer and Major A. P. Trevor both of whom served in Bahrain the following edited excerpt is part of Major Trevor's section of this thorough report written after he succeeded Lorimer as Political Agent in Bahrain on 1st November 1912 (The subscription raised by the Arabs of Bahrain for the Turkish Red Crescent Society having reached the handsome figure of Rs. 1,04,100 the amount was taken to Basra by SS. "Bahrain" (of the Arab Steamers, Limited) on 28th December by Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani and Yusuf Kanoo for despatch to the Sultan. Yusuf Kanoo stated that it was their intention to land at Bushehr and send a telegram to the Sultan stating the amount of the sum raised for the Red Crescent Fund and mentioning that it had been subscribed by the Sheikhs and people of Bahrain for the sick and wounded. The object of this telegram of course was to prevent hanky-panky on the part of the Wali (Ottoman Governor) of Basra) it should be pointed out that Sheikh Abdulwahab Al-Zayani was exiled to the Indian port city of Bombay by the British colonial authorities in Bahrain in 1923 along with several of his comrades in the Bahraini independence movement where he died and was laid to rest there in less than two years in 1925 on a similar note an oblique account related to a letter dated 11th April of the same year sent by an anonymous Indian Muslim leader requesting Al-Thukair to organise an unspecified cause relief aid campaign for the Muslims of an unnamed Indian province was included in the 1913 report of the British political agency in Bahrain demonstrating the widely acclaimed reputation he achieved through the efficacy of his fundraising campaigns however by the middle of the Great War Al-Thukair had suffered considerable losses in his pearl business wrought in part by the dire effects of war particularly on the luxury goods market but mainly attributed to British interventions aimed at undermining his business interests primarily in Bahrain as some Bahraini historical researchers concluded as a consequence of his active role in supporting the Libyan resistance movement against Italian colonialism as previously stated, needless to say from the British point of view the uncompromising character of Al-Thukair and his unequivocal stance against Western colonialism in all of its forms constituted a threat to British colonial economic hegemony in the region that needed to be addressed decisively by thwarting any attempt to achieve any form of economic independence no matter how insignificant or trivial it might seem as in Al-Thukair's participation as a founding major shareholder with a five percent stake alongside several wealthy pearl merchants from Bahrain and Kuwait together with the rulers of the said countries and those of Qatar and Oman, the venture was led and chaired by the regionally famous Kuwaiti pearl merchant Jassim Bin Muhammad Al-Ibrahim (1869-1956) with the leading Bahraini pearl merchant Muhammad Bin Abdulwahab Al-Mishari (1864-1922) in the position of general manager in establishing the first truly regional Arab shareholding firm and the first fully Arab-owned ocean liner shipping company in the Arabian Gulf on 30th April 1911 "The Arab Steamers, Limited" marking a turning point in the modern history of the Gulf by putting up for the first time a medium-sized fleet of Western-built passenger steamships the next edited extract from the 1912 report of the British Gulf residency in the Persian (Iranian) coastal city of Bushehr gives an inkling of the size of the company's fleet (The Arab Steamers, Limited-This company started a service to the Arabian Gulf in July 1911 and during the past year, 18 of their steamers have called at Lengeh outwards from Bombay while 10 steamers called on the return journey from Basra) one must note that the fleet included the passenger and cargo ship "Tynesider" renamed "Faris" in early 1912 on which the Parisian jeweller Jacques Cartier (1884-1941) travelled to India and the Arabian Gulf the same year as the company's board named the previously mentioned respected Bahraini banker and merchant Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo as its agent in Bahrain since he was friends with most of the board members incidentally it was Yusuf Kanoo's first shipping agency in 1911, thus starting his shipping agency business which would become the posthumous cornerstone of the eponymous regional multinational Y.B.A. Kanoo conglomerate in the post-World War Two Arabian Gulf oil economy, the following excerpt from the 1912 report of the British Gulf residency describes the sense of jubilation and pride of the Bahraini people at the arrival of the first passenger steamship of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" to bear the name Bahrain on its maiden voyage (SS. Bahrain a new acquisition of the Arab company, arrived at Bahrain on 1st March, fully dressed with flags. It was explained that the decoration was in honour of the first visit of the ship to its name-place. The name is a source of great delight to the local Arabs) apart from the legitimate premise of economic independence the real reason for the establishment of this firm was a response to the monopolistic exploitative practises and racially discriminatory colonial policies of the "British India Steam Navigation Company" (B.I.) against non-European passengers in general and Arabs in particular as attested by the exorbitant ticket prices of Arab travellers not to mention the additional cargo charges exacted on Arab-owned goods exacerbating the whole situation by barring affluent Arab first-class passengers from eating in the dining rooms and halls of its ships rightfully regarded as a disparaging and demeaning hierarchical colonial policy that posed an egregious affront to human dignity irrespective of race, colour, ethnicity or creed commonly practised by Western colonial powers of divesting non-white peoples of their humanity in order to legitimise their subjugation on the other hand unfortunately the fate of this pioneering highly successful company was tragically sealed unceremoniously in 1915 when it was sold to the "Bombay & Persia Steam Navigation Company" (The Mogul Line) as a direct result of insurmountable British pressure after less than five years of operation a pressure that began by dissuading Gulf Arab rulers from investing in such a venture while the company was still in formation under the usual infantilising colonial mendacious pretenses of catastrophic financial losses and no practical feasibility for themselves and their peoples whether in the near or distant future but their spurious discouraging attempts were in vain with the British-owned (B.I.) resorting to an all-out price war immediately after the start of the company's operations all these flagrantly malicious actions by the British helped stoke the flames of Arab patriotic sentiments to the fullest against them in the Gulf by causing Gulf Arabs including Iraqis to travel almost exclusively on the ships of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" still the company managed to command the substantial sum of three-quarters of a million British Indian silver rupees as a sale price exactly threefold the paid-in capital just over four years earlier given the geopolitical situation of the Great War adverse international economic conditions, sending the pearl-based mono-cultural economies of the Gulf into a tailspin along with wartime restrictions on sea travel to compound matters further, the British Admiralty requisitioned one of the company's vessels, the passenger and cargo ship SS. "Budrie" originally named SS. "Golconda" for the war effort where it ended up being scuttled as a blockship at Scapa Flow in northern Scotland on 3rd October 1915 a clear testament to the enormous success that this ill-fated company enjoyed in its short-lived existence, the following excerpt is from a thoroughly detailed report on the trade movement of Oman by Major S. G. Knox the British consul in Muscat, Oman and its de facto ruler dated 13th April 1912 on sea trade and shipping movement in and out of the country, refers to the effect of the launching of "The Arab Steamers, Limited" on freight shipping rates (The British India Company who have got the contract for the carriage of mails from and to India provide one weekly fast mail service up and down and 1 fortnightly coasting slow mail service both ways. The vessels of the Arab Steamers, Limited have also maintained a weekly service. In consequence of the weekly service maintained by the Arab Steamers, the freights to India, etc., were greatly reduced during the year and those for United States of America enhanced) the doomed fate of this company became a cautionary tale for anyone attempting to challenge British colonial economic hegemony in the region with its impact lingering for decades until the defining watershed historical moment of Britain's future role as a global power in the outcome of the new harsh bipolar world order realities of the 1956 Suez crisis (known as the "tripartite aggression" in the Arab world) marking the beginning of the end of the British imperial presence in the Middle East incrementally superseded by American influence in all aspects nevertheless on the positive side racial discrimination, unwarranted prices and mistreatment of Arabs and non-Europeans on British passenger ships came to an end as the British realised though belatedly that such discriminatory practises could impinge on their long-term economic interests in the region epitomising British pragmatism at its finest one of the most contributing factors to the British Imperial enterprise's resounding successes over the centuries in comparison to its other European counterparts and finally culminating in the straw that broke the camel's back Al-Thukair's staunch allegiance to the sworn enemy of Great Britain in the region the Ottoman Turks on the eve of World War One demonstrably embodied itself in his spearheading of a very large Gulf-wide fundraising campaign rivalling or even exceeding his previous ones to raise financial aid for the Ottomans with a special emphasis on enlisting the financial assistance of Arabian Gulf heads of state, leading merchants and clerics achieving resounding success under the watchful eye of the British colonial authorities in the region confirmed by a concise reference in the British Archives to the recently deceased ruler of Qatar Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani who died on 17th July 1913 in relation to the worrying antagonistic fundraising activities of Al-Thukair the British in anticipation of the looming global conflagration of World War One (as it would be known in the West as the Great War or perhaps more idealistically as "the war to end war" the paradoxical catchphrase created by prolific English author H. G. Wells) as an inevitable conclusion in light of the fraught international situation of the escalating crisis in Europe among the newly allied powers of Britain, France and Russia since the turn of the twentieth century in the face of rising militaristic and economic power of Germany as the leader of the Central Powers alongside the Austro-Hungarians and the beleaguered Ottomans in the same previously referred to 1913 report of the British Gulf residency stated as follows (Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani has sent 25 thousand rupees to Sheikh Mugbil and Yusuf Kanoo here with instructions to send the amount to Basra. It is the subscription of the Qatar people for the Turkish relief) a war of the kind that the ailing Ottoman Empire dubbed "The Sick Man of Europe" in the West would be playing its definitive role in deciding the future of the Middle East after four centuries of imperial dominance just as war-weary Britain would be playing itself forty years later in the face of the growing new American influence in the region in the aftermath of the Second World War though in a peaceful conciliatory mode as should be the norm between close strategic partners ultimately Al-Thukair's relentless and far-reaching fervour on all fronts caught up with him forcing the venerable septuagenarian merchant to reluctantly relinquish his most rewarding and cherished achievement the "Bahrain Literary Society" resulting in its permanent closure in 1917 due to the unfortunate fact that he was the sole benefactor of this progressive institution having spared no expense on his beloved creation during its fruitful albeit brief existence followed soon thereafter by the selling of nearly all of his assets in Bahrain starting in early 1917 with virtually all his properties in Manama including his commercial buildings and four houses to his friend and equal in character and exalted social stature the prominent pearl merchant Salman Bin Hussain Matar (1837-1944) and ending with his most prized possession his huge date palm orchard named "Tinar" on the outskirts of Manama near the historic Al-Khamis Mosque which he sold to his fellow countryman and successor in heading the Najdi community of Bahrain and Ibn Saud's local representative the notable pearl merchant Abdulaziz Bin Hassan Algosaibi (1876-1953) shortly before his final departure to his birthplace Unaizah where he would die six years later in 1923 at the age of 79 this is undoubtedly the clearest manifestation of his unwavering loyalty to his Central Arabian Najdi roots in spite of making Bahrain his home in every sense for forty years however some of his descendants chose to remain in Bahrain namely his Bahraini-born youngest son Abdulrahman who spent the best part of his life moving back and forth between Bahrain and the birthplace of his ancestors Unaizah and whose descendants still live in Bahrain remarkably those last few years of his life were not spent idly on the contrary notwithstanding his financial woes Al-Thukair rose above it all by erecting a charity school complex with free lodging for teachers in his beloved hometown of Unaizah he also funded the publication of two classical Islamic theological works to be distributed gratuitously among its literate residents as a last token of gratitude to the place that played a pivotal role in shaping his formative years the ultimate proof of his noble unfaltering magnanimous nature in the face of overwhelming vicissitudes of fortune in other words for Al-Thukair moral agency and altruism took precedence over expediency, personal gain and selfish interest this idealised narrative might be viewed by some with incredulity however the veracity of the preceding portrait of Al-Thukair was corroborated by an independent foreign source free of any cultural affiliation to the region represented in the travel diary of the young French jeweller Jacques Cartier who painted a more poignant portrait of him than even some of his local and regional contemporaries devoid of duplicity and guile (such values and principles as some commentators suggested were detrimental to Al-Thukair's business activities of course from a pragmatic unscrupulous perspective) as expected at the death announcement of Al-Thukair at dawn on the 13th of May 1923 in his then small sleepy rural hometown of Unaizah thousands of mourners of all genders and walks of life thronged to join the sombre funeral procession of one of Unaizah's most illustrious natives while paying their respects to the family of this noble pious benevolent man the least honour they could afford for someone who gave so much to his people as word of his passing spread beyond Unaizah, cables and letters of condolence started to pour in from regional potentates, political leaders, notables and leading merchants from around the Arabian Peninsula he was also mourned and deservedly eulogised in Iraqi, Levantine and Egyptian journals and periodicals by clerics, writers and intellectuals from the Gulf to Iraq and all the way to Egypt some of whom were personal friends such as the loyal Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Mana (1882-1965) the published author, judge and future Grand Mufti of Qatar and at one time the semi-adopted son and business assistant of Al-Thukair who wrote a heart-wrenching eloquently effusive obituary for Al-Thukair titled "The death of a great man and a famous philanthropist" in the respected Egyptian Magazine Al-Manar on 9th June 1923 less than a month after his death the unique closeness of Al-Mana to Al-Thukair in all respects including their shared birthplace allowed him to serve as a key link between Al-Thukair and all of his regional friends another personal friend was Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Khonji (1880-1967) the esteemed Bahraini multi-talented cleric, poet, writer, intellectual, historian, administrator and educator the second Bahraini to graduate from the reputable Al-Azhar Islamic University of Cairo, Egypt in 1902 a worthy member of the 1919 prestigious education supervisory committee and a regular patron of the "Bahrain Literary Society" the brainchild of Al-Thukair before and after its official inauguration in 1913 a prolific correspondent with Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed Rida the owner of Al-Manar Magazine in Cairo who also happened to be an epistolary friend of Al-Thukair as noted further down in the text curiously enough Khonji's upcoming literal translated description of Al-Thukair was the least ornate of his contemporaries written in a plain stoic unrhetorical spare style displaying the typical ascetic attributes of his writings (Mugbil was a well-educated big merchant who had correspondence through his many agents in India, East Africa, Arab countries and Europe may God Almighty rest his soul) Al-Thukair also formed abiding epistolary friendships throughout his adult life which began as a means to quench his lifelong thirst for intellectual knowledge by forming long-standing literary correspondents that evolved into genuine epistolary friendships as in the case of Mahmud Shukri Al-Alusi (1856-1924) the revered multidiscipline Iraqi Islamic thinker, linguist, historian and reformer editor-in-chief of the first Iraqi periodical the renowned weekly newspaper Al-Zawra'a and once professor and mentor to Al-Mana during his student days in Baghdad however there is strong evidence that the friendship of Al-Alusi and Al-Thukair was not solely epistolary as it was perfectly possible for both gentlemen to meet several times during Al-Thukair's numerous business trips to Iraq particularly in the 1890s there was also occasional specific correspondence between the two concerning the latter's generous and varied assistance to Al-Alusi including the forwarding of several batches of books each containing hundreds of copies of a newly printed first edition of an Islamic theological work by Al-Alusi printed and shipped to Iraq from India one batch at a time at Al-Thukair's expense in addition to financial assistance this was the main topic of a series of letters between the two parties dating back to the year 1893 but for the sake of historical accuracy some of the batches in question were consigned by the ruler of Qatar Sheikh Qasim Bin Muhammad Al-Thani to be delivered to Al-Alusi by Al-Thukair a trusted friend of the ruler as was the case with other Arabian Gulf rulers mentioned earlier the other distinguished epistolary friend of his was Sheikh Muhammad Rasheed Rida (1865-1935) the eminent Levantine-Egyptian Islamic theologian reformer, Quranic exegete, author and journalist founder and owner of Al-Manar Magazine in Cairo, Egypt to whom he regularly wrote seeking his scholarly counsel on Islamic jurisprudence issues who was alerted to the demise of Al-Thukair by their mutual friend Al-Mana, eliciting a brief yet meaningful obituary by Rida in his own Al-Manar Magazine; the following text is a literal translation of the obituary (we beseech thee Almighty God to bless the life of our mourning brother the just judge of Qatar and to bestow his mercy and blessings upon our departed brother and to unite us with him {In an Assembly of Truth, in the Presence of a Sovereign Omnipotent} (The Moon Surah (chapter) "verse 55" Quran) and to mitigate the grief of his family and offspring and to guide them in following his righteous path) the first impression of this final example of his lasting correspondence is that it was arguably the only one of his consequential epistolary friendships that remained exclusively epistolary since there is no record of any meeting between Al-Thukair and Rida that had ever occurred since their first correspondence at the end of the nineteenth century until the death of Al-Thukair a premise reinforced by an excessive degree of formality and reserved mutual respect a constant feature mirrored in their writings for each other over the years these are the most noteworthy examples to name a few of the monumental veneration that Al-Thukair received upon his death, an explicit attestation of the high standing that he enjoyed at all levels)

A prospective screenprint. It would be 10" x 8" and cost $15. If you would like a print of this image here's the deal:

 

If a mere 20 people tell me they will buy a copy of this I will print it. Let me know of your wanting of one either:

 

• In a comment here (not just a fave).

 

• with an @octophant message on Twitter.

 

* with a wall post on the Octophant Facebook Fan Page.

 

I'll be gathering wants through the weekend and printing (if I print it) next week. The edition will be 10 more than the number of wants I receive. You are under no obligation to buy even if you tell me you will. This is just an experiment is using the internet for gauging interest in future printing efforts.

 

So there you go. Want one?

 

(You can also see a larger version...)

Been updating my lego K class, getting more into lego again so hopefully that means more uploads here in future!

This picture of a priest, dressed in traditional clerical gear, was taken in Siena, Tuscany in Italy. I nodded to him, pointed at my camera and he nodded back in agreement that I might take this street portrait.

 

I used my EF-S60mm f/2.8 Macro USM to take this and will be making more use of it on the street in future I would think!

As part of our extremely enjoyable visit to Dubai, UAE in September 2014

 

Standing at the common corridor of a public housing looking across at the executive condominium, I have the feeling how nice would it be if I can upgrade to a condominium like this in future and so I decided to do this 3 frame shift shot of my view.

www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/182444-f...

 

Race for the Holocrons! Following the lead given to them by Luke on Yavin IV, Nathan and Ozz travel to the barren world of OSSUS. There, they find the SEARCHERS, scholars and adventurers who seek the mysteries of the unseen. One Searcher in particular stands to give them what they came for. But what obstacles lie ahead in the long-dead ruins of the Jedi temple? And how much time do they have before they cross paths with the Empire?

 

“We’re coming out of lightspeed, nerd. Get your nose out of that book and come get strapped in.”

 

“Oop! I’m coming, I’m coming.”

 

Nathan flipped the weathered notebook closed and climbed out of the bunk, scrambling towards the harness of the co-pilot’s seat. In a bigger ship, it wouldn’t be necessary, but the Lucky Star was so small (and poorly made) that being untethered while entering or exiting hyperspace was suicide. And Nathan, naturally, cared very much about safety.

The ship came hurtling to a stop, and the marble-sized planet before them looked like it suddenly grew a thousand-fold, to a massive, intimidating sphere that dominated their vision.

Ossus was a deep orange color, and flashes of blue trailed across the dark forms of cloud systems within its atmosphere.

   

800x800.jpg

  

“Looks like some serious storm activity,” Nathan guessed, pulling up what little geological and environmental data he could. “I’m not seeing much, it could be the storm, or maybe your sensors are just too old to be useful.”

 

“Oy, watch what you say, the Star can be sensitive.”

 

A blip appeared on one of Nathan’s screens. “Hold up, I’m getting something. Some kind of technology, I think it’s a sensor beacon. Weird. Whoever’s down there isn’t afraid to be found.”

 

“Humph. Maybe they just figure no one would bother comin’ to a place like this. Those lightning storms don’t inspire much confidence. Where the heff have you dragged me now, nerd?”

 

“Hey, Luke said there was someone who could help us, here. We got to at least give it a shot. It’s our one lead on the holocrons, Pyerce, and Mayla.”

 

“Y’know, I been thinkin’ about that. What’s wrong with you, huh?”

 

Nathan raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

 

“I mean…” Ozz chewed on the words. “You had a stable job, place to live…family?”

 

Nathan shook his head.

 

“Ah, well, you mighta been better off for it. My point is, you had everything, but you dropped it to come find some chick ya barely knew! And she’s an Imp spy? What’s wrong with you?”

 

This spoke aloud a thought that had bothered Nathan for the last week. This life on the move was way more exciting than his old job as a reactor Safety Inspector, but he also had to wonder if he was insane to have left in the first place. What was he really doing out here? Trying to stop the Empire? He barely knew anything about that. Trying to find Mayla? What if she didn’t want to see him, what if—worse—she was lying, and he was playing into the Empire’s hand?

While all this filled his thoughts, he shook his head and closed down.

 

“Dunno. Let me know if you figure it out.” Ready to change the subject, he directed Ozz’s attention to the scanner. “Whoever’s broadcasting from that beacon, they’re in the northern hemisphere, see this?”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going the long way around, no chance I’m getting us anywhere near those storms. Krif, this place looks like a wasteland.”

 

It took them the better part of an hour to circumnavigate the storm systems, which were fast-moving and hundreds of miles across. They alone would be enough reason for Ossus to stay uninhabited. Which just made the presence of people an even bigger mystery.

The moment they entered the atmosphere, Nathan felt it: a pull within the planet, something like gravity, but altogether different. There was something strange about Ossus. Something powerful, he thought, watching the far-off storms burn away at the land below.

 

They saw the outpost from above, a small collection of tents, sensor arrays, and a shield generator, all concealed around a rocky outcropping. Ozz reached out on the comm to see if anyone would pick up.

 

“Uh, hello! Anybody down there? We…come in peace.”

 

Someone did.

 

“Who is this?” a woman’s voice replied.

 

“Uh, Captain Ozzamandes Sabaran, of the Lucky Star. Requestin’ permission to land, ma’am.”

 

“You’re not who we were expecting. Stupid beacon…What the hakat are you doing on Ossus, Lucky Star?”

 

Nathan leaned in toward the microphone. “We’re looking for a Duros named Abay. A friend of his sent us, a man named Luke.”

 

Ozz looked at him sharply, and whispered, “What’d I tell you about trusting everybody!”

 

Nathan motioned for him to shush, and they waited in tense silence for a reply.

 

“…Abay says to let you land. If you try anything, you’re dead.”

 

That was as good a welcome as any.

The shield allowed them through, and Ozz brought the ship to a rough landing on a pad made of loose durasteel plates laid over the orange sand. Even for the Star, it was uncomfortable bumpy.

They left the ship to surprisingly cold air for a desert planet, which explained the snow that capped the higher rock formations. A woman—the woman from the comms—approached them. She was dressed in full armor, carried a blaster pistol, and had a loose cloak hanging over her shoulder. She looked dangerous, and Nathan and Ozz kept up their guard.

 

“I’m Van Konn, this is an outpost of the Searchers.”

 

“Thanks for letting us in,” Nathan said politely.

 

“The Scriptist—Abay—says I should be nice to you, but you make one wrong move...”

 

Ozz grimaced. “We’ll be sure not to do that, then! Appreciate the warnin’, very kind.”

 

Another woman walked up—a Rodian in green robes who had the air of a scientist.

 

Van greeted her. “Eefo! This is Eefo, she’s the Scriptist’s Assistant.”

 

“Say that three times fast,” Ozz whispered to Nathan, who chuckled.

 

Van looked at them suspiciously. “I’ve got better things to do, so she’ll lead you the rest of the way. Touch anything, and I’m coming back for you.”

 

“Thank you, Van. Welcome, both of you,” Eefo said, her voice calm and controlled, a pleasant contrast to the brusque Van Konn.

 

“Thanks for having us,” Nathan said, again, politely.

 

“Come with me, please,” she said, and turned to lead them through the camp.

The outpost was large, the product of years spent establishing a base camp for research and exploration. Nathan guessed there were about 50 Searchers in all. Two freighters sat side-by-side, covered by heavy tarps to protect against the storms. The camp was crowned by a pole, some sort of tall device with controls at ground level.

Curious, Nathan took the risk of asking about it.

“It’s a Conductor, something I designed soon after we arrived on Ossus. It protects us from the storms, drains them of their power. Occasionally we need more energy for our experiments than our generators are able to muster. On those days, we can draw the storms towards us to harvest for their potential.”

 

“Sounds…dangerous,” Ozz grunted.

 

Nathan grinned. “Genius.”

 

Searchers milled around, doing maintenance or talking to one another, or gawking at the two strange arrivals. Nathan saw a few scholarly-looking individuals inside of tents, hard at work writing in large tomes.

Eefo led them to an opening in the rocks that had been adapted to house a work tent. It was obviously the domain of an archeologist: fragments of colorful stone, artifacts, and old books were stacked, sorted, and hanging from a net overhead. A tower shelf housed numerous glowing blue records, with a single record glowing red.

A Duros stood at the center, wearing a flowing blue robe over a green boiler suit. He seemed old, bent, and slightly crazed. An eccentric, Nathan guessed. Who else would come to Ossus?

   

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He reacted to their approach with alarm, turning suddenly and crying, “Another spirit? Begone!”

 

Eefo bowed slightly to the researcher. Nathan sensed that she was carefully hiding embarrassment at his behavior.

“The guests, Scriptist.”

 

“Ah, yes! Ah, yes…silly of me. Tell me, Eefo, do you sense anything? Does anything pull at your feelings?”

 

She hesitated, then said, “Nothing that gives me pause.”

 

“So it is also for me,” he agreed, with a great deal of nodding. He gestured for Nathan and Ozz to draw closer. “Come in, come in, tell me your names!”

 

Ozz gave Nathan a wary look. Nathan gave him a reassuring wave, and pushed ahead.

“I’m Nathan, and this is Ozz. I’m sorry, I’m a little confused…what is this place?”

 

“You do not know! Eh! Young…unknowledgeable…” the Scriptist muttered. “We are Searchers, those who, eh, seek to pierce the veil of untruth that blinds so many. We’ve come to Ossus to study what remains of the Sith-Dead world. Ancient truths and insights, unseen.”

 

Nathan had never heard of Searchers before, but then, he had never hunted holocrons before. “So, you know Luke?”

 

“The Skywalker boy!” he squawked. “Yes, yes. The last of them, yes. He studied with us briefly, as our goals, for a time, slid into alignment. But he doubted the spirits, and how they spoke to me. Very rude of him. What do you want from me?”

 

Nathan was taken aback by the Scriptist’s abrupt demeanor, but he was starting to catch on.

 

“Luke sent us. An Imperial Remnant is searching for holocrons, and we’re trying to get to them first.”

 

“Ah! Hmm. Hmm…no Holocrons on Ossus! Not as of yet, I should say. Still many depths to plumb, many truths to uncover…The unmapped crypts sound their siren song, their lyrics full of the secrets concealed…” muttered the Scriptist.

 

Nathan and Ozz looked at each other. Eefo looked on, worried, from the edge.

 

The Scriptist returned to the present. “I can do you no good. The spirits…they toy with my research, obstruct learning! I need…need…help.”

 

“You have lots of help, Abay,” Eefo interjected. “Er, Scriptist.”

 

“Ah, but I am concerned for your welfare, Eefo. I do not know these two, and as such, so far, for theirs I am not!”

 

“Oh, gee, great…” Ozz grunted, raising a wispy eyebrow.

 

“See, I am hounded by a saboteur of mischievous intent. Not sinister, as no act of violence has been performed. But my machines cease to work, my materials go missing. In such small quantities and degrees that they think I will not notice, but these are not coincidences. Whether physical or spiritual, this saboteur must be caught!”

 

Eefo crossed her arms. “I still think it might be the Sorcerer, returned.”

 

“I do not agree, Eefo! I do not agree in the slightest. We vanquished that threat long ago, this is something entirely less impressive, but no less confounding. I would like you two,” he said to Nathan and Ozz. “To go and find the source of this mystery. This mystery, yes.”

 

Nathan frowned. “And uh, why is it again that you can’t send one of your…knights?”

 

“They are trained and skilled, and this task requires neither of those things! I would rather risk your lives than theirs. This is the simple truth. If you go, if you succeed, I will tell you whatever might aid your efforts.”

 

Nathan thought about the ridiculous request. At least the Scriptist was being honest with them, if not a little too honest. Was he willing to risk his life for this cause?

 

Finally, he nodded. “I’ll do it. Ozz, you don’t have to come.”

 

“Nah, nah,” Ozz sighed. “I’ll help ya out.”

 

“This is satisfactory,” said the Scriptist. “Be on your way! I have much to attend to.”

 

Eefo led them away from the tent, and stopped them once they were out of earshot. She rounded on them both, her face a complicated mix of emotions.

“Listen to me. If you want to risk getting yourselves killed for whatever it is you’re after, be my guest. But you should know…” her expression changed to concern, and her tone softened. “Abay is a master, and the wisest of us all, but…he isn’t what he used to be. He has spent many cycles on Ossus, communing with its ghosts and hidden knowledge. It has changed him. If you want to leave, you’re free to go. You’re not beholden to anything he says.”

 

Nathan considered this, as did Ozz, but what other choice did they have? They glanced at each other to make sure they were on the same page. Nathan turned back to Eefo.

“Thank you for telling us, but…it doesn’t change our minds. Your…Scriptist, is that what you call him? Your Scriptist is our last lead.”

 

“And the kid doesn’t give up easy.” Ozz threw up his hands. “Great, we’re workin’ for a crazy guy.”

 

“Watch your tone, Iakaru,” Eefo said sharply.

 

She stalked off, giving them a strange look before she disappeared amongst the tents.

 

“Wonderful,” Ozz grunted. “Wanna wander out into the cold desert and get fried by a storm with me?”

 

Nathan stood looking towards the camp, his face contorted with thought as he considered what he knew. A possibility was brightening in the corner of his mind.

 

“We may not have to leave the camp at all.”

 

“What? Didn’t you hear—“

 

“Come on, follow me!”

  

Nathan Booke was not new to sniffing out tomfoolery and sabotage. He had been a Safety Inspector, after all. In fact, as Ozz knew very well, the young man had proven extremely talented at the part of his job that involved tracking down wrong-doing and exposing those responsible. He had become something of a Detective in his time at the reactor on Targonn, and an investigative mind had been a strength he displayed since he was a child in the orphanage.

It did not take him long to put together a plan. He roamed the outpost, interviewing several Searchers about any suspicious activity. The Searchers he questioned were adamant no one else had entered the camp. That pointed to one of their own, but they were quick to defend their brothers and sisters against any accusation. Nonetheless, he followed snippets of conversation, pieces of truth behind offended words, and small comments let slip here and there.

Something tugged at the back of his mind, an instinctive thought that seemed pulled forward by every conversation he had. Ozz could only listen, dumbfounded, as Nathan told him about his theory, explained his evidence.

 

“Well then,” the Iakaru said. “Let’s go get her.”

 

They entered the tent of Nathan’s primary suspect to find its occupant busily fumbling with her databanks. She came to an abrupt halt, slammed a cabinet closed, and stared at them.

 

“Can I help you?” Eefo asked, her voice struggling to maintain its calm, steady tempo.

 

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Nathan wondered. “You’re tampering with Abay’s work.”

 

Eefo looked stunned, speechless, and didn’t reply for a long moment. Finally, she sniffed in derision. “Insane.”

 

“And not only that, you’re a spy, aren’t you?”

 

“Yeah!” Ozz added. “Workin’ for old Pyerce.”

 

She glared at them, rising from her chair. “You’re both insane. How dare you accuse me—“

 

“Aww, give it a rest,” Ozz scoffed. “We know about your buddies on Garel, Targonn, Yavin VI…We know you got a disintegration thingy shoved up in your teeth, we knows Pyerce wants information. Information you’re in a pretty nice spot to find out.”

 

Looking around quickly, she dropped her voice to a frantic whisper. “Lower your voices! I do not work for Pyerce, understand?”

 

Ozz and Nathan looked at one another in triumph.

 

“I have not transmitted in months,” Eefo went on. “I am done with him and his remnant.”

 

“Oh yeah? Came to your senses about the Empire, then?” Nathan asked.

 

“Ha! Though their methods need dire reform, the Empire is still the galaxy’s best hope. But the work here…” she became jittery, nervous. “No one should know about these things. Not Pyerce, not the Scriptist…not myself, not you.”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“I will say no more. Leave me be.”

 

Ozz crossed his arms. “No can do, lady. We came to this rock to learn what Pyerce is after and get it before he can do any damage. You’re gonna tell us what you know. I got credits riding on this.”

 

“I will tell you nothing.”

 

“You sure about that?” Ozz grinned toothily.

 

“If you’re thinking of blackmail, none of the Searchers will believe you. We are kin, I have their trust.”

 

Nathan frowned at her. “You spy—sorry, spied—on them for the Empire. You think they’d feel the same way about you if they knew that?”

 

Eefo was, by now, stewing with rage. “You do not know what you speak of.”

 

“Ha, even if they do trust you, they’re not the only thing you gotta worry about. Maybe you guys don’t get news out here, but Pyerce tried a big attack and failed. The bounty for any of his spies is enough to get some attention. Now, we had a lead, but if we let out word, we could make it a race to see who gets you first. And I bet old man Pyerce's boys would be curious too."

 

Nathan was uncomfortable with this tactic. He frowned at his companion, but said nothing.

 

The spy's face paled in the diffused tent light. She hung her head. "I see. It appears you have leverage. But I warn you, this knowledge you seek ought to be forbidden.”

 

Her conviction troubled Nathan. He scratched his chin. “I don’t get it. What can possibly have you so spooked?”

 

"You've met the Scriptist? Once, he was as sharp as you or I. Now he is addled and distant. Do you have any idea what it is they study here? Have you felt this planet's power?"

 

Nathan had, distinctly. The very ground was seeped in it. Centuries of raw strength imbuing the soil and the stone. He did his best to keep a stoic expression, to not look perturbed.

 

Eefo went on. “Do you know what sorts of things are buried in those crypts? Horrible things! Books about artifacts that release darkness and plagues, that make people lose their minds. Do you know what these "jedi" and "sith" were? Armies of magic sorcerers, thousands strong, trading off rule of the galaxy every few centuries, oppressing people like you and me!"

 

"This isn’t really relevant,” Nathan interjected. “…But just for the sake of argument...how is that any different than your Empire?"

 

She turned bitterly away. "I'm done with all that. I have a new mission, to keep any of these horrors from being found and disrupting the galaxy."

 

"Very noble. I wish you’d get that we’re trying to help, too. What is Pyerce looking for?" he asked again.

 

"Holocrons, you said it yourself. I know nothing more."

 

Nathan's eyes narrowed. "...you're lying."

 

Ozz grimaced. "I'd watch out for him...kid can spot a coverup a mile away."

 

Eefo glared at them both, but her resolve finally failed.

 

"So be it. You seek calamity, but if what you say is true, what choice do I have?" She leaned forward and steepled her long fingers, waiting a moment to make sure no one would overhear. "I have not transmitted, but I still receive my orders. Pyerce seeks an object called Balaam's Heart. It is said to be a source of immortality, and fear of death seems to have invaded the Moff's mind as of late."

 

Nathan raised an eyebrow, recalling Pyerce's recent defeats. "I can't imagine why."

 

"Yes, unfortunately for you, I've not seen a scrap of information about it."

 

"Why not?” Ozz said skeptically. “Sounds like it would be pretty famous."

 

"Ossus was a stronghold of those who follow the light—the Jedi. The heart is not an object of the Jedi, but of the dark side of the force. Seeking it is foolishness."

 

Nathan shook his head. Trying to get anywhere with this was like teaching a Bantha to read. "If all this is true, we can’t let an Imperial get their hands on something that might make them undying. There’s got to be some texts or records about dark side subjects. Know your enemy, right? In fact, I think there probably are. I think you probably know where, and you've kept it a secret from the other Searchers. How am I doing?"

 

Eefo ground his teeth. "...Perturbingly well. I will not tell you where they are. This is for your own good."

 

A sly grin broke across Ozz's face. "No, that's okay. You're gonna show us."

 

"Excuse me? I'll do no such thing!"

 

"Oh yeah? Then we let your comrades in on the secret. Think your little warnings would stop them?"

 

Nathan looked aside to Ozz. An unpleasant feeling was sitting in his chest. This blackmail made him feel strange.

 

Eefo blanched. "...The Searchers know no limits in their quest for knowledge."

 

"Yeah,” Nathan said firmly. “Neither does the Empire. Which one is worse?"

 

Someone entered the tent without warning, causing Eefo to leap out of her green skin. It was Van Konn, the outpost's chief defender. She glanced at Nathan and Ozz, frowning.

 

"Eefo, apologies for the interruption-- we've got an Imperial cruiser picked up in orbit."

 

Eefo turned to face her. "Another one? Is the beacon turned off? Our camouflage powered-up?"

 

Ozz looked between Eefo and the new arrival, shooting Eefo a significant look and mouthing, 'friends of yours?'

 

If he wanted to, he could spill the beans right now.

 

"Already taken care of, they should move on soon," Van assured her. "Just wanted to make sure you knew."

 

"Thank you," Eefo said, and Van bowed out.

 

Ozz continued to look smug in the silence that followed. Eefo understood his meaning. She composed herself, glaring at him while Nathan stood by.

 

"Say nothing," she finally growled. "I will take you to the ruins."

         

The speeder flew along the bright dunes of Ossus, dipping between dark rock formations and dodging occasional lightning.

 

"Can’t believe I'm saying this, but...it's beautiful, isn't it?" Nathan shouted over the whoosh of air and engine.

 

"Settle down, nerd boy!" Ozz hollered back. Because it was a two-seat speeder, he was strapped to Nathan and sitting on his lap, his short legs dangling off the back of the vehicle. "Yeesh, this is humiliating."

 

They reached their destination and hopped off the speeder to stretch their legs. Nathan rubbed his own, which had gone squarely numb from Ozz's weight.

 

"Few less Nerf Burgers in the future, huh?" he snarked.

 

Ozz shot him a look. "Ohhh, you really going there? Beanpole?"

 

Nathan waved him away and wandered to an overlook. Dark clouds shadowed the vibrant orange flatlands.

 

"It's very...dramatic," Nathan observed.

 

"Yes, it would be," Eefo nodded. "The planet did not always look like this. According to records and scrolls from other worlds, Ossus used to be fertile and green."

 

Nathan frowned. "What changed, the storms?"

 

"No, no, the storms are a side effect of whatever destroyed the planet. The short answer, I believe, is war.”

 

She was setting up a pole, about 2 meters long, outside the entrance.

 

“One of your conductors…miniaturized?” Nathan noted.

 

“Woah, woah!” Ozz cried. “You trying to bring down a storm on us?”

 

Eefo turned to Ozz calmly. “The charge is negative, it will only serve to redirect the lightning should a storm arrive. The charge would have to be positive to draw one to us. Come along, I'd like to be away from this place soon."

They strode past enormous statues of hooded figures to delve into the dark entrances of the temple. The light from outside only reached so far. Each of them activated a hololamp, and they continued on. Eefo and Nathan talked quietly as they walked.

 

“Archeology is my passion,” Eefo sighed. “It pains me to disgrace the profession by covering up knowledge. Despite this, I feel that protecting the galaxy is more important.”

 

“I thought you’d put a higher premium on knowledge.”

 

“Knowing for the sake of knowing is not always wise, or good. Knowledge is powerful, human. As with all things, consumption should be moderated.”

 

Ozz was feeling a little less enthusiastic about things now that they were walking into the dark. Old stone wrapped around them, stairs that hadn’t been walked in centuries, a temple of life, now dead. The old chassis of an analysis droid lay slumped against the wall, its circular eyes staring as they passed by.

 

“…Creepy place, huh?” Ozz said idly, trying to sound casual.

 

“You wanted to come here, did you not?” Eefo said bitterly. “Be careful what you wish for.”

The vivid colours of twilight facing the Snowdon horseshoe from Nant Gwryd.

 

Bare footed I made my way into the centre of the river to capture this image.. maybe in future I will remind my self that we are still in winter and this river flow is full of melted snow. I could barely feel my toes as I quickly ran back to the car.

In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque[1]: 6–8  with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on a building to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize potential damage from rainstorms. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually elongated fantastical animals because their length determines how far water is directed from the wall. When Gothic flying buttresses were used, aqueducts were sometimes cut into the buttress to divert water over the aisle walls.

 

The term gargoyle is most often applied to medieval work, but throughout all ages, some means of water diversion, when not conveyed in gutters, was adopted. In ancient Egyptian architecture, gargoyles showed little variation, typically in the form of a lion's head. Similar lion-mouthed water spouts were also seen on Greek temples, carved or modelled in the marble or terracotta cymatium of the cornice.[14] An excellent example of this are the 39 remaining lion-headed water spouts on the Temple of Zeus. Originally, it had 102 gargoyles or spouts, but due to the heavy weight (they were crafted from marble), many snapped off and had to be replaced.

 

Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. According to French architect and author Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, himself one of the great producers of gargoyles in the 19th century,[18] the earliest known medieval gargoyles appear on Laon Cathedral (c. 1200–1220). One of the more famous examples is the gargoyles of Notre-Dame de Paris. Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve as ornamentation but are now popularly called gargoyles.

 

Both ornamented and unornamented waterspouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were a common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early 18th century. From that time, more and more buildings used drainpipes to carry the water from the guttering roof to the ground and only very few buildings using gargoyles were constructed. This was because some people found them frightening, and sometimes heavy ones fell off, causing damage. In 1724, the London Building Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain made the use of downpipes compulsory in all new construction.

 

Langley Moor is an old pit village in County Durham, England. It is located approximately 2 miles south-west of Durham City. Langley Moor is within the civil parish of Brandon and Byshottles which is itself within the City of Durham constituency, as of 2019 represented by Mary Foy MP.

 

The village consists of a large park, three pubs, three schools, a church and an industrial estate.

 

Holliday Park (previously Bents Park, known locally as Boyne Park after Lord Boyne) is located to the north of the village, and was renovated in 2016 with a new children's play area. [1] The park also provides access to the River Browney which runs through it. The park was donated to the public by local alderman and philanthropist Martin Forster Holliday (1848-1935), [2] who was the manager and agent for three North Brancepeth Coal Company collieries (Broompark, Boyne and Littleburn - the latter two being in the village) from 1884 until 1922.

 

The three pubs in the village are The Station, The New Cross (formerly The Langley Moor Hotel, as of 2022 currently closed) and The Lord Boyne Hotel. Historically, the village had two inns, the Littleburn Hotel, two more pubs, two cinemas, a working men's club (now residential flats), a post office, a bank and Salvation Army barracks.

 

The East Coast Main Line, one of Britain's arterial rail links, runs directly through the village over the high street.

 

Langley Moor is also home to two supermarkets, a Tesco Metro (formerly Safeway, Somerfield) and Lidl.

 

The village is located on the A690 approximately 2 miles south-west of Durham and approximately 15 miles south of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

 

The Brandon - Bishop Auckland Railway Path is a rail trail stretching nine-miles of scenic woodland which follows the route of the former Durham to Bishop Auckland Line and runs through Langley Moor.

 

There are three schools in Langley Moor, two primary schools and one nursery school:

Langley Moor Nursery School

Langley Moor Primary School (formerly North Brancepeth Council Mixed, Langley Moor Junior Mixed and Infants' School)

St. Patrick's R.C. Primary School

 

The church, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, is located on the border with Meadowfield, which opened on 8th October 1911. The estimated cost of the church was £3,000 (which equals £376,523.30 as of May 2022).

 

Historically, Langley Moor had a methodist church, a Wesleyan church, a baptist church and a United Methodist church.

 

Littleburn Industrial Estate is home to Harrison & Harrison organ builders, who have been involved with organs in cathedrals and churches across the globe.

 

Boyne Colliery opened in approximately 1864 under the ownership of W. Mickle and James Snowball, coal was struck the following year. It was sold to the North Brancepeth Coal Company in the 1880s, under the management of John L. Morland from 1880 until 1884. That same year Martin F. Holliday became agent and manager of the colliery until it closed at some point after 1890.

 

Littleburn Colliery (also known as North Brancepeth Colliery)

Littleburn Colliery opened in approximately 1840, it had a handful of owners including North Brancepeth Coal Company, who bought the colliery in the 1880s. In 1925, at its peak, the pit employed 779 people. The colliery mined coal throughout its operational life. Martin F. Holliday became agent of the colliery in 1909 until his retirement in 1922. Littleburn Colliery closed in December 1950.

 

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.

Rochester is a town and historic city in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, England. It is situated at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London.

 

Rochester was for many years a favourite of Charles Dickens, who owned nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham,[1] basing many of his novels on the area. The Diocese of Rochester, the second oldest in England, is based at Rochester Cathedral and was responsible for the founding of a school, now The King's School in 604 AD,[2] which is recognised as being the second oldest continuously running school in the world. Rochester Castle, built by Bishop Gundulf of Rochester, has one of the best preserved keepsin either England or France, and during the First Barons' War (1215–1217) in King John's reign, baronial forces captured the castle from Archbishop Stephen Langton and held it against the king, who then besieged it.[3]

 

Neighbouring Chatham, Gillingham, Strood and a number of outlying villages, together with Rochester, nowadays make up the MedwayUnitary Authority area. It was, until 1998,[4]under the control of Kent County Council and is still part of the ceremonial county of Kent, under the latest Lieutenancies Act.[5]

 

Toponymy[edit]

The Romano-British name for Rochester was Durobrivae, later Durobrivis c. 730 and Dorobrevis in 844. The two commonly cited origins of this name are that it either came from "stronghold by the bridge(s)",[6] or is the latinisation of the British word Dourbruf meaning "swiftstream".[7]Durobrivis was pronounced 'Robrivis. Bede copied down this name, c. 730, mistaking its meaning as Hrofi's fortified camp (OE Hrofes cæster). From this we get c. 730 Hrofæscæstre, 811 Hrofescester, 1086 Rovescester, 1610 Rochester.[6] The Latinised adjective 'Roffensis' refers to Rochester.[7]

Neolithic remains have been found in the vicinity of Rochester; over time it has been variously occupied by Celts, Romans, Jutes and/or Saxons. During the Celtic period it was one of the two administrative centres of the Cantiaci tribe. During the Roman conquest of Britain a decisive battle was fought at the Medway somewhere near Rochester. The first bridge was subsequently constructed early in the Roman period. During the later Roman period the settlement was walled in stone. King Ethelbert of Kent(560–616) established a legal system which has been preserved in the 12th century Textus Roffensis. In AD 604 the bishopric and cathedral were founded. During this period, from the recall of the legions until the Norman conquest, Rochester was sacked at least twice and besieged on another occasion.

The medieval period saw the building of the current cathedral (1080–1130, 1227 and 1343), the building of two castles and the establishment of a significant town. Rochester Castle saw action in the sieges of 1215 and 1264. Its basic street plan was set out, constrained by the river, Watling Street, Rochester Priory and the castle.

Rochester has produced two martyrs: St John Fisher, executed by Henry VIII for refusing to sanction the divorce of Catherine of Aragon; and Bishop Nicholas Ridley, executed by Queen Mary for being an English Reformation protestant.

The city was raided by the Dutch as part of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, commanded by Admiral de Ruijter, broke through the chain at Upnor[8] and sailed to Rochester Bridge capturing part of the English fleet and burning it.[9]

  

The ancient City of Rochester merged with the Borough of Chatham and part of the Strood Rural District in 1974 to form the Borough of Medway. It was later renamed Rochester-upon-Medway, and its City status transferred to the entire borough. In 1998 another merger with the rest of the Medway Towns created the Medway Unitary Authority. The outgoing council neglected to appoint ceremonial "Charter Trustees" to continue to represent the historic Rochester area, causing Rochester to lose its City status – an error not even noticed by council officers for four years, until 2002.[10][11]

Military History

Rochester has for centuries been of great strategic importance through its position near the confluence of the Thames and the Medway. Rochester Castle was built to guard the river crossing, and the Royal Dockyard's establishment at Chatham witnessed the beginning of the Royal Navy's long period of supremacy. The town, as part of Medway, is surrounded by two circles of fortresses; the inner line built during the Napoleonic warsconsists of Fort Clarence, Fort Pitt, Fort Amherst and Fort Gillingham. The outer line of Palmerston Forts was built during the 1860s in light of the report by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdomand consists of Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Luton, and the Twydall Redoubts, with two additional forts on islands in the Medway, namely Fort Hoo and Fort Darnet.

During the First World War the Short Brothers' aircraft manufacturing company developed the first plane to launch a torpedo, the Short Admiralty Type 184, at its seaplane factory on the River Medway not far from Rochester Castle. In the intervening period between the 20th century World Wars the company established a world-wide reputation as a constructor of flying boats with aircraft such as the Singapore, Empire 'C'-Class and Sunderland. During the Second World War, Shorts also designed and manufactured the first four-engined bomber, the Stirling.

The UK's decline in naval power and shipbuilding competitiveness led to the government decommissioning the RN Shipyard at Chatham in 1984, which led to the subsequent demise of much local maritime industry. Rochester and its neighbouring communities were hit hard by this and have experienced a painful adjustment to a post-industrial economy, with much social deprivation and unemployment resulting. On the closure of Chatham Dockyard the area experienced an unprecedented surge in unemployment to 24%; this had dropped to 2.4% of the local population by 2014.[12]

Former City of Rochester[edit]

Rochester was recognised as a City from 1211 to 1998. The City of Rochester's ancient status was unique, as it had no formal council or Charter Trustees nor a Mayor, instead having the office of Admiral of the River Medway, whose incumbent acted as de facto civic leader.[13] On 1 April 1974, the City Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and the territory was merged with the District of Medway, Borough of Chatham and most of Strood Rural District to form a new a local government district called the Borough of Medway, within the county of Kent. Medway Borough Council applied to inherit Rochester's city status, but this was refused; instead letters patent were granted constituting the area of the former Rochester local government district to be the City of Rochester, to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said City".[14] The Home Officesaid that the city status may be extended to the entire borough if it had "Rochester" in its name, so in 1979, Medway Borough Council renamed the borough to Borough of Rochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982, Rochester's city status was transferred to the entire borough by letters patent, with the district being called the City of Rochester-upon-Medway.[13]

On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished and became the new unitary authority of Medway. The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions informed the city council that since it was the local government district that officially held City status under the 1982 Letters Patent, the council would need to appoint charter trustees to preserve its city status, but the outgoing Labour-run council decided not to appoint charter trustees, so the city status was lost when Rochester-upon-Medway was abolished as a local government district.[15][16][17] The other local government districts with City status that were abolished around this time, Bath and Hereford, decided to appoint Charter Trustees to maintain the existence of their own cities and the mayoralties. The incoming Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when, in 2002, it was advised that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities.[18][19]

In 2010, Medway Council started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.[20]

Governance[edit]

Civic history and traditions[edit]

Rochester and its neighbours, Chatham and Gillingham, form a single large urban area known as the Medway Towns with a population of about 250,000. Since Norman times Rochester had always governed land on the other side of the Medway in Strood, which was known as Strood Intra; before 1835 it was about 100 yards (91 m) wide and stretched to Gun Lane. In the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act the boundaries were extended to include more of Strood and Frindsbury, and part of Chatham known as Chatham Intra. In 1974, Rochester City Council was abolished and superseded by Medway Borough Council, which also included the parishes of Cuxton, Halling and Cliffe, and the Hoo Peninsula. In 1979 the borough became Rochester-upon-Medway. The Admiral of the River Medway was ex-officio Mayor of Rochester and this dignity transferred to the Mayor of Medway when that unitary authority was created, along with the Admiralty Court for the River which constitutes a committee of the Council.[21]

  

Like many of the mediaeval towns of England, Rochester had civic Freemen whose historic duties and rights were abolished by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. However, the Guild of Free Fishers and Dredgers continues to the present day and retains rights, duties and responsibilities on the Medway, between Sheerness and Hawkwood Stone.[22] This ancient corporate body convenes at the Admiralty Court whose Jury of Freemen is responsible for the conservancy of the River as enshrined in current legislation. The City Freedom can be obtained by residents after serving a period of "servitude", i.e. apprenticeship (traditionally seven years), before admission as a Freeman. The annual ceremonial Beating of the Boundsby the River Medway takes place after the Admiralty Court, usually on the first Saturday of July.

Rochester first obtained City status in 1211, but this was lost due to an administrative oversight when Rochester was absorbed by the Medway Unitary Authority.[10] Subsequently, the Medway Unitary Authority has applied for City status for Medway as a whole, rather than merely for Rochester. Medway applied unsuccessfully for City status in 2000 and 2002 and again in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year of 2012.[23] Any future bid to regain formal City status has been recommended to be made under the aegis of Rochester-upon-Medway.

Ecclesiastical parishes[edit]

  

There were three medieval parishes: St Nicholas', St Margaret's and St Clement's. St Clement's was in Horsewash Lane until the last vicar died in 1538 when it was joined with St Nicholas' parish; the church last remaining foundations were finally removed when the railway was being constructed in the 1850s. St Nicholas' Church was built in 1421 beside the cathedral to serve as a parish church for the citizens of Rochester. The ancient cathedral included the Benedictine monastic priory of St Andrew with greater status than the local parishes.[24] Rochester's pre-1537 diocese, under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, covered a vast area extending into East Anglia and included all of Essex.[25]

As a result of the restructuring of the Church during the Reformation the cathedral was reconsecrated as the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary without parochial responsibilities, being a diocesan church.[26] In the 19th century the parish of St Peter's was created to serve the burgeoning city with the new church being consecrated in 1859. Following demographic shifts, St Peter's and St Margaret's were recombined as a joint benefice in 1953 with the parish of St Nicholas with St Clement being absorbed in 1971.[27] The combined parish is now the "Parish of St Peter with St Margaret", centred at the new (1973) Parish Centre in The Delce (St Peter's) with St Margaret's remaining as a chapel-of-ease. Old St Peter's was demolished in 1974, while St Nicholas' Church has been converted into the diocesan offices but remains consecrated. Continued expansion south has led to the creation of an additional more recent parish of St Justus (1956) covering The Tideway estate and surrounding area.[28]

A church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin at Eastgate, which was of Anglo-Saxon foundation, is understood to have constituted a parish until the Middle Ages, but few records survive.[29]

Geography

Rochester lies within the area, known to geologists, as the London Basin. The low-lying Hoo peninsula to the north of the town consists of London Clay, and the alluvium brought down by the two rivers—the Thames and the Medway—whose confluence is in this area. The land rises from the river, and being on the dip slope of the North Downs, this consists of chalksurmounted by the Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel.

As a human settlement, Rochester became established as the lowest river crossing of the River Medway, well before the arrival of the Romans.

It is a focal point between two routes, being part of the main route connecting London with the Continent and the north-south routes following the course of the Medway connecting Maidstone and the Weald of Kent with the Thames and the North Sea. The Thames Marshes were an important source of salt. Rochester's roads follow north Kent's valleys and ridges of steep-sided chalk bournes. There are four ways out of town to the south: up Star Hill, via The Delce,[30] along the Maidstone Road or through Borstal. The town is inextricably linked with the neighbouring Medway Towns but separate from Maidstone by a protective ridge known as the Downs, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At its most limited geographical size, Rochester is defined as the market town within the city walls, now associated with the historic medieval city. However, Rochester historically also included the ancient wards of Strood Intra on the river's west bank, and Chatham Intra as well as the three old parishes on the Medway's east bank.

The diocese of Rochester is another geographical entity which can be referred to as Rochester.

Climate[edit]

Rochester has an oceanic climate similar to much of southern England, being accorded Köppen Climate Classification-subtype of "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate).[31]

On 10 August 2003, neighbouring Gravesend recorded one of the highest temperatures since meteorogical records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit),[32]only beaten by Brogdale, near Faversham, 22 miles (35 km) to the ESE.[33] The weather station at Brogdale is run by a volunteer, only reporting its data once a month, whereas Gravesend, which has an official Met Office site at the PLA pilot station,[34] reports data hourly.

Being near the mouth of the Thames Estuary with the North Sea, Rochester is relatively close to continental Europe and enjoys a somewhat less temperate climate than other parts of Kent and most of East Anglia. It is therefore less cloudy, drier and less prone to Atlanticdepressions with their associated wind and rain than western regions of Britain, as well as being hotter in summer and colder in winter. Rochester city centre's micro-climate is more accurately reflected by these officially recorded figures than by readings taken at Rochester Airport.[35]

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

North and North West Kent continue to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest area of the country, eg. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 degrees.[36]Additionally, it holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 degrees[37] and 31.7 degrees C.[38] Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 degrees C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October.

 

Building

Rochester comprises numerous important historic buildings, the most prominent of which are the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange, Restoration House, Eastgate House, as well as Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral. Many of the town centre's old buildings date from as early as the 14th century up to the 18th century. The chapel of St Bartholomew's Hospital dates from the ancient priory hospital's foundation in 1078.

Economy

  

Thomas Aveling started a small business in 1850 producing and repairing agricultural plant equipment. In 1861 this became the firm of Aveling and Porter, which was to become the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery and steam rollers in the country.[39] Aveling was elected Admiral of the River Medway (i.e. Mayor of Rochester) for 1869-70.

Culture[edit]

Sweeps Festival[edit]

Since 1980 the city has seen the revival of the historic Rochester Jack-in-the-Green May Day dancing chimney sweeps tradition, which had died out in the early 1900s. Though not unique to Rochester (similar sweeps' gatherings were held across southern England, notably in Bristol, Deptford, Whitstable and Hastings), its revival was directly inspired by Dickens' description of the celebration in Sketches by Boz.

The festival has since grown from a small gathering of local Morris dancesides to one of the largest in the world.[40] The festival begins with the "Awakening of Jack-in-the-Green" ceremony,[41] and continues in Rochester High Street over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

There are numerous other festivals in Rochester apart from the Sweeps Festival. The association with Dickens is the theme for Rochester's two Dickens Festivals held annually in June and December.[42] The Medway Fuse Festival[43] usually arranges performances in Rochester and the latest festival to take shape is the Rochester Literature Festival, the brainchild of three local writers.[44]

Library[edit]

A new public library was built alongside the Adult Education Centre, Eastgate. This enabled the registry office to move from Maidstone Road, Chatham into the Corn Exchange on Rochester High Street (where the library was formerly housed). As mentioned in a report presented to Medway Council's Community Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 28 March 2006, the new library opened in late summer (2006).[45]

Theatre[edit]

There is a small amateur theatre called Medway Little Theatre on St Margaret's Banks next to Rochester High Street near the railway station.[46] The theatre was formed out of a creative alliance with the Medway Theatre Club, managed by Marion Martin, at St Luke's Methodist Church on City Way, Rochester[47] between 1985 and 1988, since when drama and theatre studies have become well established in Rochester owing to the dedication of the Medway Theatre Club.[48]

Media[edit]

Local newspapers for Rochester include the Medway Messenger, published by the KM Group, and free newspapers such as Medway Extra(KM Group) and Yourmedway (KOS Media).

The local commercial radio station for Rochester is KMFM Medway, owned by the KM Group. Medway is also served by community radio station Radio Sunlight. The area also receives broadcasts from county-wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold, as well as from various Essex and Greater London radio stations.[49]

Sport[edit]

Football is played with many teams competing in Saturday and Sunday leagues.[50] The local football club is Rochester United F.C. Rochester F.C. was its old football club but has been defunct for many decades. Rugby is also played; Medway R.F.C. play their matches at Priestfields and Old Williamsonians is associated with Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.[51]

Cricket is played in the town, with teams entered in the Kent Cricket League. Holcombe Hockey Club is one of the largest in the country,[52]and is based at Holcombe Park. The men's and women's 1st XI are part of the England Hockey League.[53] Speedway was staged on a track adjacent to City Way that opened in 1932. Proposals for a revival in the early 1970s did not materialise and the Rochester Bombers became the Romford Bombers.[54]

Sailing and rowing are also popular on the River Medway with respective clubs being based in Rochester.[55][56]

Film[edit]

The 1959 James Bond Goldfinger describes Bond driving along the A2through the Medway Towns from Strood to Chatham. Of interest is the mention of "inevitable traffic jams" on the Strood side of Rochester Bridge, the novel being written some years prior to the construction of the M2 motorway Medway bypass.

Rochester is the setting of the controversial 1965 Peter Watkins television film The War Game, which depicts the town's destruction by a nuclear missile.[57] The opening sequence was shot in Chatham Town Hall, but the credits particularly thank the people of Dover, Gravesend and Tonbridge.

The 2011 adventure film Ironclad (dir. Jonathan English) is based upon the 1215 siege of Rochester Castle. There are however a few areaswhere the plot differs from accepted historical narrative.

Notable people[edit]

  

Charles Dickens

The historic city was for many years the favourite of Charles Dickens, who lived within the diocese at nearby Gads Hill Place, Higham, many of his novels being based on the area. Descriptions of the town appear in Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations and (lightly fictionalised as "Cloisterham") in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Elements of two houses in Rochester, Satis House and Restoration House, are used for Miss Havisham's house in Great Expectations, Satis House.[58]

Sybil Thorndike

The actress Dame Sybil Thorndike and her brother Russell were brought up in Minor Canon Row adjacent to the cathedral; the daughter of a canon of Rochester Cathedral, she was educated at Rochester Grammar School for Girls. A local doctors' practice,[59] local dental practice[60] and a hall at Rochester Grammar School are all named after her.[61]

Peter Buck

Sir Peter Buck was Admiral of the Medway in the 17th century; knightedin 1603 he and Bishop Barlow hosted King James, the Stuart royal familyand the King of Denmark in 1606. A civil servant to The Royal Dockyardand Lord High Admiral, Buck lived at Eastgate House, Rochester.

Denis Redman

Major-General Denis Redman, a World War II veteran, was born and raised in Rochester and later became a founder member of REME, head of his Corps and a Major-General in the British Army.

Kelly Brook

The model and actress Kelly Brook went to Delce Junior School in Rochester and later the Thomas Aveling School (formerly Warren Wood Girls School).

The singer and songwriter Tara McDonald now lives in Rochester.

The Prisoners, a rock band from 1980 to 1986, were formed in Rochester. They are part of what is known as the "Medway scene".

Kelly Tolhurst MP is the current parliamentary representative for the constituency.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_Kent