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Senior leaders and distinguished visitors pose for a group photo before the conclusion of Africa Endeavor 2010.
Africa Endeavor 2010 came to a close Aug. 20 with a ceremony held at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College parade grounds in Accra, Ghana.
AE 2010 is a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored initiative intended to enhance interoperability and information exchange among African nations via communication networks and subsequent collaborative links with the United States, African Union and other African partners that share common goals of stability, security and sustainment.
"Future operations in Africa depend on the combined multinational militaries of the nations represented here today in order to effectively communicate amongst themselves," said Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, U.S. Army Africa commanding general.
During the annual two-week communications exercise, participants from 36 African nations, the AU, the Economic Community of Western African States, the Economic Community of Central African States, the United States and several European partners worked together to develop standard tactics, techniques and procedures to be used in future humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peace support missions.
New areas of expertise addressed in Africa Endeavor 2010 included the first radio call to a vessel at sea from an AE event site. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk sailing off the coast of Africa ran the test, allowing AE participants to challenge themselves in establishing land-to-sea communications. After a couple attempts, the land-to-sea radio call was a success, proving that African nations could maintain communication between inland locations and their maritime forces.
"We are fighting for unity and interoperability with our partners to establish high levels of efficiency," said Lt. Gen. Peter Blay, Chief, Defense Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces. "The outcome of AE 2010 has given assurance that we are on track to achieve the ultimate goal of interoperability between our forces."
Another incorporated training event was a satellite call conducted from the AE site in Accra to the AU Peace Support Operations Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The demonstration showed AE participants how useful reliable communication between the nations and the AU is during times of disaster relief.
"The newly incorporated signal techniques will be planned for and incorporated in future exercises," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Britt Talbert, AE 2010 exercise director.
Through newly incorporated training and careful planning, AE 2010 proved to achieve its goal of taking a step forward in improving interoperability and creating new ties between African nations.
"By taking part in this event we have demonstrated a commitment to harness the power of communication technology for ensuring the long-term peace, stability, and prosperity of the African continent," said Hogg.
“Africa Endeavor is a great opportunity to meet people and it gives us an opportunity to check interoperability communications for all military personnel,” said Maj. Bachirou Farta of Burkina-Faso.
“Here we have the opportunity to know another country, and this is very important because of the many different cultures in Africa. When I go back to my country, I will teach my people many things from my good experiences here for the military,” he said.
African nations participating in AE 2010 included Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Southern Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
The first AE was held in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2006. Subsequent exercises took place in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2008 and in Libreville, Gabon, in 2009.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
Louis Neefs:- Laat ons een bloem
Dit is een lied voor de mensen die zorgen,
dat morgen de mensen al dood zullen zijn,
dit is een lied voor de doden van morgen,
begraven gekist in een stenen woestijn
Laat ons een bloem en wat gras dat nog groen is, laat ons een boom en het zicht op de zee
vergeet voor één keer hoeveel geld een miljoen is, de wereld die moet nog een eeuwigheid mee
Je preekt en je hakt en je boort door de bergen, je maakt elke heuvel gelijk met de grond, de reuzen van nu lijken morgen maar dwergen, vooruitgang vernieuwd wat er gisteren nog stond
Laat ons een bloem en wat gras dat nog groen is, laat ons een boom en het zicht op de zee
vergeet voor één keer hoeveel geld een miljoen is, de wereld die moet nog een eeuwigheid mee
De vis in de zeeën vergiftigd gestorven,
het zand op de stranden vervuild door mazout,
en jij door je tankers en chequeboek bedorven, je weet zelfs niet meer waar de meeuw heeft gebroed
Laat ons een bloem en wat gras dat nog groen is, laat ons een boom en het zicht op de zee
vergeet voor één keer hoeveel geld een miljoen is, de wereld die moet nog een eeuwigheid mee
En zo zal dan morgen het leven verdwijnen,
verslagen door staal en gewapend beton,
de maan zal dan koud op je nachtmerries schijnen, geen mens die nog weet hoe het einde begon
Laat ons een bloem en wat gras dat nog groen is, laat ons een boom en het zicht op de zee
vergeet voor één keer hoeveel geld een miljoen is, de wereld die moet nog een eeuwigheid mee
de wereld die moet nog een eeuwigheid mee
een eeuwigheid mee
een eeuwigheid mee
een eeuwigheid mee
een eeuwigheid mee
Parvati (Devanagari: पार्वती, IAST: Pārvatī) is known as the motherly form of Mother Goddess Gauri Jagadamba, Parvati is another form of Shakti, the wife of Shiva and the gentle aspect of Maha Devi or Durga, the Great Goddess. Parvati is considered to be a complete incarnation of Adi Parashakti or Goddess Durga, with all other Goddesses being her incarnations or manifestations. Parvati is nominally the second consort of Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction and rejuvenation. However, she is not different from Sati, being the reincarnation of Shiva's first wife. Parvati is the mother of the Gods Ganesha, Kartikeya, Ashoka Sundari. Some communities also believe her to be the sister of Vishnu. She is also regarded as the daughter of King Himavan. Parvati, when depicted alongside Shiva, generally appears with two arms, but when alone, she is depicted having four, eight or ten arms, and is astride on a tiger or lion. Generally considered a benevolent Goddess, Parvati also has wrathful incarnations, such as Durga, Kali, Tara, Chandi, and the Dasha Mahavidyas (ten great wisdoms), Tripur Sundari (Shodashi), Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagla Mukhi, Matangi and Kamala, as well as benevolent forms like Katyayani, Maha Gauri, Kamalatmika, Bhuvaneshwari and Lalita.
ETYMOLOGY
Parvata is one of the Sanskrit words for "mountain"; "Parvati" translates to "She of the mountains" and refers to Parvati being born the daughter of Himavan, lord of the mountains and the personification of the Himalayas. Other which associate her with mountains are Shailaja (Daughter of the mountains), Adrija or Nagajaa or Shailaputri (Daughter of Mountains), 'Haimavathi' (Daughter of Himavan) and 'Girija' or 'Girirajaputri' (Daughter of king of the mountains). Parvati's name is also sometimes considered a form of 'pavitra', meaning 'sinless' or 'holy' in Sanskrit. Her consort is Shiva and she is the sagun swaroop of the Supreme Being Adi Parashakti that is the material form of the supreme power.
She is also known by 108 names from the Durga Saptashati. These include Durga (invincible), Shakti (power), Ambika ('dear mother'), Gauri ('fair complexioned'), Bhairavi ('ferocious'), Kali ('dark'), Umā, Lalita, Mataji ('revered mother'), Sahana ('pure'), Maheshwari ('great goddess'). Bhavani, Shivaradni ('Queen of Shiva'), and many hundreds of others. The Lalita sahasranama contains an authoritative listing of 1,000 names of Parvati.
Two of Parvati's most famous epithets are Uma and Aparna. The name Uma is used for Sati in earlier texts, but in the Ramayana, it is used as synonym for Parvati. In the Harivamsa, Parvati is referred to as Aparna ('One who took no sustenance') and then addressed as Uma, who was dissuaded by her mother from severe austerity by saying u mā ('oh, don't').
The apparent contradiction that Parvati is addressed as the fair one, Gauri, as well as the dark one, Kali or Shyama is a philosophical matter. It suggests that the one calm and placid wife, Uma, in times of danger, can transfer back to her primal fierce and angry or (sometimes) Maternal nature as Kali, who stands uncloaked, with a foot on her husband's chest. The twin opposite colors, white and black represent the two opposing nature of the Goddess. Parvati is also the goddess of love and devotion, or Kamakshi.
GODDESS OF POWER
Parvati is the source of all the powers and weapons. She is the base of all kinds of powers that are used for doing any work. It is also believed that without her, Shiva remains as Shava or Corpse, for she is the ultimate source of power for all beings, gods and Devas. That is why she is considered as goddess of power. According to the Devi Bhagavatam, she is the most powerful of all. When her anger reaches its peak, she can destroy the whole universe in just seconds. Even Trinity i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, never try to make her angry at any cost.
Sarvarupe Sarveshe Sarvashakti Samanvite Bhayebhyastrahi no devi durge devi namostute
It translates to: We bow down to Devi Durga, who is source of all forms (sarvarupe), who is the goddess of all beings (sarveshe), in whom all power exists (Sarvashakti samanvite) and who destroys all fear (bhaye bhyastrai no devi).
RISE TO PROMINENCE
Parvati herself does not explicitly appear in Vedic literature, though the Kena Upanishad (3.12) contains a goddess called Uma-Haimavati. She appears as the shakti, or essential power, of the Supreme Brahman. Her primary role is as a mediator who reveals the knowledge of Brahman to the Vedic trinity of Agni, Vayu, and Indra, who were boasting about their recent defeat of a group of demons. But Kinsley notes: "it is little more than conjecture to identify her with the later goddess Satī-Pārvatī, although [..] later texts that extol Śiva and Pārvatī retell the episode in such a way to leave no doubt that it was Śiva's spouse.." Both textual and archaeological evidence suggests Sati-Parvati appears in the epic period (400 BC–400 AD), as both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata present Parvati as Shiva's wife. However, it is not until the plays of Kalidasa (5th-6th centuries) and the Puranas (4th through the 13th centuries) that the myths of Sati-Parvati and Shiva acquire more comprehensive details. Kinsley adds that Parvati may have emerged from legends of non-aryan goddesses that lived in mountains.
Prof. Weber suggests that like Shiva is combination of various Vedic gods Rudra and Agni, the Puranic Parvati is a combination of Uma, Haimavati, Ambika and earlier Parvati, identified as wives of Rudra; of others like Kali, who could be a wife of Agni and of Gauri and others inspired by Nirriti. Tate suggests Parvati is a mixture of the Vedic goddess Aditi and Nirriti, and being a mountain goddess herself, was associated with other mountain goddesses like Durga and Kali in later traditions.
BIRTH AND MARRIAGE
The Puranas repeatedly tell the tale of Sati's marriage to Shiva against her father Daksha's wishes and her subsequent self-immolation at Daksha's sacrifice, leaving Shiva grief-stricken and having lost interest in worldly affairs. In the Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Sati appears before Shiva, in her divine form, and reassures him that she will return as the daughter of Himavan. Sati is reborn as Parvati, the daughter of Himavat and Minavati, and is named Parvati, 'daughter of Himavant '. Sati, as well as Parvati, are considered manifestations of Mahadevi, the great Goddess. In the Ramayana, the river goddess Ganga is depicted as the elder sister of Parvati. In the Harivamsa, Parvati has two younger sisters called Ekaparna and Ekapatala. According to Devi Bhagawata Purana and Shiva Purana mount Himalaya and his wife Mena perform extreme austerities to appease the goddess Adi Shakti. Pleased with their penance the Adi Shakti agrees to be born as their daughter. When born goddess Parvati has four arms and manifests a divine light which pervades the entire Himalaya region on the auspicious tritiya day. Mena implores to the child to withdraw its four armed form and make herself visible as a two armed normal child to which the goddess agrees and becomes a normal girl child.
Parvati is depicted as interested in Shiva's tales and appearance from her very birth and eventually remembering her previous life as Sati. As Parvati grows into a young woman, she begins tapas (austerities) to please Shiva to grant her wish to reunite with him. She is portrayed as surpassing all other ascetics in austerity, undergoing severe mortifications and fasting. Finally, Shiva tests her devotion by appearing himself in disguise to criticize Shiva. Untouched by the act, Parvati retains her desire for Shiva, compelling him to marry her. After the marriage, Parvati moves to Mount Kailash, the residence of Shiva.
Kalidasa's epic Kumarasambhavam ("Birth of Kumara") details with matchlessly lyrical beauty the story of the maiden Parvati: her devotions aimed at gaining the favor of Shiva, the subsequent annihilation of Kamadeva, the consequent fall of the universe into barren lifelessness, the subsequent marriage of Parvati and Shiva, the birth of Kumara, and the eventual resurrection of Kamadeva after Parvati intercedes for him to Shiva.
MAIN FORMS OF PARVATI
As per devi bhagwata Purana, Goddess Parvati is lineal progenitor of all other goddesses. She is one who is source of all forms of goddesses. She is worshiped as one with many forms and name. Her different mood brings different forms or incarnation.
- Durga is demon fighting form of this Goddess, and some texts suggest Parvati took the form of Goddess Durga to kill Demon Durgam.
- Kali is another aspect that was assisted by Goddess Chandi while fighting with rakta bija. She was born from the forehead of the goddess. But many interpretations of scriptures suggests that it was Goddess Chamunda who has gotten same iconography as goddess Kali who is nobody but an aspect of Kali, even Parvati is considered to be Goddess Kali herself in her ferocious form.
- Goddess Chandi is the epithet of Maa Durga, who is created by the collection of all demigods and trimurti power, and then considered to be power of sagun parashakti (Parvati), She is black in color and rides on lion, she is known as the original slayer of Demon Mahishasura, considered to be a form taken by Durga herself.
- Ten Mahavidyas are the ten aspects of Shakti, in tantra all have great importance in majority, they all took birth from Goddess Sati, previous Incarnation of Shakti before Goddess Parvati. There is no difference between Sati and Parvati.
- 52 Shakti Peethas of Sati, proves that all Goddesses are expansions of the Goddess Parvati.
- Nava Durga nine forms of goddess Parvati.
SEVERAL INCARNATIONS OF THE GODDESS
- Goddess Meenakshi
- Goddess Kamakshi
- Goddess Lalita, the Original Goddess of Universe, Parvati is referred as her complete incarnation.
- Goddess Akhilandeshwari.
- Goddess Annapurna the representation of all that is complete and of food is Parvati Herself.
- and many others . . .
ASSOCIATION WITH SHIVA
Parvati's legends are intrinsically related to Shiva. In the goddess-oriented Shakta texts, that she is said to transcend even Shiva, and is identified as the Supreme Being. Just as Shiva is at once the presiding deity of destruction and regeneration, the couple jointly symbolise at once both the power of renunciation and asceticism and the blessings of marital felicity.
Parvati thus symbolises many different virtues esteemed by Hindu tradition: fertility, marital felicity, devotion to the spouse, asceticism, and power. Parvati represents the householder ideal in the perennial tension in Hinduism in the household ideal and the ascetic ideal, represented by Shiva. In classical Hindu mythology, the "raison d’être" of Parvati, and before that of Sati, is to lure Shiva into marriage and thus into a wider circle of worldly affairs.
Parvati tames Shiva, the "great unpredictable madman" with her presence. When Shiva does his violent, destructive Tandava dance, Parvati is described as calming him or complementing his violence by slow, creative steps of her own Lasya dance. In many myths, Parvati is not as much his complement as his rival, tricking, seducing, or luring him away from his ascetic practices.
Three images are central to the mythology, iconography and philosophy of Parvati:
- The theme of Shiva-Shakti
- The image of Shiva as Ardhanarishvara (the Lord who is half-woman)
- The image of the linga and the yoni
These images that combine the two deities, Shiva and Parvati, yield a vision of reconciliation, interdependence and harmony between the way of the ascetic and that of a householder.
The couple are often depicted in the Puranas as engaged in "dalliance" or seated on Mount Kailash or discussing abstract concepts in Hindu theology. Occasionally, they are depicted as quarrelling. In stories of the birth of Kartikeya, the couple are described as love-making generating the seed of Shiva. Parvati's union with Shiva symbolises the union of a male and female in "ecstasy and sexual bliss". In art, Parvati is depicted seated on Shiva's knee or standing beside him (together the couple is referred to as Uma-Maheshvara or Hara-Gauri) or as Annapurna (the goddess of grain) giving alms to Shiva.
Shaiva approaches tend to look upon Parvati primarily as the Shiva's submissive and obedient wife and helpmate. However, Shaktas focus on Parvati's equality or even superiority to her consort. The story of the birth of the ten Mahavidyas (Wisdom Goddesses) of Shakta Tantrism. This event occurs while Shiva is living with Parvati in her father's house. Following an argument, he attempts to walk out on her. Her rage manifests in the form of ten terrifying goddesses who block Shiva's every exit.
As the scholar David Kinsley explains:
- The fact that [Parvati] is able to physically restrain Shiva dramatically makes the point that she is superior in power. The theme of the superiority of the goddess over male deities is common in Shakta texts, [and] so the story is stressing a central Shakta theological principle. ... The fact that Shiva and Parvati are living in her father's house in itself makes this point, as it is traditional in many parts of India for the wife to leave her father's home upon marriage and become a part of her husband's lineage and live in his home among his relatives. That Shiva dwells in Parvati's house thus implies Her priority in their relationship. Her priority is also demonstrated in her ability, through the Mahavidyas, to thwart Shiva's will and assert her own.
Aum Girijayai cha vidmahe Shivapriyayai cha dhimahi tanno durgah prachodayat
May the goddess Durga, who is the daughter of the mountains and the beloved of lord Shiva illumine me with spiritual wisdom
Sarvamangala mangalye shive sarvardha sadhike sharanye tryambake gouri narayani namostute
I bow down to and take the refuge of the three eyed Mother Gouri(Parvati) of fair countenance,who is the embodiment of supreme auspiciousness, the giver of all the benedictions,the beloved of Lord Shiva and the power of lord Narayana.
RELATIONSHIP TO VISHNU
During the initial stages when Parvathi was performing intense puja to Shiva to obtain Shiva as her husband, Shiva kept testing her by destroying the Shiva lingam she constructed to perform puja. Vishnu then helped in constructing a Shiva lingam for Parvati which was not destroyed by Shiva because of the respect Shiva had towards Vishnu. Thus Vishnu helped Paravthi in continuing her puja for Shiva. This is when Parvathi tied a knot to Vishnu's hand and claimed him as her brother. This is the reason during the marriage of Shiva and Parvathi, Vishnu got involved in all the ceremonies that are supposed to be done by the bride’s brother. This is how Parvati is related to Vishnu as a sister.
The interesting story about the relationship between Vishnu and Parvati is more clearly depicted in Markandeya Purana where it is said that Mahalakshmi or Durga was the only one. Then she transforms into Mahakali and Mahasarasvati. After which she ask them to evolve pair. Here Mahalakshmi gives rise to brahma and lakshmi, Mahakali evolved Shiv and Saraswati while Mahasarsvati gave rise to Vishnu and parvati. Then Mahalakshmi ordered rest to interchange pairs for marriage and Shiv was provided with parvati, vishnu with lakshmi and brahma with saraswati. Its quite interesting that Mahasarsvati who is goddess of education gives birth to parvati and vishnu and both of them in future tells Geeta to Himalaya and Arjun respectively.
MOTHER OF GANESHA
Though Ganesha considered to be son of Shiva and Parvati, the Matsya Purana, Shiva Purana, and Skanda Purana ascribe the birth of Ganesha to Parvati only, without any form of participation of Shiva in Ganesha's birth.
Once, while Parvati wanted to take a bath, there were no attendants around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created an image of a boy out of turmeric paste which she prepared to cleanse her body, and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born. Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house, and Ganesha obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while Shiva returned and tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was infuriated and it started a chain of events leading to war of the entire heavenly kingdom and the lone child. Midst the war, Shiva lost his temper and severed the boy's head with his trident. When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body, she was very angry. She immediately revealed her true self as Adi Shakti, the primodial power. She called upon the nine forms within her, the nine forms surrounded her. She ordered them to destroy the whole world and if her son does not get back to life, then everyone and everything will be destroyed and demanded that Shiva restore Ganesha's life at once. The Gods prostrated at her feet and an elephant's head was attached to Ganesha's body, bringing him back to life. To appease Parvati further, Shiva declared that the child be made head of the ghost-followers (Gana's)of Shiva and worshipped by everyone before beginning any activity, and gods accepted this condition.
Ganesha is identified as a god named after his mother. He is called Umaputra, Parvatisuta, Gaurisuta meaning son of Parvati and Heramba, "mother's beloved (son)".
ICONOGRAPHY
Naturally, Parvati’s unique characteristics have become more and more obscured, as she absorbed more and more goddesses into her iconography. Therefore, her depictions have become rather generic today. When shown with Shiva, she carries a blue lotus in full bloom, shows the abhaya mudra (hand gesture of fearlessness) and usually has one of her children on her knee. The only hint of her former occult status is the somewhat languid appearance of her eyes, as one who has recently emerged from deep meditation. Other goddesses are usually shown with large staring eyes as this is considered a mark of beauty. The consorts of the other two Gods of the trinity, Saraswati and Lakshmi, may be depicted alone, but Parvati hasn’t been depicted this way for many centuries.
The goddess is usually represented as a fair and beautiful. The colour of her vestments is milk-white, the colour of enlightenment and knowledge. Since white is a combination of all hues it shows that She has all the qualities or Gunas. Since white also depicts huelesness, it indicates that She is devoid of all Gunas. Hence, She is referred to as Trigunatmika (having the three gunas - Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas) - and at the same time being Nirguna (without any gunas). She has three eyes. Her accoutrements tend to be those of a Rishi (seer). She is also usually depicted with jatamukuta or a crown of matted hair, as Shiva is usually depicted. She is also shown as having a crescent moon bound in her locks, like Shiva.
Images of Parvati, wearing a sacred thread something not many women are associated with and as this marks the second-birth or dwija it is seems an advanced concept far beyond early pashupatas, and with her hair styled in a top knot like a Rishi (seer) survive into the Chola period (approximately ninth century A.D.). In fact, these two particularities were the only means of distinguishing her statuary from the images of the Goddess Shri of the time.
Her Mudras (symbolic hand gestures) are Kataka-fascination and enchantment, Hirana - the antelope, the powers of nature and the elusive, Tarjani - gesture of menace, and Chandrakal - the moon, a symbol of intelligence. Kataka must be affected by one of the foremost hands as it is a means of drawing the worshiper closer. Tarjani must be described with the left hand, which symbolises contempt, and usually in the back set of hands. If Parvati is depicted with two hands, then Tarjani and Chandrakal may be dropped but Hirana and Kataka are signature except in very modern representations, where Abhaya (fearlessness), and Varada, (beneficence), are used.
ASSOCIATION WITH OTHER GODDESSES
In several myths, the presence of a dark, violent side of this otherwise benign Parvati is suggested. When approached by the gods to defeat demons, Parvati morphs back to her true self, shakti, which is pure energy, untamed, unchecked and chaotic. Her wrath crystallizes into a dark, blood thirsty, tangled-hair Goddess with an open mouth and a drooping tongue. This goddess is usually identified as the terrible mahakali or Kali. In Linga Purana, Parvati summons Kali on the request of Shiva, to destroy a female asura (demoness) Daruka. Even after destroying the demoness, Kali's wrath could not be controlled. She ran around the three worlds in her mad, blind fury and creation was endangered. To lower Kali's rage, Shiva appeared as a crying baby in the middle of a battlefield. The cries of the baby raised the maternal instinct of Kali who started breast-feeding Shiva and resorted back to her benign form as Parvati. Kali is associated and identified with Parvati as Shiva's consort.
In Skanda Purana, Parvati is said to have assumed a form of a warrior-goddess and defeated a demon called Durg who assumes the form of a buffalo. Thereafter, she is by the name Durga. In myths relating to her defeat of demons Sumbha and Nisumbha, Durga emerges from Parvati when Parvati sheds her outer sheath, which takes an identity of its own as a warrior goddess.
Although Parvati is considered to be synonymous with Kali, Durga, Kamakshi, Meenakshi, Gauri and many others in modern day Hinduism, many of these “forms” or incarnations originated from different sects, or traditions, and the distinctions from Parvati are pertinent.
The Shastras (sanctioned works of religious doctrine) attribute the golden colour of goddess Gauri’s skin and ornaments to the story of Parvati casting off her unwanted dark complexion after Shiva teased her, but the cult of Gauri tells a different story. Gauri is in essence a fertility Goddess, and is venerated as a corn mother which would seem to suggest that she owes her colouring to the hues of ripening grain, for which she is propitiated.
So whatever be said, Goddess Parvati has two main forms, what actually shaktas says out of which one is Lalita who is Supreme in Srikula family of shaktism and second one is Durga or kali who is supreme in kalikula family.
WORSHIP AND FESTIVALS
The Gowri Habba, or Gauri Festival, is celebrated on the seventh, eighth, ninth of Bhadrapada Shukla paksha. She is worshipped as the goddess of harvest and protectress of women. Her festival, chiefly observed by women, is closely associated with the festival of her son Ganesha (Ganesh Chaturthi). The festival is popular in Maharashtra and Karnataka.
In Rajasthan the worship of Gauri happens during the Gangaur festival. The festival starts on the first day of Chaitra the day after Holi and continues for 18 days. Images of Issar and Gauri are made from Clay for the festival.
Another very popular festival in regard to the Mother Parvati is Navratri, in which all her manfestations are worshiped for nine days. Actually the festival is associated with Her warrior appearance is Mother Durga, with her nine forms i.e. Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kashmunda, Skandmata, Katyani, Kalratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidaatri.
Another festival Gauri tritiya is celebrated from Chaitra shukla third to Vaishakha shukla third. It is believed that Parvati spends a month at her parent's home now. This festival is popular in Maharashtra and Karnataka, less observed in North India and unknown in Bengal. The unwidowed women of the household erect a series of platforms in a pyramidal shape with the image of the goddess at the top and collection of ornaments, images of other Hindu deities, pictures, shells etc. below. Neighbours are invited and presented with turmeric, fruits, flowers etc. as gifts. At night, prayers are held by singing and dancing. Down south in Tamil Nadu and Andhra The Kethara Gauri Vritham festival is celebrated on the new moon day of Diwali and the unwidowed women of the family fast for the whole day and prepare sweets and worship the goddess for the well-being of the family.
FAMOUS TEMPLES
Annapurneshwari Temple, Cherukunnu, Kannur, Kerala is dedicated to an aspect of Parvati.
WIKIPEDIA
New Yorkers Protest the US$850 BILLION (US$3 TRILLION) Wall Street BAILOUT: Wall Street, NYC - September 25, 2008
VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE on 04 NOVEMBER 2008!
Photographer: a. golden, eyewash design - c. 2008.
Friends,
The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four-hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans COMBINED! 400 of the wealthiest Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they were demanding We give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!
Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not HIS, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt that will take seven generations from which to recover. Why -- on --earth – did -- our -- "representatives" -- give -- these -- robber -- barons -- $US850 BILLION -- of – OUR -- money?
Last week, proposed my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, were predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: THERE...IS...NO…FREE... LUNCH ~ PERIOD! And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there should have been NO HANDOUTS FROM US TO YOU! Last Friday, after voting AGAINST this BAILOUT, in an unprecedented turn of events, the House FLIP-FLOPPED their "No" Vote & said "Yes", in a rush version of a "bailout" bill vote. IN SPITE OF THE PEOPLE'S OVERWHELMING DISAPPROVAL OF THIS BAILOUT BILL... IN SPITE OF MILLIONS OF CALLS FROM THE PEOPLE CRASHING WASHINGTON "representatives'" PHONE LINES...IN SPITE OF CRASHING OUR POLITICIAN'S WEBSITES...IN SPITE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE PROTESTING AROUND THE COUNTRY... THEY VOTED FOR THIS BAILOUT! The People first succeeded on Monday with the House, but failed do it with the Senate and then THE HOUSE TURNED ON US TOO!
It is clear, though, we cannot simply continue protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think THESE IDIOTS should/'ve do/one. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here’s the proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." (From Michael Moore's Bailout Plan) It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are that you DIDN'T, BUT SHOULD'VE:
1. APPOINTED A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money was expended, Congress should have committed, by resolution, to CRIMINALLY PROSECUTE ANYONE who had ANYTHING to do with the attempted SACKING OF OUR ECONOMY. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse should have and MUST GO TO JAIL! This Congress SHOULD HAVE called for a Special Prosecutor who would vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in future. (I like Elliot Spitzer ~ so, he played a little hanky-panky...Wall Street hates him & this is a GOOD thing.)
2. THE RICH SHOULD HAVE PAID FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT! They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class should have to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.
If they truly needed the $850 billion they say they needed, well, here is an easy way they could have raised it:
a) Every couple makeing over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year should pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich would have still been paying less income tax than when Carter was president. That would have raise a total of $300 billion.
b) Like nearly every other democracy, they should have charged a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This would have raised more than $200 billion in a year.
c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders should have forgone receiving a dividend check for ONE quarter and instead this money would have gone the treasury to help pay for the bullsh*t bailout.
d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raised the corporate income tax BACK to the levels of the 1950s, this would give us an extra $500 billion.
All of this combined should have been enough to end the calamity. The rich would have gotten to keep their mansions and their servants and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") would've have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools...
3. YOU SHOULD HAVE BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME! There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So, instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, they should have paid down each of these mortgages by $100,000. They should have forced the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner could pay on its current value. To insure that this help wouldn't go to speculators and those who tried to making money by flipping houses, the bailout should have only been for people's primary residences. And, in return for the $100K pay-down on the existing mortgage, the government would have gotten to share in the holding of the mortgage so it could get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $850 BILLION.
And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want: a home to call their own. But, during the Bush years, millions of the People lost the decent paying jobs they had. SIX MILLION fell into poverty! SEVEN MILLION lost their health insurance! And, every one of them saw their real wages go DOWN by $2,000! Those who DARE look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ASHAMED.! We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home they own.
4. THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A STIPULATION THAT IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GOT ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but WE SHOULD OWN YOU. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.
5. ALL REGULATIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD! This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the hen-house. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen.Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:
"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.
"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.
"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."
FOR THIS NOT TO REOCCUR, This BILL SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPEALED! Bill Clinton could have helped by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they were done with that, they should have restored the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" should have had enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.
6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST! Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No ONE or TWO companies should EVER have this kind of power! The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When we have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we DON'T FACE A NATIONAL DISASTER! If we have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a STRONG and "FREE" press!). Laws Should have been enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the GIANT FALLS and DIES. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that NO ONE understands. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money!
7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD EVER BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How We have allowed this to happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an OUTRAGE! We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. THIS HAS TO STOP! Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be FIRED before the company receives ANY help.
8. CONGRESS SHOULD HAVE STRENGTHENED THE FDIC AND MADE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But, this same sort of government insurance must be given to our NEVER have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This should have meant strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means the companies should have been forced to turn over those funds and their management to the government? People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market??? Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about becoming destitute.
9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off your TVs! We are NOT in the Second Great Depression. The sky is NOT falling, Chicken Little! Pundits and politicians have lied to us so FAST and FURIOUS it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I wrote to and repeated what I heard on the news last week, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that was true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into their Jacuzzis before they slip into their million thread-count sheets to drift off to a peaceful, Vodka tonic and Ambien-induced slumber.
As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan last week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. I was even pre-approved for a US$5K personal loan. Yes, life has gone on with little-or-no-change (other than the whopping 6.1% umeployment rate, but that happened last month). Not a single person lost any of his/her monies in bank, or a treasury note, or in a CD. And, the perhaps the most amazing thing is that the American public FINALLY didn't buy the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, instead telling Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has the bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shit. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer. The WORLD is fed up & I don't blame them.
10. THEY SHOULD HAVE CREATED A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." Since they're really itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't We give it to ourselves? Now that We own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a People's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And, now that we own AIG - the country's largest insurance company - let's take the next step and PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR EVERYONE. MEDICARE FOR ALL! It will SAVE us SO MUCH MONEY in the LONG RUN (not to mention bring peace of mind to all). And, America won't be 12th on the life expectancy list! We'll be able to have a longer lifespan, enjoying our government-protected pension and will live to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused this much misery are let out of prison so that We can help re-acclimate them to plain old ordinary, civilian life -- a life with ONE nice home and ONE gas-free car invented with help from the People's Bank.
P.S. Call your Senators NOW !!! ---> www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Since they voted against passing the extension of unemployment benefits and skipped out to "campaign" to us to be re-elected...call them and tell them you will vote for the other "guy" if they don't get their act together!
UPDATE:
The Bailout Is A Truly Evil Disaster And Enabler Pelosi Must Go
We are hearing more and more reports of how badly the ill-advised banker's bailout is being handled, multi-million dollar bonuses for Paulson's old cronies at Goldman Sachs, billions going to finance the takeover of rival banks, making the "too big to fail" even bigger, and the taxpayer getting an otherwise rotten deal for their investment. We even heard a Republic senator asking how fast they could blow the money.
NONE of this could have happened without the fawning complicity of Nancy Pelosi, who infamously said it was Bush's proposal, INSTEAD of coming forward with a robust alternative plan. Just like Bush, she believes she is immune, she believes she is unaccountable, and shame on us if we don't do everything we can to defeat her this Tuesday, and replace her with Cindy Sheehan.
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The one thing we know is that we must continue to speak out. We must continue to challenge. Surrendering is what our current so-called representatives in Congress are so prone to, NOT what we do. Ultimate victory is not only possible, it is assured if we work as hard as we can for real change, not just the rebranding of the same old boys'
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As part of our Birthday DUB-AMS-[RTM]-AMS-HAM-[TXL]-DUB Tour in April 2016. We enjoyed our combination of planes and trains during our travels in April and would highly recommend such a mix between these two transportation options which also bring greater flexibility and add more choices on “where to go” when out and about exploring our beautiful planet incl. Aer Lingus [DUB-AMS + TXL-DUB], EasyJet [AMS-HAM] and Trains between [AMS-RTM-AMS + HAM-TXL]. Enjoy.
Guests chat at an informal get-together Feb. 1 in advance of the opening of the second annual U.S. Africa Command C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference in Vicenza, Italy.
U.S. Army Africa photos by David Ruderman
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
“The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
Watercolour done on Saunders Waterford 200LB rough with M Graham Watercolours .15" X 22" I decided to Fill the sheet with this poppy focusing on luminosity,light & textures,I probably in future concentrate on using both hot pressed & wood pulp papers for these kind of floral works as you can achieve even more movement with them and continually manipulate the painting which you cannot do as much with the cotton papers.(Best viewed Large)
A new edition to my collection. One of my favorite episodes of "I Love Lucy" is "Lucy and Ethel Buy The Same Dress". I am proud to welcome a new Lucy doll and her partner in crime, Ethel and I cannot wait to work with them in future projects.
Pretty but overly sweet macaroons (to be avoided in future) in a Warragul coffee shop.
West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia.
In "Explore" Feb 22nd 2013
You don't really think anyone is going to open a church in this weather? Said Jools. And at about the same time, a warden's wife was saying, you're not going to go and open the church are you? No one will visit a church on a day like this.
So, the madness of man wins out, as I did visit and found that the warden had just opened the church.
Sadly, Great Mongehmam wasn't open later, but looked interesting enough to demand a return visit ASAP.
As I now know, any settlement ending with "bourne" should have a stream source or running through it. And that is the case here, a winterbourne, though not as frequently running as the Nailbourne rises here and flows to Sandwich.
Northbourne lies to the west of Deal, in a patchwork of fields and woods that is most pleasant. It used to be near to Tilmanstone Colliery and the Davy Lamp hanging in the chanel remembers this.
I walk into the porch and there is the warden helpfully hanging the "church open" sign on the door. Come to visit the church he asked. Yes, is there one nearby, I quipped.
He showed me some interesting details, shred a bit of histor, then began his long walk back to Finglesham.
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One of the few cruciform churches to have been built in Kent in the twelfth century, on the site of, and incorporating fragments of, a Saxon building. Curtains help shut off parts of the church during the winter months. There is a good mass dial by the main door. The Lady Chapel contains the monument to Sir Edwin Sandys and his wife (d. 1629). It is one of the best of its date in Kent and shows the pair in recumbent position hand in hand. Surprisingly the wordy inscription was not added until 1830! The chancel was refitted in the mid-nineteenth century but the east window shows good quality medieval stonework of thirteenth-century date.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Northbourne
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NORTHBORNE,
USUALLY called Norborne, as it is written in the survey of Domesday, lies the next parish westward from Little Mongeham, being so called from the north borne, or stream, which runs from hence into the river at Sandwich. There are four boroughs in it, Norborne, Finglesham, Asheley, and Tickness, or Tickenhurst, for each of which a borsholder is chosen at the manor court of Norborne.
THIS PARISH lies for the most part exceedingly dry and healthy, in a fine uphill, open and pleasant country, though it extends northward towards Howbridge and Foulmead, into a low country of wet ground and marsh lands. It is a large parish, for although it is very long and narrow, extending only a mile and an half from east to west, yet it is full five miles from north to south, till it joins Waldershare and Whitfield. The part of this parish containing the borough, hamlet, and manor of Tickenhurst, is separated from the rest of it by the parishes of Eastry, Ham, and Betshanger, intervening; and there is a small part of the parish of Goodneston within this of Norborne, and entirely surrounded by it. The soil of this parish being so very extensive, must necessarily vary much. It is, however, much inclined to chalk, and is throughout it very hilly; though much of it is very light earth, yet there is a great deal of rich fertile land in the lower part of it northward. There is much uninclosed land and open downs interspersed throughout it. The street of Norborne, having the church and vicarage-house within it, and containing twentysix houses, is situated at the north-east boundary of the parish. Near it is Norborne-court, the almonry or parsonage, and a house and estate, called the Vine farm, now in the possession of the hon. lady Frances Benson.
Besides this, there are several other streets, hamlets, and eminent farms, within the bounds of this parish, of which, those most worthy of notice, the reader will find described hereafter.
THE MANOR OF NORBORNE, which is of very large extent, was given in the year 618, by Eadbald, king of Kent, by the description of a certain part of his kingdom, containing thirty plough lands, called Northborne, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, in which monastery his father lay, and where he had ordered himself to be buried. In this state it con tinued at the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, in which it is entered under the general title of the land of the church of St. Augustine, as follows:
In the lath of Estrea. In Cornelest hundred.
The abbot himself holds Norborne. It was taxed at thirty sulings. The arable land is fifty-four carucates. In demesne there are three, and seventy-nine villeins, with forty-two borderers, having thirty-seven carucates. There are forty acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of ten hogs.
In the time of king Edward the Consessor, it was worth four times twenty pounds; when he received it twenty pounds; now seventy-six pounds.
Of the lands of the villeins of this manor, Oidelard holds one suling, and there he has two carucates, with eleven borderers..... It is worth four pounds. .... Of the same land of the villeins, Gislebert holds two sulings, all but half a yoke, and there he has one carucate, and four villeins, with one carucate. It is worth six pounds.
Wadard holds of this manor three sulings, all but sixty acres of the land of the villeins, and there he has one carucate, and eight villeins, with one carucate and two servants. It is worth nine pounds; but he pays no service to the abbot, except thirty shillings, which he pays in the year.
Odelin holds of the same land of the villeins one suling, and there he has one carucate, with three borderers..... It is worth three pounds.
Marcherius holds of the same land of the villeins what is worth eight shillings.
Osbern the son of Letard holds half a suling, and eleven acres of meadow, of the land of the villeins, which is worth twenty-five shillings. He pays to the abbot fifteen shillings.
Rannulf de Colubers holds one yoke .......worth fifty pence.
Rannulf de Ualbadon holds one yoke, and pays from thence fifty pence.
The above-mentioned Oidelard holds also of this manor one suling, and it is called Bevesfel, and there he has two carucates, with ten borderers. It is worth six pounds.
In the reign of king Edward II. the 7th of it, anno 1313, the abbot claimed upon a quo warranto, in the iter of H. de Stanton and his sociates, justices itinerant, and was allowed sundry liberties therein mentioned in this manor, among others, and the view of frank-pledge, and likewise wrec of the sea in this manor in particular, in like manner as has been mentioned before in the description of the several manors belonging to the monastery, in the former parts of this History. (fn. 1) And the liberty of the view of frankpledge was in particular further confirmed by that king, in his 10th year.
King Edward III. in his 5th year, anno 1330, exempted the men and tenants of this manor from their attendance at the turne of the sheriff, before made by the borsholder, with four men of each borough within it; and directed his writ to Roger de Reynham, then sheriff, commanding that in future they should be allowed to perform the same with one man only.
In the 8th year of king Richard II. the measurement of the abbot and convent's lands at Nordburne, with 208 acres of wood, was 2179 acres and an half and one rood.
Salamon de Ripple, a monk of this monastery, being, about the 10th year of king Edward III. appointed by the abbot keeper of this manor, among others, made great improvements in many of them, and in particular he new built the barns here, and a very fair chapel, from the foundations. But after wards, in the year 1371, their great storehouses here, full of corn, were, by the negligence of a workman, entirely burnt down; the damage of which was estimated at one thousand pounds.
After which, I find nothing further in particular relating to this manor, which continued part of the possessions of the monastery, till its final dissolution, in the 30th year of king Hen. VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands, with whom this manor continued but a small time; for the king, in his 31st year, granted it, with the parsonage or rectory, to archbishop Cranmer, in exchange, and it remained parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, till archbishop Parker, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, reconveyed it to the crown, in exchange. After which, the manor itself, with its courts, franchises, and liberties, continued in the crown, till king Charles I. in his 5th year, granted it in fee to William White and others, to hold, as of his manor of East Greenwich, by sealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite, or by knight's service; (fn. 2) and they that year sold it to Stephen Alcocke, gent. of London, who next year passed it away by sale, with some exceptions, to Edward Boys, gent. of Betshanger, to hold of the king in like manner, as above-mentioned. His descendant, Edward Grotius Boys, dying s. p. in 1706, gave it by will to his kinsman, Thomas Brett, LL. D. of Spring grove, and he, in 1713, alienated it to Salmon Morrice, esq. afterwards an admiral of the British navy, and of Betshanger, whose grandson William Morrice, esq. died possessed of it in 1787, unmarried; upon which it came to his only brother, James Morrice, clerk, who is the present owner of this manor.
The fee-farm rent reserved when this manor was granted away by the crown, came into the hands of the earl of Ilchester, who in 1788 sold it to the Rev. Mr. Morrice, the present owner of this manor; so there is now no fee-farm rent paid for it.
A court leet and court baron is yearly held for it; at the former of which, two constables, one for the upper half hundred, and the other for the lower half hundred of Cornilo, are chosen. The present manorhouse is a small cottage in Norborne-street, built upon the waste for that purpose.
NORTHBORNE-COURT, usually called Norborne abbey, from its having belonged to the abbey of St. Augustine, was the antient court-lodge of the manor, before they were separated by different grants from the crown. It is said to have been in the time of the Saxons the palace of king Eadbald, who gave it as above-mentioned, with the manor, to the above monastery. Accordingly, Leland, in his Itinerary, says, (fn. 3) "A ii myles or more fro Sandwich from Northburn cummeth a fresch water yn to Sandwich haven. At Northburn was the palayce or maner of Edbalde Ethelberts sunne. There but a few years syns (viz. in king Henry VIII.'s reign) yn breking a side of the walle yn the hawle were found ii childrens bones that had been mured up as yn burielle yn time of Paganits of the Saxons. Among one of the childrens bones was found a styffe pynne of Latin." This court-lodge, with the demesne lands of the manor, remained but a very short time in the hands of the crown, after the reconveyance of it by the archbishop, in the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, as has been mentioned above; for it was almost immediately afterwards granted by the queen, for life, to Edward Sanders, gent. her foster brother. He afterwards resided at Norborne court, having married Anne, daughter and coheir of Francis, son of Milo Pendrath of Norborne, by Elizabeth, one of the heirs of Thomas Lewin, and nurse to queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth. His ancestors had resided for some generations at Chilton, in Ash, but were originally descended from Minister, in Thanet. They bore for their arms, Or, on a chevron, gules, three mullets, argent, between three elephants heads, erased, of the second. (fn. 4) On his death, about the middle of that reign, the possession of it reverted to the crown, where it remained, till king James I. soon after his accession, granted it in see to Sir Edwin Sandys, on whom he conferred the honour of knighthood, and had given this estate, for his firm attachment to him at that time. He rebuilt this mansion, and kept his shrievalty at it, in the 14th year of king James I. and dying in the year 1629, was buried in the vault which he had made in this church for himself and his posterity, and in which most of his direct descendants were afterwards deposited. He was second son of Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York, by his second wife. The archbishop's eldest son was Samuel, who was of Worcestershire, from whom descended the lords Sandys, late of Ombersley, in that county. Two of his younger sons were, Miles Sandys, of Worcestershire, and George, the noted traveller. They bore for their arms, Or, a fess dancette, between three cross croslets, fitchee, gules.o
Sir Edwin Sandys, though he had four wives, left male issue only by his last wife. From Edwin, their second son, descended the Sandys's, of Norbornecourt; and from Richard, the third son, those of Canterbury, still remaining there. On Sir Edwin Sandys's death, in 1629, his eldest son, Henry Sandys, esq. succeeded to this estate; and on his death, s. p. his next brother, Col. Edwin Sandys, the noted rebel colonel under Oliver Cromwell, well known for his sacrilegious depredations and insolent cruelties to the royalists, who died at Norborne-court of the wound he had received in 1642, at the battle of Worcester, His grandson Sir Richard Sandys, of Norborne-court, was created a baronet in 1684, and died in 1726. By his first wife he left only four daughters his coheirs, viz. Priscilla, the eldest, married to Henry Sandys, esq. (grandson of Henry Sandys, esq. of Downe, the son of Col. Richard Sandys, the younger brother of Col. Edwin Sandys, the great grandfather of Priscilla, above-mentioned). Mary, the second daughter and coheir, married William Roberts, esq. of Harbledowne; Elizabeth, the third daughter, died unmarried soon after her father's death; and Anne, the fourth and youngest daughter, married Charles Pyott, esq. of Canterbury, and they respectively, in right of their wives, became possessed of this, among the rest of his estates, in undivided shares, by the entail made in Sir Richard Sandys's will.
The third part of Henry Sandys, in right of his wife Priscilla, descended to his son Richard Sandys, esq. of Canterbury, whose surviving sons, and daughter Susan married to Henry Godfrey Faussett, esq. of Heppington, at length succeeded to it.
The third part of William Roberts, in right of his wife Mary, descended at length to his grand-daughter Mary, only daughter of Edward Wollet, esq. who carried it in marriage to Sir Robert Mead Wilmot, bart. and on his decease came to his eldest son Sir Robert Wilmot, bart.
The remaining third part of Charles Pyott, esq. in right of his wife Anne, descended to his only daughter Anne, married to Robert Thomas Pyott, esq. of Hull, but afterwards of Canterbury.
In 1795, all the parties interested in this estate joined in conveying their respective shares to the several purchasers undermentioned: to James Tillard, esq. of Street-End Place, near Canterbury, Northborne-court lodge, farm, and lands; to Robert-Thomas Pyott, esq. Stoneheap-farm; to Wm. Wyborn, the scite of the late mansion house, gardens, and LongLane farm; to Mr. John Parker, Cold-Harbour farm; and to several other persons, the remaining small detached parts of this estate. The whole purchase-monies amounting nearly to 30,000l. The whole estate contained near 1100 acres, all tithe-free, except about forty acres.
The mansion of Norborne-court, the residence of the Sandys's, appears to have been a large and stately building. It was pulled down in 1750, and the materials sold; and the walls are all that now remain of it, forming a very considerable ruin. Near the house was a handsome chapel, formerly used by the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, when they visited this mansion, and afterwards by the Sandys family. It is at this time nearly entire, excepting the roof, which has been long since taken off.
LITTLE BETSHANGER is an estate in the western part of this parish, which was antiently accounted a manor, and had once owners of the same name; one of whom, Ralph de Betshanger, was possessed of it in king Edward II.'s reign, as was his descendant Thomas de Bethanger, in the 20th year of the next reign of king Edward III. Soon after which, Roger de Cliderow, says Philipott, was proprietor of it, as appears by the seals of old evidences, which commenced from that reign, the shields on which are upon a chevron, between three eagles, five annulets. Notwithstanding which, it appears by the gravestone over his successor, Richard Clitherow, esq. in Ash church, that the arms of these Clitherows were, Three cups covered, within a bordure, ingrailed, or; at least that he bore different arms from those of his predecessor. At length, Roger Clitherow died without male issue, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom Joane, the second, married John Stoughton, of Dartford, second son of Sir John Stoughton, lord-mayor of London. After which, this estate was alienated from this family of Stoughton to Gibbs, from which name it passed into that of Omer; in which it staid, till Laurence Omer, gent. of Ash, leaving an only daughter and heir Jane, she carried it in marriage to T. Stoughton, gent of Ash, afterwards of St. Martin's, Canterbury, son of Edward Stoughton, of Ash, the grandson of John Stoughton, of Dartford, the former possessor of this estate. He died in 1591, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom, Elizabeth was married to Thomas Wild, esq. of St. Martin's, Canterbury; Ellen to Edward Nethersole, gent. and Mary to Henry Paramore, gent. of St. Nicholas, and they by a joint conveyance passed it away to Mr. John Gookin, who about the first year of king James, alienated it to Sir Henry Lodelow, and he again, in the next year of king Charles I. sold it to Edward Boys, esq. of Great Betshanger, whole descendant Edward Grotius Boys, dying s. p. in 1706, gave it by will to his kinsman Thomas Brett, LL. D. who not long afterwards alienated it to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, and his son, Sir Robert Furnese, bart. of the same place, died possessed of it in 1733. His three daughters and coheirs afterwards succeeded to his estates, on the partition of which this estate was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne, the eldest sister, wife of John, viscount St. John, which was confirmed by an act passed next year. After which it descended down to their grandson George, viscount Bolingbroke, who sold it in 1791 to Mr. Thomas Clark, the present owner of it. The house is large, and has been the residence of gentlemen; a family of the name of Boys has inhabited it for many years, Mr. John Boys now resides in it, a gentleman, whose scientific knowledge in husbandry is well known, especially by the publication of the Agricultural Society of the state of it, and its improvements in this county, for which they are, I believe, wholly indebted to him.
THE TITHES of this estate of Little Betshanger, as well great as small, belonged, with those of Finglisham in this parish, to the abbot and convent of St. Augusting, and were assigned in the year 1128 to the cloathing of the monks there; and after the dissolution of the monastery were granted together to the archbishop of Canterbury, part of whose revenues they remain at this time. (fn. 5)
Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, found near Little Betshanger, the plant astragalus glyeyphyllos, wild liquorice, or liquorice vetch, which is very scarce, and has never been observed by him any where else.
THE MANOR OF TICKENHURST, now called Tickness; in Domesday, Ticheteste, and in other antient records, Tygenhurst, is situated in the borough and hamlet of its own name. It lies most part of it in this parish, but at some distance westward from the rest of it, several parishes intervening, and partly in that of Knolton. In the time of the Conqueror, Odo, the great bishop of Baieux and earl of Kent, was owner of it, and continued so at the taking of the survey of Domesday, in which this manor is thus entered in it, under the general title of the bishop's lands:
Turstin holds of the bishop Ticheteste. It was taxed at one suling and an half. The arable land is ..... In demesne there is one carucate, with four borderers, and a small wood. In the time of king Edward the Consessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards forty shillings, now one hundred shillings. Edric de Alham held it of king Edward.
Four years after the taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his possessions were confiscated to the crown. After which, this manor came into the possession of a family, which took their surname from it, some of whom were witnesses to deeds of a very antient date; but they became ex tinct before the reign of king Henry VI. and it was afterwards the property of the Stoddards, ancestors of those of this name, of Mottingham, in this county, in which this manor remained for some generations, till about the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign it was alienated to Peyton, of Knolton; since which it has continued in the possession of the owners of that manor and seat, down to Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart. now of Knolton, the present owner of it.
In the year 1074, the bishop of Baieux gave to St. Augustine's monastery, those tithes which his tenants had; i. e. the chamberlain Adelold, in the villes of Cnolton, Tickenhurst, and Ringelton, and likewise of Bedleshangre, and of Osbern Paisforer, in the small ville of Bocland, all which the king confirmed by his charter. But the tithes of Cnolton and Ringelton, William de Albiney, in process of time, being lord of the fee of those lands, took away from the monastery through his power; and the tithe of Boclonde, Roger de Malmains took away from it.
Within this borough and hamlet of Tickenhurst are two farms, called Great and Little Tickenhurst, belonging to Sir Narborough D'Aeth, bart, both which pay tithes to the almonry or parsonage of Norborne, formerly belonging to St. Augustine's monastery.
NEAR THE north west boundary of the parish is the HAMLET OF WEST-STREET, containing five houses. In it is an estate, called WEST-STREET, alias PARK GATE, the first mention that I find of which is in the will of Roger Litchfield, anno 1513, who mentions his farm of West-street. This, with another farm called Parkgate, (the buildings of which are now pulled down) stood in Ham parish. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was in later times possessed of this estate, and after his unfortunate decease, his two daughters and coheirs. On the division of their estate, Anne the youngest daughter, entitled her husband John Black wood to the possession of it. He died in 1777, and was succeeded in it by his two sons and coheirs in gavelkind, Shovel Blackwood, esq. and Col. John Blackwood, of Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, who made a division of their inheritance; in which partition this estate of West-street, alias Parkgate, was, among others, allotted to the latter, who next year procured an act for the sale of it. After his death this estate came to his widow, who sold it in 1790 to Mr. William Nethersole, the present owner of it.
ABOUT HALF A MILE from West-street is THE HAMLET OF FINGLESHAM, containing thirty houses. It is written in the survey of Domesday, Flenguessam, in which it is thus entered, under the title of lands held of the archbishop by knight's service:
In Estrei hundred. William Folet holds of the archbishop, Flenguessam. It was taxed at half a suling. There he has six villeins, with one carucate and an half.
After this, I find no further mention of this place for some time; but in the reign of king Edward I. in the year 1288, the king granted licence to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, to appropriate to their use a messuage, and certain rents and lands in different parishes, and among others, in the tenancy of Norborne, at Fenlesham.
In later times I find that William Poyshe, of Norborne, by will in 1524, gave his place at Fynglisham, to John his son, and that Thomas Parker, late one of the jurats of Sandwich, by will in 1596, gave to Nicholas Parker, his brother's son, his house and lands in Fynglisham, called Fynglisham farm, situated in this street. His descendant, Valentine Parker, gent. resided here in 1669, and by will gave this estate to his godson, Mr. Valentine Hild, or Hoile, from whom it has descended to his great-grandson Mr. Thomas Hoile, the present owner of it.
ROBERT, abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, in king Henry III.'s reign, anno 1240, confirmed an exchange, made by his convent, of all THE TITHES of Finglesham and Little Betshangre, as well great as small, to the eleemosinary of his monastery, which tithes had before belonged to the chamberlain of it. (fn. 6) These tithes of Finglisham now belong to the archbishop, and are, with those of Little Betshanger in this parish, demised by him on a beneficial lease.
Through Finglesham, and over Howe bridge, the high road leads to Deal. From hence, the water, called the Gestling, or north stream, takes its course towards the river Stour, below Sandwich.
AT A SMALL DISTANCE southward from Finglesham, is the little HAMLET OF MARLEY, which consists of only four houses, one of which is that of GROVE, alias MARLEY FARM, the former of which is its proper name, though it is now usually called by the latter. It formerly belonged to the family of Brett. Percival Brett, of Wye, possessed it in 1630, whose descendant, Richard Brett, gent. left an only daughter Catherine, who married John Cook, formerly of Mersham, but afterwards of Canterbury, clerk. They left two daughters, Catherine, wife of Thomas Shindler, alderman of Canterbury, and Mary, and they joined in the conveyance of this estate, in 1727, to John Paramor, gent. of Statenborough; after which, it descended in like manner as Statenborough, to his niece, Mrs. Jane Hawker, afterwards the wife of John Dilnot, esq. who on her death became possessed of the see of it, which he sold in 1792, together with a farm in Finglisham, to William Boteler, esq. of Eastry, who resided here, and two years afterwards alienated them both to Mr. James Jeken, of Oxney, the present owner of them.
ABOUT A MILE south-westward, at the western boundary of this parish, is THE MANOR OF WESTCOURT, alias BURNT-HOUSE, stiled in the antient book of the Fædary of Kent, the manor of Westcourt, alias East Betshanger, and said in it to have been held of the late monastery of St. Augustine by knight's service, being then the property of Roger Litchfield, who died possessed of it in 1513, and in his will calls it a manor, since which it has always had the same owners as Great Betshanger, and is now possessed accordingly by the Rev. James Morrice.
Upon the north-north east point of the open downs adjoining to Little Betshanger are the remains of a camp, formed for the forces which lay here, under the command of Capt. Peke, to oppose the landing of the Spaniards, at the time of the armada, in 1588. About a mile further southward from hence, over an open uninclosed country, is Stoneheap, a good farm, which has long had the same owners as Norbornecourt, and is now by a late purchase, wholly vested in Robert-Thomas Pyott, esq. as has been already mentioned before. This estate is tithe-free, being most probably part of the demesnes of Norborne manor. It takes tithes of corn and grain, of eighteen acres of land in Little Mongeham, belonging to Mr. John Boys, and twenty-two acres in Norborne, late belonging to Sir Edward Dering, bart. separate from it, but by what means I know not.
AT A LIKE DISTANCE, still further southward, is WEST STUDDAL, formerly written Stodwald, an estate which some time since belonged to a branch of the numerous family of Harvey, originally of Tilmanstone, under which a further account of them may be seen. In the descendants of this family it continued down to Richard Harvey, who was afterwards of Dane-court; not long after which, this estate came into the possession of James Six, of whom it was purchased by Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, about the year 1707. After which it passed, in the allotment of the Furnese estates, to Sir Edward Dering, bart. who not long since conveyed it to Solley, of Sandwich, and he sold it to Mr. Thomas Packe, of Deal, whose daughter carried it in marriage to James Methurst Pointer, esq. who lately sold it to Mr. Laurence Dilnot, the present owner of it.
FROM HENCE over Maimage, but more properly Malmains down, is THE HAMLET OF ASHLEY, containing fifteen houses. In it is Ashley farm, belonging to Mrs. Elizabeth Herring. The rectory or parsonage of Ashley, called in antient records, Essela, was part of the possessions of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, with whom it continued till the dissolution of that abbey, anno 30 Henry VIII. After which it was granted to the archbishop, of whom it is now held on a beneficial lease; the interest in which belongs to Isaac Bargrave, esq. of Eastry, in right of his late wife Sarah, sister and coheir of Robert Lynch, M. D. of Canterbury, and to Mrs. Elizabeth Herring above-mentioned, the other sister and coheir. This lease consists of the glebe of land, with the tithes of the hamlet of Ashley, West Studdal, Minacre, Napchester, and of others in Little Mungeham.
SOUTHWARD from the above, is THE HAMLET OF MINACRE, sometimes spelt Minaker, one moiety, or half of which, was formerly the property of Silkwood, and was purchased of one of them by Sir Robert Furnese, bart. of Waldershare. Since which it has passed in like manner as the rest of the Furnese estates in this county, which came to the late earl of Guildford, by his marriage with the countess of Rockingham, one of Sir Robert Furnese's daughters and coheirs, and his grandson the present right hon. George Augustus, earl of Guildford, is now owner of it.
The other moiety, or half of this hamlet, belongs to Mr. Leonard Woodward, of Ashley.
Still further southward, at the utmost limits of this parish, is another hamlet of five houses, called NAPCHESTER, which adjoins to the parishes of Walder share and Whitfield, the principal farm of which belongs to the earl of Guildford. There are no fairs kept in this parish.
Charities.
SIR RICHARD SANDYS, bart. of this parish, by will in 1726, gave to the churchwardens and overseers 5l. to be laid out in buying coals at the cheapest time of the year, and to be by them sold out to the poor at the same price that they cost, and the monies arising from such sale to be a fund, to be yearly employed for the same purpose.
The poor constantly relieved are about twenty-five, casually thirty.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.
The church, which is exempted from the archdeacon, is dedicated to St. Augustine. It is a large goodly building, consisting of a nave, chancel, and transept, having a large square tower in the middle, which has probably been much higher. There are five bells in it. The church is built of flint, with quoins, door, and window cases of ashler squared stone; some arches of the windows are pointed, some circular, and some with zig-zag ornaments. The western arch of the tower is pointed with triple dancette ornaments; the others circular. The chancel is repaired by the archbishop's lessee of the almonry. In the south transept, which is repaired by the Sandys's family, is a large vault, in which are deposited their remains. Over it is a most costly and sumptuous monument, having at the back a plain blank tablet; on the tomb the recumbent essigies of a knight in armour and his lady in a loose mantle. Above the pediment, and in other places, several shields of arms, with the coat of Sandys, with quarterings and impalements. This tomb is for Sir Edwin Sandys, second son of Edwin, archbishop of York. He had a grant of Norborne court from king James I. and died in 1639. (His marriages and issue have been already mentioned before). This monument was erected by him in his life time; but he who erected this sumptuous monument, and added the provisional blank tablet and escutcheons on it, with a thought of securing to himself and his posterity a king of immortality, left not one behind him, of all his numerous children, who had the least veneration for him, or respect for his memory; both the tablet and escutcheons remaining a blank at this time. In the nave is a memorial for Richard Harvie of Eastry, obt. 1675. In the church-yard are three altar-tombs, one for George Shocklidge, A. M. vicar forty-nine years, ob. 1772; arms, Three fishes, their heads conjoined in fess, their tails extended into the corners of the escutcheon; and the other two for the family of Gibbon.
The church of Norborne, with its chapels of Cotmanton and Sholdon, was antiently appendant to the manor, and was in early times appropriated to the abbey of St. Augustine; and in 1128, anno 29 king Henry I. was assigned by Hugh, the abbot of it, to the use of the eleemosinary or almonry belonging to it, which almonry was an hospital, built just without the gate of the monastery, for the reception of strangers and the poor resorting to it from all parts, and the relief of the weak and infirm.
After this, there were continual disputes between the abbots of this monastery and the several archbishops, concerning their respective privileges and jurisdictions relating to the churches belonging to it, among others, to this of Norborne, which at last ended in the allowance of the abbot's exemption from all such jurisdiction; archbishop Arundel in 1397 pronouncing a definitive sentence in the abbot's favour; all which may be found inserted at large in Thorne's Chronicle. (fn. 7)
In the year 1295, the abbot made an institution of several new deanries, for the purpose of apportioning the churches belonging to his monastery to each of them, as exempt from the jurisdiction of the archbishop; in which institution this church was included in the new deanry of Sturry. This caused great contentions between the abbots and the several archbishops, which at last ended in the total abolition of this new institution.
In which state this appropriation, with the advowson of the vicarage, remained, till the final dissolution of the abbey in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, whence the parsonage appropriate, otherwise called the Almonry farm, was granted the next year in exchange to the archbishop, and it remains parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury at this time.
But the advowson of the vicarage of this church, being excepted out of the above grant, remained in the crown, till king Edward VI. in his 1st year granted it, being an advowson in gross, to the archbishop, in whose successors it has continued to this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.
¶Though the church of Norborne was so early appropriated to the use of the almonry, as has been mentioned before, and a vicarage instituted in it, yet there was no endowment of it till the 1st year of the reign of king Edward I. when the abbot and convent, under their chapter seal, granted an endowment of it, which was approved of by the archbishop's commissary. He decreed and ordained, that the vicar should have the usual mansion of the vicarage, with the garden, and two acres of land contiguous to it, together with eleven acres of land lying at Donneslonde, and the way usual to the same; all which the vicars had heretofore enjoyed. And that they should have yearly two cows feeding, and the right of feeding them, from the feast, of St. Gregory until that of St. Martin in winter, with the cows of the religious wheresoever within the bounds of the parish. Also that they should have, in the name of their vicarage, within the limits or titheries of this church, or chapels of it, all the tithes whatsoever of sheaves, corn, and other vegetables, in orchards or gardens, being dug with the foot; and also all tithes arising from all mills so situated then, or which hereafter might be built, excepting of the mill of the religious, nigh to the King's highway, leading from Northborne towards Canterbury. Also that they should receive, in the name of the vicarage, all tithes of hay arising within the parish, or within the bounds of the chapels aforesaid, excepting the tithe of hay, arising from the meadows of the religious in this parish, at the time of the endowment. Also that they should receive, in the name of the vicarage, all oblations whatsoever in the church of Northborne, and the chapels or oratories, wheresoever situated, dependent on it, excepting the oblations made by strangers, not parishioners of the church, or chapels, in the chapel of the religious, situated within their manor of Norborne, which they had retained to themselves. Moreover, that the vicars should receive all tithes of lambs, wool, chicken, calves, ducks, pigs, geese, swans, peas, pigeons, milk, milk-meats, trades, merchandizes, eggs, flax, hemp, broom, rushes, fisheries, pasture, apples, onions, garlic, pears, and all manner of small tithes, within the bounds, or tithings of the church and chapels aforesaid, in any shape arising or to arise in future; and also whatsoever legacies should be left in future to the church and chapels, and especially the tithes of reed, rushes, and silva cædua, whenever cut down, within the bounds or tithings of the chapels of Cotmanton and Scholdon, to this church belonging, or at any time arising. But that the vicars should undergo the burthen of serving in divine offices themselves, or other fit priests, in this church and chapels depending on it; but that the burthen of providing bread and wine, lights, and other things, which should be necessary there for the celebration of divine services, they should undergo in the said church and chapels, at their own expence, excepting in the chapel of Cotmanton; in which the burthens of this kind, and likewise of the rebuilding and repairing of the chapel, used to be borne, by the lords of the manor of Cotmanton. In the payment likewise of the tenth, or other quota of ecclesiastical benefices, when it happened that the same should be imposed on the churches in England, or in the archbishop's province or diocese, the vicars and their successors there, according to the portion of taxation of the said vicarage, should be bound to pay the same for the said vicarage. But the burthens of repairing and rebuilding the chancel of the church of Northborne, and the chapel of Scholdon depending on it, within and without; and of finding and repairing the books, vestments, and ornaments of the church and chapel of Scholdon, which by the rectors of churches ought, or were wont to be found and repaired of custom or of right, and other burthens ordinary and extraordinary incumbent on the said church and chapel, the religious should undergo for ever and acknowledge; all and singular of which, he, the aforesaid John, archbishop of Canterbury, approving, confirmed by that his ordinary authority, reserving to him and his successors, &c. (fn. 8)
In 1396 there was an agreement entered into between the rector of East Langdon and the vicar of Norborne, concerning the annual payment of four shillings to the latter. In which the parishioners of East Langdon are mentioned as being bound to contribute to the repair of the church of Norborne.
The vicarage of Norborne, with the chapel of Sholdon annexed, is valued in the king's books at 12l. 11s. 8d. and the yearly tents at 1l. 5s. 2d.
In 1578 here were one hundred and ninety-two communicants, and it was valued at sixty pounds. In 1640 here were communicants two hundred and ninety-seven, and it was valued at Seventy-four pounds.
Here is a good vicarage-house, which with the homestall, measures two acres; and there are nine acres of glebe land beside.
St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk
During their awesome reign over the other great teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool football club placed a huge sign in the changing room corridor, so that it was the last thing visiting teams saw before they walked out on to the pitch: This is ANFIELD, it warned. The name alone was enough. Similarly, the cover of the guidebook here proclaims, in a single word, SALLE. Again, it suffices; the word, pronounced to rhyme with call, stands for the building. Perhaps only the name Blythburgh has the same power in all East Anglia.
The greatest East Anglian churches were built in the 15th century. It is often observed that there can never have been enough people to fill them, but this is to miss the point. They were never intended for the forms of worship to which they now play host.
The shape of a late medieval church is not an accident. East Anglian parish churches of the 15th century had many common features; wide aisles to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a large nave for social activities, large windows to fill the building with light, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a pulpit for the preaching of orthodox doctrine, benches to enable the people to hear the preaching, and carvings, stained glass and wall paintings of the sacraments, Gospels and rosary mysteries, of the catechism and teaching of the Catholic Church.
As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a late medieval East Anglian church was a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new Church inherited buildings that were often unsuitable for congregational protestant liturgy - a problem that the Church of England has never satisfactorily solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the rise of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This Victorian conception of the medieval suited itself to congregational worship, and responded in a satisfactory way to the structure of the building. But still, of course, they weren't full.
This 19th century re-imagining is the condition in which we find most of them today, and Anglican theologians everywhere are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
It requires a shift in the mind to recall that these were not originally Anglican buildings, but it is a shift we need to make. The idea of a previously unchanging Church now confronting the demands of the modern age is wholly incorrect. These buildings have faced a variety of challenges over the centuries; they have only ever been truly suitable for the use for which they were originally built six hundred years ago.
Two of the largest late medieval churches in East Anglia are just three miles apart, at Cawston and Salle in the middle of Norfolk. These clusters are not uncommon; think of Blythburgh, Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, for example, or Lavenham and Long Melford in the same county. But Cawston and Salle are really close - you can see the tower of one from the other. St Peter and St Paul is a complete example of a 15th century rebuilding; St Agnes at Cawston retains its elegant earlier chancel.
If not merely for congregational worship, why were these churches built so big? Impressive as they seem now, they must have been awesome at the time they were built, since they were the only substantial buildings outside of the towns, and would have dwarfed the houses of the parish. Some were in villages; but many were not. Salle church has always been out in the fields. Why are earlier East Anglian churches not so massive? Certainly, East Anglia has its cathedrals; Norwich and Ely pre-date the great churches by several centuries, and Bury Abbey was bigger than either before its destruction. The great majority of East Anglia's churches are piecemeal affairs; typically, a 13th century chancel, which must have been the most substantial part of the building when it was first erected, an early 14th century nave and tower, and perhaps later elaborations of the piece with aisles and a clerestory. Salle and Cawston churches are both rebuildings of earlier structures, but a surprising number of East Anglian churches were not rebuilt, until perhaps the Victorians saw the need for a new chancel, or new aisles. Often, these smaller churches are exquisitely beautiful, as if beauty rather than grandeur was the imperative.
And then, towards the end of the 1340s, a great pestilence swept across Europe; in East Anglia, outside of Norwich which got off lightly, it killed perhaps a half of the population. In emptying the countryside, it completely altered the economic balance; a shortage of labour gave new power to the survivors, perhaps setting in place the preconditions for the capitalism that we can recognise by the 16th century. And, in extinguishing the flower of Decorated architecture, it also gave birth to the great love affair between the late medieval mind and death.
In Catholic theology there is no great divide between the dead and the living. For the medieval Christian, communion was something that existed between all members of the parish, whether alive or dead. Thus, prayers were said for the souls of the dead (who, it was presumed, were saying prayers for the souls of the living).
To ensure that prayers were said for them after their death, the very richest people endowed chantries. These were foundations, by which priests could be employed to say masses for their souls in perpetuity. A priest in such a capacity was called a chantry priest. The masses would be said at a chantry altar, probably in the nave; if the person was rich enough, this might be enclosed in a specially constructed chantry chapel. Many churches had them. After the Reformation, many were pressed into service as family mausoleums or pews.
For the poorest people, there was the opportunity to join a guild, where, for a penny or so a week, they could ensure that the guild chantry priest would say masses for their soul after their death (along with those of the other dead members of the guild). Many of these guilds were organised around particular occupations or devotions, and became a focus of social activity. The investment that produced the income to pay the chantry priests was most commonly in land. The church or guild oversaw the management of the land, which is one of the reasons we have an image of a wealthy pre-Reformation church. Land bought to produce income in this way was known as chantry land, a name surviving in many places today. Those who invested in chantries (and few and far between must have been those who didn't) presumed that they were ensuring prayers and masses in perpetuity; but, of course, this was not to be.
Bequests and chantries seem to have reached their peak in the 15th century. Perhaps the Black Death reinforced the urgency of the task. People did not merely want to be remembered; they wanted to be prayed for. And so, those who could afford it ensured that this was not forgotten by leaving their wealth in the very place that was at the centre of communion: the parish church. The richest paid for the additions of aisles and chapels, or for a new font or rood screen. This was not just a naked desire for the recognition of their family status. There was an underlying insecurity to the new landed classes. They wanted to control their destiny beyond their deaths. And so, their gift would be recorded in the form of a dedicatory inscription. One of these survives on the screen at Cawston, and another on the base of the font at Salle. Orate pro anima, they begin, "Pray for the soul of...", an injunction urgently emphasised by the pre-Reformation liturgy, only to be cursed and defaced by the later Anglicans and puritans. Stained glass was another common gift, as well as images, candlesticks, furnishings. Thus were many churches developed piecemeal.
But sometimes, where a parish could rely on a steady supply of substantial bequests, they might be channelled into a complete rebuilding, as at Salle, a summa cum laude apothesosis, where the new church of the late 15th century survives in pretty much its original form. Sometimes, a single wealthy family would shape and direct the rebuilding of a church. One of the richest families in East Anglia in the 14th and 15th centuries was the de la Poles, the Earls of Suffolk. Their mark can be found throughout East Anglia, but most famously and substantially at Wingfield in Suffolk, and at Cawston in Norfolk. Theirs was a long term project; at Cawston, the tower predates the furnishings of the nave and chancel by almost a century.
So why so vast? Certainly, it was ad maiorem deo gloria, to the Greater Glory of God; but it was also to the greater glory of the de la Poles and their contemporaries. The great landed families of England came into the late middle ages full of confidence, and they were determined to demonstrate it. They had survived the Black Death. They had grown richer on its consequences. They had assumed a political power unthinkable a few centuries before. They controlled not just the wealth but the imagination of their parishes. They asserted orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of rural superstitions and abuses. They imposed a homogenised Catholicism on late medieval England. And, as they increased their secular power and influence, a time would come when they would embrace the Great Idea already beginning to take shape on the continent - protestantism. But that was still in the future.
And so, to Salle. St Peter and St Paul is big. This is accentuated by the way in which it stands almost alone in the barley fields, with only a couple of Victorian buildings and a cricket pitch for company. What an idyllic spot! And yet there is an urban quality to the building, as if this was some great city church in the middle of Norwich or Bristol. It went up in the course of the 15th century, a replacement for an earlier building on the same site, broadly contemporary with neighbouring Cawston. While Cawston was largely the work of a single family, here the building benefited from an accident of history; several very wealthy families owned manors and halls in the parish at the same time, and it so happened that the time was the greatest era of rural church building.
Among them were the Boleyns, the Brewes, the Mautebys, the Briggs, the Morleys, the Luces and the Kerdistons, and some of their shields appear above the great west door, along with two mighty censing angels, characteristic of late medieval piety. A steady stream of hefty bequests meant that no expense needed to be spared, and the mighty tower with its vast bell openings was topped with battlements and pinnacles on the very eve of the Reformation.
As at Blythburgh, St Peter and St Paul benefited from the restraint of a late restoration, and the building as we see it now has no external Victorian additions. It is all of a piece. The porches either side are huge affairs, matching the transepts, and give the effect of a vast animal, a dragon perhaps, sprawling with erect head in the Norfolk countryside. Its tail is the chancel, in itself longer and higher than many Norfolk churches. The aisles are tall, austere, parapeted, the Perpendicular windows arcades of glass. In the porches, the vaulted ceilings are studded with bosses; the central one in the north porch depicts Christ in Majesty, sitting on a rainbow in judgement.
You enter the building from the west, an unusual experience in East Anglia, and your first sight is of the seven sacraments font with its tall 15th century canopy, similar to the cover at Cawston. This one is so big it is supported by a crane attached to the ringing gallery under the tower. The font below is interesting because each panel is supported by an angel holding a symbol of the sacrament above - a pot of chrism oil beneath Baptism, for example. The panels themselves are simply done, and are not particularly characterful, apart from the way that Mary turns away and is comforted at the Crucifixion. This panel faces west, and then anticlockwise are the Mass (viewed sideways, as at nearby Great Witchingham), Ordination (the candidate kneeling), Baptism (a server holds the book up for the Priest to read), Confirmation (the candidate obviously a child), Penance (perhaps the most interesting panel - the penitent kneels in a shriving pew), Matrimony (the couples' hands joined by a stole, she in late 15th century dress) and finally Last Rites (the dying man on the floor under blankets also as at Great Witchingham). The font step has a dedicatory inscription to John and Agnes Luce, asking for prayers for their souls. We know that John died in 1489. Perhaps the fabric of the building was complete by this date.
Beyond the font stretches the vastness of the building, the arcades gathering the eyes and leading them forward to the great east window. The chancel arch is barely there at all, just a simple high opening; but as MR James pointed out, it was never intended to be seen.The sheer bulk of the rood screen dado tells us quite how vast the rood apparatus must have been here, and the arch would have been pretty well hidden. Everything is built to scale; although everything has been cut off above the panels, probably in the late 1540s, the panels themselves are enormous, almost six feet high. As at Cawston, St Gregory, St Jerome, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the four Doctors of the Church, are on the doors. Either side are just two surviving paintings; to the north are Thomas and James, to the south are Philip and Bartholomew. The empty panels are a mystery; the screen stood here for a century before its destruction, so it must have been finished; and the dado seems too high to have been hidden by nave altars. And yet, it has all the appearance of never having been painted.
Because the building is so vast, the surviving medieval glass seems scattered, but there is actually a lot of it and some of it is very significant. Some was moved during the restoration of the early 20th century, when the modern glass in the north transept was installed, and the yellow galley lozenges were thankfully replaced with clear glass in the 1970s. The images in the east window are mainly figures; old kings kneel before young princes, there are armoured men and angels, the remains of a scaly dragon. In the centre at the bottom is a perfect Trinity shield, displayed by an angel looking askance.
Some of the panels are now in the south transept. These include fragments of a set of the orders of angels. A kneeling figure is Thomas Brigg, donor of the transept; the scroll behind him begins Benedicat Virgo, 'Blessed Virgin'. The mother of God sits surrounded by red glory, and two women holding croziers, one of them crowned, may be St Etheldreda and St Hilda. Certainly, the crowned figure holding a cross is St Helena.
Despite the wonders of the font, the screen and the glass, the crowning glory of the building is the set of bosses that line the roof of the chancel. They are easily missed, being very high. There are nine altogether, the first and last set against the walls at the ends of the roof ridge, and they form a kind of rosary sequence of joyful and glorious mysteries. They start with the Annunciation in the west (see left) and then continue with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension into Heaven.
There is a fine set of return stalls in the chancel. Although Salle probably never had a college of Priests, all those Masses for the dead must have provided plenty of employment, because we know that there were seven Priests here at a time when the population of the parish was barely 200. Bench ends include heads, a dragon tied up in a knot, a cock, a restored pelican in her piety, and a monkey. The misericord seats feature faces, including one that is quite extraordinary.
Although the roof isn't up to the glory of neighbouring Cawston, it includes lots of original angels and paintwork, including sacred monograms, and around the wallplate part of the Te Deum Laudamus and Psalm 150. These particular texts seem to have provided the inspiration for many late 15th century interiors; the angels in the roof, the animals on the bench ends, the Saints on the rood screen all in harmony: Let everything that has breath Praise ye the Lord!
The nave benches are mostly renewed now, but the pulpit is an elegant example of the 15th century, from the time when a priority began to be placed on preaching. Curiously, it has been rather awkwardly converted into a three-decker arrangement, probably in the 18th century, with the addition of a platform and desk from a set of box pews. A large sounding board has been placed overhead. The box pews suggest that the medieval furnishings were replaced at an early date, although the replacements too have gone now.
Salle is one of those churches full of intriguing little details that might easily pass you by, so great is the wonder of everything around. Those two little corbel heads above the south door, for instance - what were they for? Perhaps they supported an image that could be seen from the north doorway as people entered, although not a St Christopher as the guidebook suggests, I think. There is a pretty piscina in the unfortunate north transept that has been outlined in wood, a memorial and helm above, a tall image bracket in the corner of the wall of the south transept, a floreated piscina nearby.
There are many brasses and brass inlays in the nave floor; one of the most interesting is a chalice brass (although the chalice is now gone) to Simon Boleyn, a Priest, who died in 1489, and to the east of it a pair of brasses to Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn, great-grandparents to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. Another pair of brasses are to Thomas and Katherine Rose and their eight children. Unlike many churches, Salle actually retains some of the 'missing' brasses, now locked away for safety. It would be nice to think they could eventually be reset in the floor.
One part of the building that many visitors must miss is the chapel above the north porch. There is no sign indicating it; but the doorway, at the west end of the north aisle, is always open. Inside, the vaulted roof is punctuated by spectacularly pretty bosses which you can view at close quarters. The colour is a bit fanciful, but they are fascinating, particularly the central boss of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven - how on earth did that survive the Reformation?
This is a tremendous building, a box of fascinating delights. What purpose does it serve now? As I said in the introduction, its size was not in response to the needs of a congregation, and as far as worship is concerned it will never be full. It remains constantly in use, however; for regular services in the chancel, sometimes for concerts and recordings, but also of course for the poshest sort of wedding, the kind only the Church of England can provide, and no doubt other elements of the core business of CofE PLC. It is easy to be cynical, but if they ensure the survival of the building, then so be it.
Mathura (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is a city in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately 50 kilometres north of Agra, and 145 kilometres south-east of Delhi; about 11 kilometres from the town of Vrindavan, and 22 kilometres from Govardhan. It is the administrative centre of Mathura District of Uttar Pradesh. During the ancient period, Mathura was an economic hub, located at the junction of important caravan routes. The 2011 census of India estimated the population of Mathura to be 441,894.
Mathura is the birthplace of Lord Krishna which is located at the centre of Braj or Brij-bhoomi, called Shri Krishna Janma-Bhoomi, literally: 'Lord Krishna's birthplace'. It is one of the seven cities (Sapta Puri) considered holy by Hindus. The Keshav Dev Temple was built in ancient times on the site of Krishna's birthplace (an underground prison). Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the maternal uncle of Krishna.
Mathura has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for HRIDAY - Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of Government of India.
HISTORY
Mathura has an ancient history and also homeland and birthplace of Krishna who was born in yadu dynasty. According to the Archaeological Survey of India plaque at the Mathura Museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest Indian epic, the Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna slays a demon called Lavanasura and claims the land. Afterwards, the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, then Madhupura and later Mathura.
In the 6th century BCE Mathura became the capital of the Surasena mahajanapada. The city was later ruled by the Maurya empire (4th to 2nd centuries BCE) and the Shunga dynasty (2nd century BCE). It may have come under the control of Indo-Greeks some time between 180 BCE and 100 BCE. It then reverted to local rule before being conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BCE.
Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the other being Purushapura (Peshawar). The dynasty had kings with the names of Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva I.
Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BCE, mentions Mathura as a great city under the name Μέθορα (Méthora).
The Indo-Scythians (aka Sakas or Shakas) conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings around 60 BCE.
The findings of ancient stone inscriptions in Maghera, a town 17 kilometres from Mathura, provide historical artifacts giving more details on this era of Mathura. The opening of the 3 line text of these inscriptions are in Brahmi script and were translated as: "In the 116th year of the Greek kings..."
The Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions attest that Mathura fell under the control of the Sakas. The inscriptions contain references to Kharaosta Kamuio and Aiyasi Kamuia. Yuvaraja Kharostes (Kshatrapa) was the son of Arta, as is attested by his own coins.
Arta is stated to be brother of King Moga or Maues. Princess Aiyasi Kambojaka, also called Kambojika, was the chief queen of Shaka Mahakshatrapa Rajuvula. Kamboja presence in Mathura is also verified from some verses of the epic, the Mahabharata, which are believed to have been composed around this period.
The Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the "Northern Satraps", as opposed to the "Western Satraps" ruling in Gujarat and Malwa. After Rajuvula, several successors are known to have ruled as vassals to the Kushans, such as the "Great Satrap" Kharapallana and the "Satrap" Vanaspara, who are known from an inscription discovered in Sarnath, and dated to the 3rd year of Kanishka (c 130 CE), in which they were paying allegiance to the Kushans.
Mathura served as one of the Kushan Empire's two capitals from the first to the third centuries.
Faxian mentions the city as a centre of Buddhism about 400 while his successor Xuanzang, who visited the city in 634 CE, mentions it as Mot'ulo, recording that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries and five Brahmanical temples. Later, he went east to Thanesar, Jalandhar in the eastern Punjab, before climbing up to visit predominantly Theravada monasteries in the Kulu valley and turning southward again to Bairat and then Mathura, on the Yamuna river.
The city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 and again by Sikandar Lodhi, who ruled the Sultanate of Delhi from 1489 to 1517.
Sikander Lodhi earned the epithet of 'Butt Shikan', the 'Destroyer of Hindu deities'. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, built the city's Jami Masjid (Friday mosque) .[citation needed] The noteworthy fact is that the exact place of birth of Krishna, according to historians, is in the place of worship of the Hindus, though the mosque was built near the birthplace of Krishna. The bigger Krishna shrine, better known as Dwarkadeesh Temple is a few metres away from what is believed to be the actual birthplace of Krishna. It was built in 1815 by Seth Gokuldas Parikh, Treasurer of Gwalior.
In 2016, 24 people including 2 police officers were killed in the Jawahar Bagh clash, when the police tried to evict a large number of squatters from the public park
GEOGRAPHY
Mathura is located at 27.28°N 77.41°E. It has an average elevation of 174 metres
DEMOGRAPHICS
The 2011 census of India estimates the population of Mathura to be 441,894, a decadal growth rate of 22.53 per cent from 2001 census of India. Males account for 54% (268,445) and females for 46% (173,449) of this population. Sex ratio of Mathura is 858 females per 1000 males, which has increased from 840 in 2001. However, national sex ratio is 940. Population density in 2011 has increased from 621 per km2 in 2001 to 761 per km2. Mathura has an average literacy rate of 72.65 per cent which has increased from 61.46 per cent in 2001 but still lower than the national average of 74.04 per cent. Male and female literacy rate are 84.39 and 58.93 per cent respectively. 15.61 per cent of Mathura's population is under 6 years of age. This figure was 19.56 per cent in 2001 census. Mathura has large population of Jat and Yadav in rural areas and Brahmins & Baniyas in City. The famous cities/villages of Mathura District are as follows.
Lohwan
Vrindavan
Baldeo
Nandgaon
Barsana
Goverdhan
Gokul
Chaumuhan
Kosi Kalan
TRANSPORTATION
RAIL
Mathura is well connected by train to major cities in India such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Alwar, Jaipur, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Rewa, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi etc.
The city is served by four stations, Mathura Junction being the biggest one connecting to West, North and Southern India. Mathura Cantt connects to eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhuteshwar serves for local trains for Delhi, Delhi NCR, Agra, Bharatpur and Alwar. Another station Krishnajanmabhoomi connects to Vrindavan via rail bus.
ROAD
Mathura is well connected by road to the rest of Uttar Pradesh and India. NH 2 (Delhi-Howrah) Highway passes through the city and connects to National Highway 3 (to Mumbai), a part of which is known as Mathura Road. NH-11 (Agra to Bikaner). SH-33 (Bareilly to Mathura via Badaun ,Ujhani, Kasganj ,Soron, Sikandra Rao, Hathras) NH-93 (Moradabad) are also prominent arterial highways. Yamuna Expressway also connects to Mathura and in fact shortest way to reach Mathura by road.
The city is served by Upsrtc, JNNURAM, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, DTC, Chandigarh and Punjab state transportation bus companies. Mathura depot, run by upsrtc - the Uttar Pradesh state bus company - runs 120 buses. Direct buses are available to Alwar, Agra, Aligarh, Khair, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ajmer, Delhi, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Haridwar, Rohtak and other Indian cities. An intercity JnNURM bus facility also exists.
AIR
As of now the city has no airport but the airport was proposed to Mathura in 2012. The civil aviation minister Ajit Singh suggested Mathura's name for the site of a new greenfield international airport to chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav. Mathura's name came into play when group of ministers terminated the planning of building Taj International Airport at Greater Noida. Land has been marked, and construction is in progress near the Yamuna Expressway, with plans to open in the next five years with regular flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Ujjain and Varanasi and some international routes in future.
TOURISM
Mathura is a holy city for Hinduism, the world's third-largest religion. There are many places of historic and religious importance in Mathura and its neighbouring towns. The twin-city to Mathura is Vrindavan. As the home of Krishna in his youth, the small town is host to a multitude of temples belonging to various sects of Hinduism proclaiming Krishna in various forms and avatars. Some places of interest are:
Baldeo(Dauji Mandir)
Lohwan Mata Mandir
Shri Ratneshwar Mahadev
Gopinath Maharaj Mandir
Keshav Dev Temple (Shri Krishna Janma Bhoomi)
Vishram Ghat (Bank of River Yamuna)
Shri Jagannath Temple Bhuteshwar Mathura
Prem Mandir, Vrindavan
Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, Vrindavan
Mathura Museum
Birla Mandir
Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi
Naam yog Sadhna Mandir (Baba Jai Gurudev Temple)
Banke Bihari Temple
Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi
Iskcon Temple.
bhuteshwar temple
The Udasin Kashni Ashram (Ramanrati) near Gokul (Mahaven)
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE
Mathura is the home for Indian I Corps (Strike Formation) within the Indian Army's Central Command, hosting Strike I Corps headquarters in a large classified area in the outskirts of the city known as Mathura Cantonment (Central Command itself has its headquarters at Lucknow). It hosts Strike Infantry units, Air Defence units, Armoured Divisions, Engineer brigades, Aritillery Units and classified units of Strategic Nuclear Command. Corps I is primarily responsible for western borders of India. In 2007 during Exercise Ashwamedha, all the armoured, artillery and infantry divisions performed a simulation of an overall NBC (nuclear-chemical-biological) environment. The aim was to show operational ability in high intensity, short duration and 'sudden' battles.
INDUSTRIES
One of the major contributors in the economy of Uttar Pradesh are Mathura Industries.[citation needed] Mathura Refinery located in the city is one of the biggest oil refineries of Asia with 8.0 MMTPA refining capacity. This oil refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation is a highly technologically advanced oil refinery. Mathura Refinery is the first in Asia and third in the world to receive the coveted ISO-14001 certification for Environment Management System in 1996.
Textile printing industry that includes both sari-printing and fabric dyeing and silver ornaments manufacturing are major industrial contributors to the region. Apart from these other industries are water tap manufacturing units and other decorative and household items. Mathura also is a big centre for production of cotton materials; prominent among them being pure white bleached cotton sarees for women and dhotis for men,and cotton niwar tapes for beds. It is also a hub for production of milk based sweet meals,prominent among them being mathura Pedas and burfis. Renowned as the place where rivers of milk flowed, Mathura till today boasts of Milk trading centres where you can buy any amount of fresh milk where rates vary every few minutes and are notified on a black board akin to stock prices.
POLITICS
In 2014 General Elections Mrs. Hema Malini of BJP became the Member of Parliament from Mathura Constituency. The Mayor of the city is Mrs. Manisha Gupta of BJP.
CULTURE
Mathura has contributed a lot towards Indian Culture through its rich heritage. The ethos of Mathura, and in fact the whole of Braj mandal is centered on Krishna and his tales. Mathura sees heightened activities during the major festivities dedicated to Krishna.
The Braj culture has been expressed widely through various practices.
Sanjhee is the colourful art of decorating the ground with flowers.
Rasiya is a tradition that is integral to Mathura's culture. It is the tradition of folk-songs that describe the love of the divine couple Radha and Krshnaji. It is an inseparable part of the Holi celebrations and all other festive occasions at Mathura. (Dhulendi – Holi with drums (dholak), colours, etc. originated from Braj region hundreds of millennia before today.)
Raaslilas of Mathura have become an integral part of Indian Folklore. Krshnaji had danced the Raas with gopis on banks of Yamuna river.
Charkula is a traditional folk dance of the Braj. In this dance, a woman balances a column of deepikas on her head and dances to the accompaniment of Rasiya songs by the menfolk.
The language spoken in the Braj mandal is mainly Hindi which is spoken in a different dialect. This dialect is characteristic with the Braj region and known as Brajbhasha. Being close to haryana and uttar pradesh haryanwi is spoken by people and very few people speak Punjabi. Before Hindi and until past few centuries, Brajbhasha used to be the dominant language in literature.
Mathura is one of the seven most holy places for Hindus in India.
- Ayodhyā Mathurā Māyā Kāsi Kāñchī Avantikā I
- Purī Dvārāvatī chaiva saptaitā moksadāyikāh II - Garuḍa Purāṇa I XVI .14
A Kṣetra is a sacred ground, a field of active power, a place where Moksha, final release can be obtained. The Garuda Purana enumerates seven cities as giver of Moksha, They are Ayodhya, Mathura, Māyā, Kāsi, Kāñchī, Avantikā, Puri and Dvārāvatī.
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
All India Radio has a local station in Mathura which transmits various programs of mass interest. Commissioned in 2001, Mathura has a Programme generating Facility (PGF) of Doordarshan - India's Public service Broadcasters.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
GLA University, R.K. Group of Institutions (including Rajiv Academy For Technology & Management, Rajiv Academy For Teacher's Education, Rajiv Academy For Pharmacy, K.D. Dental College & Hospital, etc.) and BSA College of engineering and technology, Excel Institute of Management & Technology has been accorded as status of university). 40 engineering & management colleges had been established in Mathura up to 12-12-2009.
Mathura is home to the Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Veterinary University, the first of its kind in the state and the fourth in the country to be made independent veterinary universities."Mathura University ::-:: Website Loading". Upvetuniv.edu.in. Retrieved 2013-11-17.The college was established in 1947 by Govt of U.P. and it is Asia's first veterinary college which awarded Veterinary science degree. The University is located on the Mathura-Agra road, about 5 kilometres from Mathura Junction. The main campus of the University is spread over a land area of 3.1659 km2 in Mathura Cantt and about 6 km2 at Madhurikund, about 20 kilometres from the main campus.
WIKIPEDIA
Privet Drive
Number Four, Privet Drive is the quiet, suburban home of the Dursleys, Harry Potter's relatives who raised him after his parents' unexpected deaths. For Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the exterior was filmed in Bracknell, Berkshire. When it was realised that Privet Drive would feature in future films, a decision was made to recreate the street, giving the production team flexibility.
Since production wrapped, one key piece of this set has been recreated, as actor Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) kept the original 'number four' as a personal memento.
People the world-over have been enchanted by the Harry Potter films for nearly a decade. The wonderful special effects and amazing creatures have made this iconic series beloved to both young and old - and now, for the first time, the doors are going to be opened for everyone at the studio where it first began. You'll have the chance to go behind-the-scenes and see many things the camera never showed. From breathtakingly detailed sets to stunning costumes, props and animatronics, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides a unique showcase of the extraordinary British artistry, technology and talent that went into making the most successful film series of all time. Secrets will be revealed.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides an amazing new opportunity to explore the magic of the Harry Potter films - the most successful film series of all time. This unique walking tour takes you behind-the-scenes and showcases a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also reveals some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.
Here are just some of the things you can expect to see and do:
- Step inside and discover the actual Great Hall.
- Explore Dumbledore’s office and discover never-before-seen treasures.
- Step onto the famous cobbles of Diagon Alley, featuring the shop fronts of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts, the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Eeylops Owl Emporium.
- See iconic props from the films, including Harry’s Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid’s motorcycle.
- Learn how creatures were brought to life with green screen effects, animatronics and life-sized models.
- Rediscover other memorable sets from the film series, including the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, Hagrid’s hut, Potion’s classroom and Professor Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic.
Located just 20 miles from the heart of London at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the very place where it all began and where all eight of the Harry Potter films were brought to life. The Studio Tour is accessible to everyone and promises to be a truly memorable experience - whether you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, an all-round movie buff or you just want to try something that’s a little bit different.
The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours (I was in there for 5 hours!), however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace. During this time you will be able to see many of the best-loved sets and exhibits from the films. Unique and precious items from the films will also be on display, alongside some exciting hands-on interactive exhibits that will make you feel like you’re actually there.
The magic also continues in the Gift Shop, which is full of exciting souvenirs and official merchandise, designed to create an everlasting memory of your day at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.
Hogwarts Castle Model - Get a 360 degree view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.
The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films. To show off the lighting to full effect a day-to-night cycle will take place every four minutes so you can experience its full beauty.
An amazing amount of detail went into the making of the model: all the doors are hinged, real plants are used for landscaping and miniature birds are housed in the Owlery. To make the model appear even more realistic, artists rebuilt miniature versions of the courtyards from Alnwick Castle and Durham Cathedral, where scenes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were shot.
Ian's on the road again, wearing different shoes again.
Or something.
Yes, have audit will travel is taking me back to the north west and head office (UK) in Warrington.
I wasn't keen to go, as I would be one of those being audited, rather than being the auditor.
So it goes.
Up even earlier than usual, Jools went swimming first thing, while I woke up and packed.
It was to be a bright if cold day, and the promise of actual snow once I reached Manchester, so that was something to look forward to. No?
Jools dropped me off on the prom so I could have a walk, take some snaps before picking up the car.
It was cold.
Not Canada cold, clearly.
Minus three. And too cold to linger to watch the actual sunrise, so made do with snapping the reflected light of the hotels and a ferry coming into the harbour. I walked over Townwall Street, now cold to the bone, hoping the car hire place would be open on time.
It wasn't, but a couple of minutes later, a guy came to open up and let me inside where it was slightly warmer.
My old ruse of getting an automatic thus getting a larger car was ruined this time was I was given a Toyota Yaris. It struggled to get up Jubilee Way without the engine screaming. You'd better behave yourself for the next three days I told it.
Back home for breakfast, load the car and say goodbye to the cats. One last look, and I was off. The car had no sat nav, so had to use the phone.
Before going to the hotel, I was going to visit a former colleague who lives in Warrington, or nearly St Helens as I found out later, so programmed her address in, and off I went, along our street and towards the A2 and the long slog up to Dartford.
I connected my phone to charge, and straight away tunes from my Apple music store started playing. So, apart from the free U2 album it forced on all users, the rest was good if a little Skids and Velvet Underground heavy.
The miles were eaten up, even if I had to turn the music way up to drown the sound of the screaming engine.
Like all trips, I had something extra to sweeten the time away, and in this case it was a church. But not just any church, as you will see.
I watched a short documentary on Monday about Mary Queen of Scots, and remembered that she had been imprisoned and executed at Fotheringhay Castle in what is now Northamptonshire, and if I went over the Dartford Crossing, up the M11 to Cambridge, then were the A14 crossed the Great North Road, ten miles north was Fotheringhay.
So, I pressed on, under the river and into Essex, then along to the bottom of the M11, and north past Stanstead to Cambridge. Traffic wasn't bad, so I made good time, my phone telling me I would reach Fotheringhay at midday.
Turning off the A1, down narrow lanes, then the view to the church opens up, in what is possibly one of the finest vistas in all of England. St Mary and All Saints, 15th century and in its Perpendicular finest, it looks too good to be that old, but is.
Not only is the church mostly as it was, if plain inside, this was the parish church of the House of York, of several Kings including the final, Richard III.
This is real history.
I crossed over the narrow hump-back bridge that spanned the fast flowing, and nearly flooding, River Neane, into the village and parked outside the church. A set of grand gates lead off the main road to the northern porch, lined with fine trees, naked it being winter.
The tower seems over-large for the Nave and Chancel, it stands 116 feet tall, and is a chonker, the rest of the church seems small beside it, but the interior of the church is a large space, high to its vaulted roof.
I take shots, not as many as perhaps I should, but the church doesn't have centuries of memorials, but does have two House of York tombs, or mausoleums.
Back outside, my phone tells me I should be in Warrington by four, my friend, Teresa, wouldn't be home until half past, so I could have another break on the way.
The sat nav took me back to the A14, and from there it is just a 60 mile drive to the bottom of the M6 and then the hike two hours north.
At least it was a sunny day, though clouds were building, and was it my imagination, or did it look like snow falling already?
No, it was snow. big, fat, wet flakes at first, not much to worry about, but I pressed on past Coventry to the toll road, I sopped for half an hour there, enough time to have a drink and some crisps, then back outside where darkness was falling, as well as more snow.
The M6 might have had its upgrade complete, but a trip on it is rarely without delays. And for me, an hour delayed just before Warrington due to a crash, so we inched along in near darkness.
Teresa lived the other side of Warrington, so I had to press on further north, then along other main roads, round a bonkers roundabout before entering the town. Roads were lined with two up/two downs, doors leading straight onto the pavement. Cozy and northern.
They have two dog-mountains, I'm not sure of the breed, but think of something like a St Bernard and go bigger. They had just been for a walk, were damp and happy to be inside, laying on the kitchen floor. Taking up all the kitchen floor.
We talked for an hour, then I received a call from a guy I was supposed to be meeting up with: heavy snow was falling, I should get there sooner than later. So, I said my goodbyes and programmed the route to the hotel. Sorry, resort. Golf resort.
16 miles.
Snow was falling heavy, not too bad on main roads back to the motorway, though traffic on that was only going 40, it was fast enough. But the final six miles was long a main road, but it was covered in snow, with more falling.
The the fuel warning light went on.
Ignore that, I just wanted to get to the hotel safe and have dinner. Not end up in a hedge.
The final mile was very scary, snow only an inch deep, but slippery. There was a gatehouse marking the entrance to the golf club, I turned in and parked in the first space I came to.
Phew.
I checked in, and the place is huge, swish, but full of golfers.
But it does a sideline in conferences, training centre and a hotel. It was full.
I checked in, walked to the room, which is huge, and very comfortable, dropped my bags and went to the bar for dinner of beer and burgers. The place was almost empty, I watched cricket live from South Africa while I ate and drank.
Would I be tempted by the cheeseboard?
I would, dear reader, I would.
To my room to watch the football and relax while snow fell outside.
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The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay is a parish church in the Church of England in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. It is noted for containing a mausoleum to leading members of the Yorkist dynasty of the Wars of the Roses.
The work on the present church was begun by Edward III who also built a college as a cloister on the church's southern side. After completion in around 1430, a parish church of similar style was added to the western end of the collegiate church with work beginning in 1434. A local mason, William Horwood was contracted to build the nave, porch, and tower of this church for £300 for the Duke of York.[2] It is the parish church which still remains.
The large present church is named in honour of St Mary and All Saints, and has a distinctive tall tower dominating the local skyline. The church is Perpendicular in style and although only the nave, aisles and octagonal tower remain of the original building it is still in the best style of its period.[3] The tower is 78 feet (24 metres) high to the battlements, and is 116 feet (35 metres) high to the pinnacles of the octagon.[4]
The church has been described by Simon Jenkins as
float[ing] on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of Perpendicular on a sea of corn.
The college continued to 1547, when it was seized by the Crown, along with all remaining chantries and colleges. The chancel was pulled down immediately after the college was granted to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, by King Edward VI.[6] A grammar school was founded in its place which lasted until 1859.
Nearby Fotheringhay Castle was the principal home of two Dukes of York. Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was buried in the church. He had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains at the location. Edward's burial provided the basis for the later adoption of the church as a mausoleum to the Yorkist dynasty. In 1476 the church witnessed one of the most elaborate ceremonies of Edward IV's reign – the re-interment of the bodies of the king's father Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who had been buried in a humble tomb at Pontefract. Father and son fell at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460.
Thomas Whiting, Chester Herald, has left a detailed account of the events:
on 24 July [1476] the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke, "garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold" lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king. On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms. Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King 'made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.' The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his 'closet' and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.' The next day three masses were sung, the Bishop of Lincoln preached a 'very noble sermon' and offerings were made by the Duke of Gloucester and other lords, of 'The Duke of York's coat of arms, of his shield, his sword, his helmet and his coursers on which rode Lord Ferrers in full armour, holding in his hand an axe reversed.' When the funeral was over, the people were admitted into the church and it is said that before the coffins were placed in the vault which had been built under the chancel, five thousand persons came to receive the alms, while four times that number partook of the dinner, served partly in the castle and partly in the King's tents and pavilions. The menu included capons, cygnets, herons, rabbits and so many good things that the bills for it amounted to more than three hundred pounds.
In 1495 the body of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was laid to rest beside that of her husband the Duke of York, as her will directed. She bequeathed to the College
a square canopy, crymson cloth of gold, a chasuble, and two tunicles, and three copes of blue velvet, bordered, with three albs, three mass books, three grails and seven processioners.
After the choir of the church was destroyed in the Reformation during the sixteenth century, Elizabeth I ordered the removal of the smashed York tombs and created the present monuments to the third Duke and his wife around the altar.
The birthday of Richard III is commemorated annually by the Richard III Society by the placing of white roses in the church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_and_All_Saints,_F...
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As any experienced pub quizzer will be able to tell you, Cambridgeshire shares borders with more other counties than any other English county, and one of the pleasures of exploring its churches by bike is to occasionally pop over a border and cherry-pick some of the best churches nearby. I had long wanted to visit Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire, and it is only ten miles west of Peterborough, and so I thought why not? I could also take in its near neighbours Nassington and Warmington, both noted as interesting churches.
Fotheringhay is a haunted place. It is haunted by noble birth and violent death, by its pivotal importance as a place in 15th Century English politics, and by its desolation in later centuries - not to mention by one significant event in the last couple of years.
The view of the church from the south across the River Nene is one of the most famous views of a church in England - there can be few books about churches which do not include it. The tower is a spectacular wedding cake, the square stage surmounted by an octagonal bell stage. This is not an unusual arrangement in the area of the Nene and Ouse Valleys, but nowhere is it on such a scale and with such intricacy as this.
The nave is also vast, a great length of flying buttresses running above each aisle, and walls of glass, great perpendicular windows designed to let in light and drive out superstition. What you cannot see from across the river is that, behind the big oak tree, the church has no chancel.
Inside, it is a square box full of light divided by great arcades that march resolutely eastwards towards a large blank wall. Heraldic shields stand aloof up in the arcades, and the one fabulous spot of colour is the great pulpit nestled in the south arcade, another sign that this building was designed to assert the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. This place swallows sound and magnifies light. It is thrilling, awe-inspiring. What happened here?
In the medieval period, Fotheringhay Castle was the powerbase of the House of York. The church was built as a result of a bequest by Edward III, who died in 1370. It was complete by the 1430s, with a college of priests and a large nave for the Catholic devotions of the people.
Over the next century it would house the tombs of, among others, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York and grandson of Edward III who was killed in 1415 at Agincourt, and Richard Plantaganet, 3rd Duke of York, who was killed in the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. It was Richard's claim to the throne of England which had led to the Wars of the Roses. His decapitated head was gleefully displayed on a pike above Micklegate Bar in York by the victorious Lancastrian forces. Also killed in the battle was Richard's 17 year old son Edmund.
But the Lancastrian delight was shortlived, for by the following year Richard's eldest son had become King as Edward IV. He immediately arranged for the translation of the bodies of his father and brother from their common grave at Pontefract back to Fotheringhay.
It was recorded that on 24 July the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king.
On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms.
Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.
The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his closet and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.
The sorrowing Edward IV donated the great pulpit for the proclamation of the Catholic faith. And then in 1483 he died. He was succeeded as tradition required by his son, the 12 year old Edward V. But three months after his father's death the younger Edward was also dead, in mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his uncle, who had been born here in Fotheringhay in 1452, and who would reign, albeit briefly, as Richard III.
Was Richard III really the villain that history has made him out to be? Did he really murder his nephew to achieve the throne? Within two years he had also been killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the Lancastrians were finally triumphant. Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty, and, as we all know, history is written by the victors, not by the losers.
But Fotheringhay had one more dramatic scene to set in English history before settling back into obscurity, and this time it involved the Tudors. In September 1586 a noble woman of middle years arrived at Fotheringhay Castle under special guard, and was imprisoned here. Her name was Mary, and she was on trial for treason.
It is clear today that most of the evidence was entirely fictional, but the powers of the day had good reason to fear Mary, for she had what appeared to many to be a legitimate claim to the English throne. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland, and had herself become Queen of Scotland at the age of just six weeks. She spent her childhood and youth in France while regents governed the nation in her stead, and she married Francis, the Dauphin of France, who became King of France in 1559. Briefly, Mary was both Queen of Scotland and Queen Consort of France, but in 1561 Francis died, and Mary returned to Scotland to govern her own country.
But there was a problem. Mary was a Catholic. Scotland had led the way in the English-speaking Reformation with a particularly firebrand form of Calvinism, and the protestant merchants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee were aghast at the prospect of a Catholic monarch.
And there was a further problem. Scotland was currently at peace with its neighbour England, where Queen Elizabeth I had brought some stability to the troubled country. But the Catholic Church did not recognise Elizabeth as the rightful monarch of England, because it was considered that her father Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife Katherine of Aragon was invalid. As he had divorced Katherine to marry Elizabeth's mother Ann Boleyn, Catholics considered that the rightful line of succession had passed horizontally from Henry VIII to his deceased elder sister and then on to her descendants, the most senior of whom was Mary, Queen of Scotland.
Mary remarried in Scotland, but her husband was murdered, and she was forced to abdicate her throne in favour of their one year old baby. He would be brought up by protestant regents and advisors, and would reign Scotland as James VI. His protestant faith allowed the English crown to recognise the line's legitimate claims, and in 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the first monarch to govern both nations.
But that was all in the future. After her abdication, Mary fled south to seek the protection of her cousin Elizabeth. She spent most of the next 18 years in protective custody. A succession of plots and conspiracies implicated her, and finally on 8th February 1587, at the age of 44, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.
One of her son James's first acts on ascending the English throne was to order that the castle where his mother had been shamefully imprisoned and executed be razed to the ground.
The chancel of Fotheringhay church and its College of Priests were already gone by then, demolished after the Reformation, leaving the York tombs exposed to the elements. it is said that Elizabeth herself, on a visit to Fotheringhay in 1566, insisted that they be brought back into the church.
Fotheringhay church settled back into obscurity. During the long 18th Century sleep of the Church of England it suffered neglect and disuse, but was restored well in the 19th Century. A chapel was designated for the memory of the York dynasty during the 20th Century, a sensitive issue for the Church of England which does not recognise prayers for the dead, but they can happen here in the Catholic tradition.
Today, the population of Fotheringhay cannot be much more than a hundred, an obscure backwater in remote north-east Northamptonshire, consisting of little more than its grand church set above the water meadows of the River Nene. But there was one more day in the public light to come.
In 2012, an archaeological dig in the centre of the city of Leicester, some 30 miles from here, uncovered a skeleton which had been buried in such a manner that it seemed it might be the dead King Richard III. Carbon dating and DNA matching proved that it was so. A controversy erupted about where the dead king might be reburied. Leicester Cathedral seemed the obvious place, although pompous claims were made by, among others, the MP for York, for him to be buried in York Minster. But there was also a case for the remains being returned here, to the quiet peace of Fotheringhay.
In the event reason held sway and Richard was reburied in Leicester, but Fotheringhay church, along with Leicester Cathedral, York Minster and Westminster Abbey, was one of four sites to host books of remembrance for Richard III.
In June 2015 I was surprised to find that the book here was still in use at the west end of the nave, and is still regularly signed by people. Perhaps they think it is the visitors book.
Simon Knott. June 2015.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/19327047848/in/photo...
The Harwich branch will in theory be very rare track for a Stansted Express 745 in future but the new Stadler emu is bound for Parkeston Yard for warm storage. It is hoped that one of the sister 745/0s will be in traffic on a London - Norwich diagram by the end of this month so get your Skodas in now!
The Postcard
A postcard that was published by the Lansdowne Production Co. of London. The image is a glossy real photograph, and the card was printed in Great Britain.
Note the Landseer lions and the Routemaster buses.
The card was posted in Barnes on Tuesday the 3rd. August 1954 to:
Miss Margaret Cumming,
1029, Pakington Street,
Victoria,
British Columbia.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Mon. Aug/ 2/ 54.
On my way up the Thames
River to see Hampton Court.
We are seeing a good many
sights of London.
We expect to leave about
the beginning of the week
and wend our way north.
Had a good continental
trip of 25 days.
The weather is not hot here,
but it isn't raining, at least.
Had lunch with Alice on
Thursday. She looks well &
has enjoyed herself.
Home on Labor Day,
Lola."
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, established in the early 19th. century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross.
The square commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on the 21st. October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar in South-West Spain.
The name "Trafalgar" is a Spanish word of Arabic origin, derived from either Taraf al-Ghar (Cape of the Cave/Laurel) or Taraf al-Gharb (Extremity of the West).
The site around Trafalgar Square had been a significant landmark since the 1200's. For centuries, distances measured from Charing Cross have served as location markers.
The site of the present square formerly contained the elaborately designed, enclosed courtyard, King's Mews. After George IV moved the mews to Buckingham Palace, the area was redeveloped by John Nash, but progress was slow after his death, and the square did not open until 1844.
The 169-foot (52 m) Nelson's Column at its centre is guarded by four lion statues.
A number of commemorative statues and sculptures occupy the square, but the Fourth Plinth, left empty since 1840, has been host to contemporary art since 1999.
Prominent buildings facing the square include the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Canada House, and South Africa House.
The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday in 1887, the culmination of the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests, and campaigns against climate change.
On Bloody Sunday violent clashes took place between the police and demonstrators, many "armed with iron bars, knives, pokers and gas pipes". Up to 400 protesters were arrested and 75 persons were badly injured, including many police, with two policemen being stabbed and one protester bayonetted.
A Christmas tree has been donated to the square by Norway since 1947, and is erected for twelve days before and after Christmas Day.
The square is a centre of annual celebrations on New Year's Eve. It was well known for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early 21st. century.
Colette
So what else happened on the day that Lola posted the card?
Well, the 3rd. August 1954 marked the death of Colette.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who was born on the 28th. January 1873, known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters.
She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name. Her short story collection The Tendrils of the Vine is also famous in France.
Colette - The Early Years - 1873 to 1912
Colette was born to war hero Jules-Joseph Colette (1829–1905) and his wife Adèle Eugénie Sidonie ("Sido"), née Landoy (1835–1912), in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye in the department of Yonne, Burgundy.
Jules-Joseph Colette was a Zouave of the Saint-Cyr military school. A war hero who had lost a leg in the Second Italian War of Independence, he was awarded a post as tax collector in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye where his children were born.
Colette was the youngest of four children. Colette attended a public school from the age of 6 until she was 17. The family was initially well off, but poor financial management substantially reduced the family's income.
In 1893, Colette married Henry Gauthier-Villars (1859–1931), a well-known author and publisher who used the pen name "Willy."
Her first four novels – the four Claudine stories: Claudine à l'École (1900), Claudine à Paris (1901), Claudine en Ménage (1902), and Claudine s'en va (1903) – appeared under his name.
The novels chart the coming of age and young adulthood of their heroine, Claudine, from an unconventional fifteen-year-old in a Burgundian village to a doyenne of the literary salons of turn-of-the-century Paris. The story they tell is semi-autobiographical, although Claudine, unlike Colette, is motherless.
The marriage to Gauthier-Villars allowed Colette to devote her time to writing. She later said she would never have become a writer if it had not been for Willy. Fourteen years older than his wife, and one of the most notorious libertines in Paris, he introduced his wife into avant-garde intellectual and artistic circles, and encouraged her lesbian alliances.
And it was he who chose the titillating subject matter of the Claudine novels:
"The secondary myth of Sappho...
the girls' school or convent ruled
by a seductive female teacher."
Willy locked Colette in her room until she produced enough pages to suit him.
Colette and Willy separated in 1906, although their divorce was not final until 1910. Colette had no access to the sizable earnings of the Claudine books – the copyright belonged to Willy – and until 1912 she initiated a stage career in music halls across France, sometimes playing Claudine in sketches from her own novels, earning barely enough to survive, and often hungry and ill.
To make ends meet, she turned to journalism in the 1910's. Around this time she also became an avid amateur photographer. This period of her life is recalled in La Vagabonde (1910), which deals with women's independence in a male society, a theme to which she would regularly return in future works.
During these years Colette embarked on a series of relationships with other women, notably with Natalie Clifford Barney and with the gender-ambiguous Mathilde de Morny, the Marquise de Belbeuf ("Max"), with whom she sometimes shared the stage.
On the 3rd. January 1907, an onstage kiss between Max and Colette in a pantomime entitled "Rêve d'Égypte" caused a near-riot, and as a result, they were no longer able to live together openly, although their relationship continued for another five years.
In 1912, Colette married Henry de Jouvenel, the editor of Le Matin. A daughter, Colette de Jouvenel, nicknamed Bel-Gazou, was born to them in 1913.
Colette's Writing Career, 1920's and 1930's
In 1920 Colette published Chéri, portraying love between an older woman and a much younger man. Chéri is the lover of Léa, a wealthy courtesan; Léa is devastated when Chéri marries a girl his own age and delighted when he returns to her, but after one final night together she sends him away again.
Colette's marriage to Jouvenel ended in divorce in 1924, due partly to his infidelities, and partly to her affair with her 16-year-old stepson, Bertrand de Jouvenel.
In 1925 she met Maurice Goudeket, who became her final husband; the couple stayed together until her death.
Colette was by then an established writer (The Vagabond had received three votes for the prestigious Prix Goncourt). The decades of the 1920's and 1930's were her most productive and innovative period.
Set mostly in Burgundy or Paris during the Belle Époque, her work focused on married life and sexuality. It was frequently quasi-autobiographical: Chéri (1920) and Le Blé en Herbe (1923) both deal with love between an aging woman and a very young man, a situation reflecting her relationship with Bertrand de Jouvenel and with her third husband Goudeket, who was 16 years her junior.
La Naissance du Jour (1928) is Colette's explicit criticism of the conventional lives of women, expressed in meditation on age and the renunciation of love by the character of her mother, Sido.
By this time Colette was frequently acclaimed as France's greatest woman writer. Janet Flanner wrote the following about Sido (1929):
"It... has no plot, and yet tells of three lives
all that should be known. Once again, and
at greater length than usual, she has been
hailed for her genius, humanities and perfect
prose by those literary journals which years
ago lifted nothing at all in her direction except
the finger of scorn."
During the 1920's Colette was associated with the Jewish-Algerian writer Elissa Rhaïs, who adopted a Muslim persona in order to market her novels.
Colette - the Later Years, 1940–1954
Colette was 67 years old when the Germans defeated and occupied France, and she remained in Paris, in her apartment in the Palais-Royal.
Her husband Maurice Goudeket, who was Jewish, was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1941, and although he was released after seven weeks through the intervention of the French wife of the German ambassador, Colette lived through the rest of the war years with the anxiety of a possible second arrest.
During the Occupation she produced two volumes of memoirs, Journal à Rebours (1941) and De ma Fenêtre (1942).
Surprisingly Colette wrote lifestyle articles for several pro-Nazi newspapers, and her novel Julie de Carneilhan (1941) contains many anti-Semitic slurs.
In 1944, Colette published what became her most famous work, Gigi, which tells the story of sixteen-year-old Gilberte ("Gigi") Alvar. Born into a family of demimondaines, Gigi is trained as a courtesan to captivate a wealthy lover, but defies the tradition by marrying him instead.
In 1949 it was made into a French film starring Danièle Delorme and Gaby Morlay, then in 1951 adapted for the stage with the then-unknown Audrey Hepburn in the title role, picked by Colette personally.
The 1958 Hollywood musical movie, starring Leslie Caron and Louis Jourdan, with a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and a score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In the postwar years, Colette became a famous public figure, crippled by arthritis and cared for by Goudeket, who supervised the preparation of her Œuvres Complètes (1948 – 1950).
She continued to write during those years, bringing out L'Étoile Vesper (1944) and Le Fanal Bleu (1949), in which she reflected on the problems of a writer whose inspiration is primarily autobiographical.
She was nominated by Claude Farrère for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
Colette the Journalist
Colette's first pieces of journalism (1895-1900) were written in collaboration with her husband, Gauthier-Villars -- music reviews for La Cocarde, a daily founded by Maurice Barres, and a series of pieces for La Fronde.
Following her divorce from Gauthier-Villars in 1910, she wrote independently for a wide variety of publications, gaining considerable renown for her articles covering social trends, theatre, fashion, and film, as well as crime reporting.
In December 1910, Colette agreed to write a regular column in the Paris daily, Le Matin -- at first under a pseudonym, then as "Colette Willy."
One of her editors was Henry de Jouvenel, whom she married in 1912. By 1912, Colette had taught herself to be a reporter:
"You have to see and not invent, you
have to touch, not imagine .. because,
when you see the sheets at a crime
scene drenched in fresh blood, they
are a color you could never invent."
In 1914, Colette was named Le Matin's literary editor. Her separation from Jouvenel in 1923 forced her to sever ties with Le Matin.
Over the next three decades her articles appeared in over two dozen publications, including Vogue, Le Figaro, and Paris-Soir.
During the German Occupation of France, Colette continued contributing to daily and weekly publications, a number of them collaborationist and pro-Nazi, including Le Petit Parisien, which became pro-Vichy after January 1941, and La Gerbe, a pro-Nazi weekly.
Though her articles were not political in nature, Colette was sharply criticized at the time for lending her prestige to these publications and implicitly accommodating herself to the Vichy regime.
Her 26th. November 1942 article, "Ma Bourgogne Pauvre" has been singled out by some historians as tacitly accepting some of the ultra-nationalist goals that hard-line Vichyist writers espoused.
After 1945, her journalism was sporadic, and her final pieces were more personal essays than reported stories. Over the course of her writing career, Colette published over 1200 articles for newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Colette's Death and Legacy
Upon Colette's death at the age of 81 in Paris on the 3rd. August 1954, she was refused a religious funeral by the Catholic Church on account of her divorces, but given a state funeral, the first French woman of letters to be granted the honour, and laid to rest in Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
Colette's numerous biographers have proposed widely differing interpretations of her life and work over the decades. Initially considered a limited if talented novelist (despite the outspoken admiration in her lifetime of figures such as André Gide and Henry de Montherlant), she has been increasingly recognised as an important voice in women's writing.
Before Colette's death, Katherine Anne Porter wrote in the New York Times that:
"Colette is the greatest living French
writer of fiction; and was while Gide
and Proust still lived."
Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash paid tribute to the writer in the song, "The Summer I Read Colette", on her 1996 album 10 Song Demo.
Truman Capote wrote an essay in 1970 about meeting her, called "The White Rose". It tells how, when she saw him admiring a paperweight on a table (the "white rose" of the title), she insisted he take it; Capote initially refused the gift, but:
"When I protested that I couldn’t accept
as a present something she so clearly
adored, she replied 'My dear, really there
is no point in giving a gift unless one also
treasures it oneself.'”
"Lucette Stranded on the Island" by Julia Holter, from her 2015 album Have You in My Wilderness, is based on a minor character from Colette's short story Chance Acquaintances.
In the 1991 film Becoming Colette, Colette is played by the French actress Mathilda May.
In the 2018 film Colette, the title character is played by Keira Knightley. Both films focus on Colette's life in her twenties, her marriage to her first husband, and the publication of her first novels under his name.
Notable works of Colette
-- Claudine à l'École (1900)
-- Claudine à Paris (1901)
-- Claudine en Ménage (1902)
-- Claudine s'en va (1903)
-- Dialogues de Bêtes (1904)
-- La Retraite Sentimentale (1907)
-- Les Vrilles de la Vigne (1908)
-- La Vagabonde (1910)
-- L'Envers du Music Hall (1913)
-- L'Entrave (1913)
-- La Paix Chez les Bêtes (1916)
-- L'Enfant et les Sortilèges (1917)
-- Mitsou (1919)
-- Chéri (1920)
-- La Maison de Claudine (1922)
-- L'Autre Femme (1922)
-- Le Blé en Herbe (1923)
-- La Fin de Chéri (1926)
-- La Naissance du Jour (1928)
-- Sido (1929)
-- La Seconde (1929)
-- Le Pur et l'Impur (1932)
-- La Chatte (1933)
-- Duo (1934)
-- Julie de Carneilhan (1941)
-- Le Képi (1943)
-- Gigi (1944)
-- Paris de ma Fenêtre (1944)
-- L'Étoile Vesper (1947)
-- Le Fanal Bleu (1949)
-- Paradis Terrestre (1953)
David Whitfield
Also on the 3rd. August 1954, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Cara Mia' by David Whitfield and the Mantovani Orchestra.
David Whitfield (2nd. February 1925 – 15th. January 1980) was a popular British male tenor vocalist from Hull. He became the first British artist to have a UK No. 1 single in the UK and in the United States with Cara Mia.
David died from a brain haemorrhage in Sydney, Australia, while on tour at the age of 54.
All Hallow's Eve.
And Saturday. The weekend. Shopping has been done, so we can do whatever we want.
Or what the restrictions will allow.
And as churches seem pretty much locked down, we have to find something else to do.
So, as the oroginal art from the orchid book had arrived, I needed to get it framed, so we decide to go to Sandwich for a wander, take some shots and get the picture into the framers.
As usual, for a Saturday, I am awake at the normal time, just after five, and so lay in bed until light shows in the window.
I go down to make coffee, feed the cats and get us ready for the day. Outside it is a fine morning, the sun rose just before seven, and all seemed well with the world.
Even better when we have the second coffee with croissants, tidy up and am ready to leave the house at half eight. The framing shop didn't open to ten, giving me an hour to wander round, snapping.
Almost no traffic on east Kent roads, meaning we drive along to Deal, along the prom and then down through the town centre and out to Sholden and Worth. We arrive in Sandwich, park behind the Guildhall, and see that the cheese shop, No Name Shop in No Name Street, was already open, so we go over and manager to spend thirty quid on curdled dairy products and a couple of apple and rhubarb tarts, which we would eat mid=afternoon with a coffee.
We put the cheese and tarts in the car, and set off through the town, me drawn towards St Peter's, which was open, though for an craft fayre, but with the stalls being set up, I was able to go round and rattle of thirty or so shots of the fixtures and fittings, as I had managed to take just nine shots when I was there eleven years ago.
We end up on the narrow street that runs beside the river, I see that there is a cafe open opposite the framing shop, so we go in for second breakfast. We sit outside as it was just about warm enough in the milky sunshine, though the breeze was keen. I have bacon and sausage butty and a pot of tea. Breakfast of champions. JOols has a bagel with smoked salmon, avacado and stuff generally healthy.
I drop the picture off, pick a frame and mounting board.
Walking out we were amazed by the amount of traffic along the narrow streets, so Jools asked me what we should do now? Go home.
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Easily identified from afar by its unusual cupola built in the seventeenth century to complete the reconstruction of the tower following its total collapse. The base of the tower still displays some medieval stonework, whereas the top is seventeenth-century brick. The interior is tall and light with a heavily timbered crownpost roof. Among many items of interest the church contains three fine canopied wall monuments. One of them shows a husband and wife of mid-fourteenth-century date. Their heads are turned a little to the south to face the altar and they have a particularly animated lion at their feet. The church is now maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust who allow the nave to be used for a variety of alternative uses. The Trust also has charge of St Mary's church a little further down the road and visitors are welcomed at both.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sandwich+3
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THE town of Sandwich is situated on the north-east confines of this county, about two miles from the sea, and adjoining to the harbour of its own name, through which the river Stour flows northward into the sea at Pepperness. It is one of the principal cinque ports, the liberty of which extends over it, and it is within the jurisdiction of the justices of its own corporation.
Sandwich had in antient time several members appertaining to it, (fn. 1) called the antient members of the port of Sandwich; these were Fordwich, Reculver, Sarre, Stonar, and Deal; but in the later charters, the members mentioned are Fordwich incorporated, and the non-corporated members of Deal, Walmer, Ramsgate, Stonar, Sarre, all in this county, and Brightlingsea, in Sussex; but of late years, Deal, Walmer, and Stonar, have been taken from it; Deal, by having been in 1699 incorporated with the charter of a separate jurisdiction, in the bounds of which Walmer is included; and Stonar having been, by a late decision of the court of king's bench in 1773, adjudged to be within the jurisdiction of the county at large.
The first origin of this port was owing to the decay of that of Richborough, as will be further noticed hereafter. It was at first called Lundenwic, from its being the entrance to the port of London, for so it was, on the sea coast, and it retained this name until the supplanting of the Saxons by the Danes, when it acquired from its sandy situation a new name, being from thenceforward called Sandwic, in old Latin, Sabulovicum, that is, the sandy town, and in process of time, by the change of language, Sandwich.
Where this town now stands, is supposed, in the time of the Romans, and before the decay of the haven, or Portus Rutupinus, to have been covered with that water, which formed the bay of it, which was so large that it is said to have extended far beyond this place, on the one side almost to Ramsgate cliffs, and on the other near five miles in width, over the whole of that flat of land, on which Stonar and Sandwich too, were afterwards built, and extending from thence up to the æstuary, which then flowed up between the Isle of Thanet and the main land of this county.
During the time of the Saxons, the haven and port of Richborough, the most frequented of any in this part of Britain, began to decay, and swarve up, the sea by degrees entirely deserting it at this place, but still leaving sufficient to form a large and commodious one at Sandwich, which in process of time, became in like manner, the usual resort for shipping, and arose a Flourishing harbour in its stead; from which time the Saxon fleets, as well as those of the Danes, are said by the historians of those times, to sail for the port of Sandwich; and there to lie at different times, and no further mention is made of that of Richborough, which being thus destroyed, Sandwich became the port of general resort; which, as well as the building of this town, seems to have taken place, however, some while after the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, and the first time that is found of the name of Sandwich being mentioned and occurring as a port, is in the life of St. Wilfred, archbishop of York, written by Eddius Stephanus; in which it is said, he and his company, prosper in portum Sandwich, atque suaviter pervenerunt, happily and pleasantly arrived in the harbour of Sandwich, which happened about the year 665, or 666, some what more than 200 years after the arrival of the Saxons in Britain. During the time of the Danes insesting this kingdom, several of their principal transactions happened at this place, (fn. 2) and the port of it became so much frequented, that the author of queen Emma's life stiles it the most noted of all the English ports; Sandwich qui est omnium Anglorum portuum famosissimus.
FROM THE TIME of the origin of the town of Sandwich, the property of it was vested in the several kings who reigned over this country, and continued so till king Ethelred, in the year 979, gave it, as the lands of his inheritance, to Christ-church, in Canterbury, free from all secular service and fiscal tribute, except the repelling invasions, and the repairing of bridges and castles. (fn. 3) After which king Canute, having obtained the kingdom, finished the building of this town, and having all parts and places in the realm at his disposal, as coming to the possession of it by conquest, by his charter in the year 1023, gave, or rather restored the port of Sandwich, with the profits of the water of it, on both sides of the stream, for the support of that church, and the sustenance of the monks there.
Soon after this, the town of Sandwich increased greatly in size and inhabitants, and on account of the commodity and use of its haven, and the service done by the shipping belonging to it, was of such estimation, that it was made one of the principal cinque ports; and in king Edward the Confessor's days it contained three hundred and seven houses, and was an hundred within itself; and it continued increasing, as appears by the description of it, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno 1080, in which it is thus entered, under the title of the lands of the archbishop:
Sandwice lies in its own proper hundred. This borough the archbishop holds, and it is of the clothing of the monks, and yields the like service to the king as Dover; and this the men of that borough testify, that before king Edward gave the same to the Holy Trinity, it paid to the king fisteen pounds. At the time of King Edward's death it was not put to ferme. When the archbishop received it, it paid forty pounds of ferme, and forty thousand herrings to the food of the monks. In the year in which this description was made, Sanuuic paid fifty pounds of ferme, & Herrings as above. In the time of king Edward the Confessor there were there three hundred and seven mansions tenanted, now there are seventy six more, that is together three hundred and eighty three.
And under the title of the bishop of Baieux's lands, as follows, under the description of the manor of Gollesberge:
In Estrei hundred, in Sandunic, the archbishop has thirty two houses, with plats of land belonging to this manor,(viz. Gollesberge) and they pay forty-two shil lings and eight pence, and Adeluuold has one yoke, which is worth ten shillings.
These houses, with all the liberties which the bishop of Baieux had in Sandwich, had been given by him to Christ-church, in Canterbury, and confirmed to it in the year 1075, by his brother the Conqueror. (fn. 4)
Afterwards king Henry II. granted to the monks the full enjoyment of all those liberties and customs in Sandwich, which they had in the time of king Henry his grandfather, that is, the port and toll, and all maritime customs in this port, on both sides of the water, that is, from Eadburgate unto Merksflete, and the small boat to ferry across it, and that no one should have any right there except them and their servants.
The town, by these continued privileges, and the advantages it derived from the great resort to the port, increased much in wealth and number of inhabitants; and notwithstanding, in the year 1217, anno 2 king Henry III. great part of the town was burnt by the French, yet the damage seems soon to have been recompenced by the savors bestowed on it by the several kings, in consideration of the services it had continually afforded, in the shipping of this port, to the nation. The first example of royal favor, being shewn by the last-mentioned king, was in his 11th year, who not only confirmed the customs before granted, but added the further grant of a market to this town and port, (fn. 5) and in his 13th year granted the custom of taking twopence for each cask of wine received into it.
After which, the prior and convent of Christ-church, in the 18th year of King Edward I. gave up in exchange for other lands elsewhere, to his queen Eleanor, all their rights, possessions, and privileges here, excepting their houses and keys, and a free passage in the
haven, in the small boat, called the vere boat, (fn. 6) and free liberty for themselves and their tenants to buy and sell toll free, which the king confirmed that year; and as a favor to the town, he placed the staple for wool in it for some time.
The exception above-mentioned, was afterwards found to be so very prejudicial, as well as inconvenient, that king Edward III. in his 38th year, gave them other lands in Essex, in exchange for all their rights, privileges, and possessions, in this town and port. After which king Richard II. in his first year, removed the staple for wool from Queenborough, where it had been for some time, hither.
During the whole of this period from the time of the conquest, this port continued the general rendezvous of the royal sleets, and was as constantly visted by the several monarchs, who frequently embarked and returned again hither from France; the consequence of which was, that the town became so flourishing, that it had increased to between eight and nine hundred houses inhabited, divided into three parishes; and there were of good and able mariners, belonging to the navy of it, above the number of 1500; so that when there was occasion at any time, the mayors of it, on the receipt of the king's letters, furnished, at the town's charges, to the seas, fifteen sail of armed ships of war, which were of such continued annoyance to the French, that they in return made it a constant object of their revenge. Accordingly, in the 16th year of king Henry VI. they landed here and plundered the greatest part of the inhabitants, as they did again in the 35th year of it; but but this not answering the whole of their purpose, Charles VIII. king of France, to destroy it entirely, sent hither four thousand men, who landing in the night, after a long and bloody conflict gained possession of the town, and having wasted it with fire and sword, slew the greatest part of the inhabitants; and to add to these misfortunes it was again ransacked by the earl of Warwick, in the same reign.
To preserve the town from such disasters in future, king Edward IV. new walled, ditched, and fortifield it with bulwarks, and gave besides, for the support of them, one hundred pounds yearly out of the customhouse here; which, together with the industry and efforts of the merchants, who frequented this haven, the goodness of which, in any storm or contrary wind, when they were in danger from the breakers, or the Goodwin Sands, afforded them a safe retreat; in a very short time restored it again to a flourishing state, infomuch, that before the end of that reign, the clear yearly receipt of the customs here to that king, amounted to above the sum of 16 or 17,000l. (fn. 7) and the town had ninety five ships belonging to it, and above fifteen hundred sailors.
But this sunshine of prosperity lasted no long time afterwards, for in king Henry VII.'s time, the river Stour, or as it was at this place antiently called, the Wantsume, continued to decay so fast, as to leave on each side at low water, a considerable quantity of salts, which induced cardinal archbishop Moreton, who had most part of the adjoining lands belonging to his bishopric, for his own private advantage, to inclose and wall them in, near and about Sarre; which example was followed from time to time, by several owners of the lands adjoining, by which means the water was deprived of its usual course, and the haven felt the loss of it by a hasty decay. Notwithstanding which, so late as the first year of king Richard III. ships failed up this haven as high as Richborough, for that year, as ap pears by the corporation books of Sandwich, the mayor ordered a Spanish ship, lying on the outside of Richborough, to be removed. (fn. 8)
"Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII. gives the following description of Sandwich, as it was in his time. "Sandwich, on the farther side of the ryver of Sture, is neatly welle walled, where the town stonddeth most in jeopardy of enemies. The residew of the town is diched and mudde waulled. There be yn the town iiii principal gates, iii paroche chyrches, of the which sum suppose that St. Maries was sumtyme a nunnery. Ther is a place of White Freres, and an hospistal withowt the town, fyrst ordened for maryners desesid and hurt. There is a place where monkes of Christ-church did resort, when they were lords of the towne. The caryke that was sonke in the haven, in pope Paulus tyme, did much hurt to the haven and gether a great bank. The grounde self from Sandwich to the heaven, and inward to the land, is caullid Sanded bay".
The sinking of this great ship of pope Paul IV. in the very mouth of the haven, by which the waters had not their free course as before, from the sand and mud gathering round about it, together with the innings of the lands on each side the stream, had such a fatal effect towards the decay of the haven, that in the time of king Edward VI. it was in a manner destroyed and lost, and the navy and mariners dwindled to almost nothing, and the houses then inhabited in this town did not exceed two hundred, the inhabitants of which were greatly impoverished; the yearly customs of the town, by reason of the insufficiency of the haven, were so desicient, that there was scarcely enough arising from it to satisfy the customer his fee. This occasioned two several commissions to be granted, one in the 2d year of that reign, and another in the 2d year of queen Eli zabeth, to examine the state of the haven, and make a return of it; in consequence of the first of which, a new cut was begun by one John Rogers, which, however, was soon left in an untinished state, though there are evident traces of what was done towards making this canal still remaining, on the grounds between the town and Sandowne castle; and in consequence of the second, other representations and reports were made, one of which was, that the intended cut would be useless, and of no good effect.
Whether these different reports where the occasion that no further progress was made towards this work, and the restoration of this haven, or the very great expence it was estimated at, and the great difficulty of raising so large a sum, being 10,000l which the queen at that time could no ways spare, but so it was, that nothing further was done in it.
¶The haven being thus abandoned by the queen, and becoming almost useless, excepting to vessels of the small burthen before mentioned, the town itself would before long have become impoverished and fallen wholly to decay, had it not been most singularly preserved, and raised again, in some measure, to great wealth and prosperity, occasioned by the persecution for religion in Brabant and Flanders, which communicated to all the Protestant parts of Europe, the paper, silk, woollen, and other valuable manufactures of Flanders and France, almost peculiar at that time to those countries, and till then, in vain attempted elsewhere; the manufacturers of them came in bodies up to London, and afterwards chose their situations, with great judgment, distributing themselves, with the queen's licence, through England, so as not to interfere too much with one another. The workers in sayes, baize, and flannel in particular, fixed themselves here, at Sandwich, at the mouth of a haven, by which they might have an easy communication with the metropolis, and other parts of this kingdom, and afforded them like wife an easy export to the continent. These manufacturers applied accordingly to the queen, for her protection and licence; for which purpose, in the third year of her reign, she caused letters patent to be passed, directed to the mayor, &c. to give liberty to such of them, as should be approved of by the archbishop, and bishop of London, to inhabit here for the purpose of exercising those manufactures, which had not been used before in England, or for shishing in the seas, not exceeding the number of twenty-five house holders, accounting to every household not above twelve persons, and there to exercise their trade, and have as many servants as were necessary for carrying them on, not exceeding the number above mentioned; these immediately repaired to Sandwich, to the number, men, women, and children, of four hundred and six persons; of which, eight only were masters in the trade. A body of gardeners likewife discovered the nature of the soil about Sandwich to be exceedingly favourable to the growth of all esculent plants, and fixed themselves here, to the great advantage of this town, by the increase of inhabitants, the employment of the poor, and the money which circulated; the landholders like wife had the great advantage of their rents being considerably increased, and the money paid by the town and neighbourhood for vegetables, instead of being sent from hence for the purchase of them, remained within the bounds of it. The vegetables grew here in great perfection, but much of them was conveyed at an easy expence, by water carriage, to London, and from thence dispersed over different parts of the kingdom.
These strangers, by their industry and prudent conduct, notwithstanding the obstructions they met with, from the jealousy of the native tradesmen, and the avarice of the corporation, very soon rose to a flourishing condition.
ST. PETER'S CHURCH stands nearly in the centre of the town; it consisted formerly of three isles, and in that state was next in size to St. Clement's which was the largest church in Sandwich. In 1641 it was certified to the lord keeper by the mayor, &c. that the steeple of St. Peter's church was in a very ruinous condition; that it was a principal sea mark, and that it was beyond the parishioners abilities to rebuild it; the estimate of the expence being 1500l. The steeple fell down on Sunday, Oct. 13, 1661, and demolished the south isle, which has never been rebuilt. There had been two sermons preached in it that day; it fell down about a quarter after eleven at night; had it fallen in the day time, the greatest part of the town and parish would probably have been killed and buried under the rubbish, but no one was hurt and few heard of it. The rubbish was three fathom deep in the middle of the church and the bells underneath it. This church, as well as the other two, seems to have been formerly constructed entirely, or at least cased externally, with the stone of Normandy, well squared, and neatly put together. The east end of the chancel is a good specimen of the old work, and there are detached portions of the same fort of masonry in other parts of the building.
The present structure, which is evidently the work of different times, is composed of fragments of the older fabric, mixed with Kentish rag and sand stone, and slints from the shore. The south isle is said to have been built by Sir John Grove, about the year 1447, and Sir Simon de Sandwich, warden of the cinque ports in Edward II.'s reign, both having given liberally towards the new building of the steeple. The present steeple is a square tower, built with the old materials to the height of the roof of the church, and from thence to the battlements with bricks of the haven mud. There are eight small, but musical bells, cast in 1779; they cost 430l. 12s. 6d. which expence was in great measure defrayed by the metal of the former six old bells; and a clock, which is the property of the corporation, who keep it in repair.
In this church there are the following monuments and inscriptions, among others too numerous to mention.—In the south isle, now in ruins, are the remains of a handsome tomb under an arch in the wall, in which was interred the body of Sir John Grove, who flourished in king Henry VI.'s reign, on which were his arms, now obliterated, viz.Three leaves in bend, on a canton, three crescents. There has been another arched monument in this wall, but all the ornamental parts are gone. In the north isle are several gravestones, with memorials for the Jenkinsons, for Jeffreys, and for the Olivers. On a large stone, coffin shaped, is a cross resting on a small dog or lion, and round the verge of the stone some mutilated gothic square characters cut in the stone, for Adam Stannar, priest. Part of another stone, with similar characters on it, lies in the same space a little to the westward. On a brass plate in black letter is an inscription for Thomas Gilbert, gent. searcher, of Kent, who married Katharine, daughter of Robert Fylmer, of East Sutton, in Kent, and had six sons and three daughters; arms, Gilbert, Gules, a saltier, or, on a chief, ermine, three piles, gules. He died in 1597. In this chancel a gravestone for Mr. Henry Furnese, obt. 1672; Anne his wife, obt. 1696. (They were the parents of Sir Henry Furnese, bart.) Mr. John Blanch, merchant, obt. 1718; Elizabeth his wife, daughter of the above Henry and Anne Furnese, obt. 1737. A memorial for Mary, first wife of Mr. John Solly, mercer, eldest sister of Sir Henry Furnese, bart, obt. 1685; and Mr. John Solly, obt. 1747. Within the altar rails are memorials for many of the family of Verrier of this town. On a marble monument against the north wall, an inscription for the Olivers. Opposite the above, a mural monument with an inscription for Henry Wife, esq. obt. 1769; Elizabeth his daughter, wife of Mr. Wm. Boys, obt. 1761; Mary his wife, obt. 1772; arms, Wife, sable, three chevronels, ermine. An oval tablet of marble for Elizabeth, wife of John Rolse, jun. gent. of New Romney, obt. 1780. A marble mural monument against the south wall, near the door of the nave, for the Jekens and Youngs. A marble tablet underneath for Susannah Wyborn, formerly wife of the above named Mr. Thomas Young, but late of Mr. William Wyborn, brewer, of this town, obt. 1755. On a marble tablet against the north wall of the nave, an inscription for the Jekens. The gallery at the west end of the north isle was built by subscription, and is secured to the subscribers by a faculty. There are stones in the church pointing out the licenced vaults of Brown; the Jeken family; Solly; and Ferrier; the Thurbarne family, a hatchment over it has three coats of arms, viz. Thurbarne, sable, a griffin passant, argent, with impalements. In the south east angle of the north isle is a vault, now belonging to the heirs of Mr. Solomon Ferrier, but built originally for the family of Mennes, whose atchievment, helm, and crest are suspended over the place. The arms are, Gules, a chevron, vaire, or, and azure, between three leopards faces of the second. In an escutcheon of pretence, quarterly, first and fourth, the royal arms of Scotland, debruised with a batton, sable; second and third, a ship with sails furled, within a double tressure, story, counterflory. In the wall of the north isle are three arches, under the eastermost, between the second and third windows, on an altar tomb are the mutilated figures of a man and woman lying at length in the dresses of the time, their heads supported by double pillows, a lion at his feet, a dog at hers; in the front of the tomb are narrow gothic arches. The tomb projects into the church-yard; the second arch is behind the pulpit; the tomb was exposed to view in digging a vault in 1770; its front is divided into six compart ments, in each of the four middle ones is a shield, the first of which has three wheat fans, a crescent in the centre; the second a fess fusilly, between three griffins beads; the third has three lions rampant, and the fourth is void; over this monument in stones in the wall, are two coats of arms, that on the right hand being fretty, a chief; and the other the ports arms, three demi lious, impaling three demi ships. Under the westermost arch, which does not penetrate through the wall, is an handsome altar tomb of Caen stone, in the front of which are six small shields; there were arms in all of them, but the bearing and colours are nearly effaced.
Dr. Harris says, in the north isle were buried Tho Ellis, esq. of Sandwich, and Margaret his wife; Sir Simon Sandwich, warden of the cinque ports temp. Edward II. who was a great benefactor to the building of the steeple of this church. The Sandwich MS. quoted by Mr. Boys, says, that the former of these lies buried here, under a most antient monument, and that John Ive, esq. a worshipful merchant likewise, and Maud his wife, lie buried under an arched sepulchre in the wall; and that here likewife were buried divers of the worshipful men of the Sandwich's knights. Through the wall that divides the chancel from the north isle has been an arched door, now closed up; and another in the opposite wall, from an inclosed chapel at the upper end of the south isle, between which and the small house appointed for the chaplains of Ellis's chantry, was a door of communication, which, as well as the arch, is still visible; but they are now shut up with masonry. This probably was the chapel, where these chantry priests performed divine offices.
There are inscriptions on boards of the benefactions to the parish by Sir Henry Furnese and Mr. Jarvis. The figure of Sir John Grove has lately been removed by Mr. Boys from the fallen isle, where it must soon have been destroyed, into the church beside the font, at which time his remains were searched for; an arched grave was found under the monument containing a coffin with the date 1664, so that probably the remains of Sir John Grove were removed from hence at the time that the isle was brought into its present ruinous state. The outward parts of the figure having been much injured by the weather and the trampling of boys, its position has been reversed, and the other parts brought to view, where the sculpture is remarkably sharp and elegant.
In 1564 it was ordered by the mayor, jurats, &c. that the church of St. Peter should be appropriated to the use of the Flemmings, on account of the plague; that they might be all at one place.
The church yard, which was much too small, has been considerably enlarged in 1776, and was consecrated by archbishop Moore, at his primary visitation on July 9, 1786
¶The church of St. Peter is a rectory, and was antiently of the alternate patronage of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, and of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty; but this was not without continual dispute made by the former, of the latter's right to it. At length this controversy was finally settled in the year 1227, anno 11th Henry III. when they mutually acknowledged each others right in future to the alternate presentation to it. After which, the abbot and convent continued in the possession of their interest in the patronage of this church, till the dissolution of their monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the hands of the crown, where their alternate turn of presentation to this rectory has ever since continued, the king being at this time entitled to it. The other alternate right of presentation has continued in the mayor, jurats, and commonalty, to the present time.
It is valued in the king's books at eight pounds. In 1640 here were communicants 825, and it was valued at eighty pounds. It is now a discharged living, of about the clear yearly value of fifty pounds. It pays five shilling to the archdeacon for procurations, and 3s. 4d. to the archbishop at his ordinary visitations.
The revenues of this rectory arise from dues, collected in like manner as in the other parishes in this town, from the house in this parish, and from the tithe of land belonging to St. Bartholomew's hospital, called Cowleez, containing about ten acres.
In 1776, there were in this parish 228 houses, and 958 inhabitants.
The oldest register begins in 1538, and ends in 1615; the one in use begins from that period.
Shot in a skiing resort called 'Ski Loveland' close to Denver. This kid had an awesome time and I was too scared of the cold and breaking my bones trying any adventure sports... I wish to try them sometime in future. :)
I am glad to deliver the Annual Lecture to the Association of Indian Diplomats consisting of great minds in this area who had represented our country in various parts of the world. My greetings to all of you. I am happy that the years of unique experience of all of you are made available to the younger generation by way of training programmes and publications and you are keeping yourself posted with the latest serving the interest of our country. I would suggest that you should bring out specific case studies of your rich diplomatic experience and the significant contribution made by our country in maintaining world peace. When I am with you, I was thinking what I can discuss with you. As I see the experience of the experienced amidst the current players of diplomacy with the energy of the future generation, I have chosen the topic of this lecture as "Past meets the present and creates the future".
Changing Phase of Diplomacy
Diplomacy is a dynamic process. It depends upon the state of the country, the state of the world, the global technological levels and aspirations of the human society. In future we may also move towards getting material from Moon and creation of habitat in Mars. Above all we have to keep peace in space. From the earlier cold war era, the world has become uni-polar. A number of economic powers are emerging in the world such as South East Asia, Gulf Countries, Brazil, China and India apart from the existing USA, EU, Japan and Russia. The revolutions in integrated circuit technology, internet, communication and space technologies have shrunk the distances and created a global village and Genetic Engineering has created a new dimension for healthcare. Thinking globally and acting locally has become a reality. The technologies have revolutionized the communication and contact among the world citizens and large population has their realistic appreciation of situation in other parts of the world. The borderless world enables optimal utilization of talent across the world be it science, technology, industry, economy and business. India, in particular, has demonstrated its upswing in economic development, and also in the field of space, nuclear science, Pharma and auto industries on a strong foundation of its democratic process. We have become a software capital of the world and the contribution of the Indian Diaspora, business leaders and talents in arts and sports are becoming increasingly visible in various parts of the world. Multinational companies are evincing great interest in starting new joint ventures with Indian companies. However the pace of progress will further increase if the country adopts a single window clearance system for foreign investment. The interaction among the reputed academic institutions from all over the world with Indian institutions is on the increase. Indian companies based on their technological and managerial excellence are able to take over large industries abroad.
Now, I would like to share with you my personal experience in dealing with the foreign collaboration which was mainly possible by the counseling, guidance and effective follow-up on a mission mode by our diplomatic community.
Pan African e-Network
During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as Sudan, Tanzania, Tanzania-Zanzibar and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African Parliament on 16 Sept 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads of 53 member countries of the African unit. Based on my study of the communication, healthcare and education needs of the African countries, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network for providing seamless and integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting 53 African countries.
The proposal was to use the core competencies of our country in the field of IT for providing at least one hub in each of the African countries through which various e-services like tele-education, tele-medicine and e-governance could be provided. Pan African e-Network project brings together the terrestrial network between India and Africa through the international under sea fiber cable network and also the African satellite network services to provide education and health care services from India and Africa to the 53 Pan African nations and also connecting the 53 heads of the state. The universities and Super Specialty hospitals of Africa will also use this Pan African e-Network to provide services and content. I am happy to inform you that this offer has been received very well all over the African Continent and 20 countries will be connected in the first half of 2007 and the rest will be operationalized by early 2008 at a cost of $100 million.
Role of Diplomacy in Programme Execution
Now, I would like to give the sequence of events which took place before signing of the MoU between India and African Union for implementation of Pan-African e-network project. As soon as the project was announced, a technical committee was appointed by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to generate the project report. The project report was evolved in sixteen weeks’ time coordinated by MEA with technical experts drawn from Department of Space, Rashtrapati Bhavan and Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL). MEA had also interacted with African Union (AU) and member countries in this period. After review by PMO, MEA organized presentation of the project report by a high level team to Chairman and members of the AU. AU also constituted a Technical Review Committee consisting of members drawn from AU and International organizations. The final presentation was made by the Indian team to the Technical Review Committee which observed that this proposal is in line with the missions and objectives of the African Union and provides tremendous potential for achieving the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) through the use of innovative ICT.
Meanwhile, a presentation was made at Rashtrapati Bhavan to the 28 Ambassadors of Pan African countries stationed in Delhi. They also visited ISRO and also familiarized themselves with the operational tele-medicine facilities. I have seen the active contribution of MEA team members and the Indian Ambassador at Ethiopia in coordinating various activities connected with the project in a mission mode by comprehensively addressing the technical, programmatic, financial, contractual and international relationship angle. This enabled signing of the MoU on 27th October 2005.
An International Joint Venture – BRAHMOS
Similarly, I would like to recall the contribution of our MEA team in Russia in the signing of Indo-Russian Joint Venture agreement for BRAHMOS. BRAHMOS is a unique experience for design, development, production and marketing of a missile system - an Indo-Russian joint venture with equal scientific and technological and financial partnership. What we have achieved through this venture is the development and realization of a world-class product using the synergy of technological competence and consortium of industries of partner countries. The BRAHMOS missile is the first supersonic operational cruise missile existing in the world today and can be launched from any type of platform - land, sea, and air and precisely reach the targets either on land or at sea with high lethal effect. The missile has been inducted by the Indian Navy. In addition, the product being internationally competitive, it is able to service a large market with availability in time and state of the art performance at a competitive cost. This has enabled early entry of the product into the world market well before any competitor could emerge. This proves that if the core competencies of nations are combined, best of knowledge products can emanate well ahead of time. This being a new initiative, diplomacy had to play a unique role in visualizing the benefits of the programme to both sides while committing the co-operation and resources.
I am mentioning these examples to illustrate how our diplomatic community closely working with our technological and administrative segments of the Government can facilitate time bound accomplishment of mutually beneficial, multi-lateral, complex international collaborative initiative.
Nalanda Indo-Asian Institute of Learning
Now, I would like to mention about another evolving international partnership as an Indian initiative. To recapture the past glory in the modern context, in keeping with Buddha’s teaching for seeking knowledge in a holistic way by understanding the interconnectedness of things in life and the Universe, it has been proposed to establish a Bodhgaya Nalanda Indo-Asian Institute of Learning in partnership with select Asian countries. I proposed this as one of the missions of Bihar to the Legislative Assembly on 28th March 2006. Bihar Government, MEA and our missions in the South-East Asian countries have a great opportunity to implement this in a mission mode. All of you, with tremendous experience in various countries may be able to support MEA in this mission. You may also be able to support the Bihar Government on the development of spiritual tourism circuits attracting tourists from the country and abroad and particularly the people of south-east Asian countries.
World Knowledge Platform
During my visit to South-East-Asian countries in February 2006, I proposed a joint working programme called World Knowledge Platform. “World Knowledge Platform”, will integrate the core competencies of the partner countries to develop knowledge products. This platform will enable joint design, development, cost effective production and marketing of the knowledge products in various domains based on the core competence of partner nations to international market.
Missions of World Knowledge Platform: The convergence of Bio, Nano and ICT is expected to touch every area of concern to the humanity. The “World Knowledge Platform” will take up the missions, in some of the areas given below, which are of utmost urgency to all of us to make our world a safe, sustainable, peaceful and prosperous place to live:
1. Energy: Leading to Energy independence using four types of energy systems; solar power using high efficient CNT solar cells, thorium based nuclear reactors and energy from bio-fuel such as bio-diesel and ethanol and hydrogen based fuel cells.
2. Water: Desalination, channelization and networking of rivers, layered wells for water storage in hill regions and flood control, water harvesting, water recycling, treatment and water management.
3. Healthcare: Diagnosis, drug delivery system, development of vaccines for HIV/TB, Malaria and Cardiac diseases, detection and cure of diabetics.
4. Agriculture and Food processing: Increased production of food grain in an environment of reduced land, reduced water and reduced manpower; preservation of food; food processing; cost effective storage and distribution.
5. Knowledge products: Hardware, Software and Networking and Storage Products including handheld micro and nano electronic devices.
6. Transportation systems: Fossil fuel free transportation systems using renewable energies, safety systems, Hardware and embedded software integration.
7. Habitat: Energy efficient, water efficient, pollution free habitat
8. Disaster Prediction and Management: Earth quake forecasting, assessing the quantum of rain for particular cloud condition.
9. Capacity Building: Quality human resource development for all the above areas including the development of personnel with world class skills.
The world knowledge platform will also evolve a virtual design centre with the participation of collaborating countries. India and partner countries can jointly take certain missions in the World Knowledge Platform. World knowledge Platform will be the launch pad for many innovations that are waiting to be unearthed only by the combined power of partnering nations. In addition to the above task, I foresee research on international peace and understanding with multi-country partnership could be a subject of common interest. This subject can encompass all areas of human development including enlightened citizenship and collective methods to combat obstacles to development particularly all forms of terrorism. I can see with your intimate knowledge of our country’s cultural and spiritual heritage and your exposure to multiple nations and their culture, you can contribute by assisting in evolution of Prosperous India and peaceful planet Earth.
Conclusion
With the above background, I would like to suggest the following missions for the Association of Indian Diplomats:
1. Publication of case studies of effective diplomatic intervention in promoting business, science and social activities for mutual benefits to India and the partner countries.
2. Strategy for showcasing the current Indian development to the various parts of the world to generate joint programmes for mutually benefits. Apart from science, technology and industry based category of products for business promotion, our diplomats can study the core competence of every one of our Panchayats and try to link the core competencies of rural enterprises into a marketable export product in a sustainable manner.
3. 25 million Indians living abroad are bubbling with an urge, “what I can give for India”. All of you with your experience in various countries may be able to suggest how this energy can be further channelised.
4. Members of Association of Indian Diplomats can take up a task to redefine the role of diplomacy when India is progressing to become a developed nation by 2020 for consideration of the Government.
5. Development of potential of India as a meeting of minds of human thinkers from various countries to develop enlightened citizenship as part of world knowledge platform.
6. The association of Diplomats may consider making suitable recommendations for further facilitating welfare of NRIs and mechanism for solving their issues so that our Ambassadors can win the confidence of the people of Indian origin in all countries.
7. Largest remittance is coming from the NRIs in Gulf Countries. The association of diplomats may like to study the special problems of people of Indian origin in Gulf countries and make suitable recommendations for their entry, working, living and exit.
My best wishes to all the participants of this Annual Lecture of the Association of Indian Diplomats and their families for success in their mission of better international understanding.
May God bless you.
It's taken four weeks but finally an electric bus has finally got onto the sundays-only service 500, which was booked to use an electric bus from day one but this had not been possible due to technical problems with the charger at Askham Bar.
Following a decision by the council council to remove subsidies for sunday buses en-masse, First York has attempted to keep some favourable areas connected with a bus link to the city centre by means of route 500 - this runs from Foxwood Lane through Acomb Park and the Woodthorpe loop to Askham Bar Tesco and then the Park and Ride site before leaving the P&R site at the top entrance normally only used by cars, and then along Sim Balk Lane to the village of Bishopthorpe. The service is free and the idea is that passengers board the 500 and travel to Askham Bar where they change for the hite Line 3 service to the city centre - this is operating on sundays only until the end of the year when the trial period ends, and it will also be running on December 27 when a "Sunday+" service will be in operation from First.
Andy Burbridge is back on the 500 for the second week running, and has fished out fully-electric Optare Versa EV YJ15 AYO to run the route today. As the university has finished its winter term and the students get a month or so off back home, this bus isn't required on the 56 service today. The 500 is timed to give a period of about 40 minutes in the early afternoon whereby the bus can park at Askham Bar and be recharged so as to continue for the rest of the day; however the batteries on these apparently weren't designed to be fast-charged, and so this in combination with the cold weather is notably reducing the range these buses can run on a charge - so the journey to Bishopthorpe and back immediately after the charging period was carried out by a different Versa so as to allow this a full hour on charge. In future weeks if a Versa is used again on the 500, it may be that this same turn to Bishopthorpe and back is run by a bus pulled off the 3 such as a Citaro (which will be interesting!) or that the very first journey of the day is run by something else.
In this photo 49912 is seen on Moor Lane at Acomb Park in some late afternoon winter sunshine, the road going off to the left used to be the turning circle for route 12 when it terminated at Acomb Park. A timetable for the 500 can be seen in the bus stop display case, which also happens to be pink to match the bus!
WRUA Member Rusi Chelangat filling a potting bag with soil:
"We live along the river and we use the water mutually with the forest. We have come here for the purpose of planting seedlings so that it will rehabilitate the forest. We even want to start another tree nursery near the river so that in future we leave a legacy for our children, that they learn their medicinal plants from their parents. We need financial support to start many indigenous tree nurseries."
"We would benefit from an exchange visit to see what is happening in other areas, so that we also come and plan with that knowledge in our activities."
Photo by Patrick Shepherd/CIFOR
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St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk
During their awesome reign over the other great teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool football club placed a huge sign in the changing room corridor, so that it was the last thing visiting teams saw before they walked out on to the pitch: This is ANFIELD, it warned. The name alone was enough. Similarly, the cover of the guidebook here proclaims, in a single word, SALLE. Again, it suffices; the word, pronounced to rhyme with call, stands for the building. Perhaps only the name Blythburgh has the same power in all East Anglia.
The greatest East Anglian churches were built in the 15th century. It is often observed that there can never have been enough people to fill them, but this is to miss the point. They were never intended for the forms of worship to which they now play host.
The shape of a late medieval church is not an accident. East Anglian parish churches of the 15th century had many common features; wide aisles to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a large nave for social activities, large windows to fill the building with light, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a pulpit for the preaching of orthodox doctrine, benches to enable the people to hear the preaching, and carvings, stained glass and wall paintings of the sacraments, Gospels and rosary mysteries, of the catechism and teaching of the Catholic Church.
As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a late medieval East Anglian church was a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new Church inherited buildings that were often unsuitable for congregational protestant liturgy - a problem that the Church of England has never satisfactorily solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the rise of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This Victorian conception of the medieval suited itself to congregational worship, and responded in a satisfactory way to the structure of the building. But still, of course, they weren't full.
This 19th century re-imagining is the condition in which we find most of them today, and Anglican theologians everywhere are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
It requires a shift in the mind to recall that these were not originally Anglican buildings, but it is a shift we need to make. The idea of a previously unchanging Church now confronting the demands of the modern age is wholly incorrect. These buildings have faced a variety of challenges over the centuries; they have only ever been truly suitable for the use for which they were originally built six hundred years ago.
Two of the largest late medieval churches in East Anglia are just three miles apart, at Cawston and Salle in the middle of Norfolk. These clusters are not uncommon; think of Blythburgh, Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, for example, or Lavenham and Long Melford in the same county. But Cawston and Salle are really close - you can see the tower of one from the other. St Peter and St Paul is a complete example of a 15th century rebuilding; St Agnes at Cawston retains its elegant earlier chancel.
If not merely for congregational worship, why were these churches built so big? Impressive as they seem now, they must have been awesome at the time they were built, since they were the only substantial buildings outside of the towns, and would have dwarfed the houses of the parish. Some were in villages; but many were not. Salle church has always been out in the fields. Why are earlier East Anglian churches not so massive? Certainly, East Anglia has its cathedrals; Norwich and Ely pre-date the great churches by several centuries, and Bury Abbey was bigger than either before its destruction. The great majority of East Anglia's churches are piecemeal affairs; typically, a 13th century chancel, which must have been the most substantial part of the building when it was first erected, an early 14th century nave and tower, and perhaps later elaborations of the piece with aisles and a clerestory. Salle and Cawston churches are both rebuildings of earlier structures, but a surprising number of East Anglian churches were not rebuilt, until perhaps the Victorians saw the need for a new chancel, or new aisles. Often, these smaller churches are exquisitely beautiful, as if beauty rather than grandeur was the imperative.
And then, towards the end of the 1340s, a great pestilence swept across Europe; in East Anglia, outside of Norwich which got off lightly, it killed perhaps a half of the population. In emptying the countryside, it completely altered the economic balance; a shortage of labour gave new power to the survivors, perhaps setting in place the preconditions for the capitalism that we can recognise by the 16th century. And, in extinguishing the flower of Decorated architecture, it also gave birth to the great love affair between the late medieval mind and death.
In Catholic theology there is no great divide between the dead and the living. For the medieval Christian, communion was something that existed between all members of the parish, whether alive or dead. Thus, prayers were said for the souls of the dead (who, it was presumed, were saying prayers for the souls of the living).
To ensure that prayers were said for them after their death, the very richest people endowed chantries. These were foundations, by which priests could be employed to say masses for their souls in perpetuity. A priest in such a capacity was called a chantry priest. The masses would be said at a chantry altar, probably in the nave; if the person was rich enough, this might be enclosed in a specially constructed chantry chapel. Many churches had them. After the Reformation, many were pressed into service as family mausoleums or pews.
For the poorest people, there was the opportunity to join a guild, where, for a penny or so a week, they could ensure that the guild chantry priest would say masses for their soul after their death (along with those of the other dead members of the guild). Many of these guilds were organised around particular occupations or devotions, and became a focus of social activity. The investment that produced the income to pay the chantry priests was most commonly in land. The church or guild oversaw the management of the land, which is one of the reasons we have an image of a wealthy pre-Reformation church. Land bought to produce income in this way was known as chantry land, a name surviving in many places today. Those who invested in chantries (and few and far between must have been those who didn't) presumed that they were ensuring prayers and masses in perpetuity; but, of course, this was not to be.
Bequests and chantries seem to have reached their peak in the 15th century. Perhaps the Black Death reinforced the urgency of the task. People did not merely want to be remembered; they wanted to be prayed for. And so, those who could afford it ensured that this was not forgotten by leaving their wealth in the very place that was at the centre of communion: the parish church. The richest paid for the additions of aisles and chapels, or for a new font or rood screen. This was not just a naked desire for the recognition of their family status. There was an underlying insecurity to the new landed classes. They wanted to control their destiny beyond their deaths. And so, their gift would be recorded in the form of a dedicatory inscription. One of these survives on the screen at Cawston, and another on the base of the font at Salle. Orate pro anima, they begin, "Pray for the soul of...", an injunction urgently emphasised by the pre-Reformation liturgy, only to be cursed and defaced by the later Anglicans and puritans. Stained glass was another common gift, as well as images, candlesticks, furnishings. Thus were many churches developed piecemeal.
But sometimes, where a parish could rely on a steady supply of substantial bequests, they might be channelled into a complete rebuilding, as at Salle, a summa cum laude apothesosis, where the new church of the late 15th century survives in pretty much its original form. Sometimes, a single wealthy family would shape and direct the rebuilding of a church. One of the richest families in East Anglia in the 14th and 15th centuries was the de la Poles, the Earls of Suffolk. Their mark can be found throughout East Anglia, but most famously and substantially at Wingfield in Suffolk, and at Cawston in Norfolk. Theirs was a long term project; at Cawston, the tower predates the furnishings of the nave and chancel by almost a century.
So why so vast? Certainly, it was ad maiorem deo gloria, to the Greater Glory of God; but it was also to the greater glory of the de la Poles and their contemporaries. The great landed families of England came into the late middle ages full of confidence, and they were determined to demonstrate it. They had survived the Black Death. They had grown richer on its consequences. They had assumed a political power unthinkable a few centuries before. They controlled not just the wealth but the imagination of their parishes. They asserted orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of rural superstitions and abuses. They imposed a homogenised Catholicism on late medieval England. And, as they increased their secular power and influence, a time would come when they would embrace the Great Idea already beginning to take shape on the continent - protestantism. But that was still in the future.
And so, to Salle. St Peter and St Paul is big. This is accentuated by the way in which it stands almost alone in the barley fields, with only a couple of Victorian buildings and a cricket pitch for company. What an idyllic spot! And yet there is an urban quality to the building, as if this was some great city church in the middle of Norwich or Bristol. It went up in the course of the 15th century, a replacement for an earlier building on the same site, broadly contemporary with neighbouring Cawston. While Cawston was largely the work of a single family, here the building benefited from an accident of history; several very wealthy families owned manors and halls in the parish at the same time, and it so happened that the time was the greatest era of rural church building.
Among them were the Boleyns, the Brewes, the Mautebys, the Briggs, the Morleys, the Luces and the Kerdistons, and some of their shields appear above the great west door, along with two mighty censing angels, characteristic of late medieval piety. A steady stream of hefty bequests meant that no expense needed to be spared, and the mighty tower with its vast bell openings was topped with battlements and pinnacles on the very eve of the Reformation.
As at Blythburgh, St Peter and St Paul benefited from the restraint of a late restoration, and the building as we see it now has no external Victorian additions. It is all of a piece. The porches either side are huge affairs, matching the transepts, and give the effect of a vast animal, a dragon perhaps, sprawling with erect head in the Norfolk countryside. Its tail is the chancel, in itself longer and higher than many Norfolk churches. The aisles are tall, austere, parapeted, the Perpendicular windows arcades of glass. In the porches, the vaulted ceilings are studded with bosses; the central one in the north porch depicts Christ in Majesty, sitting on a rainbow in judgement.
You enter the building from the west, an unusual experience in East Anglia, and your first sight is of the seven sacraments font with its tall 15th century canopy, similar to the cover at Cawston. This one is so big it is supported by a crane attached to the ringing gallery under the tower. The font below is interesting because each panel is supported by an angel holding a symbol of the sacrament above - a pot of chrism oil beneath Baptism, for example. The panels themselves are simply done, and are not particularly characterful, apart from the way that Mary turns away and is comforted at the Crucifixion. This panel faces west, and then anticlockwise are the Mass (viewed sideways, as at nearby Great Witchingham), Ordination (the candidate kneeling), Baptism (a server holds the book up for the Priest to read), Confirmation (the candidate obviously a child), Penance (perhaps the most interesting panel - the penitent kneels in a shriving pew), Matrimony (the couples' hands joined by a stole, she in late 15th century dress) and finally Last Rites (the dying man on the floor under blankets also as at Great Witchingham). The font step has a dedicatory inscription to John and Agnes Luce, asking for prayers for their souls. We know that John died in 1489. Perhaps the fabric of the building was complete by this date.
Beyond the font stretches the vastness of the building, the arcades gathering the eyes and leading them forward to the great east window. The chancel arch is barely there at all, just a simple high opening; but as MR James pointed out, it was never intended to be seen.The sheer bulk of the rood screen dado tells us quite how vast the rood apparatus must have been here, and the arch would have been pretty well hidden. Everything is built to scale; although everything has been cut off above the panels, probably in the late 1540s, the panels themselves are enormous, almost six feet high. As at Cawston, St Gregory, St Jerome, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the four Doctors of the Church, are on the doors. Either side are just two surviving paintings; to the north are Thomas and James, to the south are Philip and Bartholomew. The empty panels are a mystery; the screen stood here for a century before its destruction, so it must have been finished; and the dado seems too high to have been hidden by nave altars. And yet, it has all the appearance of never having been painted.
Because the building is so vast, the surviving medieval glass seems scattered, but there is actually a lot of it and some of it is very significant. Some was moved during the restoration of the early 20th century, when the modern glass in the north transept was installed, and the yellow galley lozenges were thankfully replaced with clear glass in the 1970s. The images in the east window are mainly figures; old kings kneel before young princes, there are armoured men and angels, the remains of a scaly dragon. In the centre at the bottom is a perfect Trinity shield, displayed by an angel looking askance.
Some of the panels are now in the south transept. These include fragments of a set of the orders of angels. A kneeling figure is Thomas Brigg, donor of the transept; the scroll behind him begins Benedicat Virgo, 'Blessed Virgin'. The mother of God sits surrounded by red glory, and two women holding croziers, one of them crowned, may be St Etheldreda and St Hilda. Certainly, the crowned figure holding a cross is St Helena.
Despite the wonders of the font, the screen and the glass, the crowning glory of the building is the set of bosses that line the roof of the chancel. They are easily missed, being very high. There are nine altogether, the first and last set against the walls at the ends of the roof ridge, and they form a kind of rosary sequence of joyful and glorious mysteries. They start with the Annunciation in the west (see left) and then continue with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension into Heaven.
There is a fine set of return stalls in the chancel. Although Salle probably never had a college of Priests, all those Masses for the dead must have provided plenty of employment, because we know that there were seven Priests here at a time when the population of the parish was barely 200. Bench ends include heads, a dragon tied up in a knot, a cock, a restored pelican in her piety, and a monkey. The misericord seats feature faces, including one that is quite extraordinary.
Although the roof isn't up to the glory of neighbouring Cawston, it includes lots of original angels and paintwork, including sacred monograms, and around the wallplate part of the Te Deum Laudamus and Psalm 150. These particular texts seem to have provided the inspiration for many late 15th century interiors; the angels in the roof, the animals on the bench ends, the Saints on the rood screen all in harmony: Let everything that has breath Praise ye the Lord!
The nave benches are mostly renewed now, but the pulpit is an elegant example of the 15th century, from the time when a priority began to be placed on preaching. Curiously, it has been rather awkwardly converted into a three-decker arrangement, probably in the 18th century, with the addition of a platform and desk from a set of box pews. A large sounding board has been placed overhead. The box pews suggest that the medieval furnishings were replaced at an early date, although the replacements too have gone now.
Salle is one of those churches full of intriguing little details that might easily pass you by, so great is the wonder of everything around. Those two little corbel heads above the south door, for instance - what were they for? Perhaps they supported an image that could be seen from the north doorway as people entered, although not a St Christopher as the guidebook suggests, I think. There is a pretty piscina in the unfortunate north transept that has been outlined in wood, a memorial and helm above, a tall image bracket in the corner of the wall of the south transept, a floreated piscina nearby.
There are many brasses and brass inlays in the nave floor; one of the most interesting is a chalice brass (although the chalice is now gone) to Simon Boleyn, a Priest, who died in 1489, and to the east of it a pair of brasses to Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn, great-grandparents to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. Another pair of brasses are to Thomas and Katherine Rose and their eight children. Unlike many churches, Salle actually retains some of the 'missing' brasses, now locked away for safety. It would be nice to think they could eventually be reset in the floor.
One part of the building that many visitors must miss is the chapel above the north porch. There is no sign indicating it; but the doorway, at the west end of the north aisle, is always open. Inside, the vaulted roof is punctuated by spectacularly pretty bosses which you can view at close quarters. The colour is a bit fanciful, but they are fascinating, particularly the central boss of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven - how on earth did that survive the Reformation?
This is a tremendous building, a box of fascinating delights. What purpose does it serve now? As I said in the introduction, its size was not in response to the needs of a congregation, and as far as worship is concerned it will never be full. It remains constantly in use, however; for regular services in the chancel, sometimes for concerts and recordings, but also of course for the poshest sort of wedding, the kind only the Church of England can provide, and no doubt other elements of the core business of CofE PLC. It is easy to be cynical, but if they ensure the survival of the building, then so be it.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market in partnership with the Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative features cranberries with a constructed mini-bog on Friday, Sept. 17, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Tyger Production staff assemble, fill and decorate a mini-bog that will be used to demonstrates how water is used as a tool to float berries for a more efficient harvest. Live cranberry shrubs that came from and will return to a bog for continued use in future demonstrations surround the water. The shrub’s vine has cranberries grown this year, its buds that will become next year’s cranberries.
HOW TO PICK
Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water. The cranberry plant is a creeping evergreen shrub or bush that grows in sandy bogs and marshes. It produces berries on long-running vines. The berries first appear as a white creamy color before turning a shiny crimson, signaling they are ready to harvest. There are two common methods for harvesting cranberries, dry and wet. Cranberries that are harvested dry (without water added to the bog) are sold as fresh fruit and only available during the fall and holiday season from September to December. Cranberries harvested wet are picked by flooding the bogs. Because cranberries float, farmers use water to harvest the fruit. Bogs are flooded and a machine is used to loosen the cranberries from the vines. The floating cranberries are then corralled and loaded into waiting trucks for delivery to processing facilities.
HOW TO PREPARE
Simply rinse cranberries thoroughly and use as directed If frozen, there is no need to thaw before using. Sometimes a few white cranberries might be in the bag; they are fine to use. These berries haven't been exposed to as much sunlight as the redder ones. Cranberries are a prized element in the Thanksgiving dinner of most Americans. Use cranberries to make sauces, conserves and preserves, in baked goods, to make juice, or enjoy dried.
HOW TO STORE
These crimson berries can be stored up to four weeks in the refrigerator.
Advice about freezing. To freeze cranberries place in a freezer safe plastic bag without pre-washing. Store for up to one year.
FUN FACTS
• The cranberry is indigenous to North America and was used by Native Americans in both fresh and dried form. Native Americans introduced cranberries to early European settlers.
• The cranberry got its name from early settlers, who nicknamed it the “crane berry” due to the shape of its blooms, which resemble the head of a crane.
OCEAN SPRAY
Founded in 1930, Ocean Spray is the world’s leading producer of cranberry products, but it’s not your typical food company. It’s an agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers who receive the profits from every berry sold. The cooperative allows family farms to thrive ensuring economic sustainability for future generations. The average Ocean Spray family farm is just 18 acres. While cranberries are uniquely American, they are exported and enjoyed all over the word. Ocean Spray is focused on international expansion of its products, with the Cooperative’s cranberries featured in more than 1,000 in over 100 countries worldwide.
The USDA Farmers Market Vegucation tent offers informational presentations every Friday between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM, May to October, in the VegU tent. Short 10-minute classes are free. The market is located on the corner of Independence Ave. and 12th St., SW, in Washington, DC 20250.
For more information visit usda.gov/farmersmarket
@USDA_AMS
#USDAFarmersMkt
#VEGU
USDA multimedia by Lance Cheung.
Trojans FC has been providing top class Southampton Rugby for 142 years! Established in 1874 Trojans operates 3 Senior Men's, a Senior Ladies and teams at every youth age group.
#proudtobeatrojan
The Trojans Club was founded in 1874 initially as a rugby club - The Trojans Football Club.
There are now four very active sporting sections, Rugby, Cricket, Hockey and Squash with a total membership of well over one thousand.
During its long and proud history, Trojans has done much to foster amateur sport and has, over the years, produced many county and international players.
The original minute books are still in existence and are held in the Southampton City archives and there are many other documents and press reports that have been used extensively to create the following documents, broken into two sections, the History and the Playing Archives.
This is not intended to be a definitive history of the Trojans Football Club, the oldest rugby club in Hampshire, but more a selection of the highlights of the early years and a brief review of the past few years.
The Beginning
On the 3rd of September 1874 a meeting was held at the Antelope Hotel, Southampton, by members of a previous club, with a view to forming the "Trojans".
The previous Club was the "Southampton Football Club" which existed for one season under that name having previous been the "Grammar School Old Boys". The earliest recorded game so far found was the Old Boys against the Shirley Club on 5th October 1872 at Porter's Meadow. The match was won by Shirley by 2 touchdowns to one. H F Gibbs was captain of both of these forerunners.
H F Gibbs was voted the first Captain of the Trojans Football Club and the Club colours were voted as blue and red. It was agreed that the first annual subscription should be five shillings per year. The first rugby games of the Club were played at Porters Mead, which is now called Queens Park, Southampton.
The first Annual Meeting of the Club took place on the 24th September 1875 when the Treasurer reported a small credit balance of five pence halfpenny (2.29p). The results for the 1874/75 season produced five victories and three defeats.
The Club joined the Rugby Football Union in 1881.
Change the Laws
At a committee Meeting on the 5th September 1874 the Playing Rules of Rugby Football were read through and the worthy members of the Trojans decided to make an amendment to Rule number 15 which read "It is lawful to run in anywhere across the goal line". The addition made by the Trojans at that stage was "except between the goal posts". The Club soon found it necessary to alter this!
The First Results
Southsea (A) lost by two punts out and seven touch downs
Salisbury (A) Won by one goal and two touch downs to nil.
Salisbury (H) Lost by one goal, one try and two touch downs to two tries and four touch downs.
Magpies Won by three tries and seven touch downs to nil.
Southsea (H) Won by one goal to nil
Springhill Won by one goal and three touch downs to one goal.
Royal Academy Gosport Lost by four tries and six touch downs to one try.
First Floodlit game
On the evening of 28th November 1878, a match was played against the Rovers Football Club by electric light, having been cancelled the night before because of rain. This was the first exhibition of electric light in Southampton, and believed to be the first ever game of rugby under lights. The local newspaper reported that "at times the light was very brilliant and players could be seen plainly".
Ban the Game!
During the 1880 season, S E Gibbs died as a result of an injury while playing against Romsey. There was much local comment and the then Mayor of Southampton issued a handbill, published in full in "The Times", condemning the game as follows:
"The Mayor in consequence of the many serious accidents and the recent deplorable death in Southampton resulting from the dangerous practice of playing football requests the Heads of Families, the Principals of Scholastic Establishments in the Town and Members of Clubs to take such steps as may be necessary for preventing the game being played in future according to Rugby Union, Association and other rules of a dangerous character. The Mayor considers it his duty to use every means in his power for prohibiting the game as hitherto played being continued in the Porters Meadow field or upon any other of the Public lands in Southampton".
At the Committee Meeting of 16th December 1880 "It was decided to play as usual unless we found out before that the Mayor had given any instruction to the police. In that case it was thought best to summons any offending "arm of the law" for assault".
The Formation of the Hampshire Rugby Football Union
At the Trojan Club's initiative, a meeting was held on 13th April 1883 to discuss the formation of "The Hampshire County Rugby Football Union". In the first season of the County Club, at least seven Trojans represented the County.
In 1901 County activities ceased and it was again the Trojans, along with United Services, who, in 1910, convened a meeting at the Trojans Club for the purpose of forming a Rugby Football Union in Hampshire.
Over 400 Trojan members have represented the county at rugby at the various levels and 140 at senior level.
“International” Football"
Although a rugby club, Trojans were known, on occasions, to play with the round ball. The following team was selected to play Curries French team (from Havre) on the New Football Ground, Archers Road (the Dell) on Tuesday 1st November 1898. Scotney, goal, Denning & Maundrell, backs, Densham, Ellerby & Colson, halfs, Ellaby, Page, Macdonald, Gamble & Hussey (councillor and later Sir George), forwards. Trojans were allowed to take half the gate money. The Echo reported this as a game against a team of French players and thus it claimed the honour of being the first international match played at the Dell.
The First Hampshire Cup
In May 1888 the Trojans Committee proposed the starting of a Rugby Union Cup Competition in the interests of Rugby Football. The County Challenge Cup (Presented by Tankerville Chamberlayne M.P., President of Trojans, and pictured here) was started in the 1889/1890 season and the Club entered the same. During this year, not only was the pitch enclosed by rope, but a charge of sixpence was made to all spectators. The Cup was duly won by Trojans in March 1890. Whether it was ever played for again is not sure as, in 1891, Trojans decided not to enter because " it was felt that it was a farce putting up the cup at the fag end of the season to be competed for by three clubs"! The present whereabouts of the grand cup is not known, although it is believed it was presented back to Tankerville Chamberlayne.
Service to the County
As well as forming the County Union (twice), Trojan members have served the County well and it can be said that there has always been a Trojan involved in Hampshire Rugby since its formation.
In particular, over the 108 active years of the Union, six Trojan members have served as President of the Union serving a total of 49 years. Six Secretaries served a total of 36 years and for the first sixty-two years of County representation on the RFU Committee the Hampshire representative was a Trojan.
Mr. Hampshire
There can be no more respected and faithful servant of the County and the Game than one particular Trojan, Dudley Kemp, as the following record illustrates -
Captain of Trojans 1927-34, 1935-38
Captain of Hampshire 1935
Played for England 1935.
Barbarian
President of the Rugby Football Union 1969
Member of the International Board 1971-77
Hampshire representative on the RFU Committee 1955-69
President HRFU 1973-76
Secretary HRFU 1946-67
Assistant Secretary HRFU 1967-68
Team Secretary HRFU 1946-53
Match Secretary HRFU 1953-56
Dudley died at his home in Devon in January 2003 aged 93.
Doggy Spectators
During a match between Trojans and Portsmouth Victoria in 1886, the ball was kicked into the Trojans' in-goal area where it rebounded off a stray dog. One of the Portsmouth players gathered it and touched down to claim a try. The Trojans protested, and claimed "dead-ball" the ball having struck a "spectator". The objection was later referred to the RFU Committee who ruled that the try should stand, as dogs could not be classed as spectators!
The Barbarians
H A Haigh-Smith was elected Trojans Captain in 1912. He was instrumental in forming the Barbarians Club and was later made president of that Club. He was also assistant Manager of the Lions tour in 1935.
Trojans played the Barbarians on January 9th 1895 but the result does not appear to have been recorded for posterity!
The Wars!
Trojans Rugby had to be suspended three times because of wars - in 1897 because of the Boer War, 1914, the Great War and 1939 the World War.
Moving Home
Although always considered a Southampton Club, Trojans actually now play in the Test Valley District. Over the years there have been many homes -
1874 the first games were played at Porters Mead, which is now called Queens Park on Queens Terrace. (by the Dock Gates)
1884 the Club donated the sum of two guineas towards the purchase of the proposed Cricket Ground in Bannister Park, until recently, the County Cricket Ground, and commenced playing rugby there in the 1884/85 season.
1897 Freemantle Ground, Stafford Road
1905 County Cricket Ground, Northlands Road
1923 G H Brown's farm in Wide Lane, Swathling with Atlantic Park (now Southampton Airport) being used for the dressing accommodation.
1929 Southampton Stadium, Banister Road
1931 Bannister Court as well as G H Brown's farm
1933 11 acres of land purchased in Cemetery Road, Swaythling (sold in 1945)
1946 County Cricket Ground, Northlands Road
1947 Sports Centre, Southampton
1958 Stoneham Park (the present ground). The ground, 22.8 acres, was purchased in 1953 for £1,205 and was another example of the members' foresight, as the timber in the ground was sold for sums almost sufficient to cover the cost of purchase! In 1958, a temporary corrugated iron changing room was completed and the foundations of the pavilion commenced. The pavilion was officially opened by A.T. Voyce, President of the Rugby Football Union, on 27th December 1960.
The Prime Years
Throughout the early and mid 1900s, Trojans went from strength to strength and provided many County Players as well a number of Internationals.
The modern peak was probably reached in the early 1960s when the Club could justifiably consider itself to be the premier civilian rugby club in the South of England (outside London). In 1961, seven rugby sides were fielded with over 200 players available for selection.
Before league tables were introduced in 1987/88, local newspapers ran Merit Tables, the Wessex Merit Table and the Hampshire Merit Table both being won in the 1978/79 and the 1980/81 seasons.
The Lean Years
There were many reasons for the decline from that peak which started in the early 80s. More local clubs, easier transport and a change of working patterns (Trojans being very much a "transit camp" in those days) were some of them. The introduction of leagues in 1987 hit the Club at the worst possible time. In the first year, the Club was put into London Division 3 but could not cope at that level and dropped straight into Hampshire Division One. Luck was also in short supply when the Club, having finished fifth, seventh from bottom (!), the team was still relegated to Hampshire Division Two (a quirk of the league structure). There the Club stayed, battling for promotion with the other strong clubs to be relegated in the mass drop, until the 1992/93 season when the league was won with a record of played 10, won 10, for 353, against 37 which included a league record win of 91-0 against Waterlooville.
Three seasons were spent in Hampshire One but the 1995/96 season saw what was probably
the strongest ever Hampshire Division 1 and relegation again befell the team. 1996/97 season saw us just lose out on promotion but success was achieved in 1997/98.
The Revival Years
Success was achieved in the 2000/2001 season when promotion was achieved to London Division 4SW (The old Division 3SW having been broken into two divisions). The first season at that level was quite successful, ending mid-table, but the next was not when Hampshire 1 again beckoned. Promotion and relegation followed over a number of seasons until London Division 1 was achieved in the 2011/12 season.
Competition is maintained throughout the Senior Club with the 2nd XV being in the Hampshire Senior merit table and the 3rd XV being in the Hampshire Division 1 merit table.
One significant advance was the introduction of Women's rugby which has developed into the strongest team in Southern England. The end of the 2006/07 season saw them promoted to the Championship 1 South (National level 2) and in 2009/10 a second team was entered into the leagues.
The Strength of Youth
One thing that has remained a strength since it's formation in the mid 70s is the Youth Section. Being one of the first clubs to introduce Mini Rugby in England (imported from Wales) the Mini and Junior Sections have encouraged many thousands of youngsters into the game and the Youth section now runs teams in every year group from under 8s to under 17s, holds annual tournaments and is generally held up to be a model of organization.
St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire
As any experienced pub quizzer will be able to tell you, Cambridgeshire shares borders with more other counties than any other English county, and one of the pleasures of exploring its churches by bike is to occasionally pop over a border and cherry-pick some of the best churches nearby. I had long wanted to visit Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire, and it is only ten miles west of Peterborough, and so I thought why not? I could also take in its near neighbours Nassington and Warmington, both noted as interesting churches.
Fotheringhay is a haunted place. It is haunted by noble birth and violent death, by its pivotal importance as a place in 15th Century English politics, and by its desolation in later centuries - not to mention by one significant event in the last couple of years.
The view of the church from the south across the River Nene is one of the most famous views of a church in England - there can be few books about churches which do not include it. The tower is a spectacular wedding cake, the square stage surmounted by an octagonal bell stage. This is not an unusual arrangement in the area of the Nene and Ouse Valleys, but nowhere is it on such a scale and with such intricacy as this.
The nave is also vast, a great length of flying buttresses running above each aisle, and walls of glass, great perpendicular windows designed to let in light and drive out superstition. What you cannot see from across the river is that, behind the big oak tree, the church has no chancel.
Inside, it is a square box full of light divided by great arcades that march resolutely eastwards towards a large blank wall. Heraldic shields stand aloof up in the arcades, and the one fabulous spot of colour is the great pulpit nestled in the south arcade, another sign that this building was designed to assert the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. This place swallows sound and magnifies light. It is thrilling, awe-inspiring. What happened here?
In the medieval period, Fotheringhay Castle was the powerbase of the House of York. The church was built as a result of a bequest by Edward III, who died in 1370. It was complete by the 1430s, with a college of priests and a large nave for the Catholic devotions of the people.
Over the next century it would house the tombs of, among others, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York and grandson of Edward III who was killed in 1415 at Agincourt, and Richard Plantaganet, 3rd Duke of York, who was killed in the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. It was Richard's claim to the throne of England which had led to the Wars of the Roses. His decapitated head was gleefully displayed on a pike above Micklegate Bar in York by the victorious Lancastrian forces. Also killed in the battle was Richard's 17 year old son Edmund.
But the Lancastrian delight was shortlived, for by the following year Richard's eldest son had become King as Edward IV. He immediately arranged for the translation of the bodies of his father and brother from their common grave at Pontefract back to Fotheringhay.
It was recorded that on 24 July the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king.
On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms.
Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.
The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his closet and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.
The sorrowing Edward IV donated the great pulpit for the proclamation of the Catholic faith. And then in 1483 he died. He was succeeded as tradition required by his son, the 12 year old Edward V. But three months after his father's death the younger Edward was also dead, in mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his uncle, who had been born here in Fotheringhay in 1452, and who would reign, albeit briefly, as Richard III.
Was Richard III really the villain that history has made him out to be? Did he really murder his nephew to achieve the throne? Within two years he had also been killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the Lancastrians were finally triumphant. Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty, and, as we all know, history is written by the victors, not by the losers.
But Fotheringhay had one more dramatic scene to set in English history before settling back into obscurity, and this time it involved the Tudors. In September 1586 a noble woman of middle years arrived at Fotheringhay Castle under special guard, and was imprisoned here. Her name was Mary, and she was on trial for treason.
It is clear today that most of the evidence was entirely fictional, but the powers of the day had good reason to fear Mary, for she had what appeared to many to be a legitimate claim to the English throne. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland, and had herself become Queen of Scotland at the age of just six weeks. She spent her childhood and youth in France while regents governed the nation in her stead, and she married Francis, the Dauphin of France, who became King of France in 1559. Briefly, Mary was both Queen of Scotland and Queen Consort of France, but in 1561 Francis died, and Mary returned to Scotland to govern her own country.
But there was a problem. Mary was a Catholic. Scotland had led the way in the English-speaking Reformation with a particularly firebrand form of Calvinism, and the protestant merchants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee were aghast at the prospect of a Catholic monarch.
And there was a further problem. Scotland was currently at peace with its neighbour England, where Queen Elizabeth I had brought some stability to the troubled country. But the Catholic Church did not recognise Elizabeth as the rightful monarch of England, because it was considered that her father Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife Katherine of Aragon was invalid. As he had divorced Katherine to marry Elizabeth's mother Ann Boleyn, Catholics considered that the rightful line of succession had passed horizontally from Henry VIII to his deceased elder sister and then on to her descendants, the most senior of whom was Mary, Queen of Scotland.
Mary remarried in Scotland, but her husband was murdered, and she was forced to abdicate her throne in favour of their one year old baby. He would be brought up by protestant regents and advisors, and would reign Scotland as James VI. His protestant faith allowed the English crown to recognise the line's legitimate claims, and in 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the first monarch to govern both nations.
But that was all in the future. After her abdication, Mary fled south to seek the protection of her cousin Elizabeth. She spent most of the next 18 years in protective custody. A succession of plots and conspiracies implicated her, and finally on 8th February 1587, at the age of 44, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.
One of her son James's first acts on ascending the English throne was to order that the castle where his mother had been shamefully imprisoned and executed be razed to the ground.
The chancel of Fotheringhay church and its College of Priests were already gone by then, demolished after the Reformation, leaving the York tombs exposed to the elements. it is said that Elizabeth herself, on a visit to Fotheringhay in 1566, insisted that they be brought back into the church.
Fotheringhay church settled back into obscurity. During the long 18th Century sleep of the Church of England it suffered neglect and disuse, but was restored well in the 19th Century. A chapel was designated for the memory of the York dynasty during the 20th Century, a sensitive issue for the Church of England which does not recognise prayers for the dead, but they can happen here in the Catholic tradition.
Today, the population of Fotheringhay cannot be much more than a hundred, an obscure backwater in remote north-east Northamptonshire, consisting of little more than its grand church set above the water meadows of the River Nene. But there was one more day in the public light to come.
In 2012, an archaeological dig in the centre of the city of Leicester, some 30 miles from here, uncovered a skeleton which had been buried in such a manner that it seemed it might be the dead King Richard III. Carbon dating and DNA matching proved that it was so. A controversy erupted about where the dead king might be reburied. Leicester Cathedral seemed the obvious place, although pompous claims were made by, among others, the MP for York, for him to be buried in York Minster. But there was also a case for the remains being returned here, to the quiet peace of Fotheringhay.
In the event reason held sway and Richard was reburied in Leicester, but Fotheringhay church, along with Leicester Cathedral, York Minster and Westminster Abbey, was one of four sites to host books of remembrance for Richard III.
In June 2015 I was surprised to find that the book here was still in use at the west end of the nave, and is still regularly signed by people. Perhaps they think it is the visitors book.
The silence of the church and the quiet peace of the graveyard are in dramatic contrast to the sensationalism of the media over the controversy and the razzamatazz of Richard's reburial in Leicester Cathedral. But now the circus has moved on, and Fotheringhay is still here. And white roses are scattered in the church every year on Richard III's birthday.
U.S. Army Africa photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
“The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
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It am the weekend again, but after a week off, so one belnds smoothly into the other.
And next week I have a four day trip to the Isle of Wight for work, which will do me good too.
Not much planned for the day, once shopping was done. And I do that as Jools is still coughing and so did not want to go round the supermarket coughing like that.
So, I d the week's shop, though not much needed as I will be away four days, so I am back with three bags of shopping, and we have the usual Saturday breakfast of fruit followed by bacon sandwiches.
Posting shots on other social media showed me many churches had to be revisited. Just about the last one to be thus revisited was Minster-in-Thanet, as the album had 55 shots from two previous visits, and I thought such a large and imposing church deserved more.
So, it was a quiet drive over to Sandwich, taking the bypass round Stonar, then turning off at the delightfully named Sevenscore for the drive along the back lanes into Minster, passing by the Abbey, outside of which was an actual nun, all dressed in cowl and long black gown.
A little further on is St Mary, and parking is easy just outside the churchyard, and although it looked locked, the west door under the tower was unlocked, and inside there were no others inside, so I had it to myself.
I had hoped I had missed whole or fragments of glass, but there was none to be seen, some nice arts and crafts ones of Queen Bertha, which I record. I think I snap everything, so after half an hour we are done.
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Minster Abbey on the Isle of Thanet was founded in AD 669 by Domneva, niece of King Erconbert of Kent. The enormous parish church, built some distance to the south-west of the abbey, dates from two distinct periods. The nave is Norman, a magnificent piece of twelfth-century arcading with tall cylindrical pillars. The chancel and transepts are thirteenth century, with a three-light east window, each one double shafted inside. This end of the church has a simple stone vaulted ceiling which adds greatly to the grandeur. The glass is by Thomas Willement and dates from 1861. Ewan Christian restored the church in 1863 and added vaulted ceilings to the transepts. They had been intended by the medieval designers, but were never built. There is a set of eighteen fifteenth-century stalls with misericords and an excellent sixteenth-century font and cover.
kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Minster+in+Thanet
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MINSTER.
THE next parish to Monkton eastward is Minster, antiently written both Mynstre, and Menstre, being so named from the Saxon word Minstre, signifying a church or monastery. It is divided into two boroughs, viz. Way Borough and Street Borough; the former of which lies on the ascent on the northern side of the street; the latter contains the street and church, with the southern part of the parish.
THIS PARISH is about three miles and an half from east to west, and near as much from north to south. The farms in it are perhaps as large as in any other parish in this county; the occupiers of which are, in general, men of considerable ability. The west part of this parish is bounded by a lynch or balk, which goes quite across the island to Westgate, called St. Mildred's Lynch, an account of which has already been given before, and which is the bounds of this manor from that of Monkton, as well as of the parish. This lynch has formerly been much broader than it is now, many of the farmers, who occupy lands bounding on or near it, having through a coveteous humour, not only dug up the mould or top of it, to lay on their land, but in some places have ploughed upon it. Too many instances of this kind are practised in other places, not only of this island, but of the county in general, so that there is scarce a remembrance left where those balks or lynches have been; such has the greedy avarice of the occupiers been, and this is one instance of the ill consequence of the neglect of the courts leet and baron. The village of Minster lies nearly in the centre of it, on low ground at the foot of the high lands, having the church on the south side of it; northward of the village it rises to high land, being a fine open champion country of uninclosed corn land, on which are situated Minster mill, Allan Grange, and Powcies, the latter at the extremity of the parish, close to which was, till lately, a small grove of oaks, the only one in this island. Lower down, about a mile southward, is Thorne manor, and beyond that Sevenscore farm. At the south-eastern extremity of the parish, and partly in St. Laurence, is Cliffsend, or Clyvesend, so called from its being at the end of the cliff, which extends from Ramsgate; it was antieutly a part of the estate of St. Augustine's monastery, and is called by Thorne in his Chronicle, the manor of Clyvesend. Here are now two considerable farms besides cottages.
About a mile and an half south-east from Minster church, is Ebbsfleet, formerly called by the various names of Hipwines, Ippeds, and Wipped's fleet; this seems to have been a usual place of landing from the ocean in this island; here it is said Hengist and Horsa, the two Saxon generals, first landed with their forces, about the year 449. Here St. Augustine, often called the Apostle of the English, first landed, in the year 596; and here too St. Mildred, of whom mention has been made likewise before, first landed from France, where she had been for instruction in the monastic life; and not many years ago there was a small rock at this place, called St. Mildred's rock, where, on a great stone, her footstep was said, by the monkish writers, to have remained impressed. (fn. 1) Below the church of Minster, southward, is the large level of marshes, called Minster level, at the southern extremity of which runs the river Stour, formerly the Wantsume, which, as has already been noticed before, was antiently of a much greater depth and width than it is at present, flowing up over the whole space of this level, most probably almost to the church-yard fence, being near a mile and an half distance; but the inning of the salts by the landholders, which had been in some measure deserted by the waters of the Wantsume at different places, so far lessened the force of the tide, and of the river waters mixing with it, that it occasioned the sands to increase greatly near this place, where it was at length entirely choaked up, so that a wall of earth was made by the abbot of St. Augustine, since called the Abbot's wall, to prevent the sea at high water overslowing the lands, which now comprehend this great level of marshes, at present under the direction and management of the commissioners of sewers for the district of East Kent. A part of these marsh lands have been much improved by means of shortening the course of the river Stour to the sea, by the cut at Stonar, which lets off the superfluous water in wet seasons with greater expedition, and a very valuable tract of near two hundred acres has been lately inclosed by a strong wall from the sea near Ebbs-fleet. Between the above-mentioned wall and the river Stour lie a great many acres of land, which the inhabitants call the salts, from their being left without the wall, and subject to the overflowing of the tide, so long as it continued to flow all around this island. Over against the church is a little creek, which seems to have been the place antiently called Mynstrefleet, into which the ships or vessels came, which were bound for this place. As a proof of this, there was found some years ago in a dyke bounding on this place, in digging it somewhat deeper than usual, some fresh coals, which very probably had fallen aside some lighter or boat in taking them out of it. (fn. 2)
I ought not to omit mentioning, that on the downs on the north part of this parish, where the old and present windmills were placed, is a prospect, which perhaps is hardly exceeded in this part of the kingdom. From this place may be seen, not only this island and the several churches in it, one only excepted; but there is a view at a distance, of the two spires of Reculver, the island of Sheppy, the Nore, or mouth of the river Thames, the coast of Essex, the Swale, and the British channel; the cliffs of Calais, and the kingdom of France; the Downs, and the town of Deal, the bay and town of Sandwich, the fine champion country of East Kent, the spires of Woodnesborough and Ash, the ruins of Richborough castle, the beautiful green levels of Minister, Ash, &c. with the river Stour winding between them; the fine and stately tower of the cathedral of Canterbury, and a compass of hills of more than one hundred miles in extent, which terminate the sight.
In the marshes on the south of this parish, there was found in 1723, an antique gold ring; on the place of the seal, which seemed to represent an open book, was engraved on one side an angel, seemingly kneeling, and on the other side a woman standing with a glory round her head; on the woman's side was engraved in old English characters, bone; on that of the angel, letters of the same character, but illegible. A fair is kept in this village on a Good Friday for pedlary and toys.
By the return made to the council's letter, by archbishop Parker's order, in the year 1563, there were then computed to be in this parish fifty-three housholds. By an exact account taken of Minster in 1774, there were found to be in this parish one hundred and forty-nine houses, and six hundred and ninety-six inhabitants; of the houses, sixteen were farm-houses, and one hundred and thirty three were inhabited by tradesmen, labourers, and widows.
THE MANOR and ABBEY OF MINSTER was antiently called Thaket manor, and continued so till, from the foundation of the abbey or minster within it, it acquired the name of the manor of Minster, though in the survey of Domesday, taken in the year 1080, it is still called Tanet manor, Kar exoxnv; but I have met with it no where else so late by that name.
This manor was in the year 670 in the possession of Egbert, king of Kent, whose two nephews Ethelred and Ethelbright, sons of his father's elder brother Ermenfride, deceased, (who left likewise two daughters, Ermenburga, called also Domneva, married to Merwald, son of Penda, king of Mercia, and Ermengitha, were left to his care, under promise of their succeeding to the kingdom. These princes were kept under the inspection of one Thunnor, a flattering courtier, who persuaded the king to have them murdered, left they should disturb him in the possession of the throne; which Thunnor undertook and perpetrated. To expiate this crime, the king, by the advice of archbishop Theodore, and Adrian, abbot of St. Augustine's, sent to Domneva, who had taken the vow of chastity on her, to offer her any satisfaction for this crime, when, as an atonement, she requested of the king, according to the custom of those times, to grant her a place in Tenet, where she might build a monastery to their memory, with a sufficient maintenance, in which she, with her nuns, might continually pray for the king's forgiveness, who immediately by his charter, which concludes with a singular curse on the infringers of it, (fn. 3) granted her for the endowment of it full one half of this island, being the eastern part of it, comprehended within the bounds of this manor, and since separated from the western part of the island and manor of Monkton, by a broad bank or lynch, made quite across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, and remaining at this day.
The story of this grant, as told by Thorn, a native of this parish, and a monk of St. Augustine's monastery, in his chronicle of that abbey, is, that Egbert granting Domneva's petition, demanded of her how much land she desired; who replied, as much as her deer could run over at one course; this being granted, the deer was let loose at Westgate, in Birchington, in the presence of the king, his nobles, and a great concourse of people. Among them was Thunnor, the petrator of the murder, who, ridiculing the king for the lavishness of his gift and the method of its decision, endeavoured by every means to obstruct the deer's course, both by riding across and meeting it; but Heaven, continues the chronicler, being offended at his impiety, whilst he was in the midst of his career, the earth opened and swallowed him up, leaving the name of Tunnor's-leap, or Thunor's hyslepe, to the ground and place where he fell, to perpetuate the memory of his punishment, though it was afterwards called Heghigdale. Meanwhile the deer having made a small circle eastward, directed its course almost in a strait line south-westward across the island from one side to the other, running over in length and breadth forty-eight plough-lands; and the king, immediately afterwards delivered up to Domneva the whole tract of land which the deer had run over.
This tract or course of the deer, which included above ten thousand acres of some of the best lands in Kent, is said to have been marked out by the broad bank, or lynch, across the island, since called St. Mildred's Lynch, thrown up in remembrance of it; (fn. 4) but notwithstanding this well-invented story of Thorn, it is more probable that this lynch was made to divide the two capital manors of Minster and Monkton, before this gift to Domneva.
Puteus Thunor, (or Thunor's leap) says the annalist of St. Augustine's monastery, apparet prope Cursum Cervi juxta Aldelond; and the place where the king stood to see this course is represented to be by it, where formerly was a beacon, it being some of the highest land hereabouts, where the king might see the course. This Puteus Thunor, or Thunorslep, is very plainly the old chalk pit, called Minster chalk-pit, which its not unlikely was first sunk when the abbey and church here were built, and the bottom of it in process of time, being overgrown with grass, gave occasion for the invention of this sable of Thunor's being swallowed up by the earth at this place. The name of Thunorslep has been long since obliterated, and even the more modern one of Heghigdate has been long forgotten. Weever says, he lieth buried under an heap of stones, which to that day was called Thunniclam.
Domneva being thus furnished with wealth and all things necessary, founded, in honor of the B.V. Mary, a monastery, or cloyster of nuns, afterwards called ST. MILDRED'S ABBEY, on part of this land, on the south side of the island near the water, in the same placewhere the present parochial church stands. Archbishop Theodore, at the instance of Domneva, consecrated the church of it, and she afterwards appointed the number of nuns to be seventy, and was appointed by the archbishop, the first abbess of it; she died here and was buried on the glebe of the new monastery. Ermengitha, her sister, was after her death sainted, and lived with Domneva, in the abbey here, where she died, and was buried in a place about a mile eastward of it, where the inhabitants have found numbers of bones, and where it is probable, she built some chapel or oratory. In a field or marsh called the twenty acres, a little more than a quarter of a mile eastward of the church of Minster, are several foundations, as if some chapel or oratory had been built there. (fn. 5)
Domneva was succeeded as abbess by her daughter Mildred, who was afterwards sainted. She is said to have been buried in this church. On her death Edburga succeeded in the government of this monastery, who finding it insufficient for so great a number of nuns, built another just by, larger and more stately, which was consecrated by archbishop Cuthbert, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul; and to this church she, about the year 750, removed the body of St. Mildred, at whose tomb many miracles were said to be wrought afterwards. Edburga was buried at Minster in her own new church, and was afterwards sainted. She was succeeded as abbess of this monastery by Sigeburga. In her time was the first depredation of the Danes in Thanet; who sell upon the people, laid every thing waste, and pludered the religious in this monastery; from this time they continued their ravages throughout this island almost every year; hence by degrees, this monastery fell to decay, and the nuns decreased in number, being vexed with grief and worn down with poverty, by the continual insults of these merciless pirates, who landed in this island in 978, and entirely destroyed by fire this monastery of St. Mildred, in which the clergy and many of the people were shut up, having fled thither for sanctuary; but they were, together with the nuns, all burnt to death, excepting Leofrune the abbess, who is said to have been carried away prisoner.
The Danes, however, spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, in one of which divine service was afterwards performed, for the inhabitants of this parish and the adjoining neighbourhood. The antient scite of the monastery, together with this manor, and all the rest of the possessions of it remained in the king's hands, and they continued so till king Cnute, in the year 1027, gave the body of St. Mildred, together with the antient scite of the monastery, this manor and all its land within this island and without, and all customs belonging to this church, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, which gift was confirmed by king Edward the Confessor. (fn. 6)
The abbot and convent of St. Augustine becoming thus possessed of this manor, fitted up the remains of the abbey to serve as the court-lodge of it; accordingly it has ever since borne the name of Minstercourt. In the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno 1080, this manor is thus described, under the general title of Terra æcclæ Sci Augustini, the land of the church of St. Augustine.
In Tanet hundred. St. Mildred's.
The abbot himself holds Tanet manor, which was taxed at forty-eight sulings. The arable land is sixty-two carucates. In demesne there are two, and one hundred and fifty villeins, with fifty borderers having sixty-three carucates. There is a church and one priest, who gives twenty shillings per annum. There is one salt-pit and two fisheries of three pence, and one mill.
In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four times twenty pounds, when the abbot received it forty pounds, now one hundred pounds.
Of this manor three knights hold so much of the land of the villeins as is worth nine pounds, when there is peace in the land, and there they have three carucates.
After which king Henry I. granted to the monastery of St. Augustine, about the 4th of his reign, a market, to be yearly held within this their manor of Minster, with all customs, forseitures, and pleas; which was confirmed among other liberties by Edward III. in his 36th year, by inspeximus.
King Henry III. in his 54th year, anno 1270, granted to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, free-warren in all their demesne lands of Minster. (fn. 7) King Edward II. in his 6th year, confirmed to the abbot free-warren in this manor among others, and next year anno 1313, in the iter of H. de Stanton and his sociates, justices itinerant, the abbot, upon a quo warranto, claimed and was allowed sundry liberties therein mentioned, in this manor, among others, and likewise free-warren in all his demesne lands of it, view of frank pledge, and wreck of the sea; one market weekly on a Friday, and one fair yearly on the eve and day of St. Mildred the Virgin, and other liberties therein mentioned; as having been granted and confirmed by divers of the king's predecessors, and allowed in the last iter of J. de Berewick and his sociates, justices itinerant; and that king Edward II. by his charter in his 6th year had sully confirmed all of them, and by the register of this monastery, of about this time, it appears that this manor had within its court the same liberties as those of Chistlet and Sturry. King Edward III. in his 5th year, exempted the abbot's homagers and tenants of this, among other of their manors, from their attendance at the sheriff's tourne, and afterwards by his charter of inspeximus in his 36th year, confirmed to this abbey all the manors and possessions given to it by former kings; and by another charter, the several grants of liberties and confirmations made by his predecessors, among which were those abovementioned; and king Henry VI. afterwards confirmed the same.
Next year the abbot and his servants taking distresses on their tenants of this manor, the tenants, to the number of six hundred, met and continued together for the space of five weeks, having got with them a greater number of people, who coming armed with bows and arrows, swords and staves, to the court of this manor and that of Salmanstone, belonging likewise to the abbot, laid siege to them, and after several attacks set fire to the gates of them. For fear of these violences, the monks and their servants at Salmanstone kept themselves confined there for fifteen days, so that the people enraged at not being able to encompass their ends in setting fire to the houses, destroyed the abbot's ploughs and husbandry utensils, which were in the fields; and cut down and carried away the trees on both these manors.
At the same time they entered into a confederacy and raised money here by tallages and assessments, by means of which they drew to them no small number of others of the cinque ports, who had nothing to lose, so that the abbot dared not sue for justice in the king's courts; but a method it seems was found to punish these rioters, or at least the principal of them, who were fined to the abbot for these damages six hundred pounds, a vast sum in those days, and were imprisoned at Canterbury till the fine was paid. The uneasiness of the tenants under such respective suits and services, seems to have occasioned the abbot and convent to have compounded with them, which they did in the year 1441, anno 20 Henry VI. By this composition the abbot and convent agreed, that the tenants should not in future be distrained for the rents and services they used to pay; but instead of them should pay compositions for every acre of the land called Cornegavel and Pennygavel, (fn. 8) which composition for the Cornegavel and Pennygavel land, continues in force at this time, being sixpence an acre now paid for the Cornegavel land.
In the time of king Richard II. this manor, with its rents and other appurtenances, was valued among the temporalities of the abbot and convent, at 232l. 4s. 3d. per annum; and the quantity of land belonging to it was by admeasurement 2149 acres and one rood.
In which state this manor continued till the final dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, which happened in the 30th year of Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands; at which time the manor and rents were of the value of 276l. yearly. (fn. 9) After which, the see of this manor, with the antient court-lodge of it, formerly the monastery, and then called Minster-court, with all the lands and appurtenances belonging to it, continued in the crown, till king James I. in his 9th year, by his letters patent, granted to Sir Philip Cary, William Pitt, esq. afterwards knighted; and John Williams, citizen and goldsmith of London, this lordship and manor of Menstre, with its rights, members, and appurtenances, late parcel of St. Augustine's monastery, except and reserved to the king's use, all advowsons and patronages of churches, chapels, &c. belonging to this manor; and he granted likewise all the rents of assize called Cornegavel land, in the parish of St. John, parcel of this manor; and the rents of assize of free tenement called Pennygavel land, in the parishes of St. Peter and St. Laurence, (fn. 10) to hold the manor, with its right, members and appurtenances, of the king, as of his manor of East Greenwich, by sealty only, in free and common socage, and not in capite, nor by knight's service; and to hold the rents of assize of the king in capite, by the service of one knight's fee; which grant and letters patent were conconfirmed by an act specially passed for the purpose, that year.
Some years after which, the heirs of the beforementioned Sir Philip Carey and John Williams, then Sir John Williams, bart. of Carmarthenshire, divided this estate; in which division, the manor itself with the court-lodge, part of the demesne lands, royalties, and appurtenances, was allotted to Sir John Williams, bart. (who died in 1668, and was buried in the Temple church, London); whose descendant of the same name, bart. of Carmarthenshire, dying without male issue, his daughter and sole heir, then the widow of the earl of Shelburne, carried it in marriage, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, to Col. Henry Conyngham, afterwards a major-general in king William's reign, who died possessed of it in 1705. He left two sons, William and Henry, and a daughter Mary, married to Francis Burton, esq. of Clare, in Ireland. William, the eldest son of the general, succeeded him in this manor and estate in Minster, but died without surviving issue, upon which this estate descended to Henry Conyngham, esq. his younger brother, second son of the general, who was in 1753, anno 27 George II. created baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, in Ireland; and afterwards by further letters patent, in 1756, viscount Conyngham, of the same kingdom; and again in 1780, earl Conyngham, and likewise baron Conyngham, of the same kingdom, with remainder of the latter title to his sister's sons. He married Ellen, only daughter of Solomon Merret, esq. of London, by whom he had no issue. He died s.p. in 1781, and was succeeded in his title of baron Conyngham by his nephew Francis Pierpoint Burton Conyngham, eldest son of his sister Mary, by her husband Francis Burton, esq. above-mentioned, which Francis, lord Conyngham, died in 1787, leaving by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Nathaniel Clements, esq. and sister of Robert, lord Leitrim, (who survived him) two sons, Henry, who succeeded him in title, and Nathaniel, and three daughters, Catherine married to the Rev. John Shirley Fermor, of Sevenoke; Ellen, to Stewart Weldon, esq. and Henrietta.
Henry, so succeeding his father as lord Conyngham, was created in December 1789, viscount Conyngham and baron Conyngham, of Mount Charles, in Donegall, to whom the inheritance of this manor and estate now belongs; but the possession of it for life is vested in the right hon. Ellen, countess dowager Conyngham; widow of Henry, earl Conyngham, above-mentioned. The arms of lord viscount Conyngham are, Argent, a shake-sork, between three mullets, sable. Supporters. The dexter—An horse charged on the breast with an eagle, displayed, or, maned and hoofed of the last. The sinister—A buck proper, charged on the breast with a griffin's head, erased, or, attired and unguled of the last. Crest—Anunicorn's head erased, argent, armed and maned, or. Motto—Over fork over.
A court leet and court baron is held for this manor, by the stile of the courtleet, and view of frank pledge, for the manor of Minster, in the hundred of Ringslow, alias Tenet, and the court baron for the said manor.
The court-lodge, formerly a part of the nunnery, was, after the dissolution of it, made use of as a farmhouse, in which some of the monks of St. Augustine resided, to manage the estate of it, which they kept in their own hands. On the north side of it, which seems to have been the front or entrance, is a handsome stone portal, on the top of which, in the middle, within a circle, are the arms of the abbey of St. Augustine, viz. Sable, a cross, argent. At a small distance from it stood antiently a very large barn, sufficient to hold the corn growing on all the demesnes, being in length 352 feet, and in breadth 47 feet, and the height of the walls 12 feet, with a roof of chesnut. When the estate was divided, 154 feet in length of this building was carried to Sevenscore farm, where it was burnt, by an accident unknown in 1700, and the remaining part here was burnt by lightning afterwards. On the south side of the house stood a chapel, said to have been built by St. Eadburga, the third abbess here. In it the body of St. Mildred is said to have been placed by her, or rather translated from the other monastery. Some of the walls and foundations of this chapel were remaining within the memory of some not long since deceased, but it is now so entirely demolished, that there is nothing to be seen of it, excepting a small part of the tower, and of the stairs leading up into it. Just by these ruins of the tower is a small piece of ground, in which lately in digging for mould, several human bones were dug up. There is a view of the remains of this nunnery in Lewis's Thanet.
THE OTHER PART of this estate, the scite of which lies about a mile eastward from Minster-court, since known by the name of SEVENSCORE, on which is built a substantial farm-house, with large barns and other necessary buildings, was allotted to —Carey, in whose successors viscounts Falkland, this estate continued down to Lucius Ferdinand, viscount Falkland, who not many years since alienated it to Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of London, whose son of the same name died possessed of it about the year 1784, leaving two sisters his coheirs, one of whom married Sir Charles Kent, bart. and the other, Anne, married Henry Verelst, esq. who afterwards, in right of their respective wives, became possessed of this estate in undivided moieties; in which state it still continues, Sir Charles Kent being at this time entitled to one moiety, and Mrs. Verelst, the widow of Henry Verelst, esq. above-mentioned, who died in 1785, and lies buried in this church, being entitled to the other moiety of it.
WASCHESTER is an estate lying at a small distance westward from Minster church, part of which was formerly parcel of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, and was included in king James's grant to Sir Philip Carey, William Pitt, esq. and John Williams, goldsmith, as has been mentioned before in the account of that manor; they in the year 1620, joined in the sale of them to Jeffry Sandwell, gent. of Monkton, who purchased other lands of different persons in this parish, Monkton and Birchington, the whole of which he sold in 1658, to John Peters, M. D. Philip le Keuse, and Samuel Vincent, which two latter alienated their shares soon afterwards to Dr. Peters; at which time all these lands together, not only comprehended Waschester farm, but likewise part, if not the whole of another called Acol. From Dr. Peters this estate descended to Peter Peters, M. D. of Canterbury, who died in 1697, upon which the inheritance of it descended to his sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who in 1722 carried it in marriage to Thomas Barrett, esq. of Lee, whose second wife she was; he died possessed of it in 1757, upon which it descended to their only daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband, the Rev. William Dejovas Byrche, to the fee of it. He died in 1792, leaving an only daughter Elizabeth, married to Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. of the Middle Temple, barrister-atlaw, but now of Denton-court, who in her right possessed it, and afterwards sold it to Mr. Ambrose Maud, who now owns it.
SHERIFFS COURT is an estate lying somewhat less than a mile westward from Waschester, in the hamlet of Hoo in this parish; it was formerly called Sheriffs Hope, from the hope, or place of anchorage for ships, which sailed in the river Wantsume, which once ran close by this place. It is said by some to have taken its name from its having been part of the possessions of Reginald de Cornhill, who was so long sheriff of this county that he lost his own name and took that of Le Sheriff, from whence this place gained the name of Sheriffs hope, or court. He was sheriff from the 4th to the 9th years of king Richard I. in the last year of that reign and during the whole reign of king John. His arms are on the stone roof of the cloysters at Canterbury, being Two lions passant, debruised of a bendlet, impaling three piles. After this name was extinct here, the family of Corbie became possessed of this estate; one of whom, Robert de Corbie, died possessed of it in the 39th year of king Edward III. whose son Robert Corbie, esq. of Boughton Malherb, leaving a sole daughter and heir Joane, she carried it in marriage to Sir Nicholas Wotton, who, anno 3 Henry V. was lord mayor of London. His descendant Sir Edward Wotton procured his lands in this county to be disgavelled by the acts both of 31 Henry VIII. and 2 and 3 Edward VI. and from him this manor descended to Thomas, lord Wotton, who dying anno 6 Charles I. without male issue, his four daughters became his coheirs, of whom Catherine the eldest carried this estate in marriage to Henry, lord Stanhope, son and heir of Philip, earl of Chesterfield, whose widow Catherine, lady Stanhope, sold it to Henry Paramor. He was the tenant and occupier of Sheriff's court, being the eldest son of John Paramor, of Preston, the grandson of Thomas Paramor, of Paramor-street, in Ash, near Sandwich. They bore for their arms, Azure, a fess embattled, counter embairled, between three etoils of six points, or. (fn. 11) . He left it to his brother Thomas Paramor, whose grandson of the same name died possessed of it in 1652, and was buried with his ancestors in this church; from his heirs this estate was alienated to Thatcher, in which name it continued, till at length it was sold by one of them, to Mr. Robert Wilkins, gent. of St. Margaret's, Rochester, who possessed it for many years. He died without issue, and it has since become the property of Mrs. Terry, the present owner of it.
TO THIS MANOR is appurtenant the small MANOR OF PEGWELL, or COURT STAIRS, in the parish of St. Laurence.
ALDELOND GRANGE, usually called Allen Grange, situated about a mile northwardfrom Minster church, on the open high land, was so called in opposition to Newland Grange, in St. Laurence parish. It was antiently part of the possessions of the abbey of St. Augustine, and was in the year 1197, assigned by Roger, the abbot of it, to the sacristy of the abbey, for the purpose of upholding and maintaining the abbey church, as well in the fabric as ornaments, but on the condition that the sacrist for the time being, should perform all such services to the court of Minster as were due, and had been accustomed to be done for the land of it. (fn. 12)
The measurement of this land, according to Thorne, amounted to sixty-two acres; and to this Grange belong all the tithes of corn and grain, within the limits of the borough of Wayborough, excepting those which are received by the vicar. On the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. this estate, then amounting to six score acres, came, with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands, where it did not continue long, for he settled it in his 33d year, by his dotation charter, on his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, with whom the inheritance of it continues at this time.
It has been demised by the dean and chapter, on a beneficial lease, the rack rent of it being 413l. per annum, for twenty one years, to Mr. Edward Pett, of Cleve-court, the present lessee of it. Messrs. Jessard and Paramor are the under lessees and occupiers of it.
POWCIES, which stands about half a mile northeastward from Allan grange, was formerly a gentleman's mansion, a large handsome building standing on much more ground than it does at present, with a gate house at the entrance into the court before it; all which being pulled down, a modern farm-house of brick has been built on the antient scite of it.
This seat was once in the possession of the family of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, where Sir John Goshall resided in king Edward III.'s reign, and in his descendants it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it was carried in marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, owners likewise of the adjoining manor of Thorne, in whom it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1484, leaving a sole daughter and heir Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. By her he had two sons, Henry and Edward, the eldest of whom succeeded to this estate, which he afterwards alienated, about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, to John Roper, esq. of Linsted, afterwards knighted, and anno 14 James I. created baron of Teynham; whose great grandson Christopher, lord Teynham, in king Charles I.'s reign, conveyed it to Sir Edward Monins, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1663, leaving Elizabeth his widow surviving, who held it in jointure at her death in 1703; upon which it devolved to the heirs and trustees of Susan, his eldest daughter and coheir, late wife of Peregrine Bertie, deceased, second son of Montague, earl of Lindsey; and they, in the reign of king William and queen Mary, joined in the sale of it to Sir Henry Furnese, bart. of Waldershare, who died possessed of it in 1712, as did his son Sir Robert in 1733. After which it became, with his other estates, vested in his three daughters and coheirs, and on a partition of them, anno 9 George II. this estate of Powcies was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne the eldest sister, wife of John, viscount St. John, which partition was confirmed by an act passed next year; after which it descended down to their grandson George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry and John Harnett, the present possessors of it.
THORNE, or as it is vulgarly called, Thourne, is a manor in this parish, situated about a mile southward from Powcies above mentioned, being so named from the quantity of thorny bushes growing on and about it. This manor was antiently the seat of a family which took their name from it, one of them, Henry de Thorne, was owner of it in the year 1300, anno 29 Edward I. and resided here; against whom it seems complaint was made to the abbot of St. Augustine, that he caused mass to be publicly said in his private oratory, or chapel, (the remains of which are still so entire as to be made use of as a granary, &c.) at this his manor of Thorne, (apud spinam) to the prejudice of the mother church, and the ill example of others; and he accordingly was inhibited from so doing in future, by the archbishop's letters to the vicar of Minster, dated that year. And under the cross in this church, in the north wall of it, is an antient tomb or coffin of solid stone, let into the wall under an arch of antient Saxon ornaments. On the stone which covers the tomb is a cross flory, on each side of which are two blank shields, and round the edge of the stone these words in old French letters: Ici gift Edile de Thorne, que fust Dna del Espine. This seems probable to have been one of the family, owners of this manor.
After this family of Thorne were become extinct here, that of Goshall, of Goshall, in Ash, appear to have been possessors of this manor; in whom it continued till about the reign of king Henry IV. when it went by marriage by a female heir to one of the family of St. Nicholas, in whose descendants it continued down to Roger St. Nicholas, who died in 1474, and as appears by his will, was buried before the image of St. Nicholas, in the chancel of Thorne, at Minster. Roger St. Nicholas, his son and heir, left an only daughter Elizabeth, who entitled her husband John Dynley, esq. of Charlton, in Worcestershire, to the possession of it. After which it continued down in the same owners as Powcies last above-described, till it came into the possession of George, viscount Bolingbroke, who in 1790 alienated it to Mr. Henry Wooton, the present owner of it.
See a custom for the demise of tenements by will within the borough of Menstre, secundum consuetudinem manerii, anno 55 Henry III. Itin. Kanc. rot. 18, in Robinson's Gavelkind, p. 236.
Charities.
THE OCCUPIER of Salmeston Grange, in St. John's parish, is bound by his lease to distribute to six poor inhabitants of the parish of Minster, to be nominated by the minister and churchwardens, in the first week, and on the middle Monday of Lent, to each of them, nine loaves and eighteen herrings; and to three poor people of the same, to each of them, two yards of blanket; and every Monday and Friday in each week, from the Invention of the Holy Cross to the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, to every poor person coming to Salmeston Grange, one dishfull of peas dressed.
THOMAS APPLETON, of Eastry, yeoman, by his will in 1593, gave to the relief of the poor of this parish, the sum of 5l. to be paid to the churchwardens yearly, for the use of the poor people, inhabitants there, fourteen days before Christmas day, the same to be paid out of certain lands belonging to him, called Hardiles, in the parish of Woodnesborough.
RICHARD CLERK, D. D. vicar of Minster, partly by deed in 1625, and partly by will on Nov 6, 1634, gave 120l. to be lent unto four parishioners, born in Minster, whose fathers were deceased, and they not sufficiently stocked, for the term of one, two, or three years, but not exceeding that; the interest arising from it to be divided among the poor of the parish. With this money the trustees purchased houses, which are at present divided into four tenements, besides the parish work-house, called the seoffees houses; and seven other tenements, called Cheap Row, the rent of which is annually distributed in clothing to the poor persons of the parish. They are all at present let to the churchwardens and overseers for the time being, by a lease of 99 years, from 1729, at the rent of 6l. This trust is now vested in Mr. William Fuller, of Doctors Commons, as heir of the last trustee; the trust not having been filled up since the year 1696.
JOHN CAREY, esq of Stanwell, in Middlesex, by will in 1685, gave 10l. per annum to be paid yearly to the churchwardens, out of his farm of Sevenscore; to be disposed of to the poor yearly, on St. Thomas's day.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Westbere.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a very handsome structure, consisting of a nave and two side isles, a cross sept, and east chancel; the nave is of Saxon, the transept and chancel of gothic architecture; the last is curiously vaulted with stone, and provision was made for the same in the transept, but it was never completed. In it are eighteen collegiate stalis, in good preservation. At the west end of the church is a tall spire steeple, in which is a clock and five bells.
When the Danes plundered and burnt the abbey of Minster, they seem to have spared the two chapels of St. Mary, and of St. Peter and St. Paul, or however the stone work of them was preserved, and not burnt with the roof and other works of timber. The former of these was afterwards made into the present parish church, and has since been considerably enlarged.—The nave or body of the church seems to have been the old building; the pillars of which are thick and short, and the arches all circular, and a low roof was probably upon them, according to the simplicity and plainness of those times; but since the wall has been built higher, as appears by the distance there is, betwixt the top of the arches and the wall plate across; and an handsome chancel added at the east end, and a square tower on the west, with a high spire covered with lead placed on it. The chancel or choir and the middle of the cross are vaulted, and by the footings which are left, it was certainly intended that the whole cross should have been finished in the same manner. The eighteen stalls mentioned before, have very handsome wainscot behind, according to the mode of those times; in these the monks, vicars, and priests used to sit during the performance of divine service. Besides the high altar in this church, there were before the reformation other altars in it, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. James, and St. Anne. At these, as likewise before the Holy Cross, were lights constantly burning; for the maintenance of which, there were societies or fellowships, who contributed towards the maintenance of them, and those who died left in their last wills constantly small sums of money for that purpose. Under the middle of the cross was the rood-lost, the going up to which out of the chancel is yet to be seen, as are the mortice holes in which the timbers were put, on which the lost was built. On the north wall of it is the antient tomb of Edile de Thorne. On the pavement, as well as in the church porch, are several large flat gravestones, the inscriptions, if any on them, entirely worn away; they seem very antient, and are not improbably, memorials of some of the religious of this place, but they do not seem always to have lain where they do now. On the front of the tower of the steeple is a shield, carved in the stone work, viz. A fess, between three lion's passant. Among other memorials in this church, in the chancel, is one for Francis, son and heir to Edward Saunders, gent. of Norbourne-court, which Edward married the female heir of Francis Pendrick, esq. by his wife, who was nurse to queen Elizabeth. He died anno 1643; arms, A chevron, between three elephants heads, impaling a saltier, ermine, between three leopards faces. In the middle isle a monument for Bartholomew Sanders, gent. and Mary his wife, daughter of Henry Oxenden, esq. of Wingham; arms, Per chevron, sable and argent, three elephants heads, counterchanged, impaling Oxenden. On a mural monument are the effigies of a man and woman. kneeling at a desk, for Thomas Paramor, esq. sometime mayor of Canterbury, and Anne his first wife; arms, Azure, a fess embattled, between three stars of six points, or, impaling or, on a chevron, three stars of six points, sable, between as many dragons heads, quartered. In the north isle are several memorials for the Paramors. On a wooden frame, near the altar, a memorial for Col. James Pettit, obt. 1730. On the south side of the chancel, a mural monument for Mary, youngest daughter of Robert Knowler, gent. of Herne, wife of John Lewis, vicar of this church, obt. 1719. A memorial for John Lewis, formerly vicar of this church, obt. 1746, æt. 72. A memorial for Elizabeth Blome, daughter and coheir of John Blome, gent. of Sevenoke, obt. 1731; arms, in a lozenge, A cross fitchee, and cinquefoil, quartered with a greybound, current. A mural monument for Harry Verelst, esq. of Aston, in Yorkshire, formerly governor of Bengal, obt. 1785; he married Anne, coheir of Josiah Wordsworth, esq. of Wadworth, in Yorkshire, and of Sevenscore, in this parish, and left by her four sons and five daughters. In the south isle memorials for the Harnetts, Kennetts, and Colemans. In the middle isle are memorials for several of the Jenking's. Leland, in his Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 130 says, S. Florentius jacet in Cemiterio S. Mariæ in Thanet, cujus Tumba Crescit signis. (fn. 13)
On the top of the spire was formerly a globe, and upon that a great wooden cross, covered with lead, over which was a vane, and above that, an iron cross; but about the year 1647, the noted fanatic Richard Culmer, having got the sequestration of this vicarage, took it into his fancy that these were monuments of superstition and idolatry, and got these crosses demolished by two persons of the parish, whom he had hired, after he had himself before day, by moon light, fixed ladders for them to go up and down, from the square of the tower to the top of the spire. But if all the figures of a cross are monuments of idolatry, and to be removed, the poor caitiff has done his work but by halves, or rather not all, when he took down these from the spire and left the church standing, which is itself built in the form of a cross.
The church of Minster was antiently appendant to the manor, and as such was granted with it, first to Domneva, and afterwards became part of the possessions of the abbey founded by her here; and after the destruction of it came with the manor, by king Cnute's grant, to the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, to which it became appropriated in the year 1128, anno 29 Henry I. and was at that time assigned, with the chapels of St. John, St. Peter, and St. Laurence, with all rents, tithes, and other things, belonging to them, to the sacristy of that monastery; which regulation was confirmed by archbishop Theobald, and afterwards, in 1168, by pope Alexander, who consigned it to the reparation of the church of the monastery, which had been but just before burnt down. (fn. 14)
In the year 1176, anno 23 Henry II. the tenants of the Halimot, or manor court of Minster, agreed, that from thenceforth they would all cop their corn; and that they and their heirs, then and for ever afterwards, should pay all their tithes lawfully by cops, and all other matters of tithes, which they were accustomed to pay, as amply as they had ever paid them from the time of the dedication of the church of St. Mary of Menstre.
By an agreement entered into in 1182, between the archbishop and the abbot of St. Augustine's, this church was exempted from the payments of all dues and procurations to the archdeacon; and that year the archbishop confirmed this church to the monastery; which agreement was renewed in 1237, by archbishop Edmund; and further, that the abbot and convent should present to the archbishop, in the chapels of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Laurence, fit perpetual chaplains to the altarages in them, provided those altarages were worth ten marcs, with which the chaplains should be content, on pain of forfeiting the same; the vicar of the mother church of Menstre, having a sufficient vicarage taxed from antient time in the same, taking and receiving in right of his vicarage, the tenths of small tithes, viz. of lambs and pigs, and the obventions arising from marriages and churchings, which were forbid at the chapels, and were solemnized, &c. at the mother church only, and the burials of certain corpses, being those of the tenants or occupiers of lands in these chapelries, who were to be buried at Minster, unless the vicar gave leave to the contrary. At the same time the archbishop, with the consent of the archdeacon, confirmed this church to the abbot and convent, together with the several archiepiscopal confirmations of it, and those of the several kings of England. This part above-mentioned of the revenue of the vicarage of Minster, arising from these chapelries, has long since been lost, except that out of Salmestone Grange, amounting to 10s. a year; which, perhaps, might be a composition for the tenths of the small tithes, &c. in them. The altarages above-mentioned were the customary and voluntary offerings at the altar, for some religious office or service of the priest. To augment these, the regular and secular priests invented many things. For it is to be observed, that only a portion of these offerings, to the value of ten marcs, or 6l. 13s. 4d. was what the chaplains of these three chapels were presented to, and that they were accountable for the residue to the abbot and convent, and that if they presumed to detain any more of these offerings beyond that sum, they were to be deprived even of that. For this reason, they were to swear to the abbot and convent, to give a true account of the offerings made at their several altars, on their respective offering days, and in no shape to detriment their parish of Menstre, as to legacies or obventions, personal or predial, but to conserve all the parochial rights of the same, entire and untouched, to the utmost of their power. Then marcs appear now but a small sum for the maintenance of a parish minster; but when the value of money at the time when this composition was made is considered, it will be found to be a handsome and generous allowance to a chaplain, especially as their stipends were then paid by authority; ten marcs were then equal to more than sixty pounds now, and in a council held at Oxford but fifteen years before, it was decreed, that where the churches had a revenue as far as five marcs per annum, they should be conferred on none but such as should constantly reside in person, on the place, as being a sufficient maintenance. In 1348 H. Kinghton informs us, a chaplain's usual stipend was no more than four or five marcs, or two and his board; as for the chaplains of these three chapels, though they were to receive no more than ten marcs of these altarages, they were not excluded the enjoyment of the manses and glebes, given to these chapels when they were first consecrated, which made some addition to their income, and perhaps enabled them to keep a deacon to assist them. (fn. 15)
On the great and principal festivals, the inhabitants of these three chapelries, preceded by their priests and other officers, with their banners, tapers, &c. were used to go in procession to Minster, their mother church, there to join at the solemn mass and other divine service then performed, to make their offerings and pay their accustomed dues, in token of their subjection to their parochial or mother church.
The appropriation of the church of Minster, together with the advowson of the vicarage, continued, in manner as has been already mentioned, with the abbot and convent till the dissolution of their monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, together with the rest of the possessions of the monastery, into the king's hands. After the dissolution of the monastery, there could not be said to be any parsonage or appropriation of this church, for the demesne lands of the manor of Minster, which are very extensive in this parish, were subject, as to the tithes of corn, to only a small modus or composition to the vicar, of eighteen shocks or cops of wheat, and eighteen shocks or cops of barley, or thereabouts; and the vicar was intitled, in right of his vicarage, to the corn tithes of the lands in the remaining part of the parish, as will be further noticed hereafter.
When the vicarage of this church was endowed and a vicar instituted, is no where found; but certainly it was before the year 1275; for in the act of consecration of the church or chapel-yard of St. Laurence that year, when that chapel was made parochial, mention is made of the vicar of Menstre, &c. and in the year 1384, anno 8 Richard II. this vicarage was valued at thirty marcs. After the dissolution of the abbey of St. Augustine, the advowson of this vicarage continued in the hands of the crown, till king Edward VI. in his first year, granted it, among other premises, to the archbishop, since which it has continued parcel of the pos sessions of that fee, the archbishop being the present patron of it.
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 33l. 3s. 4d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 6s. 8d. In 1588 here were three hundred communicants, and it was valued at 1501. It is endowed with a manse and glebe of about twenty-four acres of land, upland and marsh; all the corn tithes, and other tithes of that part of the parish called Street-borough; and of about one hundred acres in the other borough, called Weyborough, except the corn tithes of the demesnes of the manor of Minster, for which the modus or composition above-mentioned is paid.
¶The land in Minster level, which is pasture, paying but four-pence an acre for tithes, Dr. Richard Clarke, vicar here in 1597, made a composition with his parishioners, by which they obliged themselves to pay him at the vicarage house, within three days after every quarter, after the rate of twelve-pence an acre for their marsh land, or else to lose the benefit of the composition. (fn. 16) Dr. Meric Casaubon, who succeeded Dr. Clarke, would not abide by this composition, but afterwards compounded with the occupiers, at the rate of twelve-pence an acre for the worst of the land, and of fourteen pence and sixteen pence for that which is better; and in the year 1638 he demanded his tithes of the marsh land in kind, or eighteen pence per acre, which was agreed to by the parishioners, and paid by them till the year 1643; when the civil wars being begun, and this county in the power of the parliament, Dr. Casaubon, being continually threatened to be turned out of his vicarage, was content to receive one shilling per acre for the marsh land; in which manner he received it till the end of the year 1644, when this vicarage was sequestered, and one Richard Culmer was put into possession of this vicarage, (fn. 17) who to ingratiate himself with the parishioners, agreed to take no more than twelve pence an acre of them, as did Dr. Casaubon in 1660, on his being restored to this vicarage; at which rate the tithes were afterwards uniformly taken, till the time of the present vicar; the several vicars not being disposed to quarrel with their neighbours, though the land now lets for as much again as it did in Dr. Casaubon's time, viz. at 28s. an acre and upwards. There have been several litigations and issues at law tried between the present vicar, Mr. Dodsworth, and his parishioners, on account of this modus for the marsh land, all which have been decided in the vicar's favor, who set aside the modus of one shilling per acre by the verdict in his favor, and now takes from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. for the grass land, according to its goodness; yet there are ten acres of grass land late in the possession of Josias Fuller Farrer, esq. which never having paid more than four-pence per acre, remain at that composition. The present value of it is about 350l. per annum.
All Hallow's Eve.
And Saturday. The weekend. Shopping has been done, so we can do whatever we want.
Or what the restrictions will allow.
And as churches seem pretty much locked down, we have to find something else to do.
So, as the oroginal art from the orchid book had arrived, I needed to get it framed, so we decide to go to Sandwich for a wander, take some shots and get the picture into the framers.
As usual, for a Saturday, I am awake at the normal time, just after five, and so lay in bed until light shows in the window.
I go down to make coffee, feed the cats and get us ready for the day. Outside it is a fine morning, the sun rose just before seven, and all seemed well with the world.
Even better when we have the second coffee with croissants, tidy up and am ready to leave the house at half eight. The framing shop didn't open to ten, giving me an hour to wander round, snapping.
Almost no traffic on east Kent roads, meaning we drive along to Deal, along the prom and then down through the town centre and out to Sholden and Worth. We arrive in Sandwich, park behind the Guildhall, and see that the cheese shop, No Name Shop in No Name Street, was already open, so we go over and manager to spend thirty quid on curdled dairy products and a couple of apple and rhubarb tarts, which we would eat mid=afternoon with a coffee.
We put the cheese and tarts in the car, and set off through the town, me drawn towards St Peter's, which was open, though for an craft fayre, but with the stalls being set up, I was able to go round and rattle of thirty or so shots of the fixtures and fittings, as I had managed to take just nine shots when I was there eleven years ago.
We end up on the narrow street that runs beside the river, I see that there is a cafe open opposite the framing shop, so we go in for second breakfast. We sit outside as it was just about warm enough in the milky sunshine, though the breeze was keen. I have bacon and sausage butty and a pot of tea. Breakfast of champions. JOols has a bagel with smoked salmon, avacado and stuff generally healthy.
I drop the picture off, pick a frame and mounting board.
Walking out we were amazed by the amount of traffic along the narrow streets, so Jools asked me what we should do now? Go home.
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Easily identified from afar by its unusual cupola built in the seventeenth century to complete the reconstruction of the tower following its total collapse. The base of the tower still displays some medieval stonework, whereas the top is seventeenth-century brick. The interior is tall and light with a heavily timbered crownpost roof. Among many items of interest the church contains three fine canopied wall monuments. One of them shows a husband and wife of mid-fourteenth-century date. Their heads are turned a little to the south to face the altar and they have a particularly animated lion at their feet. The church is now maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust who allow the nave to be used for a variety of alternative uses. The Trust also has charge of St Mary's church a little further down the road and visitors are welcomed at both.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Sandwich+3
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THE town of Sandwich is situated on the north-east confines of this county, about two miles from the sea, and adjoining to the harbour of its own name, through which the river Stour flows northward into the sea at Pepperness. It is one of the principal cinque ports, the liberty of which extends over it, and it is within the jurisdiction of the justices of its own corporation.
Sandwich had in antient time several members appertaining to it, (fn. 1) called the antient members of the port of Sandwich; these were Fordwich, Reculver, Sarre, Stonar, and Deal; but in the later charters, the members mentioned are Fordwich incorporated, and the non-corporated members of Deal, Walmer, Ramsgate, Stonar, Sarre, all in this county, and Brightlingsea, in Sussex; but of late years, Deal, Walmer, and Stonar, have been taken from it; Deal, by having been in 1699 incorporated with the charter of a separate jurisdiction, in the bounds of which Walmer is included; and Stonar having been, by a late decision of the court of king's bench in 1773, adjudged to be within the jurisdiction of the county at large.
The first origin of this port was owing to the decay of that of Richborough, as will be further noticed hereafter. It was at first called Lundenwic, from its being the entrance to the port of London, for so it was, on the sea coast, and it retained this name until the supplanting of the Saxons by the Danes, when it acquired from its sandy situation a new name, being from thenceforward called Sandwic, in old Latin, Sabulovicum, that is, the sandy town, and in process of time, by the change of language, Sandwich.
Where this town now stands, is supposed, in the time of the Romans, and before the decay of the haven, or Portus Rutupinus, to have been covered with that water, which formed the bay of it, which was so large that it is said to have extended far beyond this place, on the one side almost to Ramsgate cliffs, and on the other near five miles in width, over the whole of that flat of land, on which Stonar and Sandwich too, were afterwards built, and extending from thence up to the æstuary, which then flowed up between the Isle of Thanet and the main land of this county.
During the time of the Saxons, the haven and port of Richborough, the most frequented of any in this part of Britain, began to decay, and swarve up, the sea by degrees entirely deserting it at this place, but still leaving sufficient to form a large and commodious one at Sandwich, which in process of time, became in like manner, the usual resort for shipping, and arose a Flourishing harbour in its stead; from which time the Saxon fleets, as well as those of the Danes, are said by the historians of those times, to sail for the port of Sandwich; and there to lie at different times, and no further mention is made of that of Richborough, which being thus destroyed, Sandwich became the port of general resort; which, as well as the building of this town, seems to have taken place, however, some while after the establishment of the Saxons in Britain, and the first time that is found of the name of Sandwich being mentioned and occurring as a port, is in the life of St. Wilfred, archbishop of York, written by Eddius Stephanus; in which it is said, he and his company, prosper in portum Sandwich, atque suaviter pervenerunt, happily and pleasantly arrived in the harbour of Sandwich, which happened about the year 665, or 666, some what more than 200 years after the arrival of the Saxons in Britain. During the time of the Danes insesting this kingdom, several of their principal transactions happened at this place, (fn. 2) and the port of it became so much frequented, that the author of queen Emma's life stiles it the most noted of all the English ports; Sandwich qui est omnium Anglorum portuum famosissimus.
FROM THE TIME of the origin of the town of Sandwich, the property of it was vested in the several kings who reigned over this country, and continued so till king Ethelred, in the year 979, gave it, as the lands of his inheritance, to Christ-church, in Canterbury, free from all secular service and fiscal tribute, except the repelling invasions, and the repairing of bridges and castles. (fn. 3) After which king Canute, having obtained the kingdom, finished the building of this town, and having all parts and places in the realm at his disposal, as coming to the possession of it by conquest, by his charter in the year 1023, gave, or rather restored the port of Sandwich, with the profits of the water of it, on both sides of the stream, for the support of that church, and the sustenance of the monks there.
Soon after this, the town of Sandwich increased greatly in size and inhabitants, and on account of the commodity and use of its haven, and the service done by the shipping belonging to it, was of such estimation, that it was made one of the principal cinque ports; and in king Edward the Confessor's days it contained three hundred and seven houses, and was an hundred within itself; and it continued increasing, as appears by the description of it, in the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, anno 1080, in which it is thus entered, under the title of the lands of the archbishop:
Sandwice lies in its own proper hundred. This borough the archbishop holds, and it is of the clothing of the monks, and yields the like service to the king as Dover; and this the men of that borough testify, that before king Edward gave the same to the Holy Trinity, it paid to the king fisteen pounds. At the time of King Edward's death it was not put to ferme. When the archbishop received it, it paid forty pounds of ferme, and forty thousand herrings to the food of the monks. In the year in which this description was made, Sanuuic paid fifty pounds of ferme, & Herrings as above. In the time of king Edward the Confessor there were there three hundred and seven mansions tenanted, now there are seventy six more, that is together three hundred and eighty three.
And under the title of the bishop of Baieux's lands, as follows, under the description of the manor of Gollesberge:
In Estrei hundred, in Sandunic, the archbishop has thirty two houses, with plats of land belonging to this manor,(viz. Gollesberge) and they pay forty-two shil lings and eight pence, and Adeluuold has one yoke, which is worth ten shillings.
These houses, with all the liberties which the bishop of Baieux had in Sandwich, had been given by him to Christ-church, in Canterbury, and confirmed to it in the year 1075, by his brother the Conqueror. (fn. 4)
Afterwards king Henry II. granted to the monks the full enjoyment of all those liberties and customs in Sandwich, which they had in the time of king Henry his grandfather, that is, the port and toll, and all maritime customs in this port, on both sides of the water, that is, from Eadburgate unto Merksflete, and the small boat to ferry across it, and that no one should have any right there except them and their servants.
The town, by these continued privileges, and the advantages it derived from the great resort to the port, increased much in wealth and number of inhabitants; and notwithstanding, in the year 1217, anno 2 king Henry III. great part of the town was burnt by the French, yet the damage seems soon to have been recompenced by the savors bestowed on it by the several kings, in consideration of the services it had continually afforded, in the shipping of this port, to the nation. The first example of royal favor, being shewn by the last-mentioned king, was in his 11th year, who not only confirmed the customs before granted, but added the further grant of a market to this town and port, (fn. 5) and in his 13th year granted the custom of taking twopence for each cask of wine received into it.
After which, the prior and convent of Christ-church, in the 18th year of King Edward I. gave up in exchange for other lands elsewhere, to his queen Eleanor, all their rights, possessions, and privileges here, excepting their houses and keys, and a free passage in the
haven, in the small boat, called the vere boat, (fn. 6) and free liberty for themselves and their tenants to buy and sell toll free, which the king confirmed that year; and as a favor to the town, he placed the staple for wool in it for some time.
The exception above-mentioned, was afterwards found to be so very prejudicial, as well as inconvenient, that king Edward III. in his 38th year, gave them other lands in Essex, in exchange for all their rights, privileges, and possessions, in this town and port. After which king Richard II. in his first year, removed the staple for wool from Queenborough, where it had been for some time, hither.
During the whole of this period from the time of the conquest, this port continued the general rendezvous of the royal sleets, and was as constantly visted by the several monarchs, who frequently embarked and returned again hither from France; the consequence of which was, that the town became so flourishing, that it had increased to between eight and nine hundred houses inhabited, divided into three parishes; and there were of good and able mariners, belonging to the navy of it, above the number of 1500; so that when there was occasion at any time, the mayors of it, on the receipt of the king's letters, furnished, at the town's charges, to the seas, fifteen sail of armed ships of war, which were of such continued annoyance to the French, that they in return made it a constant object of their revenge. Accordingly, in the 16th year of king Henry VI. they landed here and plundered the greatest part of the inhabitants, as they did again in the 35th year of it; but but this not answering the whole of their purpose, Charles VIII. king of France, to destroy it entirely, sent hither four thousand men, who landing in the night, after a long and bloody conflict gained possession of the town, and having wasted it with fire and sword, slew the greatest part of the inhabitants; and to add to these misfortunes it was again ransacked by the earl of Warwick, in the same reign.
To preserve the town from such disasters in future, king Edward IV. new walled, ditched, and fortifield it with bulwarks, and gave besides, for the support of them, one hundred pounds yearly out of the customhouse here; which, together with the industry and efforts of the merchants, who frequented this haven, the goodness of which, in any storm or contrary wind, when they were in danger from the breakers, or the Goodwin Sands, afforded them a safe retreat; in a very short time restored it again to a flourishing state, infomuch, that before the end of that reign, the clear yearly receipt of the customs here to that king, amounted to above the sum of 16 or 17,000l. (fn. 7) and the town had ninety five ships belonging to it, and above fifteen hundred sailors.
But this sunshine of prosperity lasted no long time afterwards, for in king Henry VII.'s time, the river Stour, or as it was at this place antiently called, the Wantsume, continued to decay so fast, as to leave on each side at low water, a considerable quantity of salts, which induced cardinal archbishop Moreton, who had most part of the adjoining lands belonging to his bishopric, for his own private advantage, to inclose and wall them in, near and about Sarre; which example was followed from time to time, by several owners of the lands adjoining, by which means the water was deprived of its usual course, and the haven felt the loss of it by a hasty decay. Notwithstanding which, so late as the first year of king Richard III. ships failed up this haven as high as Richborough, for that year, as ap pears by the corporation books of Sandwich, the mayor ordered a Spanish ship, lying on the outside of Richborough, to be removed. (fn. 8)
"Leland, who wrote in the reign of Henry VIII. gives the following description of Sandwich, as it was in his time. "Sandwich, on the farther side of the ryver of Sture, is neatly welle walled, where the town stonddeth most in jeopardy of enemies. The residew of the town is diched and mudde waulled. There be yn the town iiii principal gates, iii paroche chyrches, of the which sum suppose that St. Maries was sumtyme a nunnery. Ther is a place of White Freres, and an hospistal withowt the town, fyrst ordened for maryners desesid and hurt. There is a place where monkes of Christ-church did resort, when they were lords of the towne. The caryke that was sonke in the haven, in pope Paulus tyme, did much hurt to the haven and gether a great bank. The grounde self from Sandwich to the heaven, and inward to the land, is caullid Sanded bay".
The sinking of this great ship of pope Paul IV. in the very mouth of the haven, by which the waters had not their free course as before, from the sand and mud gathering round about it, together with the innings of the lands on each side the stream, had such a fatal effect towards the decay of the haven, that in the time of king Edward VI. it was in a manner destroyed and lost, and the navy and mariners dwindled to almost nothing, and the houses then inhabited in this town did not exceed two hundred, the inhabitants of which were greatly impoverished; the yearly customs of the town, by reason of the insufficiency of the haven, were so desicient, that there was scarcely enough arising from it to satisfy the customer his fee. This occasioned two several commissions to be granted, one in the 2d year of that reign, and another in the 2d year of queen Eli zabeth, to examine the state of the haven, and make a return of it; in consequence of the first of which, a new cut was begun by one John Rogers, which, however, was soon left in an untinished state, though there are evident traces of what was done towards making this canal still remaining, on the grounds between the town and Sandowne castle; and in consequence of the second, other representations and reports were made, one of which was, that the intended cut would be useless, and of no good effect.
Whether these different reports where the occasion that no further progress was made towards this work, and the restoration of this haven, or the very great expence it was estimated at, and the great difficulty of raising so large a sum, being 10,000l which the queen at that time could no ways spare, but so it was, that nothing further was done in it.
¶The haven being thus abandoned by the queen, and becoming almost useless, excepting to vessels of the small burthen before mentioned, the town itself would before long have become impoverished and fallen wholly to decay, had it not been most singularly preserved, and raised again, in some measure, to great wealth and prosperity, occasioned by the persecution for religion in Brabant and Flanders, which communicated to all the Protestant parts of Europe, the paper, silk, woollen, and other valuable manufactures of Flanders and France, almost peculiar at that time to those countries, and till then, in vain attempted elsewhere; the manufacturers of them came in bodies up to London, and afterwards chose their situations, with great judgment, distributing themselves, with the queen's licence, through England, so as not to interfere too much with one another. The workers in sayes, baize, and flannel in particular, fixed themselves here, at Sandwich, at the mouth of a haven, by which they might have an easy communication with the metropolis, and other parts of this kingdom, and afforded them like wife an easy export to the continent. These manufacturers applied accordingly to the queen, for her protection and licence; for which purpose, in the third year of her reign, she caused letters patent to be passed, directed to the mayor, &c. to give liberty to such of them, as should be approved of by the archbishop, and bishop of London, to inhabit here for the purpose of exercising those manufactures, which had not been used before in England, or for shishing in the seas, not exceeding the number of twenty-five house holders, accounting to every household not above twelve persons, and there to exercise their trade, and have as many servants as were necessary for carrying them on, not exceeding the number above mentioned; these immediately repaired to Sandwich, to the number, men, women, and children, of four hundred and six persons; of which, eight only were masters in the trade. A body of gardeners likewife discovered the nature of the soil about Sandwich to be exceedingly favourable to the growth of all esculent plants, and fixed themselves here, to the great advantage of this town, by the increase of inhabitants, the employment of the poor, and the money which circulated; the landholders like wife had the great advantage of their rents being considerably increased, and the money paid by the town and neighbourhood for vegetables, instead of being sent from hence for the purchase of them, remained within the bounds of it. The vegetables grew here in great perfection, but much of them was conveyed at an easy expence, by water carriage, to London, and from thence dispersed over different parts of the kingdom.
These strangers, by their industry and prudent conduct, notwithstanding the obstructions they met with, from the jealousy of the native tradesmen, and the avarice of the corporation, very soon rose to a flourishing condition.
ST. PETER'S CHURCH stands nearly in the centre of the town; it consisted formerly of three isles, and in that state was next in size to St. Clement's which was the largest church in Sandwich. In 1641 it was certified to the lord keeper by the mayor, &c. that the steeple of St. Peter's church was in a very ruinous condition; that it was a principal sea mark, and that it was beyond the parishioners abilities to rebuild it; the estimate of the expence being 1500l. The steeple fell down on Sunday, Oct. 13, 1661, and demolished the south isle, which has never been rebuilt. There had been two sermons preached in it that day; it fell down about a quarter after eleven at night; had it fallen in the day time, the greatest part of the town and parish would probably have been killed and buried under the rubbish, but no one was hurt and few heard of it. The rubbish was three fathom deep in the middle of the church and the bells underneath it. This church, as well as the other two, seems to have been formerly constructed entirely, or at least cased externally, with the stone of Normandy, well squared, and neatly put together. The east end of the chancel is a good specimen of the old work, and there are detached portions of the same fort of masonry in other parts of the building.
The present structure, which is evidently the work of different times, is composed of fragments of the older fabric, mixed with Kentish rag and sand stone, and slints from the shore. The south isle is said to have been built by Sir John Grove, about the year 1447, and Sir Simon de Sandwich, warden of the cinque ports in Edward II.'s reign, both having given liberally towards the new building of the steeple. The present steeple is a square tower, built with the old materials to the height of the roof of the church, and from thence to the battlements with bricks of the haven mud. There are eight small, but musical bells, cast in 1779; they cost 430l. 12s. 6d. which expence was in great measure defrayed by the metal of the former six old bells; and a clock, which is the property of the corporation, who keep it in repair.
In this church there are the following monuments and inscriptions, among others too numerous to mention.—In the south isle, now in ruins, are the remains of a handsome tomb under an arch in the wall, in which was interred the body of Sir John Grove, who flourished in king Henry VI.'s reign, on which were his arms, now obliterated, viz.Three leaves in bend, on a canton, three crescents. There has been another arched monument in this wall, but all the ornamental parts are gone. In the north isle are several gravestones, with memorials for the Jenkinsons, for Jeffreys, and for the Olivers. On a large stone, coffin shaped, is a cross resting on a small dog or lion, and round the verge of the stone some mutilated gothic square characters cut in the stone, for Adam Stannar, priest. Part of another stone, with similar characters on it, lies in the same space a little to the westward. On a brass plate in black letter is an inscription for Thomas Gilbert, gent. searcher, of Kent, who married Katharine, daughter of Robert Fylmer, of East Sutton, in Kent, and had six sons and three daughters; arms, Gilbert, Gules, a saltier, or, on a chief, ermine, three piles, gules. He died in 1597. In this chancel a gravestone for Mr. Henry Furnese, obt. 1672; Anne his wife, obt. 1696. (They were the parents of Sir Henry Furnese, bart.) Mr. John Blanch, merchant, obt. 1718; Elizabeth his wife, daughter of the above Henry and Anne Furnese, obt. 1737. A memorial for Mary, first wife of Mr. John Solly, mercer, eldest sister of Sir Henry Furnese, bart, obt. 1685; and Mr. John Solly, obt. 1747. Within the altar rails are memorials for many of the family of Verrier of this town. On a marble monument against the north wall, an inscription for the Olivers. Opposite the above, a mural monument with an inscription for Henry Wife, esq. obt. 1769; Elizabeth his daughter, wife of Mr. Wm. Boys, obt. 1761; Mary his wife, obt. 1772; arms, Wife, sable, three chevronels, ermine. An oval tablet of marble for Elizabeth, wife of John Rolse, jun. gent. of New Romney, obt. 1780. A marble mural monument against the south wall, near the door of the nave, for the Jekens and Youngs. A marble tablet underneath for Susannah Wyborn, formerly wife of the above named Mr. Thomas Young, but late of Mr. William Wyborn, brewer, of this town, obt. 1755. On a marble tablet against the north wall of the nave, an inscription for the Jekens. The gallery at the west end of the north isle was built by subscription, and is secured to the subscribers by a faculty. There are stones in the church pointing out the licenced vaults of Brown; the Jeken family; Solly; and Ferrier; the Thurbarne family, a hatchment over it has three coats of arms, viz. Thurbarne, sable, a griffin passant, argent, with impalements. In the south east angle of the north isle is a vault, now belonging to the heirs of Mr. Solomon Ferrier, but built originally for the family of Mennes, whose atchievment, helm, and crest are suspended over the place. The arms are, Gules, a chevron, vaire, or, and azure, between three leopards faces of the second. In an escutcheon of pretence, quarterly, first and fourth, the royal arms of Scotland, debruised with a batton, sable; second and third, a ship with sails furled, within a double tressure, story, counterflory. In the wall of the north isle are three arches, under the eastermost, between the second and third windows, on an altar tomb are the mutilated figures of a man and woman lying at length in the dresses of the time, their heads supported by double pillows, a lion at his feet, a dog at hers; in the front of the tomb are narrow gothic arches. The tomb projects into the church-yard; the second arch is behind the pulpit; the tomb was exposed to view in digging a vault in 1770; its front is divided into six compart ments, in each of the four middle ones is a shield, the first of which has three wheat fans, a crescent in the centre; the second a fess fusilly, between three griffins beads; the third has three lions rampant, and the fourth is void; over this monument in stones in the wall, are two coats of arms, that on the right hand being fretty, a chief; and the other the ports arms, three demi lious, impaling three demi ships. Under the westermost arch, which does not penetrate through the wall, is an handsome altar tomb of Caen stone, in the front of which are six small shields; there were arms in all of them, but the bearing and colours are nearly effaced.
Dr. Harris says, in the north isle were buried Tho Ellis, esq. of Sandwich, and Margaret his wife; Sir Simon Sandwich, warden of the cinque ports temp. Edward II. who was a great benefactor to the building of the steeple of this church. The Sandwich MS. quoted by Mr. Boys, says, that the former of these lies buried here, under a most antient monument, and that John Ive, esq. a worshipful merchant likewise, and Maud his wife, lie buried under an arched sepulchre in the wall; and that here likewife were buried divers of the worshipful men of the Sandwich's knights. Through the wall that divides the chancel from the north isle has been an arched door, now closed up; and another in the opposite wall, from an inclosed chapel at the upper end of the south isle, between which and the small house appointed for the chaplains of Ellis's chantry, was a door of communication, which, as well as the arch, is still visible; but they are now shut up with masonry. This probably was the chapel, where these chantry priests performed divine offices.
There are inscriptions on boards of the benefactions to the parish by Sir Henry Furnese and Mr. Jarvis. The figure of Sir John Grove has lately been removed by Mr. Boys from the fallen isle, where it must soon have been destroyed, into the church beside the font, at which time his remains were searched for; an arched grave was found under the monument containing a coffin with the date 1664, so that probably the remains of Sir John Grove were removed from hence at the time that the isle was brought into its present ruinous state. The outward parts of the figure having been much injured by the weather and the trampling of boys, its position has been reversed, and the other parts brought to view, where the sculpture is remarkably sharp and elegant.
In 1564 it was ordered by the mayor, jurats, &c. that the church of St. Peter should be appropriated to the use of the Flemmings, on account of the plague; that they might be all at one place.
The church yard, which was much too small, has been considerably enlarged in 1776, and was consecrated by archbishop Moore, at his primary visitation on July 9, 1786
¶The church of St. Peter is a rectory, and was antiently of the alternate patronage of the abbot and convent of St. Augustine, and of the mayor, jurats, and commonalty; but this was not without continual dispute made by the former, of the latter's right to it. At length this controversy was finally settled in the year 1227, anno 11th Henry III. when they mutually acknowledged each others right in future to the alternate presentation to it. After which, the abbot and convent continued in the possession of their interest in the patronage of this church, till the dissolution of their monastery in the 30th year of king Henry VIII. when it came into the hands of the crown, where their alternate turn of presentation to this rectory has ever since continued, the king being at this time entitled to it. The other alternate right of presentation has continued in the mayor, jurats, and commonalty, to the present time.
It is valued in the king's books at eight pounds. In 1640 here were communicants 825, and it was valued at eighty pounds. It is now a discharged living, of about the clear yearly value of fifty pounds. It pays five shilling to the archdeacon for procurations, and 3s. 4d. to the archbishop at his ordinary visitations.
The revenues of this rectory arise from dues, collected in like manner as in the other parishes in this town, from the house in this parish, and from the tithe of land belonging to St. Bartholomew's hospital, called Cowleez, containing about ten acres.
In 1776, there were in this parish 228 houses, and 958 inhabitants.
The oldest register begins in 1538, and ends in 1615; the one in use begins from that period.
St Peter and St Paul, Salle, Norfolk
During their awesome reign over the other great teams of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Liverpool football club placed a huge sign in the changing room corridor, so that it was the last thing visiting teams saw before they walked out on to the pitch: This is ANFIELD, it warned. The name alone was enough. Similarly, the cover of the guidebook here proclaims, in a single word, SALLE. Again, it suffices; the word, pronounced to rhyme with call, stands for the building. Perhaps only the name Blythburgh has the same power in all East Anglia.
The greatest East Anglian churches were built in the 15th century. It is often observed that there can never have been enough people to fill them, but this is to miss the point. They were never intended for the forms of worship to which they now play host.
The shape of a late medieval church is not an accident. East Anglian parish churches of the 15th century had many common features; wide aisles to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a large nave for social activities, large windows to fill the building with light, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a pulpit for the preaching of orthodox doctrine, benches to enable the people to hear the preaching, and carvings, stained glass and wall paintings of the sacraments, Gospels and rosary mysteries, of the catechism and teaching of the Catholic Church.
As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a late medieval East Anglian church was a machine for making Catholicism happen.
No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new Church inherited buildings that were often unsuitable for congregational protestant liturgy - a problem that the Church of England has never satisfactorily solved.
Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.
With the rise of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This Victorian conception of the medieval suited itself to congregational worship, and responded in a satisfactory way to the structure of the building. But still, of course, they weren't full.
This 19th century re-imagining is the condition in which we find most of them today, and Anglican theologians everywhere are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?
It requires a shift in the mind to recall that these were not originally Anglican buildings, but it is a shift we need to make. The idea of a previously unchanging Church now confronting the demands of the modern age is wholly incorrect. These buildings have faced a variety of challenges over the centuries; they have only ever been truly suitable for the use for which they were originally built six hundred years ago.
Two of the largest late medieval churches in East Anglia are just three miles apart, at Cawston and Salle in the middle of Norfolk. These clusters are not uncommon; think of Blythburgh, Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, for example, or Lavenham and Long Melford in the same county. But Cawston and Salle are really close - you can see the tower of one from the other. St Peter and St Paul is a complete example of a 15th century rebuilding; St Agnes at Cawston retains its elegant earlier chancel.
If not merely for congregational worship, why were these churches built so big? Impressive as they seem now, they must have been awesome at the time they were built, since they were the only substantial buildings outside of the towns, and would have dwarfed the houses of the parish. Some were in villages; but many were not. Salle church has always been out in the fields. Why are earlier East Anglian churches not so massive? Certainly, East Anglia has its cathedrals; Norwich and Ely pre-date the great churches by several centuries, and Bury Abbey was bigger than either before its destruction. The great majority of East Anglia's churches are piecemeal affairs; typically, a 13th century chancel, which must have been the most substantial part of the building when it was first erected, an early 14th century nave and tower, and perhaps later elaborations of the piece with aisles and a clerestory. Salle and Cawston churches are both rebuildings of earlier structures, but a surprising number of East Anglian churches were not rebuilt, until perhaps the Victorians saw the need for a new chancel, or new aisles. Often, these smaller churches are exquisitely beautiful, as if beauty rather than grandeur was the imperative.
And then, towards the end of the 1340s, a great pestilence swept across Europe; in East Anglia, outside of Norwich which got off lightly, it killed perhaps a half of the population. In emptying the countryside, it completely altered the economic balance; a shortage of labour gave new power to the survivors, perhaps setting in place the preconditions for the capitalism that we can recognise by the 16th century. And, in extinguishing the flower of Decorated architecture, it also gave birth to the great love affair between the late medieval mind and death.
In Catholic theology there is no great divide between the dead and the living. For the medieval Christian, communion was something that existed between all members of the parish, whether alive or dead. Thus, prayers were said for the souls of the dead (who, it was presumed, were saying prayers for the souls of the living).
To ensure that prayers were said for them after their death, the very richest people endowed chantries. These were foundations, by which priests could be employed to say masses for their souls in perpetuity. A priest in such a capacity was called a chantry priest. The masses would be said at a chantry altar, probably in the nave; if the person was rich enough, this might be enclosed in a specially constructed chantry chapel. Many churches had them. After the Reformation, many were pressed into service as family mausoleums or pews.
For the poorest people, there was the opportunity to join a guild, where, for a penny or so a week, they could ensure that the guild chantry priest would say masses for their soul after their death (along with those of the other dead members of the guild). Many of these guilds were organised around particular occupations or devotions, and became a focus of social activity. The investment that produced the income to pay the chantry priests was most commonly in land. The church or guild oversaw the management of the land, which is one of the reasons we have an image of a wealthy pre-Reformation church. Land bought to produce income in this way was known as chantry land, a name surviving in many places today. Those who invested in chantries (and few and far between must have been those who didn't) presumed that they were ensuring prayers and masses in perpetuity; but, of course, this was not to be.
Bequests and chantries seem to have reached their peak in the 15th century. Perhaps the Black Death reinforced the urgency of the task. People did not merely want to be remembered; they wanted to be prayed for. And so, those who could afford it ensured that this was not forgotten by leaving their wealth in the very place that was at the centre of communion: the parish church. The richest paid for the additions of aisles and chapels, or for a new font or rood screen. This was not just a naked desire for the recognition of their family status. There was an underlying insecurity to the new landed classes. They wanted to control their destiny beyond their deaths. And so, their gift would be recorded in the form of a dedicatory inscription. One of these survives on the screen at Cawston, and another on the base of the font at Salle. Orate pro anima, they begin, "Pray for the soul of...", an injunction urgently emphasised by the pre-Reformation liturgy, only to be cursed and defaced by the later Anglicans and puritans. Stained glass was another common gift, as well as images, candlesticks, furnishings. Thus were many churches developed piecemeal.
But sometimes, where a parish could rely on a steady supply of substantial bequests, they might be channelled into a complete rebuilding, as at Salle, a summa cum laude apothesosis, where the new church of the late 15th century survives in pretty much its original form. Sometimes, a single wealthy family would shape and direct the rebuilding of a church. One of the richest families in East Anglia in the 14th and 15th centuries was the de la Poles, the Earls of Suffolk. Their mark can be found throughout East Anglia, but most famously and substantially at Wingfield in Suffolk, and at Cawston in Norfolk. Theirs was a long term project; at Cawston, the tower predates the furnishings of the nave and chancel by almost a century.
So why so vast? Certainly, it was ad maiorem deo gloria, to the Greater Glory of God; but it was also to the greater glory of the de la Poles and their contemporaries. The great landed families of England came into the late middle ages full of confidence, and they were determined to demonstrate it. They had survived the Black Death. They had grown richer on its consequences. They had assumed a political power unthinkable a few centuries before. They controlled not just the wealth but the imagination of their parishes. They asserted orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of rural superstitions and abuses. They imposed a homogenised Catholicism on late medieval England. And, as they increased their secular power and influence, a time would come when they would embrace the Great Idea already beginning to take shape on the continent - protestantism. But that was still in the future.
And so, to Salle. St Peter and St Paul is big. This is accentuated by the way in which it stands almost alone in the barley fields, with only a couple of Victorian buildings and a cricket pitch for company. What an idyllic spot! And yet there is an urban quality to the building, as if this was some great city church in the middle of Norwich or Bristol. It went up in the course of the 15th century, a replacement for an earlier building on the same site, broadly contemporary with neighbouring Cawston. While Cawston was largely the work of a single family, here the building benefited from an accident of history; several very wealthy families owned manors and halls in the parish at the same time, and it so happened that the time was the greatest era of rural church building.
Among them were the Boleyns, the Brewes, the Mautebys, the Briggs, the Morleys, the Luces and the Kerdistons, and some of their shields appear above the great west door, along with two mighty censing angels, characteristic of late medieval piety. A steady stream of hefty bequests meant that no expense needed to be spared, and the mighty tower with its vast bell openings was topped with battlements and pinnacles on the very eve of the Reformation.
As at Blythburgh, St Peter and St Paul benefited from the restraint of a late restoration, and the building as we see it now has no external Victorian additions. It is all of a piece. The porches either side are huge affairs, matching the transepts, and give the effect of a vast animal, a dragon perhaps, sprawling with erect head in the Norfolk countryside. Its tail is the chancel, in itself longer and higher than many Norfolk churches. The aisles are tall, austere, parapeted, the Perpendicular windows arcades of glass. In the porches, the vaulted ceilings are studded with bosses; the central one in the north porch depicts Christ in Majesty, sitting on a rainbow in judgement.
You enter the building from the west, an unusual experience in East Anglia, and your first sight is of the seven sacraments font with its tall 15th century canopy, similar to the cover at Cawston. This one is so big it is supported by a crane attached to the ringing gallery under the tower. The font below is interesting because each panel is supported by an angel holding a symbol of the sacrament above - a pot of chrism oil beneath Baptism, for example. The panels themselves are simply done, and are not particularly characterful, apart from the way that Mary turns away and is comforted at the Crucifixion. This panel faces west, and then anticlockwise are the Mass (viewed sideways, as at nearby Great Witchingham), Ordination (the candidate kneeling), Baptism (a server holds the book up for the Priest to read), Confirmation (the candidate obviously a child), Penance (perhaps the most interesting panel - the penitent kneels in a shriving pew), Matrimony (the couples' hands joined by a stole, she in late 15th century dress) and finally Last Rites (the dying man on the floor under blankets also as at Great Witchingham). The font step has a dedicatory inscription to John and Agnes Luce, asking for prayers for their souls. We know that John died in 1489. Perhaps the fabric of the building was complete by this date.
Beyond the font stretches the vastness of the building, the arcades gathering the eyes and leading them forward to the great east window. The chancel arch is barely there at all, just a simple high opening; but as MR James pointed out, it was never intended to be seen.The sheer bulk of the rood screen dado tells us quite how vast the rood apparatus must have been here, and the arch would have been pretty well hidden. Everything is built to scale; although everything has been cut off above the panels, probably in the late 1540s, the panels themselves are enormous, almost six feet high. As at Cawston, St Gregory, St Jerome, St Ambrose and St Augustine, the four Doctors of the Church, are on the doors. Either side are just two surviving paintings; to the north are Thomas and James, to the south are Philip and Bartholomew. The empty panels are a mystery; the screen stood here for a century before its destruction, so it must have been finished; and the dado seems too high to have been hidden by nave altars. And yet, it has all the appearance of never having been painted.
Because the building is so vast, the surviving medieval glass seems scattered, but there is actually a lot of it and some of it is very significant. Some was moved during the restoration of the early 20th century, when the modern glass in the north transept was installed, and the yellow galley lozenges were thankfully replaced with clear glass in the 1970s. The images in the east window are mainly figures; old kings kneel before young princes, there are armoured men and angels, the remains of a scaly dragon. In the centre at the bottom is a perfect Trinity shield, displayed by an angel looking askance.
Some of the panels are now in the south transept. These include fragments of a set of the orders of angels. A kneeling figure is Thomas Brigg, donor of the transept; the scroll behind him begins Benedicat Virgo, 'Blessed Virgin'. The mother of God sits surrounded by red glory, and two women holding croziers, one of them crowned, may be St Etheldreda and St Hilda. Certainly, the crowned figure holding a cross is St Helena.
Despite the wonders of the font, the screen and the glass, the crowning glory of the building is the set of bosses that line the roof of the chancel. They are easily missed, being very high. There are nine altogether, the first and last set against the walls at the ends of the roof ridge, and they form a kind of rosary sequence of joyful and glorious mysteries. They start with the Annunciation in the west (see left) and then continue with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension into Heaven.
There is a fine set of return stalls in the chancel. Although Salle probably never had a college of Priests, all those Masses for the dead must have provided plenty of employment, because we know that there were seven Priests here at a time when the population of the parish was barely 200. Bench ends include heads, a dragon tied up in a knot, a cock, a restored pelican in her piety, and a monkey. The misericord seats feature faces, including one that is quite extraordinary.
Although the roof isn't up to the glory of neighbouring Cawston, it includes lots of original angels and paintwork, including sacred monograms, and around the wallplate part of the Te Deum Laudamus and Psalm 150. These particular texts seem to have provided the inspiration for many late 15th century interiors; the angels in the roof, the animals on the bench ends, the Saints on the rood screen all in harmony: Let everything that has breath Praise ye the Lord!
The nave benches are mostly renewed now, but the pulpit is an elegant example of the 15th century, from the time when a priority began to be placed on preaching. Curiously, it has been rather awkwardly converted into a three-decker arrangement, probably in the 18th century, with the addition of a platform and desk from a set of box pews. A large sounding board has been placed overhead. The box pews suggest that the medieval furnishings were replaced at an early date, although the replacements too have gone now.
Salle is one of those churches full of intriguing little details that might easily pass you by, so great is the wonder of everything around. Those two little corbel heads above the south door, for instance - what were they for? Perhaps they supported an image that could be seen from the north doorway as people entered, although not a St Christopher as the guidebook suggests, I think. There is a pretty piscina in the unfortunate north transept that has been outlined in wood, a memorial and helm above, a tall image bracket in the corner of the wall of the south transept, a floreated piscina nearby.
There are many brasses and brass inlays in the nave floor; one of the most interesting is a chalice brass (although the chalice is now gone) to Simon Boleyn, a Priest, who died in 1489, and to the east of it a pair of brasses to Geoffrey and Alice Boleyn, great-grandparents to Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. Another pair of brasses are to Thomas and Katherine Rose and their eight children. Unlike many churches, Salle actually retains some of the 'missing' brasses, now locked away for safety. It would be nice to think they could eventually be reset in the floor.
One part of the building that many visitors must miss is the chapel above the north porch. There is no sign indicating it; but the doorway, at the west end of the north aisle, is always open. Inside, the vaulted roof is punctuated by spectacularly pretty bosses which you can view at close quarters. The colour is a bit fanciful, but they are fascinating, particularly the central boss of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven - how on earth did that survive the Reformation?
This is a tremendous building, a box of fascinating delights. What purpose does it serve now? As I said in the introduction, its size was not in response to the needs of a congregation, and as far as worship is concerned it will never be full. It remains constantly in use, however; for regular services in the chancel, sometimes for concerts and recordings, but also of course for the poshest sort of wedding, the kind only the Church of England can provide, and no doubt other elements of the core business of CofE PLC. It is easy to be cynical, but if they ensure the survival of the building, then so be it.
66063 WBAT DOLLANDSM DMOOR LRS N 4M31
DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd's class 66 (JT42CWR) number 66063 in English, Welsh and Scottish Railway maroon livery with zigzag gold band, large number and EWS logo works 4M38 from Dollands Moor to Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) on 22 October 2014. It was also photographed earlier on route at Shoreham by George Odlum.
At Jaguar Land Rover's Whitley plant, Coventry (15 miles from Crick, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT)) car bodies are constructed using recycled aluminium sheet stamped panels. They claim that this enables them to increase crash safety and reduce weight of their new Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Jaguar F-TYPE sportscar and Jaguar XJ saloon by approximately 40% (so improving fuel efficiency and lowering emissions). Jaguar Land Rover operate a closed loop vehicle recycling policy at the end of their vehicles life and in future aim to construct up to 75% of their entire vehicle from aluminium when feasible.
The Novelis company, spun off from Alcan in 2005, makes aluminium rolled products such as light-metal products for the automotive industry (automotive coil), as well as drinks cans, products for the construction sector and products for manufacturers of consumer electronic goods. Alunorf, the Novelis Deutschland GmbH aluminium rolling and casting facility at Neuss (near Düsseldorf), is the largest aluminium rolling and casting facility in the world, and is operated jointly by Novelis and Norsk Hydro supplied with recycled aluminium delivered from Ditton Foundry in the UK by train (6O16, returning as 6M14). The Ditton Foundry trains share the same International train ID number as 4M38 in France and so are assumed to work the same route. Previously 46455 was photographed by Mattias Catry at Merris on 23 March 2014). Dollands Moor to Nievenheim aluminium trains have also been photographed passing through Houplines (east of Armenières) working from Nievenheim to Dollands Moor on 12 March 2014. Dennis Vansummeren also photographed 46455 between between Wespelaar and the village of Tildonk Belgium, working from Dollands Moor to Nievenheim on 26 April 2014.
The automotive coil produced by AluNorf at Neuss, Germany is thought to be taken to Umschlag Container Terminal GmbH by lorry and loaded into 26 Stobart Rail branded containers mounted on 13 French FIA and IFA twin intermodal flat wagons numbered 33 87 4908s. The route to Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) then involvs 5 different rail companies (International train ID 46455 and 46452) (RheinCargo GmbH & Co KG railway company, DB Schenker Rail (formerly Railion), Corridor Operations Belgium Rail (COBRA), B-Cargo and finally to DB Schenker Rail UK through the Channel Tunnel to Daventry) where Eddie Stobart lorries are thought to take it the last 15 miles to Jaguar Land Rover's Whitley plant. For a map of the route to and from Germany click here.
According to JohnS and Bradders numbers of the 13 intermodal twin flat wagons being hauled with Stobart Rail containers mounted on them were 8749086959, 8749086595, 8749084301, 8749086785, 8749085050, 8749084970, 8749086751, 8749087114, 8749086629, 8749087338, 8749084806, 8749084293 and 8749085076.
66063 (works number 968702-063) was built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division, London, Ontario, Canada in 1998 and unloaded from the Heavy Lift Ship MV "Fairlift" at Newport Docks on 4 February 1999.
According to Realtime Trains the route and timings were;
Dollands Moor Sidings ......................1421..................1415..............6E
Ashford International .........................1433 1/2...........1434.............RT
Maidstone East [MDE] 1......................1501..................1500 3/4......RT
Otford Junction[XOT].........................1524 1/2...........1524.............RT
Swanley [SAY] 1....................................1535 1/2...........1535.............RT
St Mary Cray Junction........................1540 1/2...........1539 1/2.......RT
Bickley Junction[XLY].........................1541 1/2............1540 1/4........1E
Bromley South [BMS]..........................1545.................1542 1/2.......2E
Shortlands [SRT]...................................1547..................1543 1/2.......3E
Shortlands Junction............................1547 1/2...........1544.............3E
Bellingham [BGM]................................1550.................1546 1/2.......3E
Nunhead [NHD] 1.................................1553 1/2...........1553 1/4.......RT
Peckham Rye [PMR] 3.........................1555 1/2...........1555.............RT
Crofton Road Junction.......................1556 1/2...........1557.............RT
Denmark Hill [DMK] 1..........................1558.................1557..............1E
Voltaire Road Junction.......................1602.................1602.............RT
Latchmere Junction............................1612..................1609 1/4.......2E
Imperial Wharf [IMW] 2.......................1615..................1611 1/2.........3E
West Brompton [WBP] 4.....................1617...................1613 1/2........3E
Kensington Olympia ..........................1620.................1614 3/4.......5E
Shepherds Bush [SPB] 2....................1621 1/2............1616 1/2........5E
North Pole Signal Vc813....................1624 1/2...........1618 1/2........5E
North Pole Junction............................1625.................1618..............7E
Mitre Bridge Junction.........................1628.................1621 1/4........6E
Willesden West Londn Junction......1629 1/2...........1623.............6E
Wembley Eur Frt Ops Ctr...................1644 1/2/1721..1632/1721....RT
Wembley Central [WMB] 5................1726..................1724 3/4.......1E
Harrow & Wealdstone [HRW] 5........1732..................1731 1/2........RT
Bushey [BSH] 5.....................................1737..................1738 1/4.........1L
Watford Junction [WFJ] 8..................1738 1/2...........1740...............1L
Kings Langley [KGL] 3.........................1743..................1744...............1L
Apsley [APS] 3......................................1746..................1747................1L
Hemel Hempstead [HML] 3...............1747 1/2............1748 3/4........1L
Bourne End Junction(Herts) [XOE]...1749..................1750...............1L
Berkhamsted [BKM] 3.........................1752..................1752 3/4........1L
Tring [TRI] 3...........................................1756..................1757 1/4.........1L
Cheddington [CED] 3..........................1800.................1802.............2L
Ledburn Junction[XOD].....................1802.................1803 3/4........1L
Leighton Buzzard [LBZ] 3..................1804.................1806 1/2......2L
Bletchley [BLY] 3..................................1811...................1812 1/4..........1L
Denbigh Hall South Junction............1812 1/2............1813..............RT
Denbigh Hall North Junction............1814..................1813 3/4.......RT
Milton Keynes Central [MKC] 3.........1816..................1815..............RT
Wolverton [WOL] 3..............................1818 1/2............1816 3/4........1E
Hanslope Junction[XHN]...................1822.................1820 1/4........1E
Northampton [NMP] 2.........................1833..................1831..............2E
Long Buckby [LBK]..............................1915 1/2............1951 3/4.....36L
Daventry South Junction...................1921 1/2............2000 3/4..39L
I wanted to capture 3 of them together, I asked them to gather around after their chess game for me to take a pic. In my mind, I wanted to capture a beautiful memorable moment, therefore I switch back to BW. And there it is, a picture I believe they will appreciate and keep looking at now and even more in future when they all are grown up! And BW just suitable for freezing memory across generations! Well, that is what I believe.
Enjoy and please feel free to comment.
Same as the other pictures, this is also OOC jpeg. Resized in LR.
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Camera Maker: FUJIFILM
Camera Model: FinePix X100
Image Date: 2011-03-14 19:47:38 (no TZ)
Focal Length: 23.0mm
Aperture: f/2.0
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
ISO equiv: 1600
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No (enforced)
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Ian's on the road again, wearing different shoes again.
Or something.
Yes, have audit will travel is taking me back to the north west and head office (UK) in Warrington.
I wasn't keen to go, as I would be one of those being audited, rather than being the auditor.
So it goes.
Up even earlier than usual, Jools went swimming first thing, while I woke up and packed.
It was to be a bright if cold day, and the promise of actual snow once I reached Manchester, so that was something to look forward to. No?
Jools dropped me off on the prom so I could have a walk, take some snaps before picking up the car.
It was cold.
Not Canada cold, clearly.
Minus three. And too cold to linger to watch the actual sunrise, so made do with snapping the reflected light of the hotels and a ferry coming into the harbour. I walked over Townwall Street, now cold to the bone, hoping the car hire place would be open on time.
It wasn't, but a couple of minutes later, a guy came to open up and let me inside where it was slightly warmer.
My old ruse of getting an automatic thus getting a larger car was ruined this time was I was given a Toyota Yaris. It struggled to get up Jubilee Way without the engine screaming. You'd better behave yourself for the next three days I told it.
Back home for breakfast, load the car and say goodbye to the cats. One last look, and I was off. The car had no sat nav, so had to use the phone.
Before going to the hotel, I was going to visit a former colleague who lives in Warrington, or nearly St Helens as I found out later, so programmed her address in, and off I went, along our street and towards the A2 and the long slog up to Dartford.
I connected my phone to charge, and straight away tunes from my Apple music store started playing. So, apart from the free U2 album it forced on all users, the rest was good if a little Skids and Velvet Underground heavy.
The miles were eaten up, even if I had to turn the music way up to drown the sound of the screaming engine.
Like all trips, I had something extra to sweeten the time away, and in this case it was a church. But not just any church, as you will see.
I watched a short documentary on Monday about Mary Queen of Scots, and remembered that she had been imprisoned and executed at Fotheringhay Castle in what is now Northamptonshire, and if I went over the Dartford Crossing, up the M11 to Cambridge, then were the A14 crossed the Great North Road, ten miles north was Fotheringhay.
So, I pressed on, under the river and into Essex, then along to the bottom of the M11, and north past Stanstead to Cambridge. Traffic wasn't bad, so I made good time, my phone telling me I would reach Fotheringhay at midday.
Turning off the A1, down narrow lanes, then the view to the church opens up, in what is possibly one of the finest vistas in all of England. St Mary and All Saints, 15th century and in its Perpendicular finest, it looks too good to be that old, but is.
Not only is the church mostly as it was, if plain inside, this was the parish church of the House of York, of several Kings including the final, Richard III.
This is real history.
I crossed over the narrow hump-back bridge that spanned the fast flowing, and nearly flooding, River Neane, into the village and parked outside the church. A set of grand gates lead off the main road to the northern porch, lined with fine trees, naked it being winter.
The tower seems over-large for the Nave and Chancel, it stands 116 feet tall, and is a chonker, the rest of the church seems small beside it, but the interior of the church is a large space, high to its vaulted roof.
I take shots, not as many as perhaps I should, but the church doesn't have centuries of memorials, but does have two House of York tombs, or mausoleums.
Back outside, my phone tells me I should be in Warrington by four, my friend, Teresa, wouldn't be home until half past, so I could have another break on the way.
The sat nav took me back to the A14, and from there it is just a 60 mile drive to the bottom of the M6 and then the hike two hours north.
At least it was a sunny day, though clouds were building, and was it my imagination, or did it look like snow falling already?
No, it was snow. big, fat, wet flakes at first, not much to worry about, but I pressed on past Coventry to the toll road, I sopped for half an hour there, enough time to have a drink and some crisps, then back outside where darkness was falling, as well as more snow.
The M6 might have had its upgrade complete, but a trip on it is rarely without delays. And for me, an hour delayed just before Warrington due to a crash, so we inched along in near darkness.
Teresa lived the other side of Warrington, so I had to press on further north, then along other main roads, round a bonkers roundabout before entering the town. Roads were lined with two up/two downs, doors leading straight onto the pavement. Cozy and northern.
They have two dog-mountains, I'm not sure of the breed, but think of something like a St Bernard and go bigger. They had just been for a walk, were damp and happy to be inside, laying on the kitchen floor. Taking up all the kitchen floor.
We talked for an hour, then I received a call from a guy I was supposed to be meeting up with: heavy snow was falling, I should get there sooner than later. So, I said my goodbyes and programmed the route to the hotel. Sorry, resort. Golf resort.
16 miles.
Snow was falling heavy, not too bad on main roads back to the motorway, though traffic on that was only going 40, it was fast enough. But the final six miles was long a main road, but it was covered in snow, with more falling.
The the fuel warning light went on.
Ignore that, I just wanted to get to the hotel safe and have dinner. Not end up in a hedge.
The final mile was very scary, snow only an inch deep, but slippery. There was a gatehouse marking the entrance to the golf club, I turned in and parked in the first space I came to.
Phew.
I checked in, and the place is huge, swish, but full of golfers.
But it does a sideline in conferences, training centre and a hotel. It was full.
I checked in, walked to the room, which is huge, and very comfortable, dropped my bags and went to the bar for dinner of beer and burgers. The place was almost empty, I watched cricket live from South Africa while I ate and drank.
Would I be tempted by the cheeseboard?
I would, dear reader, I would.
To my room to watch the football and relax while snow fell outside.
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The Church of St Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay is a parish church in the Church of England in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. It is noted for containing a mausoleum to leading members of the Yorkist dynasty of the Wars of the Roses.
The work on the present church was begun by Edward III who also built a college as a cloister on the church's southern side. After completion in around 1430, a parish church of similar style was added to the western end of the collegiate church with work beginning in 1434. A local mason, William Horwood was contracted to build the nave, porch, and tower of this church for £300 for the Duke of York.[2] It is the parish church which still remains.
The large present church is named in honour of St Mary and All Saints, and has a distinctive tall tower dominating the local skyline. The church is Perpendicular in style and although only the nave, aisles and octagonal tower remain of the original building it is still in the best style of its period.[3] The tower is 78 feet (24 metres) high to the battlements, and is 116 feet (35 metres) high to the pinnacles of the octagon.[4]
The church has been described by Simon Jenkins as
float[ing] on its hill above the River Nene, a galleon of Perpendicular on a sea of corn.
The college continued to 1547, when it was seized by the Crown, along with all remaining chantries and colleges. The chancel was pulled down immediately after the college was granted to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, by King Edward VI.[6] A grammar school was founded in its place which lasted until 1859.
Nearby Fotheringhay Castle was the principal home of two Dukes of York. Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York, who was killed at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 was buried in the church. He had earlier established a college for a master and twelve chaplains at the location. Edward's burial provided the basis for the later adoption of the church as a mausoleum to the Yorkist dynasty. In 1476 the church witnessed one of the most elaborate ceremonies of Edward IV's reign – the re-interment of the bodies of the king's father Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and his younger brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who had been buried in a humble tomb at Pontefract. Father and son fell at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460.
Thomas Whiting, Chester Herald, has left a detailed account of the events:
on 24 July [1476] the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke, "garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold" lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king. On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms. Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King 'made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.' The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his 'closet' and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.' The next day three masses were sung, the Bishop of Lincoln preached a 'very noble sermon' and offerings were made by the Duke of Gloucester and other lords, of 'The Duke of York's coat of arms, of his shield, his sword, his helmet and his coursers on which rode Lord Ferrers in full armour, holding in his hand an axe reversed.' When the funeral was over, the people were admitted into the church and it is said that before the coffins were placed in the vault which had been built under the chancel, five thousand persons came to receive the alms, while four times that number partook of the dinner, served partly in the castle and partly in the King's tents and pavilions. The menu included capons, cygnets, herons, rabbits and so many good things that the bills for it amounted to more than three hundred pounds.
In 1495 the body of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was laid to rest beside that of her husband the Duke of York, as her will directed. She bequeathed to the College
a square canopy, crymson cloth of gold, a chasuble, and two tunicles, and three copes of blue velvet, bordered, with three albs, three mass books, three grails and seven processioners.
After the choir of the church was destroyed in the Reformation during the sixteenth century, Elizabeth I ordered the removal of the smashed York tombs and created the present monuments to the third Duke and his wife around the altar.
The birthday of Richard III is commemorated annually by the Richard III Society by the placing of white roses in the church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_Mary_and_All_Saints,_F...
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As any experienced pub quizzer will be able to tell you, Cambridgeshire shares borders with more other counties than any other English county, and one of the pleasures of exploring its churches by bike is to occasionally pop over a border and cherry-pick some of the best churches nearby. I had long wanted to visit Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire, and it is only ten miles west of Peterborough, and so I thought why not? I could also take in its near neighbours Nassington and Warmington, both noted as interesting churches.
Fotheringhay is a haunted place. It is haunted by noble birth and violent death, by its pivotal importance as a place in 15th Century English politics, and by its desolation in later centuries - not to mention by one significant event in the last couple of years.
The view of the church from the south across the River Nene is one of the most famous views of a church in England - there can be few books about churches which do not include it. The tower is a spectacular wedding cake, the square stage surmounted by an octagonal bell stage. This is not an unusual arrangement in the area of the Nene and Ouse Valleys, but nowhere is it on such a scale and with such intricacy as this.
The nave is also vast, a great length of flying buttresses running above each aisle, and walls of glass, great perpendicular windows designed to let in light and drive out superstition. What you cannot see from across the river is that, behind the big oak tree, the church has no chancel.
Inside, it is a square box full of light divided by great arcades that march resolutely eastwards towards a large blank wall. Heraldic shields stand aloof up in the arcades, and the one fabulous spot of colour is the great pulpit nestled in the south arcade, another sign that this building was designed to assert the doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. This place swallows sound and magnifies light. It is thrilling, awe-inspiring. What happened here?
In the medieval period, Fotheringhay Castle was the powerbase of the House of York. The church was built as a result of a bequest by Edward III, who died in 1370. It was complete by the 1430s, with a college of priests and a large nave for the Catholic devotions of the people.
Over the next century it would house the tombs of, among others, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York and grandson of Edward III who was killed in 1415 at Agincourt, and Richard Plantaganet, 3rd Duke of York, who was killed in the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. It was Richard's claim to the throne of England which had led to the Wars of the Roses. His decapitated head was gleefully displayed on a pike above Micklegate Bar in York by the victorious Lancastrian forces. Also killed in the battle was Richard's 17 year old son Edmund.
But the Lancastrian delight was shortlived, for by the following year Richard's eldest son had become King as Edward IV. He immediately arranged for the translation of the bodies of his father and brother from their common grave at Pontefract back to Fotheringhay.
It was recorded that on 24 July the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king.
On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms.
Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.
The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his closet and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.
The sorrowing Edward IV donated the great pulpit for the proclamation of the Catholic faith. And then in 1483 he died. He was succeeded as tradition required by his son, the 12 year old Edward V. But three months after his father's death the younger Edward was also dead, in mysterious circumstances. He was succeeded by his uncle, who had been born here in Fotheringhay in 1452, and who would reign, albeit briefly, as Richard III.
Was Richard III really the villain that history has made him out to be? Did he really murder his nephew to achieve the throne? Within two years he had also been killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the Lancastrians were finally triumphant. Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty, and, as we all know, history is written by the victors, not by the losers.
But Fotheringhay had one more dramatic scene to set in English history before settling back into obscurity, and this time it involved the Tudors. In September 1586 a noble woman of middle years arrived at Fotheringhay Castle under special guard, and was imprisoned here. Her name was Mary, and she was on trial for treason.
It is clear today that most of the evidence was entirely fictional, but the powers of the day had good reason to fear Mary, for she had what appeared to many to be a legitimate claim to the English throne. She was the daughter of James V of Scotland, and had herself become Queen of Scotland at the age of just six weeks. She spent her childhood and youth in France while regents governed the nation in her stead, and she married Francis, the Dauphin of France, who became King of France in 1559. Briefly, Mary was both Queen of Scotland and Queen Consort of France, but in 1561 Francis died, and Mary returned to Scotland to govern her own country.
But there was a problem. Mary was a Catholic. Scotland had led the way in the English-speaking Reformation with a particularly firebrand form of Calvinism, and the protestant merchants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee were aghast at the prospect of a Catholic monarch.
And there was a further problem. Scotland was currently at peace with its neighbour England, where Queen Elizabeth I had brought some stability to the troubled country. But the Catholic Church did not recognise Elizabeth as the rightful monarch of England, because it was considered that her father Henry VIII's divorce from his first wife Katherine of Aragon was invalid. As he had divorced Katherine to marry Elizabeth's mother Ann Boleyn, Catholics considered that the rightful line of succession had passed horizontally from Henry VIII to his deceased elder sister and then on to her descendants, the most senior of whom was Mary, Queen of Scotland.
Mary remarried in Scotland, but her husband was murdered, and she was forced to abdicate her throne in favour of their one year old baby. He would be brought up by protestant regents and advisors, and would reign Scotland as James VI. His protestant faith allowed the English crown to recognise the line's legitimate claims, and in 1603 James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the first monarch to govern both nations.
But that was all in the future. After her abdication, Mary fled south to seek the protection of her cousin Elizabeth. She spent most of the next 18 years in protective custody. A succession of plots and conspiracies implicated her, and finally on 8th February 1587, at the age of 44, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.
One of her son James's first acts on ascending the English throne was to order that the castle where his mother had been shamefully imprisoned and executed be razed to the ground.
The chancel of Fotheringhay church and its College of Priests were already gone by then, demolished after the Reformation, leaving the York tombs exposed to the elements. it is said that Elizabeth herself, on a visit to Fotheringhay in 1566, insisted that they be brought back into the church.
Fotheringhay church settled back into obscurity. During the long 18th Century sleep of the Church of England it suffered neglect and disuse, but was restored well in the 19th Century. A chapel was designated for the memory of the York dynasty during the 20th Century, a sensitive issue for the Church of England which does not recognise prayers for the dead, but they can happen here in the Catholic tradition.
Today, the population of Fotheringhay cannot be much more than a hundred, an obscure backwater in remote north-east Northamptonshire, consisting of little more than its grand church set above the water meadows of the River Nene. But there was one more day in the public light to come.
In 2012, an archaeological dig in the centre of the city of Leicester, some 30 miles from here, uncovered a skeleton which had been buried in such a manner that it seemed it might be the dead King Richard III. Carbon dating and DNA matching proved that it was so. A controversy erupted about where the dead king might be reburied. Leicester Cathedral seemed the obvious place, although pompous claims were made by, among others, the MP for York, for him to be buried in York Minster. But there was also a case for the remains being returned here, to the quiet peace of Fotheringhay.
In the event reason held sway and Richard was reburied in Leicester, but Fotheringhay church, along with Leicester Cathedral, York Minster and Westminster Abbey, was one of four sites to host books of remembrance for Richard III.
In June 2015 I was surprised to find that the book here was still in use at the west end of the nave, and is still regularly signed by people. Perhaps they think it is the visitors book.
Simon Knott. June 2015.
www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/19327047848/in/photo...
(further information about the world of the Habsburg you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
The Hall of the Muses
The Hall of the Muses, the spatial and ceremonial center of the state apartments, served as a dining room and offered the prestigious setting for glamorous soirees and splendid balls.
Five gorgeous crystal chandeliers enlighted the room in light brightness, 258 additional candles that were additionally anchored in the running rosette frieze, plunged it in a sea of lights.
Hall of the Muses © Albertina, Vienna (Photo: Alexander Ch Wulz)
Musensaal
To the splendid appearance of the hall also contribute the precious stucco marble panelings of the wall panels and pilasters as well as the gilded doors and decorative elements.
The name of the hall is derived from the cycle of figures "Apollo and the Nine Muses". The life-size, with a marble imitating polishing white surface provided sandstone figures come from Joseph Klieber (1773-1859), who drew inspiration for this work from the oeuvres of the sculptor Antonio Canova.
www.albertina.at/das_palais/prunkraeume/musensaal
The Albertina
The architectural history of the Palais
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869
"It is my will that the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".
This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.
Image: The Old Albertina after 1920
It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.
The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.
In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.
Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.
1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.
Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990
The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:
After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".
Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905
This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.
The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.
Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.
Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52
Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.
Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei
This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.
Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb
The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.
Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina
64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.
The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".
Christian Benedictine
Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.
Picture taken 1983 - digitally captured from paper print
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The Dayak or Dyak or Dayuh /ˈdaɪ.ək/ are the native people of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. Dayak languages are categorised as part of the Austronesian languages in Asia. The Dayak were animist in belief; however many converted to Islam and since the 19th century, mass conversion to Christianity.
HISTORY
The Dayak people of Borneo possess an indigenous account of their history, mostly in oral literature, partly in writing in papan turai (wooden records), and partly in common cultural customary practices. Among prominent accounts of the origin of the Dayak people includes the mythical oral epic of "Tetek Tahtum" by the Ngaju Dayak of Central Kalimantan, it narrates the ancestors of the all Dayak people descended from the heavens before dispensing from the inland to the downstream shores of Borneo.
In the southern Kalimantan flourished the independent state of Nansarunai established by the Ma'anyan Dayaks prior to the 12th century. The kingdom suffered two major attacks from the Majapahit forces that caused the decline and fall of the kingdom by the year 1389, the attacks are known as Nansarunai Usak Jawa (meaning the destruction of the Nansarunai by the Javanese) by the oral accounts of the Ma'anyan people. This contributed to the migration of the Ma'anyans to the Central and South Borneo region.
The colonial accounts and reports of Dayak activity in Borneo detail carefully cultivated economic and political relationships with other communities as well as an ample body of research and study considering historical Dayak migrations. In particular, the Iban or the Sea Dayak exploits in the South China Seas are documented, owing to their ferocity and aggressive culture of war against sea dwelling groups and emerging Western trade interests in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In 1824, as a result of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 to settle their commercial regional disputes by switching Java from British to Dutch in return for Malacca, the Malay Archipelago was permanently divided into formerly Dutch-colonized Indonesia and British-colonized Malaysia to this day.
In 1838, British adventurer James Brooke arrived to find the Sultan of Brunei fending off rebellion from warlike inland tribes. Sarawak was in chaos. Brooke put down the rebellion, and was made Governor of Sarawak in 1841, with the title of Rajah. Brooke pacified the natives, including the Dayaks, who became some of his most loyal followers. He suppressed headhunting and piracy. Brooke's most famous Iban enemy was Libau "Rentap"; Brooke led three expeditions against him and finally defeated him at Sadok Hill. Brooke had many Dayaks in his forces at this battle, and famously said "Only Dayaks can kill Dayaks." Sharif Mashor, a Melanau from Mukah, was another enemy of Brooke.
During World War II, Japanese forces occupied Borneo and treated all of the indigenous peoples poorly - massacres of the Malay and Dayak peoples were common, especially among the Dayaks of the Kapit Division. In response, the Dayaks formed a special force to assist the Allied forces. Eleven US airmen and a few dozen Australian special operatives trained a thousand Dayaks from the Kapit Division in guerrilla warfare. This army of tribesmen killed or captured some 1,500 Japanese soldiers and provided the Allies with vital intelligence about Japanese-held oil fields.
Coastal populations in Borneo are largely Muslim in belief, however these groups (Tidung, Banjarese, Bulungan, Paser, Melanau, Kutainese, Kedayan, Bakumpai, Bisayah) are generally considered to be Malayised and Islamised Dayaks, native to Borneo, and heavily amalgated by the Malay people, culture and sultanate system.
Other groups in coastal areas of Sabah and northeastern Kalimantan; namely the Illanun, Tausūg, Sama and Bajau, although inhabiting and (in the case of the Tausug group) ruling the northern tip of Borneo for centuries, have their origins from the southern Philippines. These groups though may be indigenous to Borneo, they are nonetheless not Dayak, but instead are grouped under the separate umbrella term of Moro.
ETHNICITY
The Indigenous people of the Heart of Borneo are commonly known as Dayak. The term was coined by Europeans referring to the non-Malay inhabitants of Borneo. There are seven main ethnic divisions of Dayaks according to their respective native language which are the Ngaju, Apau Kayan, Iban (Sea Dayak), Klemantan (Land Dayak), Murut, Punan and Ot Danum groups. Under the main classification, there are dozens of ethnics and hundreds of sub-ethnics dwelling in the Borneo island. There are over 50 ethnic Dayak groups speaking different languages. This cultural and linguistic diversity parallels the high biodiversity and related traditional knowledge of Borneo.
LANGUAGES
Dayaks do not speak just one language, even if just those on the island of Borneo (Kalimantan) are considered.[16] Their indigenous languages belong in the general classification of Malayo-Polynesian languages and to diverse groups of Bornean and Sabahan languages (including Land Dayak), and the Ibanic languages of the Malayic branch. The Dayak are very adaptable and also speak the lingua franca of the place such as those of Malay, Chinese and European origin.
Many of Borneo’s languages are endemic (which means they are spoken nowhere else). It is estimated that around 170 languages and dialects are spoken on the island and some by just a few hundred people, thus posing a serious risk to the future of those languages and related heritage.
HEADHUNTING
In the past, the Dayak were feared for their ancient tradition of headhunting practices (the ritual is also known as Ngayau by the Dayaks) . Among the Iban Dayaks, the origin of headhunting was believed to be meeting one of the mourning rules given by a spirit which is as follows:
- The sacred jar is not to be opened except by a warrior who has managed to obtain a head, or by a man who can present a human head, which he obtained in a fight; or by a man who has returned from a sojourn in enemy country.
Often, a war leader had at least three lieutenants (called manuk sabong) who in turn had some followers. The war (ngayau) rules among the Iban Dayaks are listed below:
- If a warleader leads a party on an expedition, he must not allow his warriors to fight a guiltless tribe that has no quarrel with them.
- If the enemy surrenders, he may not take their lives, lest his army be unsuccessful in future warfare and risk fighting empty-handed war raids (balang kayau).
- The first time that a warrior takes a head or captures a prisoner, he must present the head or captive to the warleader in acknowledgement of the latter's leadership.
- If a warrior takes two heads or captives, or more, one of each must be given to the warleader; the remainder belongs to the killer or captor.
- The warleader must be honest with his followers in order that in future wars he may not be defeated (alah bunoh).
There were various reasons for headhunting as listed below:
- For soil fertility so Dayaks hunted fresh heads before paddy harvesting seasons after which head festival would be held in honour of the new heads.
- To add supernatural strength which Dayaks believed to be centred in the soul and head of humans. Fresh heads can give magical powers for communinal protection, bountiful paddy harvesting and disease curing.
- To avenge revenge for murders based on "blood credit" principle unless "adat pati nyawa" (customary compensation token) is paid.
- To pay dowry for marriages e.g. "derian palit mata" (eye blocking dowry) for Ibans once blood has been splashed prior to agreeing to marriage and of course, new fresh heads show prowess, bravery, ability and capability to protect his family, community and land.
- For foundation of new buildings to be stronger and meaningful than the normal practice of not putting in human heads.
- For protection against enemy attacks according to the principle of "attack first before being attacked".
- As a symbol of power and social status ranking where the more heads someone has, the respect and glory due to him. The warleader is called tuai serang (warleader) or raja berani (king of the brave) while kayau anak (small raid) leader is only called tuai kayau (raid leader) whereby adat tebalu (widower rule) after their death would be paid according to their ranking status in the community.
- For territorial expansion where some brave Dayaks intentionally migrated into new areas such as Mujah "Buah Raya" migrated from Skrang to Paku to Kanowit while infighting among Ibans themselves in Batang Ai caused the Ulu Ai Ibans to migrate to Batang Kanyau River in Kapuas, Kalimantan and then proceeded to Katibas and later on Ulu Rajang in Sarawak. The earlier migrations from Kapuas to Batang Ai, Batang Lupar, Batang Saribas and Batang Krian rivers were also made possible by fighting the local tribes like Bukitan.
Reasons for abandoning headhunting are:
- Peacemaking agreements at Tumbang Anoi, Kalimantan in 1874 and Kapit, Sarawak in 1924.
- Coming of Christianity, with education where Dayaks are taught that headhunting is murder and against the Christian Bible's teachings.
- Dayaks' own realisation that headhunting was more to lose than to gain.
Among the most prominent legacy during the colonial rule in the Dutch Borneo (present-day Kalimantan) is the Tumbang Anoi Agreement held in 1874 in Damang Batu, Central Kalimantan (the seat of the Kahayan Dayaks). It is a formal meeting that gathered all the Dayak tribes in Kalimantan for a peace resolution. In the meeting that is reputed taken several months, the Dayak people throughout the Kalimantan agreed to end the headhunting tradition as it believed the tradition caused conflict and tension between various Dayak groups. The meeting ended with a peace resolution by the Dayak people.
After mass conversions to Christianity, and anti-headhunting legislation by the colonial powers was passed, the practice was banned and appeared to have disappeared. However, it should be noted that the Brooke-led Sarawak government, although banning unauthorized headhunting, actually allowed "ngayau" headhunting practices by the Brooke-supporting natives during state-sanctioned punitive expeditions against their own fellow people's rebellions throughout the state, thereby never really extinguished the spirit of headhunting especially among the Iban natives. The state-sanctioned troop was allowed to take heads, properties like jars and brassware, burn houses and farms, exempted from paying door taxes and in some cases, granted new territories to migrate into. This Brooke's practice was in remarkable contract to the practice by the Dutch in the neighbouring West Kalimantan who prohibited any native participation in its punitive expeditions. Initially, James Brooke (the first Rajah of Sarawak) did engage the British Navy troop in the Battle of Beting Maru against the Iban and Malay of the Saribas region and the Iban of Skrang under Rentap's charge but this resulted in the Public Inquiry by the British government in Singapore. Thereafter, the Brooke government gathered a local troop who were its allies.
Subsequently, the headhunting began to surface again in the mid-1940s, when the Allied Powers encouraged the practice against the Japanese Occupation of Borneo. It also slightly surged in the late 1960s when the Indonesian government encouraged Dayaks to purge Chinese from interior Kalimantan who were suspected of supporting communism in mainland China and also in the late 1990s when the Dayak started to attack Madurese emigrants in an explosion of ethnic violence. After formation of Malaysia, some Iban became trackers during the Malayan Emergency against the Communist Insurgency and thereafter they continue to be soldiers in the armed forces.
Headhunting resurfaced in 1963 among Dayak soldiers during the Confrontation Campaign by President Sukarno of Indonesia against the newly created formation of Malaysia between the pre-existing Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 16 September 1963. Subsequently, Dayak trackers recruited during the Malayan Emergency against the Communists' Insurgency wanted to behead enemies killed during their military operations but disallowed by their superiors.
It should be noted headhunting or human sacrifice was also practised by other tribes such as follows:
- Toraja community in Sulawesi used adat Ma’ Barata (human sacrifice) in Rambu Solo’ ritual which is still held until the arrival of the Hindi Dutch which is a custom to honour someone with a symbol of a great warrior and bravery in a war.
- In Gomo, Sumatra, there ware megalithic artefacts where one of them is "batu pancung" (beheading stone) on which to tie any captive or convicted criminals for beheading.
- One distinction was their ritual practice of head hunting, once prevalent among tribal warriors in Nagaland and among the Naga tribes in Myanmar. They used to take the heads of enemies to take on their power.
AGRICULTURE
Traditionally, Dayak agriculture was based on actually Integrated Indigenous Farming System. Iban Dayaks tend to plant paddy on hill slopes while Maloh Dayaks prefer flat lands as discussed by King. Agricultural Land in this sense was used and defined primarily in terms of hill rice farming, ladang (garden), and hutan (forest). According to Prof Derek Freeman in his Report on Iban Agriculture, Iban Dayaks used to practice twenty seven stages of hill rice farming once a year and their shifting cultivation practices allow the forest to regenerate itself rather than to damage the forest, thereby to ensure the continuity and sustainability of forest use and/or survival of the Iban community itself. The Iban Dayaks love virgin forests for their dependency on forests but that is for migration, territorial expansion and/or fleeing enemies.
Dayaks organised their labour in terms of traditionally based land holding groups which determined who owned rights to land and how it was to be used. The Iban Dayaks practice a rotational and reciprocal labour exchange called "bedurok" to complete works on their farms own by all families within each longhouse. The "green revolution" in the 1950s, spurred on the planting of new varieties of wetland rice amongst Dayak tribes.
To get cash, Dayaks collect jungle produce for sales at markets. With the coming of cash crops, Dayaks start to plant rubber, pepper, cocoa, etc. Nowadays, some Dayaks plant oil palm on their lands while others seek employment or involve in trade.
The main dependence on subsistence and mid-scale agriculture by the Dayak has made this group active in this industry. The modern day rise in large-scale monocrop plantations such as palm oil and bananas, proposed for vast swathes of Dayak land held under customary rights, titles and claims in Indonesia, threaten the local political landscape in various regions in Borneo.
Further problems continue to arise in part due to the shaping of the modern Malaysian and Indonesian nation-states on post-colonial political systems and laws on land tenure. The conflict between the state and the Dayak natives on land laws and native customary rights will continue as long as the colonial model on land tenure is used against local customary law. The main precept of land use, in local customary law, is that cultivated land is owned and held in right by the native owners, and the concept of land ownership flows out of this central belief. This understanding of adat is based on the idea that land is used and held under native domain. Invariably, when colonial rule was first felt in the Kalimantan Kingdoms, conflict over the subjugation of territory erupted several times between the Dayaks and the respective authorities.
RELIGION
The Dayak indigenous religion has been given the name Kaharingan, and may be said to be a form of animism. The name was coined by Tjilik Riwut in 1944 during his tenure as a Dutch colonial Resident in Sampit, Dutch East Indies. In 1945, during the Japanese Occupation, the Japanese referred Kaharingan as the religion of the Dayak people. During the New Order in the Suharto regime in 1980, the Kaharingan is registered as a form of Hinduism in Indonesia, as the Indonesian state only recognises 6 forms of religion i.e. Islam, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Hindusim, Buddhism and Confucianism respectively. The integration of Kaharingan with Hinduism is not due to the similarities in the theological system, but due to the fact that Kaharingan is the oldest belief in Kalimantan. Unlike the development in Indonesian Kalimantan, the Kaharingan is not recognised as a religion both in Malaysian Borneo and Brunei, thus the traditional Dayak belief system is known as a form of folk animism or pagan belief on the other side of the Indonesian border.
Underlying the world-view is an account of the creation and re-creation of this middle-earth where the Dayak dwell, arising out of a cosmic battle in the beginning of time between a primal couple, a male and female bird/dragon (serpent). Representations of this primal couple are amongst the most pervasive motifs of Dayak art. The primal mythic conflict ended in a mutual, procreative murder, from the body parts of which the present universe arose stage by stage. This primal sacrificial creation of the universe in all its levels is the paradigm for, and is re-experienced and ultimately harmoniously brought together (according to Dayak beliefs) in the seasons of the year, the interdependence of river (up-stream and down-stream) and land, the tilling of the earth and fall of the rain, the union of male and female, the distinctions between and co-operation of social classes, the wars and trade with foreigners, indeed in all aspects of life, even including tattoos on the body, the lay-out of dwellings and the annual cycle of renewal ceremonies, funeral rites, etc.
The best and still unsurpassed study of a traditional Dayak religion in Kalimantan is that of Hans Scharer, Ngaju Religion: The Conception of God among a South Borneo People; translated by Rodney Needham (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1963). The practice of Kaharingan differs from group to group, but shamans, specialists in ecstatic flight to other spheres, are central to Dayak religion, and serve to bring together the various realms of Heaven (Upper-world) and earth, and even Under-world, for example healing the sick by retrieving their souls which are journeying on their way to the Upper-world land of the dead, accompanying and protecting the soul of a dead person on the way to their proper place in the Upper-world, presiding over annual renewal and agricultural regeneration festivals, etc. Death rituals are most elaborate when a noble (kamang) dies. On particular religious occasions, the spirit is believed to descend to partake in celebration, a mark of honour and respect to past ancestors and blessings for a prosperous future.
Among Iban Dayaks, their belief and way of life can be simply called the Iban religion as per Jenson's book with the same title and has been written by Benedict Sandin and others extensively. It is characterised by a supreme being in the name of Bunsu (Kree) Petara who has no parents and creates everything in this world and other worlds. Under Bunsu Petara are the seven gods whose names are: Sengalang Burong as the god of war and healing, Biku Bunsu Petara as the high priest and second in command, Menjaya as the first shaman (manang) and god of medicine, Selampandai as the god of creation, Sempulang Gana as the god of agriculture and land along with Semarugah, Ini Inda/Inee/Andan as the naturally born doctor and god of justice and Anda Mara as the god of wealth.
The life actions and decision-making processes of Iban Dayaks depend on divination, augury and omens. They have several methods to receive omens where omens can be obtained by deliberate seeking or chance encounters. The first method is via dream to receive charms, amulets (pengaroh, empelias, engkerabun) or medicine (obat) and curse (sumpah) from any gods, people of Panggau Libau and Gelong and any spirits or ghosts. The second method is via animal omens (burong laba) which have long-lasting effects such as from deer barking which is quite random in nature. The third method is via bird omens (burong bisa) which have short term effects that are commonly limited to a certain farming year or a certain activity at hands. The forth method is via pig liver divination after festival celebration At the end of critical festivals, the divination of the pig liver will be interpreted to forecast the outcome of the future or the luck of the individual who holds the festival. The fifth but not the least method is via nampok or betapa (self-imposed isolation) to receive amulet, curse, medicine or healing.
There are seven omen birds under the charge of their chief Sengalang Burong at their longhouse named Tansang Kenyalang (Hornbill Abode), which are Ketupong (Jaloh or Kikeh or Entis) (Rufous Piculet) as the first in command, Beragai (Scarlet-rumped trogon), Pangkas (Maroon Woodpecker) on the righthand side of Sengalang Burong's family room while Bejampong (Crested Jay) as the second in command, Embuas (Banded Kingfisher), Kelabu Papau (Senabong) (Diard's Trogon) and Nendak (White-rumped shama) on the lefthand side. The calls and flights of the omen birds along with the circumstances and social status of the listeners are considered during the omen interpretations.[38]
The praying and propitiation to certain gods to obtain good omens which indicate God's favour and blessings are held in a series of three-tiered classes of minor ceremonies (bedara), intermediate rites (gawa or nimang) and major festivals (gawai) in ascending order and complexity. Any Iban Dayak will undergo some forms of simple rituals and several elaborate festivals as necessary in their lifetime from a baby, adolescent to adulthood until death. The longhouse where the Iban Dayaks stay is constructed in a unique way to function as for both living or accommodation purposes and ritual or religious practices. Nearby the longhouse, there is normally a small and simple hut called langkau ampun/sukor (forgiveness/thanksgiving hut) built to place offerings to deities. Sometimes, when potentially bad omens are encountered, a small hut is quickly built and a fire is started before saying prayers to seek good outcomes.Common among all these propitiations are that prayers to gods and/or other spirits are made by giving offerings ("piring"), certain poetic leka main and animal sacrifices ("genselan") either chickens or pigs. The number (leka or turun) of each piring offering item is based on ascending odd numbers which have meanings and purposes as below:
- piring 3 for piring ampun (mercy) or seluwak (wastefulness spirit)
- piring 5 for piring minta (request) or bejalai (journey)
- piring 7 for piring gawai (festival) or bujang berani (brave warrior)
- piring 9 for sangkong (including others) or turu (leftover included)
Piring contains offering of various traditional foods and drinks while genselan is made by sacrificing chickens for bird omens or pigs for animal omens.
Bedara is commonly held for any general purposes before holding any rites or festivals during which a simple "miring" ceremony is done to prepare and divide piring offerings into certain portions followed by a "sampi ngau bebiau" (prayer and cleansing) poetic speeches. This most simple ceremonies have categories such as bedara matak held at the longhouse family bilek room, bedara mansau performed at the family ruai gallery, berunsur (cleansing) carried out at the tanju and river, minta ujan tauka panas (request for rain or sunniness).
The intermediate and medium-sized propitiatory rites are known as "gawa" (ritually working) with its main highlight called "nimang" (poetic incantation) that is recited by lemambang bards besides miring ceremonies. This category is smaller than or sometimes relegated from the full-scaled and thus costly festivals for cost savings but still maintaining the effectiveness to achieve the same purpose. Included in this category are "sandau ari" (mid-day ritual) held at the tanju verandah, gawai matak (unripe feast), gawa nimang tuah (Luck feast), enchaboh arong (head feast) and gawa timang beintu-intu (life caring feasts.
The major festivals comprise at least seventh categories which are related to major aspects of Iban's traditional way of life i.e. agriculture, headhunting, fortune, health, death, procreation and weaving.
With paddy being the major sustenance of life among Dayaks, so the first major category comprises the agricultural-related festivals which are dedicated to paddy farming to honour Sempulang Gana who is the deity of agriculture. It is a series of festivals that include Gawai Batu (Whetstone Festival), Gawai Ngalihka Tanah (Soil Ploughing Festival), Gawai Benih (Seed Festival), Gawai Ngemali Umai (Farm Healing Festival), Gawai Matah (Harvest Initiation Festival) and Gawai Basimpan (Paddy Storing Festival). According to Derek Freeman, there are 27 steps of hill paddy farming. One common ritual activity is called "mudas" (making good) any omens found during any farming stages especially the early bush clearing stage.
The second category includes the headhunting-related festivals to honour the most powerful deity of war, Sengalang Burong that comprises Gawai Burong (Bird Festival) and Gawai Amat/Asal (Real/Original Festival) with their successive ascending stages with most famous one being Gawai Kenyalang (Hornbill Festivla). This is perhaps the most elaborate and complex festivals which can last into seven successive days of ritual inchantation by lemambang bards. It is held normally after instructed by spirits in dreams. It is performed by tuai kayau (raid leader) called bujang berani (leading warriors) and war leader (tuai serang) who are known as "raja berani" (bravery king). In the past, this festival is vital to seek divine intervention to defeat enemies such as Baketan, Ukit and Kayan during migrations into new territories.
With the suppression of headhunting, the next important and third category relates to the death-related rituals among which the biggest celebration is the Soul Festival (Gawai Antu) to honour the souls of the deads especially the famous and brave ones who are invited to visit the living for the Sebayan (Haedes) to feast and to bestow all sorts of helpful charms to the living relatives. The raja berani (brave king) can be honoured by his descendants up to three times via Gawai Antu. Other mortuary ceremonies are "beserara bungai" (flower separation) held 3 days after burial, ngetas ulit (mourning termination), berantu (Gawai Antu) or Gawai Ngelumbong (Entombing Festival).
The fourth category in term of complexity and importance is the fortune-related festivals which consist of Gawai Pangkong Tiang (Post Banging Festival) after transferring to a new longhouse, Gawai Tuah (Luck Festival) with three ascending stages to seek and to welcome lucks, and Gawai Tajau (Jar Festival) to welcome newly acquired jars.
The fifth category consists of the health-related festivals to request for curing from sickness by Menjaya or Ini Andan such as in Gawai Sakit (Sickness Festival) which is held after other smaller attempts have failed to cure the sicked persons such as begama (touching), belian (various manang rituals), Besugi Sakit (to ask Keling for curing via magical power) and Berenong Sakit (to ask for curing by Sengalang Burong) in the ascending order. Manang is consecrated via an official ceremony called "Gawai Babangun" (Manang Consecration Festival). The shaman (manang) of the Iban Dayaks have various types of pelian (ritual healing ceremony) to be held in accordance with the types of sickness determined by him through his glassy stone to see the whereabouts of the soul of the sick person. Besides, Gawai Burung can also be used for healing certain difficult-to-cure sickness via magical power by Sengalang Burong especially nowadays after headhunting has been stopped. Other self-caring ritual ceremonies that are related to wellness and longevity are Nimang Bulu (Hair Adding Ceremony), Nimang Sukat (Destiny Ceremony) and Nimang Buloh Ayu (Life-Bamboo Ceremony).
The sixth category of festivals pertains to procreation. Gawai Lelabi (River Turtle Festival) is held to pray to the deity of creation called Selampadani, toannounce the readiness of daughters for marriage and to solicit a suitable suitor. This is where those men with trophy head skulls become leading contenders. The wedding ceremony is called Melah Pinang (Areca nut Splitting). The god of creation Selampandai is invoked here for fertility of the daughters to bear many children. There is a series of ritual rites from birth to adolescence of children.
The last and seventh category is Gawai Ngar (Cotton-Dyeing Festival) which is held by women who are involved in weaving pua kumbu for conventional use and ritual purposes. Ritual textiles woven by Iban women are used in the Bird Festival and in the past used to receive trophy heads. The ritual textiles have specific "enkeramba" (anthropomorphic) motifs that represent igi balang (trophy head), tiang ranyai (shrine pole), cultural heroes of Panggau and Gelong, deities and antu gerasi (demon figure).
Over the last two centuries, some Dayaks converted to Christianity, abandoning certain cultural rites and practices. Christianity was introduced by European missionaries in Borneo. Religious differences between Muslim and Christian natives of Borneo has led, at various times, to communal tensions. Relations, however between all religious groups are generally good.
Muslim Dayaks have however retained their original identity and kept various customary practices consistent with their religion. However many Christian Dayak has changed their name to European name but some minority still maintain their ancestors traditional name.
An example of common identity, over and above religious belief, is the Melanau group. Despite the small population, to the casual observer, the coastal dwelling Melanau of Sarawak, generally do not identify with one religion, as a number of them have Islamised and Christianised over a period of time. A few practise a distinct Dayak form of Kaharingan, known as Liko. Liko is the earliest surviving form of religious belief for the Melanau, predating the arrival of Islam and Christianity to Sarawak. The somewhat patchy religious divisions remain, however the common identity of the Melanau is held politically and socially. Social cohesion amongst the Melanau, despite religious differences, is markedly tight within their small community.
Despite the destruction of pagan religions in Europe by Christians, most of the people who try to conserve the Dayaks' religion are missionaries. For example Reverend William Howell contributed numerous articles on the Iban language, lore and culture between 1909 and 1910 to the Sarawak Gazette. The articles were later compiled in a book in 1963 entitled, The Sea Dayaks and Other Races of Sarawak.
WIKIPEDIA
As part of our Birthday DUB-AMS-[RTM]-AMS-HAM-[TXL]-DUB Tour in April 2016. We enjoyed our combination of planes and trains during our travels in April and would highly recommend such a mix between these two transportation options which also bring greater flexibility and add more choices on “where to go” when out and about exploring our beautiful planet incl. Aer Lingus [DUB-AMS + TXL-DUB], EasyJet [AMS-HAM] and Trains between [AMS-RTM-AMS + HAM-TXL]. Enjoy.
This is a photograph from the finish of the 4th Annual Multyfarnham (Multy) 5KM Road Race and Fun Run which was held in the village of Multyfarnham about 15KM west of Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Wednesday 3rd June 2015 at 20:00. An incredible and unprecedented crowd of almost 300 participants took to the route including runners, joggers and walkers which was on an out-and-back course on beautiful country roads. The weather was perfect for racing and running. The fast course combined with the good weather conditions provided personal and seasonal bests for many of the participants. The GAA Club and Community Centre provided car-parking and the race headquarters. Overall this was a very well organised race event which on the evidence of tonight's race can grow even further in future years. As this and other photographs in this set shows there is nothing like an evening race in summer time in rural Ireland. Multyfarnham's setting amongst the rolling hills of north county Westmeath and not far from the shores of Lough Derravaragh provides a wonderful race setting. The village of Multy is easily accessible and is just two miles off the N4 Dublin Sligo road.
We have an extensive set of photographs from tonight in the following Flickr Album: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157653957377992
Timing and event management was provided by Precision Timing. Results are available on their website at www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2718 with additional material available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts) See their promotional video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7_TUVwJ6Q
USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
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Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share directly to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
BUT..... Wait there a minute....
We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not charge for our photographs. Our only "cost" is that we request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, VK.com, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm,etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us or acknowledge us as the original photographers.
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Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting takes a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.
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Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
Let's get a bit technical: We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs
We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?
The explaination is very simple.
Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.
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Above all what Creative Commons aims to do is to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
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Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Hosts and guests of the U.S. AFRICOM C4ISR Senior Leader Conference tour a winery in the hills above Vicenza, Italy, Feb. 3, 2011.
U.S. Army Africa photo by David Ruderman
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
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Military forces from more than 36 African nations, U.S. Army Africa and other partner nations and agencies assemble Aug. 20 for the closing ceremony of Africa Endeavor 2010 in Accra, Ghana.
Africa Endeavor 2010 came to a close Aug. 20 with a ceremony held at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College parade grounds in Accra, Ghana.
AE 2010 is a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored initiative intended to enhance interoperability and information exchange among African nations via communication networks and subsequent collaborative links with the United States, African Union and other African partners that share common goals of stability, security and sustainment.
"Future operations in Africa depend on the combined multinational militaries of the nations represented here today in order to effectively communicate amongst themselves," said Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, U.S. Army Africa commanding general.
During the annual two-week communications exercise, participants from 36 African nations, the AU, the Economic Community of Western African States, the Economic Community of Central African States, the United States and several European partners worked together to develop standard tactics, techniques and procedures to be used in future humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and peace support missions.
New areas of expertise addressed in Africa Endeavor 2010 included the first radio call to a vessel at sea from an AE event site. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk sailing off the coast of Africa ran the test, allowing AE participants to challenge themselves in establishing land-to-sea communications. After a couple attempts, the land-to-sea radio call was a success, proving that African nations could maintain communication between inland locations and their maritime forces.
"We are fighting for unity and interoperability with our partners to establish high levels of efficiency," said Lt. Gen. Peter Blay, Chief, Defense Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces. "The outcome of AE 2010 has given assurance that we are on track to achieve the ultimate goal of interoperability between our forces."
Another incorporated training event was a satellite call conducted from the AE site in Accra to the AU Peace Support Operations Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The demonstration showed AE participants how useful reliable communication between the nations and the AU is during times of disaster relief.
"The newly incorporated signal techniques will be planned for and incorporated in future exercises," said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Britt Talbert, AE 2010 exercise director.
Through newly incorporated training and careful planning, AE 2010 proved to achieve its goal of taking a step forward in improving interoperability and creating new ties between African nations.
"By taking part in this event we have demonstrated a commitment to harness the power of communication technology for ensuring the long-term peace, stability, and prosperity of the African continent," said Hogg.
“Africa Endeavor is a great opportunity to meet people and it gives us an opportunity to check interoperability communications for all military personnel,” said Maj. Bachirou Farta of Burkina-Faso.
“Here we have the opportunity to know another country, and this is very important because of the many different cultures in Africa. When I go back to my country, I will teach my people many things from my good experiences here for the military,” he said.
African nations participating in AE 2010 included Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, Southern Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
The first AE was held in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2006. Subsequent exercises took place in Abuja, Nigeria, in 2008 and in Libreville, Gabon, in 2009.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
The Odyssey Building in Future World at EPCOT Center. The image was photographed with a Pentax ZX-50 film camera. The negative was scanned with an Epson Perfection V600 photo scanner.
The news was that Jools' cough was little better. She got a mail back from the surgery on Friday saying her (non-urgent) appointment with the doctor was on December 14th. But as we were going to Tesco, she would have a chat with the pharmasist and see about some of the behind the counter stuff.
Winter has arrived, though no snow as yet, but the wind is set in the east, its cloudy and feels raw outside.
I would spend part of the day churchcrawling.
After shopping.
We go to Tesco, Jools really only coming so she could get something for her cough.
With a few bottles of tripel and cider we managed to spend £140. A bag of rice, not white easy cook rice I'll admit, but that's £4.50 now.
Wow.
Back home with the shopping and a bottle of serious cough syrup, we put the shopping away and have breakfast.
No surprise then that Jools wasn't coming out with me, she wanted to get the cough under control, would only take the new syrup when needed as it can make you drowsy.
I had a list of churches, and first up was our local one, St Margaret.
They were having a craft day. I thought it might be a fayre, but was a kid's craft day. Anyway, the church would be open and I could take shots of the memorials and windows.
There were pagan heads at the top of each column, and as corbel stones. The more I looked, the more pagan heads, even at the top of two of the columns, but not all.
No real ancient glass, but good quality Victorian.
The church itself is the triumph, being an early Norman and well preserved.
Although, sadly, the tower is in poor repair and needs reroofing, which is why it is currently encased in scaffolding.
I am sure when we called in at Barham last week, a sign said there was a craft fayre on, so would be open. I would go back, and get some shots, I thought.
Its a half hour drive, if that out of Dover down the A2 and off at the Wingham turning, down the valley and parking outside the church, its spire pointing to heaven.
Inside the church there was no fayre again, just a warden showing a lady round. We all said "hello", and I went about getting shots.
I have been here at least three times, but now take the big lens to get details of the windows and memorials high up, so there are always new details to reveal.
Star item is the window of St George and the dragon, though is hidden in the north-west corner, and best viewed from the stairs to the belltower.
After 20 minutes, the visitor left and the warden turned off the lights, forgetting I was there, but I had my shots.
From Barham its a short drive to Bridge, then along the Nailbourne to Patrixbourne, where I see the door was open, but I had another target: Bekesbourne, the next village along, crossing the dry bed of the bourne, stopping on the lane outside the church. I look left to the Old Palace, but there were no cars parked there, so no point of even knocking, I drove on.
Instead of turning left back to Bridge, I turn right towards Littlebourne, no real idea where I was going.
Littlebourne could wait for another time, I only went back there in 2020, I went to Wingham, driving on towards Sandwich.
I thought, it's a long time since I was at Woodnesborough, I could cut through Ash and go there.
Which is what I did.
I could have stopped at Ash too, that's usually open, but there'll be other times. I have been there twice and got good shots last time for sure.
From Ash, the road climbs, leading to Woodnesborough, Woden's Hill, where there was a hill fort in antiquity. The church is on the highest point, overlooking the marshes of the old Wantsum Channel, and on to Sandwich which when the Channel was still flooded, was on a spit of land.
The church is a marker for miles around due to its cupola, something is shares with Ringwould near to home.
Inside it was so dark, I thought I would need to find the lights, but I could not find them. So, I hoped the camera would cope without.
It did.
But again, I was here really to record the windows, which were rich in detail. I took 215 shots here, 560 in a morning at three churches.
Not bad.
But I was done, what light there was, was fading, even though it was only just after one. I would go home.
Once home I got busy.
I have a taste for beans. Not baked beans, but Boston Beans. I had a recipe, and we got the ingredients that morning, so went about making a huge panful. Three tins of haricot beans, tomatoes, stock, spices, bacon, pork belly, mustard, and black treacle.
Cooked on the hob for an hour, then cooked long and low in the oven for four hours.
What came out looked and tasted like fine Boston Beans. We will be eating these for weeks.
At the same time I make fritters.
The plan was to be all cooked and eaten before the football began at three.
I did it with half an hour to spare, the leftover wine drunk too, meaning I would struggle to stay awake for Holland v USA game. Netherlands win pretty comfortably.
And in the evening, with a soundtrack of funk and soul thanks to Craig, I watch Argentine v Australia, which was a stunning game.
Even better, I sat on the sofa to watch, Cleo eyed me as if to say how dare you take my chosen sleeping place. But she came over, paced around, then lay between the arm of the sofa and my leg. Scully lay on the other side. I had 50% of the household cats.
Happier than I have been for ages.
Best of all was that the syrup worked, stopped the coughing, and Jools fell asleep right off.
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A morning out, revisiting some familiar fairly local churches.
Final visit was to Woodnesborough, aka Woden's Hill, near to Sandwich.
It was open, but no light switch that could be found meant that the church was dark, but the camera coped well.
Woodnesborough sits on the highest point near to the coast, its cupola marking the spot, and visible for miles in all directions.
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The tower makes this church one of the easiest in Kent to identify. It is capped by a little cupola and wooden balustrade of eighteenth-century date that replaced a medieval spire. During the Middle Ages the church was owned by Leeds Priory which invested heavily in the structure, and was no doubt responsible for the excellent sedilia built in about 1350. The canopy is supported by a quadripartite vault in turn supported by angry little heads. Above the sedilia is the cut-off end of a prickett beam. The east window, of Decorated style stonework, has a thirteenth-century hangover in the form of a shafted rere-arch. There are two excellent modern stained glass windows designed by F.W Cole, which show the Creation (1980) and St Francis (1992). The good altar rails are of Queen Anne's reign, as are the splendid Royal Arms.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Woodnesborough
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WOODNESBOROUGH,
¶OR Winsborough, as it is usually called, lies the next parish northward from Eastry, being written in the survey of Domesday, Wanesberge. It took its name according to Verstegan, from the Saxon idol Woden, (and it is spelt by some Wodensborough) whose place of worship was in it; however that may be, the termination of the word berge, or borough, shews it to be of high antiquity.
art of this parish, over which the manor of Boxley claims, is within the jurisdiction of the justices of the town and port of Sandwich, and liberty of the cinque ports; and the residue is in the hundred of Eastry, and jurisdiction of the county of Kent.
There are three boroughs in this parish, viz. Cold Friday, Hamwold, and Marshborough; the borsholders of which are chosen at the petty sessions of the justices, acting at Wingham, for the east division of the lath of St. Augustine.
THIS PARISH is large, being two miles and an half one way, and upwards of a mile and an half the other. The church stands nearly in the centre of it, on high ground. At a small distance from the church is Woodnesborough hill, both of which are sea marks. This hill is a very high mount, seemingly thrown up by art, and consisting of a sandy earth, it has been thought by some to have been the place on which the idol Woden from whom this place is supposed to have taken its name) was worshipped in the time of the Saxons; by others to be the burial place of Vortimer, the Saxon king, who died in 457, whilst others suppose this mount was raised over those who fell in the battle fought between Ceoldred, king of Mercia, and Ina, king of the West Saxons, in the year 715, at Woodnesbeorb, according to the Saxon chronicle, which name Dr. Plot supposes to be Woodnesborough. Vortimer, as our historians tell us, at his death, desired to be buried near the place where the Saxons used to land, being persuaded that his bones would deter them from any attempt in future. Though authors differ much on the place of his burial, yet this mount at Woodnesborough is as probable, or more so, perhaps, than any other, for it was near to, and was cast up so high as to be plainly seen from the Portus Rutupinus, which at that time was the general landing place of the Saxon fleets. Some years ago there were found upon the top of it sundry sepulchral remains, viz. a glass vessel (engraved by the Rev. Mr. Douglas, in his Nænia;) a fibula, (engraved by Mr. Eoys, in his collections for Sandwich;) the head of a spear, and some fragments of Roman vessels. Much of the earth of sand has been lately removed round the sides of it, but nothing further has been found.
At a small distance northward from hence, at the bottom of a short steep hill, lies the village called Woodnesborough-street, and sometimes Cold Fridaystreet, containing thirty four houses. The vicaragehouse is situated in the middle of it, being a new handsome building; almost contiguous to it is a handsome sashed house, belonging to the Jull family, now made use of as a poor-house; through this street the road leads to Sandwich. West ward of the street stands the parsonage-house, late the seat of Oliver Stephens, esq. deceased, and now of his window, as will be further noticed hereafter. Besides the manors and estates in this parish, particularly described, in the western parts of it there are several hamlets, as Somerfield, Barnsole, Coombe, with New-street, Great and Little Flemings, Ringlemere, and the farm of Christians Court.
In the north east part of the parish, the road from Eastry, by the parsonage of Woodnesborough northwestward, divides; one road, which in antient deeds is called Lovekys-street, going towards Ash-street; the other through the hamlet of Marshborough, formerly called Marshborough, alias Stipins, to Each End and Sandwich, the two windmills close to the entrance of which are with in the bounds of this parish. Each, Upper Each, called antiently Upriche, and Each End, antiently called Netheriche, were both formerly accounted manors, and are mentioned as such in the marriage settlement of Henry Whyte, esq. in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign. After the Whytes, these manors passed in like manner as Grove, in this parish, to the James's. Upper Each, or Upriche, has for many years belonged to the family of Abbot, of Ramsgate, and is now the property of John Abbot, esq. of Canterbury. Each End, or Netheriche, belongs, one moiety to the heirs or devisees of the late earl of Strafford, and the other moiety to John Matson, esq. of Sandwich.
¶It cannot but occur to the reader how much this parish abounds with Saxon names, besides the name of Wodens borough, the street of Cold Friday, mentioned before, is certainly derived from the Saxon words, Cola, and Friga, which latter was the name of a goddess, worshipped by the Saxons, and her day Frige-deag, from whence our day of Friday is derived; other places in this parish, mentioned before likewise, claim, surely, their original from the same language.
This parish contains about 3000 acres, the whole rents of it being about 3373l. yearly value. It is very bare of coppice wood; the Old Wood, so called, in Ringleton, being the only one in it. The soil of this parish is very rich and fertile, equal to those the most so in this neighbourhood, particularly as to the plantations of hops, which have much increased within these few years past. The middle of the parish is high ground, and is in general a flat open country of arable common fields. West and south-westward the lands are more inclosed with hedges. North and north-westward of the parsonage, towards Sandwich, they are low and wet, consisting of a large level of marsh land, the nearness of which makes the other parts of this parish rather unhealthy, which is not otherwise very pleasant in any part of it. There was a fair held here yearly, on Holy Thursday, but it has been for some time disused.
In Ringleton field, in this parish, there was found about the year 1514, a fine gold coin, weighing about twelve shillings, with a loop of the same metal to hang it by; on one side was the figure of a young man in armour, a helmet on his head, and a spear over his right shoulder; on the reverse, the figure of Victory, with a sword in her hand, the point downwards.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, consists of a nave, and two isles, having a square tower steeple at the west end, with a modern wooden turret and vane at the top of it, in which are five bells, made in 1676. It had a high spire on the tower, which was taken down some years ago. At the east end of the chancel is a marble tablet for John Cason, esq. of this place, justice of the peace, obt. 1718; John Cason, esq. his son, obt. 1755; arms,Argent, a chevron, sable, between three wolves heads, erased, gules, on an escutcheon of pretence, sable, a chevron, between three fleurs de lis, of the field; another for Thomas Blechenden, of the antient family of that name, of Aldington, in Kent, obt. 1661; arms, Azure, a fess nebulee, argent, between three lions heads erased, or, attired, gules, impalingBoys. On the south side, an antient altar monument with gothic pillars and arches, having had shields and arms, now obliterated. Against the wall, under the canopy, two brass plates, which have been removed to this place, from two grave-stones in the chancel; the first for Sir John Parcar, late vicar of this church, who died the v.day of May, a°o dni m° v° xiij° on the second are Latin verses to the memory of Nichs Spencer, esq. obt. 1593. In the middle of the chancel, a gravestone for William Docksey, esq. of Snellston, in Derbyshire, a justice of the peace, obt. 1760; Sarah his wife, youngest daughter of John Cason, esq. obt. 1774; arms,Or, a lion rampant, azure, surmounted of a bend, argent. On a gravestone on the north side of the chancel, on a brass plate, On a chevron, three quatersoils, between three annulets, quartering other coats, now obliterated, for Master Myghell Heyre, sumtyme vicar of this churche, who dyed the xxii day of July, m° v° xxviii. In the north isle are several memorials for the family of Gillow, arms, A lion rampant, in chief, three fleurs de lis. At the entrance into the chancel, on a grave-stone, on a brass plate, John Hill, gent. of the parish of Nassall, in Staffordshire, obt. 1605. A mural monument for William Gibbs, of this parish, obt. 1777; arms,Argent, three battle axes, in fess, sable. In the church-yard are altar tombs to the memory of the Julls, and for Sladden; one for John Verall, gent. sometime mayor of Sandwich, obt. 1610; and another for John Benchkin, of Pouton, obt. 1639.
There were formerly painted in the windows of this church,Or, a chief indented, azure, for John de Sandwich. Several coats of arms, among which were those of Valence and St. Leger,Argent, three leaves in sinster bend, their points downward, proper.— On a canton, azure, three crescents, or, for Grove.— Argent, three escallops in chief, or, in base a crescent, gules, for Helpestone, usually called Hilpurton, bailiff of Sandwich, in 1299. A shield, being Helpeston's badge, another On a fess engrailed, three cinquefoils, between three garbs, for John Hill, of Nasall, in Staffordshire, who lies buried in this church. —A fess engrailed, three lions rampant, in chief, on the fess, a crescent for difference, for Spencer, customer, of Sandwich. — Quarterly, four coats; first, On a chevron, three quaterfoils; second, Per pale, ermine and argent; third, A cross, between four pomegranates, slipped; sourth,Three bars, wavy, for Michael Heyre, vicar here in 1520.
The church of Woodnesborough was given, in the reign of king Henry I. by a religious woman, one Ascelina de Wodensberg, to the priory of Ledes, soon after the foundation of it; to which deed was witness Robert de Crevequer, founder of the priory, Elias his son, and others; which gift was confirmed by the said Robert, who by his charter, released to the priory all his right and title to it. It was likewise confirmed by archbishop Theobald, and several of his successors, and by king Henry III. by his charter of inspeximus in his 41st year.
Archbishop William Corboil, who came to the see of Canterbury, three years after the foundation of Ledes priory, at the instance and petition of Ascelina above mentioned, who resigned this church into his hands for this purpose, appropriated it to the prior and convent, for the finding of necessary cloaths, for the canons there; and a vicarage was accordingly endowed in it.
There was a controversy between the prior and convent, and Adam, vicar of this church, in 1627, anno 14 Henry II. concerning the great tithes arising from the crofts and curtilages within this parish, which was referred to the prior of Rochester, who was the pope's delegate for this purpose, who determined that the prior and convent of Ledes, as rectors of this church, should receive, without any exception, all the great tithes of wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, and of every fort of corn arising, or to arise from all lands, crofts, curtilages, or other places whatever, situated within the bounds, of this parish; and that the prior and convent should yearly pay to the said vicar, and his successors, half a seam of barley, and half a seam of beans, at the nativity of our Lord. (fn. 10)
¶After which, this parsonage appropriate,(which appears to have been esteemed as a manor) together with the advowson of the vicarage, remained with the prior and convent of Ledes, till its dissolution in the 31st year of king Henry VIII. when it was, with all its lands and possessions, surrendered into the king's hands, who by his dotation charter, in his 33d year, settled both parsonage and advowson on his new-founded dean and chapter of Rochester, with whom they remain at this time. On the dissolution of deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this parsonage was surveyed in 1649, when is appeared that the manor or parsonage of Woodnesborough, with the scite thereof, and all manner of tithes belonging to it, with a garden and orchard of one acre, was valued all together at 300l. that the lessee was to repair the premises, and the chancel of the church; that the vicarage was worth fifty pounds per annum. The then incumbent was under sequestration, and there was none to serve the cure; and that the church was then quite ruinated, and in great decay. (fn. 11)
www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol10/pp121-144
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A long and light church, best viewed from the south. Like nearby Ickham it is cruciform in plan, with a west rather than central, tower. Sometimes this is the result of a later tower being added, but here it is an early feature indeed, at least the same age (if not earlier) than the body of the church. Lord Kitchener lived in the parish, so his name appears on the War Memorial. At the west end of the south aisle, tucked out of the way, is the memorial to Sir Basil Dixwell (d 1750). There are two twentieth century windows by Martin Travers. The 1925 east window shows Our Lady and Child beneath the typical Travers Baroque Canopy. Under the tower, affixed to the wall, are some Flemish tiles, purchased under the will of John Digge who died in 1375. His memorial brass survives in the Vestry.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Barham
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Many churches in Kent are well known for their yew trees but St. John the Baptist at Barham is noteworthy for its magnificent beech trees.
The Church guide suggests that there has been a Church here since the 9th Century but the present structure was probably started in the 12th Century although Syms, in his book about Kent Country Churches, states that there is a hint of possible Norman construction at the base of the present tower. The bulk of the Church covers the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular periods of building. Many of the huge roof beams, ties and posts are original 14th Century as are the three arches leading into the aisle..
In the Northwest corner is a small 13th Century window containing modern glass depicting St. George slaying the dragon and dedicated to the 23rd Signal Company. The Church also contains a White Ensign which was presented to it by Viscount Broome, a local resident. The Ensign was from 'H.M.S. Raglan' which was also commanded by Viscount Broome. The ship was sunk in January, 1918 by the German light cruiser 'Breslau'.
The walls contain various mural tablets. Hanging high on the west wall is a helmet said to have belonged to Sir Basil Dixwell of Broome Park. The helmet probably never saw action but was carried at his funeral.
The floor in the north transept is uneven because some years ago three brasses were found there. According to popular medieval custom engraved metal cut-outs were sunk into indented stone slabs and secured with rivets and pitch. In order to save them from further damage the brasses were lifted and placed on the walls. The oldest dates from about 1370 is of a civilian but very mutilated. The other two are in good condition and dated about 1460. One is of a woman wearing the dress of a widow which was similar to a nun. The other is of a bare headed man in plate armour. These are believed to be of John Digges and his wife Joan.
At the west end of the church is a list of Rectors and Priests-in-Charge - the first being Otho Caputh in 1280. Notice should be made of Richard Hooker (1594), the author of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The tiles incorporated into the wall were originally in place in the Chancel about 1375. They were left by John Digges whose Will instructed that he was to be buried in the Chancel and "my executors are to buy Flanders tiles to pave the said Chancel".
The 14th century font is large enough to submerse a baby - as would have been the custom of the time. The bowl is octagonal representing the first day of the new week, the day of Christ's resurrection. The cover is Jacobean.
The Millennium Window in the South Transept was designed and constructed by Alexandra Le Rossignol and was dedicated in July 2001. The cost of the project (approximately £6,500) was raised locally with the first donation being made by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey.
The porch contains two wooden plaques listing the names of men from the village who were killed in the Great Wars - among them being Field Marshall Lord Kitchener of Broome Park.
www.barham-kent.org.uk/landmark_church.htm
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ANTIENTLY written Bereham, lies the next parish eastward. There are five boroughs in it, viz. of Buxton, Outelmeston, Derrington, Breach, and Shelving. The manor of Bishopsborne claims over almost the whole of this parish, at the court of which the four latter borsholders are chosen, and the manors of Reculver and Adisham over a small part of it.
BARHAM is situated at the confines of that beautiful country heretofore described, the same Nailbourne valley running through it, near which, in like manner the land is very fertile, but all the rest of it is a chalky barren soil. On the rise of the hill northward from it, is the village called Barham-street, with the church, and just beyond the summit of it, on the further side Barham court, having its front towards the downs, over part of which this parish extends, and gives name to them. At the foot of the same hill, further eastward, is the mansion of Brome, with its adjoining plantatious, a conspicuous object from the downs, to which by inclosing a part of them, the grounds extend as far as the Dover road, close to Denne-hill, and a costly entrance has been erected into them there. By the corner of Brome house the road leads to the left through Denton-street, close up to which this parish extends, towards Folkestone; and to the right, towards Eleham and Hythe. One this road, within the bounds of this parish, in a chalky and stony country, of poor barren land, there is a large waste of pasture, called Breach down, on which there are a number of tumuli, or barrows. By the road side there have been found several skeletons, one of which had round its neck a string of beads, of various forms and sizes, from a pidgeon's egg to a pea, and by it a sword, dagger, and spear; the others lay in good order, without any particular thing to distinguish them. (fn. 1)
In the Nailbourne valley, near the stream, are the two hamlets of Derrington and South Barham; from thence the hills, on the opposite side of it to those already mentioned, rise southward pretty high, the tops of them being covered with woods, one of them being that large one called Covert wood, a manor belonging to the archbishop, and partly in this parish, being the beginning of a poor hilly country, covered with stones, and enveloped with frequent woods.
BARHAM, which, as appears by the survey of Domesday, formerly lay in a hundred of its own name, was given anno 809, by the estimation of seven ploughlands, by Cenulph, king of Kent, to archbishop Wlfred, free from all secular demands, except the trinoda necessitas, but this was for the use of his church; for the archbishop, anno 824, gave the monks lands in Egelhorne and Langeduna, in exchange for it. After which it came into the possession of archbishop Stigand, but, as appears by Domesday, not in right of his archbishopric, at the taking of which survey, it was become part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, under the title of whose lands it is thus entered in it:
In Berham hundred, Fulbert holds of the bishop Berham. It was taxed at six sulings. The arable land is thirty two carucates. In demesne there are three carucates, and fifty two villeins, with twenty cottagers having eighteen carucates. There is a church, and one mill of twenty shillings and four pence. There are twentlyfive fisheries of thirty-five shillings all four pence. Of average, that is service, sixty shilling. Of herbage twenty six shillings, and twenty acres of meadow Of pannage sufficient for one hundred and fifty hogs. Of this manor the bishop gave one berewic to Herbert, the son of Ivo, which is called Hugham, and there be has one carucate in demesne, and twelve villeins, with nine carucates, and twenty acres of meadow. Of the same manor the bisoop gave to Osberne Paisforere one suling and two mills of fifty sbillings, and there is in demesne one carucate, and four villeins with one carucate. The whole of Barbam, in the time of king Edward the Confessor, was worth forty pounds, when be received it the like, and yet it yielded to him one hundred pounds, now Berhem of itself is worth forty pounds, and Hucham ten pounds, and this which Osberne bas six pounds, and the land of one Ralph, a knight, is worth forty shillings. This manor Stigand, the archbishop held, but it was not of the archbishopric, but was of the demesne ferm of king Edward.
On the bishop's disgrace four years afterwards, and his estates being confiscated to the crown, the seignory of this parish most probably returned to the see of Canterbury, with which it has ever since continued. The estate mentioned above in Domesday to have been held of the bishop by Fulbert, comprehended, in all likelihood, the several manors and other estates in this parish, now held of the manor of Bishopsborne, one of these was THE MANOR AND SEAT OF BARHAM-COURT, situated near the church, which probably was originally the court-lodge of the manor of Barham in very early times, before it became united to that of Bishopsborne, and in king Henry II.'s time was held of the archbishop by knight's service, by Sir Randal Fitzurse, who was one of the four knights belonging to the king's houshould, who murdered archbishop Becket anno 1170; after perpetrating which, Sir Randal fled into Ireland, and changed his name to Mac-Mahon, and one of his relations took possession of this estate, and assumed the name of Berham from it; and accordingly, his descendant Warin de Berham is recorded in the return made by the sheriff anno 12 and 13 king John, among others of the archbishop's tenants by knight's service, as holding lands in Berham of him, in whose posterity it continued till Thomas Barham, esq. in the very beginning of king James I.'s reign, alienated it to the Rev. Charles Fotherbye, dean of Canterbury, who died possessed of it in 1619. He was eldest son of Martin Fotherby, of Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, and eldest brother of Martin Fotherby, bishop of Salisbury. He had a grant of arms, Gules, a cross of lozenges flory, or, assigned to him and Martin his brother, by Camden, clarencieux, in 1605. (fn. 2) His only surviving son Sir John Fotherbye, of Barham-court, died in 1666, and was buried in that cathedral with his father. At length his grandson Charles, who died in 1720, leaving two daughters his coheirs; Mary, the eldest, inherited this manor by her father's will, and afterwards married Henry Mompesson, esq. of Wiltshire, (fn. 3) who resided at Barhamcourt, and died in 1732, s. p. and she again carried this manor in marriage to Sir Edward Dering, bart. of Surrenden, whose second wife she was. (fn. 4) He lest her surviving, and three children by her, Charles Dering, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Farnaby, bart. since deceased, by whom he has an only surviving daughter, married to George Dering, esq. of Rolling, the youngest son of the late Sir Edw. Dering, bart. and her first cousin; Mary married Sir Robert Hilyard, bart. and Thomas Dering, esq. of London. Lady Dering died in 1775, and was succeeded by her eldest son Charles Dering, esq. afterwards of Barhamcourt, the present owner of it. It is at present occupied by Gen. Sir Charles Grey, bart. K. B. commanderin chief of the southern district of this kingdom.
THE MANORS OF BROME and OUTELMESTONE, alias DIGGS COURT, are situated in this parish; the latter in the valley, at the western boundary of it, was the first residence in this county of the eminent family of Digg, or, as they were asterwards called, Diggs, whence it gained its name of Diggs-court. John, son of Roger de Mildenhall, otherwise called Digg, the first-mentioned in the pedigrees of this family, lived in king Henry III.'s reign, at which time he, or one of this family of the same name, was possessed of the aldermanry of Newingate, in Canterbury, as part of their inheritance. His descendants continued to reside at Diggs-court, and bore for their arms, Gules, on a cross argent, five eagles with two heads displayed, sable, One of whom, James Diggs, of Diggs-court, died in 1535. At his death he gave the manor and seat of Outelmeston, alias Diggs-court, to his eldest son (by his first wife) John, and the manor of Brome to his youngest son, (by his second wife) Leonard, whose descendants were of Chilham castle. (fn. 5) John Diggs, esq. was of Diggs-court, whose descendant Thomas Posthumus Diggs, esq. about the middle of queen Elizabeth's reign, alienated this manor, with Diggs-place, to Capt. Halsey, of London, and he sold it to Sir Tho. Somes, alderman of London, who again parted with it to Sir B. Dixwell, bart. and he passed it away to Sir Thomas Williams, bart. whose heir Sir John Williams, bart. conveyed it, about the year 1706, to Daniel and Nathaniel Matson, and on the death of the former, the latter became wholly possessed of it, and his descendant Henry Matson, about the year 1730, gave it by will to the trustees for the repair of Dover harbour, in whom it continues at this time vested for that purpose.
BUT THE MANOR OF BROME, which came to Leonard Diggs, esq. by his father's will as above-mentioned, was sold by him to Basil Dixwell, esq. second son of Cha. Dixwell, esq. of Coton, in Warwickshire, then of Tevlingham, in Folkestone, who having built a handsome mansion for his residence on this manor, removed to it in 1622. In the second year of king Charles I. he served the office of sheriff with much honour and hospitality; after which he was knighted, and cveated a baronet. He died unmarried in 1641, having devised this manor and seat, with the rest of his estates, to his nephew Mark Dixwell, son of his elder brother William, of Coton above-mentioned, who afterwards resided at Brome, whose son Basil Dixwell, esq. of Brome, was anno 12 Charles II. created a baronet. He bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, gules, between three sleurs de lis, sable. His only son Sir Basil Dixwell, bart. of Brome, died at Brome,s. p. in 1750, and devised this, among the rest of his estates, to his kinsman George Oxenden, esq. second son of Sir Geo. Oxenden, bart. of Dean, in Wingham, with an injunction for him to take the name and arms of Dixwell, for which an act passed anno 25 George II. but he died soon afterwards, unmarried, having devised this manor and seat to his father Sir George Oxenden, who settled it on his eldest and only surviving son, now Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. who is the present owner of it. He resides at Brome, which he has, as well as the grounds about it, much altered and improved for these many years successively.
SHELVING is a manor, situated in the borough of its own name, at the eastern boundary of this parish, which was so called from a family who were in antient times the possessors of it. John de Shelving resided here in king Edward I.'s reign, and married Helen, daughter and heir of John de Bourne, by whom he had Waretius de Shelving, whose son, J. de Shelving, of Shelvingborne, married Benedicta de Hougham, and died possessed of this manor anno 4 Edward III. After which it descended to their daughter Benedicta, who carried it in marriage to Sir Edmund de Haut, of Petham, in whose descendants, in like manner as Shelvington, alias Hautsborne, above-described, it continued down to Sir William Haut, of Hautsborne, in king Henry VIII's reign, whose eldest daughter and coheir Elizabeth carried it in marriage to Tho. Colepeper, esq. of Bedgbury, who in the beginning of king Edward VI.'s reign passed it away to Walter Mantle, whose window carried it by a second marriage to Christopher Carlell, gent. who bore for his arms, Or, a cross flory, gules; one of whose descendants sold it to Stephen Hobday, in whose name it continued till Hester, daughter of Hills Hobday, carried it in marriage to J. Lade, esq. of Boughton, and he having obtained an act for the purpose, alienated it to E. Bridges, esq. of Wootton-court, who passed away part of it to Sir George Oxenden, bart. whose son Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. of Brome, now owns it; but Mr. Bridges died possessed of the remaining part in 1780, and his eldest son the Rev. Edward Timewell Brydges, is the present possessor of it.
MAY DEACON, as it has been for many years past both called and written, is a seat in the southern part of this parish, adjoining to Denton-street, in which parish part of it is situated. Its original and true name was Madekin, being so called from a family who were owners of it, and continued so, as appears by the deeds of it, till king Henry VI's reign, in the beginning of which it passed from that name to Sydnor, in which it continued till king Henry VIII.'s reign, when Paul Sydnor, who upon his obtaining from the king a grant of Brenchley manor, removed thither, and alienated this seat to James Brooker, who resided here, and his sole daughter and heir carried it in marriage, in queen Elizabeth's reign, to Sir Henry Oxenden, of Dene, in Wingham, whose grandson Sir Henry Oxenden, bart. sold it in 1664, to Edward Adye, esq. the second son of John Adye, esq. of Doddington, one of whose daughters and coheirs, Rosamond, entitled her husband George Elcock, esq. afterwards of Madekin, to it, and his daughter and heir Elizabeth carried it in marriage to Capt. Charles Fotherby, whose eldest daughter and coheir Mary, entitled her two successive husbands, Henry Mompesson, esq. and Sir Edward Dering, bart. to the possession of it, and Charles Dering, esq. of Barham-court, eldest son of the latter, by her, is at this time the owner of it. The seat is now inhabited by Henry Oxenden, esq.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly maintained are about forty, casually fifteen.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanryof Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St. John Baptist, is a handsome building, consisting of a body and side isle, a cross or sept, and a high chancel, having a slim tall spire at the west end, in which are four bells. In the chancel are memorials for George Elcock, esq. of Madeacon, obt. 1703, and for his wife and children; for Charles Bean, A. M. rector, obt. 1731. A monument for William Barne, gent. son of the Rev. Miles Barne. His grandfather was Sir William Barne, of Woolwich, obt. 1706; arms, Azure, three leopards faces, argent. Several memorials for the Nethersoles, of this parish. In the south sept is a magnificent pyramid of marble for the family of Dixwell, who lie buried in a vault underneath, and inscriptions for them. In the north sept is a monument for the Fotherbys. On the pavement, on a gravestone, are the figures of an armed knight (his feet on a greyhound) and his wife; arms, A cross, quartering six lozenges, three and three. In the east window these arms, Gules, three crowns, or—Gules, three lions passant in pale, or. This chapel was dedicated to St. Giles, and some of the family of Diggs were buried in it; and there are memorials for several of the Legrands. There are three tombs of the Lades in the church-yard, the inscriptions obliterated, but the dates remaining are 1603, 1625, and 1660. There were formerly in the windows of this church these arms, Ermine, a chief, quarterly, or, and gules, and underneath, Jacobus Peccam. Another coat, Bruine and Rocheleyquartered; and another, Gules, a fess between three lions heads, erased, argent, and underneath,Orate p ais Roberti Baptford & Johe ux; which family resided at Barham, the last of whom, Sir John Baptford, lest an only daughter and heir, married to John Earde, of Denton.
¶The church of Barham has always been accounted as a chapel to the church of Bishopsborne, and as such is included in the valuation of it in the king's books. In 1588 here were communicants one hundred and eighty; in 1640 there were two hundred and fifty.
New market opened 29 Apr 1904 by William Charlick on the site of a former tannery, timberyard & workers’ cottages known as the Rookery, with a memorial stone laid by Governor Sir George Le Hunte, architect Henry J Cowell, modernised 1928, closed Oct 1988 & re-located to Pooraka.
“This week Mr Peacock of the Grenfell street tannery, has purchased of the Bank of South Australia the valuable plot of ground adjoining Messrs Lambert & Son's new Auction Mart, on which he intends to build an extensive boot and shoe manufactory.” [Adelaide Observer 3 Feb 1844]
“Attention was called to the drain from Mr. Peacock's tannery, which runs into the spring near East-terrace, rendering it unfit for domestic purposes, and the watering of horses.” [Register 20 Apr 1854]
“A Melbourne company has purchased Mr. Peacock's tannery at the corner of Grenfell-street and East-terrace, with the intention of starting another market, the area being nearly two acres.” [Christian Colonist 5 Oct 1883]
“In the eastern end. . . Peacock's old house in Grenfell-street, but the occupants did not want their apartments thrown open to public gaze. The outside was, however, enough to condemn the building and in future it will be numbered among the landmarks which have been knocked down. Three cottages in Divett-place and a wooden house in Ebenezer-place were also found to be unfit for human habitation.” [Register 22 Jun 1899]
“Mr. William Charlick, of Rundle-street east. . . to establish a new market on the land owned by him, and known as Peacock's tannery, Baker & Humbly's timber yard, and The Rookery, having a frontage to Grenfell-street East of 311 ft., and East-terrace of 171 ft., by a depth of 212 ft., in addition to his store, facing Rundle-street.” [Advertiser 4 Jul 1903]
“Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange. . . A big improvement is now in progress at the eastern end of Grenfell-street and on East-terrace, where buildings which have been standing for the last 60 years are being pulled down and removed to make room for the new market. . . The site covers about 2½ acres. . . the frontage will consist of 16 shops of two storeys, without dwellinghouses, each shop abutting on to the entrance. Convenient packing stores will be erected for the wholesale fruiterers, and the market will be furnished with gates, which will be opened and closed at suitable hours.” [Advertiser 13 Nov 1903]
“During the last session of Parliament a private Act was passed authorizing Mr. William Charliek, with or without others, to erect a market. . . The ground upon which the new buildings are being put up has long been somewhat an eyesore in the city. . . There will be numerous entrances to the market, five from Grenfell street, three from East terrace, and two from Rundle street, through Ebenezer place and Charlick & Co.'s premises. . . The new market should suffice to remove the pressure upon existing areas that has been felt during recent years owing to the enormous growth of the trade in garden produce. It will provide stall accommodation for 280 vehicles.” [Register 10 Feb 1904]
“The opening ceremony in connection with the new market in Grenfell-street, owned by the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Company, was conducted on Friday at noon, in the presence of a large number of spectators, including members of Parliament, members of the City Council, and prominent business men. Combined with the opening ceremony was that of the laying of a memorial stone by his Excellency Sir George Le Hunte.” [Advertiser 30 Apr 1904]
“The new East-End Market. . . was originally designed to accommodate 265 vehicles, but owing to the rapid increase in the business and demand for stalls, it was deemed essential to extend the space available for the latter purpose. On Friday morning two new sections were opened — one on the northern side for 24 carts and the other at the south-eastern corner for 26 — which makes the total number of stands 315. . . a deputation waited upon the Commissioner of Railways and asked that the 11.7 a.m. train to Terowie, should be delayed until 12.25 to allow the market gardeners during the summer more time in the mornings to get their produce ready, and especially soft fruit, for Broken Hill.” [Register 5 Nov 1904]
“Gradually the motor is supplanting the horse both among the growers and the distributors. Hardly a week passes but some grower appears with a new truck and his horses are relegated to the work of tilling in the garden and hauling the produce to the truck for transhipment to the city. . . The reason is obvious when the experience of a gardener from Uraidla is related. This man purchased a truck about a month ago. Now he comes in with his load in an hour. With his horse team it used to take from three to three and a half hours. He used to leave home about 1 a.m. Now he can remain in bed until nearly 4 o'clock and still be at the market in plenty of time. On the return trip — especially with a load — the difference is still more marked. It used to take him five hours to get home with the horses. Now he does it in an hour and a half. . . ‘So I get an extra half day to work in the garden’.” [News 30 Jun 1927]
“The eastern end of Rundle-street presented a gala appearance on Friday night, when the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. J. Cowan) declared open the new East-End Retail Market, Rundle-street, near the market, was festooned with colored lights, and within the market area powerful lamps revealed a scene of unusual activity. Nearly 100 stalls, with a variety of fruit, vegetables, flowers, soft goods, cool drinks, and ice-cream, were catered for the requirements of the hundreds of people who moved in a steady stream through the market.” [Advertiser 22 Dec 1928]
“For the convenience of purchasers of fruit and vegetables during the holiday season there will be two additional markets — on Christmas Eve from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m. and on New Year's Eve from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.” [Advertiser 20 Dec 1929]
“Most of the fruit and vegetables sold at the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange comes from gardens and orchards on the Adelaide plains and in the hills. Market gardeners at Port Pirie supply green peas and tomatoes. . . Adelaide draws its supplies of potatoes from many parts of the State, and large quantities are imported from Victoria and Tasmania. . . In some seasons a shortage of lemons forces buyers to import from Italy. South Australia has to import some of its fruits and vegetables, but it balances its trade ledger to some extent by exporting others.” [News 18 Jun 1930]
“Recommendations that the East-End Market Company and the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Company, Limited, should pay £160 and £195 respectively as contributions towards the cost of the special work carried out by the City Council in cleaning the streets in the vicinity of the markets, came before the council yesterday.” [Advertiser 25 Jan 1938]
“Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Company. . . a tender would be accepted today for the erection of the shell of a boxing and wrestling stadium on the Grenfell street frontage of the exchange. A company had agreed to furnish it as a stadium, on a five years' lease. . . [the site] acquired 18 months ago for market expansion. . . would be built on to conform with the present buildings of the company along Grenfell street, so that in five years' time, when the stadium company's lease expired, the Exchange could easily convert the stadium shell into markets.” [Advertiser 20 Jun 1939]
“A bronze memorial tablet to perpetuate the memory of the late Mr. H. J. Bishop, who was chairman of directors of the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Co Ltd., and the SA Fruit Marketing Association for many years, was unveiled in the East End Market yesterday by the Premier (Mr. Playford). . . has been affixed to the market office walls.” [Advertiser 25 Nov 1939]
“A wide variety of goods from junk to antiques, and from livestock to cut flowers will be on sale at the Cheer-up Society's opportunity market at the Fruit and Produce Exchange on Saturday week. December 13. A steady stream of donations of old clothing, pictures, footwear, ornaments, and toys is coming in to the two city depots.” [News 4 Dec 1941]
“Adelaide may be without a boxing and wrestling stadium at the end of 1949. The only city stadium is in Grenfell street and the present lease, which is held by Mr. R. E. Marshall from the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Co. Ltd. will expire in September, 1949. There is little chance of its being renewed. The Adelaide Fruit and Produce Exchange Co. Ltd. said in its annual report for the year to July last that there was an| ever-growing demand by merchants for more store space. The building was originally: erected as a banana store and at the outbreak of war was not in use.” [Advertiser 3 Dec 1948]
“A new front, with cantilever verandah, will be built on to the Fruit and Produce Exchange Co. Ltd. Building in the East End market. Architect for the job is Mr. W. D. Cowell, whose father. Mr. H. J. Cowell, designed the company's original market building 50 years ago.” [Advertiser 28 Oct 1953]
WILLIAM CHARLICK
“CHARLICK.—On the 27th July, at his residence, 32 Davenport terrace, Wayville, William dearly beloved husband of Matilda Hooper Charlick, in his 69th year.” [Advertiser 30 Jul 1926]
“Mr. William Charlick. . . was born at Lower North Adelaide on March 25, 1858. He was the fifth son of the late Mr. Richard Charlick, who arrived in Adelaide in 1848 and established a retail fruit business in the city. He was educated at the Rev. W. S. Moore's school (now Pulteney Grammar School), and then spent 18 months in the composing room of The Register Office. . . In 1881, with his brother Frederick, he founded the firm of Charlick Brothers, which conducted a large fruit, potato, and grocery business at East-End Market. . . In 1902 Mr. Charlick, with others, became impressed with the extensive growth of the hills gardening trade, which resulted in a large overflow of business from the East-End Market on to the streets. . . To remedy the defects he secured a block of land between Rundle and Grenfell streets. . . He made a purchase of the land, and then endeavoured to unite with the East-End Market Company, without success. . . He retained his original position on the board until February, 1925.. . . Mr. Charlick also founded the City Flour Mills, and the South Australian Cold Stores Limited, Hilton. . . Mr. Charlick originally attended the Zion Christian Church, Hanson street. He was one of the earliest members of the Church of Christ, Park street, Unley. . . subsequently linked up with the parent church at Grote street. . . In 1879 Mr. Charlick was married to Matilda Hooper, daughter of the late Mr. Joseph Baker, Somersetshire (England).” [Register 28 Jul 1926]
“Mr. Charlick. . . left a widow, six sons and two daughters. The sons are Messrs. R. H. Charlick of Unley Park; G. W. Charlick (Wm. Charlick Ltd.), of Malvern; J. L. Charlick, of North Adelaide; H. M. Charlick, of Mile End South; O. G. Charlick, of Tooperang; and C. S. Charlick (Wm. Charlick Ltd.), of Highgate. The two daughters are Miss M. B. Charlick and Mrs. O. V. Mann, of Commercial-road, Hyde Park.” [Chronicle 31 Jul 1926]
JOSEPH VARDON
VARDON.—On the 20th July, at Victoria-avenue, Unley Park. Joseph Vardon, aged 70 years.” [Advertiser 21 Jul 1913]
“Joseph Vardon. . . was born at Hindmarsh on July 27, 1843. His parents came to the State in the; ship Moffat in 1839. . . short terms at the school kept by Mr. Moody at Hindmarsh, and at Mr. J. Bath's school at North Adelaide. At the age of 13 he .obtained a position on a farm in the hills, and walked from Adelaide to Macclesfield in one day, carrying his bundle, en route to the Lower Finniss, 20 miles further on. where his new employment lay. . . In 1871 he went into partnership with Messrs. W. Webb and H. J. Pritchard, as Webb, Vardon, & Pritchard, and the firm later became Vardon & Pritchard, and afterwards Vardon & Sons, Limited. . . Mr. Vardon's wife — nee Miss Pickering, whom he married in 1864 — predeceased her husband by eight years. The family consists of four sons — Messrs. E. C., J. F., Alfred, and Ralph Vardon — and one daughter — Mrs Horace Fairweather.” [The Journal 21 Jul 1913]
Then 66 number 016 WBAT WEMBLEYYD 894M381O05 4 * DAVTRYREC N
DB Schenker Rail (UK) Ltd's class 92 number 92019 named "Wagner" in two tone railfreight grey livery with large EWS logo and a three 'O' shaped channel tunnel logo works the first leg of 4M38 from Dollands Moor to Wembley before it was taken on by class 66 number 016 to Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) on 5 November 2014.
At Jaguar Land Rover's Whitley plant, Coventry (15 miles from Crick, Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT)) car bodies are constructed using recycled aluminium sheet stamped panels. They claim that this enables them to increase crash safety and reduce weight of their new Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Jaguar F-TYPE sportscar and Jaguar XJ saloon by approximately 40% (so improving fuel efficiency and lowering emissions). Jaguar Land Rover operate a closed loop vehicle recycling policy at the end of their vehicles life and in future aim to construct up to 75% of their entire vehicle from aluminium when feasible.
The Novelis company, spun off from Alcan in 2005, makes aluminium rolled products such as light-metal products for the automotive industry (automotive coil), as well as drinks cans, products for the construction sector and products for manufacturers of consumer electronic goods. Alunorf, the Novelis Deutschland GmbH aluminium rolling and casting facility at Neuss (near Düsseldorf), is the largest aluminium rolling and casting facility in the world, and is operated jointly by Novelis and Norsk Hydro supplied with recycled aluminium delivered from Ditton Foundry in the UK by train (6O16, returning as 6M14). The Ditton Foundry trains share the same International train ID number as 4M38 in France and so are assumed to work the same route. Previously 46455 was photographed by Mattias Catry at Merris on 23 March 2014). Dollands Moor to Nievenheim aluminium trains have also been photographed passing through Houplines (east of Armenières) working from Nievenheim to Dollands Moor on 12 March 2014. Dennis Vansummeren also photographed 46455 between between Wespelaar and the village of Tildonk Belgium, working from Dollands Moor to Nievenheim on 26 April 2014.
The automotive coil produced by AluNorf at Neuss, Germany is thought to be taken to Umschlag Container Terminal GmbH by lorry and loaded into 18 Stobart Rail branded containers mounted on 9 French FIA and IFA twin intermodal flat wagons numbered 33 87 4908s. The route to Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) then involvs 5 different rail companies (International train ID 46455 and 46452) (RheinCargo GmbH & Co KG railway company, DB Schenker Rail (formerly Railion), Corridor Operations Belgium Rail (COBRA), B-Cargo and finally to DB Schenker Rail UK through the Channel Tunnel to Daventry) where Eddie Stobart lorries are thought to take it the last 15 miles to Jaguar Land Rover's Whitley plant. For a map of the route to and from Germany click here.
According to Chris Warman numbers of the 9 intermodal twin flat wagons being hauled with Stobart Rail containers mounted on them were 8749084301, 8749086785, 8749084970, 8749086751, 8749084806, 8749087338, 8749085076, 8749085050 and 8749086595.
92019 (works number BT1080) was built by the Brush Traction Company at Loughborough in 1995.
According to Realtime Trains the route and timings were;
Dollands Moor Sidings ......................1421..................1421.............RT
Ashford International UML................1433 1/2...........1434 1/2.......1L
Maidstone East [MDE] 1......................1501..................1458 1/4......2E
Otford Junction[XOT].........................1524 1/2...........1520 3/4.....3E
Swanley [SAY] 1....................................1535 1/2...........1531 1/4.......4E
St Mary Cray Junction........................1540 1/2...........1535 1/4......5E
Bickley Junction[XLY].........................1541 1/2............1536............5E
Bromley South [BMS]..........................1545.................1538 3/4.....6E
Shortlands [SRT]...................................1547..................1540 1/2......6E
Shortlands Junction............................1547 1/2...........1541.............6E
Bellingham [BGM]................................1550.................1543 1/4......6E
Nunhead [NHD] 1.................................1553 1/2...........1550............3E
Peckham Rye [PMR] 3.........................1555 1/2...........1552 1/4......3E
Crofton Road Junction.......................1556 1/2...........1554............2E
Denmark Hill [DMK] 1..........................1558.................1554............4E
Voltaire Road Junction.......................1602.................1559............3E
Latchmere Junction............................1612..................1608 1/4......3E
Imperial Wharf [IMW] 2.......................1615..................1610 1/2......4E
West Brompton [WBP] 4.....................1617...................1612 1/2.......4E
Kensington Olympia ..........................1620.................1614 1/2.......5E
Shepherds Bush [SPB] 2....................1621 1/2............1616 3/4......4E
North Pole Signal Vc813....................1624 1/2...........1619.............5E
North Pole Junction............................1625.................1618 1/2.......6E
Mitre Bridge Junction.........................1628.................1625 1/2.....2E
Willesden West Londn Junction......1629 1/2...........1627............2E
Wembley Eur Frt Ops Ctr...................1644 1/2/1721..1635/1723..2L
Wembley Central [WMB] 5................1726..................1724 3/4......1E
Harrow & Wealdstone [HRW] 5........1732..................1729 3/4.....2E
Bushey [BSH] 5.....................................1737..................1735 3/4.....RT
Watford Junction [WFJ] 8..................1738 1/2...........1739............RT
Kings Langley [KGL] 3.........................1743..................1744............RT
Apsley [APS] 3......................................1746..................1747 1/2.......1L
Hemel Hempstead [HML] 3...............1747 1/2............1749 1/2.......1L
Bourne End Junction(Herts) [XOE]...1749..................1750 3/4......1L
Berkhamsted [BKM] 3.........................1752..................1753.............1L
Tring [TRI] 3...........................................1756..................1757.............1L
Cheddington [CED] 3..........................1800.................1801 3/4.......1L
Ledburn Junction[XOD].....................1802.................1803 1/2.......1L
Leighton Buzzard [LBZ] 3..................1804.................1806 1/2.....2L
Bletchley [BLY] 3..................................1811...................1812..............1L
Denbigh Hall South Junction............1812 1/2............1812 3/4......RT
Denbigh Hall North Junction............1814..................1813 1/2.......RT
Milton Keynes Central [MKC] 3.........1816..................1814 3/4.......1E
Wolverton [WOL] 3..............................1818 1/2............1816 1/2........1E
Hanslope Junction[XHN]...................1822.................1820 1/4.......1E
Northampton [NMP] 2.........................1833..................1831 3/4.......1E
Long Buckby [LBK]..............................1915 1/2............1916 1/2........1L
Daventry South Junction...................1921 1/2............1924 3/4......3L
Sgt. John Wanyama of AU Kenya.
U.S. Army Africa photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
U.S. Army Africa photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.
The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.
“The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”
The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.
“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.
Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.
“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.
African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.
“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.
U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.
He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.
“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.
“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.
“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.
He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.
“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.
Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.
Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.
“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.
He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.
“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.
“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.
“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.
“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”
The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.
“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.
“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.
Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.
“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.
“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.
“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.
“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.
“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?
“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.
Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.
“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.
Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.
“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”
“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.
“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.
“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”
The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.
“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.
“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.
“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.
Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.
“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.
“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.
“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.
“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.
“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.
Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.
“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.
“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.
“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.
Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
This is a remake of an older collage I created in a moleskin sketchbook a few years ago. I love these airships and have a few more I can use in future work.
There are more details photos and a description about this work on my blog.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market in partnership with the Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative features cranberries with a constructed mini-bog on Friday, Sept. 17, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Tyger Production staff assemble, fill and decorate a mini-bog that will be used to demonstrates how water is used as a tool to float berries for a more efficient harvest. Live cranberry shrubs that came from and will return to a bog for continued use in future demonstrations surround the water. The shrub’s vine has cranberries grown this year, its buds that will become next year’s cranberries.
HOW TO PICK
Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water. The cranberry plant is a creeping evergreen shrub or bush that grows in sandy bogs and marshes. It produces berries on long-running vines. The berries first appear as a white creamy color before turning a shiny crimson, signaling they are ready to harvest. There are two common methods for harvesting cranberries, dry and wet. Cranberries that are harvested dry (without water added to the bog) are sold as fresh fruit and only available during the fall and holiday season from September to December. Cranberries harvested wet are picked by flooding the bogs. Because cranberries float, farmers use water to harvest the fruit. Bogs are flooded and a machine is used to loosen the cranberries from the vines. The floating cranberries are then corralled and loaded into waiting trucks for delivery to processing facilities.
HOW TO PREPARE
Simply rinse cranberries thoroughly and use as directed If frozen, there is no need to thaw before using. Sometimes a few white cranberries might be in the bag; they are fine to use. These berries haven't been exposed to as much sunlight as the redder ones. Cranberries are a prized element in the Thanksgiving dinner of most Americans. Use cranberries to make sauces, conserves and preserves, in baked goods, to make juice, or enjoy dried.
HOW TO STORE
These crimson berries can be stored up to four weeks in the refrigerator.
Advice about freezing. To freeze cranberries place in a freezer safe plastic bag without pre-washing. Store for up to one year.
FUN FACTS
• The cranberry is indigenous to North America and was used by Native Americans in both fresh and dried form. Native Americans introduced cranberries to early European settlers.
• The cranberry got its name from early settlers, who nicknamed it the “crane berry” due to the shape of its blooms, which resemble the head of a crane.
OCEAN SPRAY
Founded in 1930, Ocean Spray is the world’s leading producer of cranberry products, but it’s not your typical food company. It’s an agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers who receive the profits from every berry sold. The cooperative allows family farms to thrive ensuring economic sustainability for future generations. The average Ocean Spray family farm is just 18 acres. While cranberries are uniquely American, they are exported and enjoyed all over the word. Ocean Spray is focused on international expansion of its products, with the Cooperative’s cranberries featured in more than 1,000 in over 100 countries worldwide.
The USDA Farmers Market Vegucation tent offers informational presentations every Friday between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM, May to October, in the VegU tent. Short 10-minute classes are free. The market is located on the corner of Independence Ave. and 12th St., SW, in Washington, DC 20250.
For more information visit usda.gov/farmersmarket
@USDA_AMS
#USDAFarmersMkt
#VEGU
USDA multimedia by Lance Cheung.
I can't remember why i decided to to Ufford; I think it was because it is in Simon's top ten of Suffolk churches. Of course everything is down to taste and perspective and what the day, light, or other factors at play when you visited.
I drove through the village three times looking for the church, but this was Upper Ufford; all golf clubs and easy access to the A12.
I tried to find the church on the sat nav, but that wanted me to go to Ipswich or Woodbridge, I then tried to find Church Lane, and hit the jackpot. Down through a modern housing estate, then down a narrow lane, left at the bottom and there at the end of a lane stood St Mary, or the tower of the church anyway.
In the house opposite, a young man paused doing physical jerks to stare at me as ai parked, but my eyes were on the church. What delights would I find inside?
The south wall of the church inside the porch is lined with some very nice tiles; I take a few pictures. Inside, your eye is taken to the wonderful font cover, several metres high, disappearing into the wooden beams high above. A fine rood beam stretched across the chancel arch, and is still decorated.
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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 that 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, both mythical and real.
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. It is true to say that, the later a parish took on the tradition, the more militant and intensely expressed it was, and the more evidence there is likely to be surviving. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage here 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 in East Anglia like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window and reredos in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard.
The window 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. The elegant, gilt reredos here profides a lovely foil to the tremendous window above it.
Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciationextraordinary. from 1901, although it is the figures above which are most 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.
The two angels in the glass on the opposite side of the chancel are perhaps more interesting. They are English, probably early 16th Century, and represent two of the nine Orders of Angels, Dominions and Powers. They carry banners written in English declaring their relationship to eartly kings (Dominions) and priests and religious (Virtues). They would have been just two of a set of nine, but as with the glass opposite it seems likely that they did not come from this church originally.
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 think that the images of heads below may also 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, still maintaining a reasonably High 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.
Simon Knott, June 2006, updated July 2010 and January 2017
Twenty-two Transylvania County TIME 4 Real Science students advanced to two different state level science research competitions on March 24-25 in Raleigh-Durham, where they presented the results of 11 different year-long research projects. The team secured 19 state-level awards and will advance 11 students to the national and/or international level.
“My favorite part of the science competitions was being able to explain my project to people with minimal background in the scientific field,” said Sam Ballard, a sophomore from Rosman High School (RHS) and a student scientist in the TIME 4 Real Science Program. “When somebody came` over and asked about my project on their own terms, and then began to understand the science behind it, it made me feel so happy.” Ballard and Brevard High School (BHS) freshman Fritz Ruppert worked this year to levitate small particles using ultrasound.
“I think it is essential to remember that these science competitions are more than just competitions - they are chances for you, the scientist, to share and demonstrate your research; to show the world your accomplishments and your failures,” said Ruppert, reflecting on the competitions. “While receiving awards is nice, this is the most important part.”
As part of the North Carolina Student Academy of Science (NCSAS) Competition, students submit an original scientific paper for review by professional scientists and present their work to these scientists and their peers at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Students also have the honor of hearing from a keynote speaker. This year NCSU Professor Dr. Robert Dunn presented “Six keys to making totally new discoveries in biology before you finish high school.”
Research teacher Jennifer Williams said, “NCSAS is my favorite competition. Students get to share their original work and participate in the excitement of a scientific meeting, much like professional scientists do. First place winners also have the opportunity to present at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting alongside scientists from around the world-- a life-changing experience for students passionate about science. This year eight TIME student scientists were selected to present expenses paid at the AAAS meeting in Austin, Texas next year: Aidan Spradlin, Bryce Spradlin, Hannah Lemel, Matthew Bailey, John Nguyen, Sara Megown, Chase Bishop and Alex Eberhardt. Incredible!”
At the NCSAS meeting, students have the opportunity to seek leadership roles . This year, BHS sophomore Chase Bishop ran for NCSAS president-elect and defeated seven other candidates from across the state. “It was inspirational to see that people saw me as a leader and voted for me. In football we are told that we are to be the difference, and I hope that I can be that difference not only in the NCSAS but for the world as a scientist,” Bishop said, He will serve for one year as president-elect and then move into the role of president for a year.
When most people think of science competitions, the North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair (NCSEF) comes to mind. For this competition, students prepare a trifold poster that displays their research. Judges view the boards without the students and then ask the students to defend and elaborate on their work. After the judging, the public is invited to interact with the students and their projects. Like NCSAS, NCSEF models a key component of a professional scientific meeting, the poster presentation.
Emma Dauster, sophomore, said conducting a research project and preparing for NCSEF, “took a lot of hard work and dedication, but being part of the TIME program means always going the extra mile.” Dauster worked with sophomores Cullen Duval and Kylie Evans to study the attraction of mosquitoes to plant and fungal volatiles and win a Grand Award at this year’s NCSEF. The team will travel to Los Angeles from May 14-19 to compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). According to ISEF representatives, “Each year, approximately 1,800 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions, and territories are awarded the opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for on average $4 million in prizes.” Duval says “it still hasn’t really sunk in yet!”
Junior A. Spradlin reflected on his experiences during the science competitions, “My group and I had the chance to share our research and contribute to the scientific field. Sharing what we discovered with respected scientists that may use our experiments to stem further research is very fulfilling.” A. Spradlin worked with juniors B. Spradlin and Lemel to design a new, safer method to test for Naegleria fowleri (the brain eating amoeba) in local waters.
A. Spradlin added, “As for the competition, I am extremely proud to say that the projects we completed in a small high school lab in Brevard, North Carolina were able to compete with and defeat projects that were conducted in advanced laboratories at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill.”
The TIME 4 Real Science Program is an intensive, inquiry-based school-day course. Students learn about the process of science as they conduct original scientific research into topics of their own choosing. They are supported by both teacher and scientist mentors as they choose a topic of interest, develop a testable question, design a procedure, collect and analyze data and present their findings.
“TIME is a class that offers students, who like me have a strong interest in science, the ability to really pursue their passion and curiosity in this field. The TIME science program has opened countless doors and led to experiences that have shaped my personal interest in biotechnology, and science in general, so much so that I am currently pursuing a career in this field,” said B. Spradlin.
Current TIME students would like to thank all who have helped with their research during the year including students, teachers, administrators, parents, and numerous scientists and community volunteers. Thanks go to 2016-17 TIME volunteers: Brian Byrd, Neill Cagle, Ora Wells, Ann Farrash, Alan Smith, Inga Meadows, Courtney Long, Scott Stevens, Cindy Carpenter, Jeff Hinshaw, Adam Moticak, Ken Chepenik, Don Wauchope, Gordon Riedesel, David Williams, Jay Case, Sam Farrar, Jeremy Gibbs, and Heidi Bullock. Special thanks go to Dr. Kent Wilcox, without whose help, guidance, and actions the class could not have been possible!
The TIME 4 Real Science Program is a partnership between Transylvania County Schools and NC Cooperative Extension. Funding for the students’ trip was provided by generous donations from the Duke Energy Foundation and from TIME alumnus Abby Williams’ 2016-17 community fundraising campaign. Special thanks goes to the campaign donors that helped make this program year possible: George and Elin Abercrombie, Ann Farash and Paul Onnink, Harriett Walls, Donna and Frank Patton, Bruce and Belinda Roberts, Johnny, Elsa and Ben Strickland, Mark and Page Lemel, Pat Montgomery, Jane and Chris Dauster, John and Nancy Strickland, Marion Petterson, Steve and Mary Arnaudin, Jim and Barb Strickland, Ned Steadman, Abby and Erika Williams, Jessica Good, Jodie DuBrueil, Leah Johnson and Dawn Davenport, Kathie and George Williams,Jennifer Frick-Ruppert, Tracie and Daniel Trusler, Kristi Whitworth, Jeremy Gibbs, Frances Bradburn, Mark and Betsy Burrows, Mike Judd, Laura Patch, Mark and Ameran Tooley, Brooke Burrows, Seyl Park and John Burrows.
FOR MORE INFORMATION or to indicate an interest in volunteering or donating to the program, please visit our website at time4realscience.org or contact Jennifer Williams, BHS Science Instructional Leader and TIME 4 Real Science Co-director, at jwilliam@tcsnc.org .
Transylvania County State Level Science Awards:
A. Spradlin, B. Spradlin and Lemel: An Evaluation of Local, Thermally Polluted Lakes for the Presence of Naegleria fowleria via PCR Without Hazardous Cultivation: 1st place Biotechnology and AAAS Grand Award (NCSAS); 3rd place Biology B and 2nd place, Water Works Award (NCSEF).
Dauster, Evans and Duval: Olfactometer assays to measure the response of Culex quinquefasciatus to plant and fungal volatiles: 1st place Biology A and ISEF Grand Award (NCSEF); 2nd place Behavioral Science (NCSAS).
John Nguyen and Matthew Bailey: Oligochaete Populations in Transylvania County Trout Streams: A Risk Assessment of Susceptibility to the Whirling Disease Parasite, Myxobolus cerebralis: 1st place Environmental Science and AAAS Grand Award (NCSAS); Western Representative (NCSEF).
Bishop and Alex Eberhardt: Feasibility of Cultivating Arthrospira platensis as a Food Source for Mars Exploration and Colonization: 1st place Earth and Space Science and AAAS Grand Award (NCSAS); Western Representative (NCSEF).
Sara Megown: The Antifungal Effect of Plant Extracts on Candida albicans: 1st place Biological Sciences and AAAS Grand Award (NCSAS).
Ruppert and Ballard: Particle Manipulation by an Acoustic Levitator: 3rd place Technology and Engineering (NCSAS); 3rd place Army Award, Engineering, (NCSEF).
Bain Brown and Nicole Rideout: Screening Kudzu Associated Insects and Fungi for Enzymes with Potential Application in Aqueous Oil Extraction: 3rd place Biological Sciences (NCSAS); Western Representative (NCSEF).
Emily Trusler and Elise Poche: Isolation and Identification of Entomopathogenic Fungi for Use in Mosquito Control: 2nd Place Biological Sciences (NCSAS).
Carly Tabor and Lily Harris: Megacopta cribraria Attraction to Plant Volatiles: Western Representative (NCSAS).
Jasmine Gillespie: Toxicity of Nightshade Plants to the Freshwater Clam Corbicula fluminea: Western Representative, (NCSAS).
Caleb Fore: Developing a Cost Effective Solar Array While Capturing Energy for Heating Water: Western Representative (NCSAS).
Photo captions:
1: Twenty-two Transylvania County TIME 4 Real Science students made an impact at two recent state level science competitions. Eleven students advance to national and international competitions.
2: Chase Bishop (left), new president-elect for the NC Student Academy of Science, joins his partner Alex Eberhardt in congratulating another state level NCSAS winner. Chase and Alex studied the potential of using Martian resources to grow Spirulina, a potential source for nutrition in future Martian settlements.
3: Kylie Evans and Cullen Duval test mosquitoes in their homemade olfactometer. The team discovered that carnations are strongly attractive to mosquitoes and a new fungus isolated from kudzu repels them.
4: Elise Poche counts fungal spores using a hemocytometer and contrasting light microscope to prepare a spore concentration for dosing mosquito larvae.
5: Emily Trusler uses DNA analysis to identify entomopathogenic fungi isolated from local soil and tree holes. Trusler and her partner Elise Poche studied the fungi’s potential to control mosquito larvae.
6: Jasmine Gillespie prepares a dose of snuff. Gillespie worked with her partner Noah Graham to evaluate the sublethal toxicity of tobacco on golden clams.
7: Emma Dauster retrieves mosquitoes for testing. She and her partners Kylie Evans and Cullen Duvall will represent North Carolina at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles next month.
8: Sara Megown tests the effect of herbal extracts on Candida albicans, the causative agent of yeast infections. She found that Goldenseal extract inhibits the growth of yeast in a petri dish. She also tested the extract in living wax moth larvae with some promising, if inconclusive results.
9: Matthew Bailey works to analyze DNA from oligochaetes collected from local streams. Bailey worked with partner John Nguyen to assess local susceptibility to whirling disease, a devastating trout pathogen.
@ 2017, Transylvania County Schools, TIME 4 Real Science. All rights reserved.
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TRUCK September 1987
THE TRUCK INTERVIEW
Some say Chris Kelly's pace is too hot to handle. He has built one of Scania's biggest-selling dealers in just four years, and now plans to turn his carefully chosen Midlands site into the UK's first truck parts supermarket. A transport entrepreneur of the '80s, he is professional, innovative and shrewd. He is also one of the best-known and best liked dealers in his area. Jack Semple went to meet him
CHRIS KELLY IS THE SORT OF person who can put the Black Country back on the industrial map. Well-liked and respected, shrewd, hard working and acutely aware of money, he has come from relative obscurity to be one of the most successful truck dealers of the '80s. He aims to be on the Unlisted Securities Market before the end of the decade.
He only got his Scania franchise for the West Midlands in '83, but the business grew so fast that by '86 he had almost the biggest Scania distributorship in Britain, second only to the combined sales of the Scantruck dealer outlets in Purfleet and Heathrow, which are owned by the manufacturer. In the calendar year, Keltruck delivered 385 units.
Scania has reason to be thankful for Kelly's success. Not only has he moved a lot of metal, in stark contrast to his predecessor, but he has bolstered the Scania back-up network in his area, which has the busiest motorway stretches in Europe.
His plan is to develop Keltruck still further to make it an industry showpiece for the '90s. At the same time, the Kelly Group has diversified into other aspects of the industry, including contract haulage, and a clearing house, reversing the common pattern for hauliers to take on heavy truck outlets.
As Keltruck has grown, especially in the past year, it has changed, perhaps by necessity. and several members of staff and some fitters have left. Chris Kelly didn't seek to play down the changes when we spoke to him last month.
It could all have been a bit different if Lloyds of Ludlow, a well-known Welsh border haulier, hadn't been given the Daf outlet in the West Midlands in preference to Chris Kelly. At that stage, his secondhand truck business had not long developed from being just a one-man band.
Chris Kelly already had a firm grounding in trucks. He left school at 15 for an apprenticeship at Atwoods, which in the '60s was well-known for selling high-class cars, but also Bedford trucks. After five years in the workshop he moved across into service reception instead. 'I quite liked that. It was a means of leaving the shop floor.'
Ryland Group, which he joined in the early '70s, gave him a strong background in dealer management, first at Oldhill Motors, a Seddon dealer, then at head office, where he was given a job in administration by director Gordon Cox. 'They had an excellent group of people,' he said. The group was progressive. and gave good training in discipline and management control systems. 'Ryland was very much the exception.'
In '75, he branched out on his own, selling used trucks from an office lent by a local haulier, and using a corporation car park to keep the trucks. The business became better known when he moved to Neachells Lane, a popular road for trucks delivering to steel foundries and stockholders, where he could hardly fail to be noticed. 'I had an aptitude and ability to seek out secondhand trucks,' he said.
In those days, many of the trucks were Dafs, including 20 on hire operations, and he applied, unsuccessfully, for a Daf distributorship. In '80, he moved to a bigger, five acre site at Wolverhampton. Then the recession hit.
'It was just as if somebody had cut the telephone wires. Interest rates shot up from 12percent to 18percent, very, very quickly.' I had £400,000 of stock, which today would be worth £1.5 million. A late truck then would cost £10,000. Now, it costs up to £30.000.'
Chris Kelly developed a contract hire business in the early '80s, partly as a tax mitigation, and partly to develop a second, peripheral business. He had been making steady progress in building the business and profit, but it was almost entirely dependent on him being available all the time. Apart from himself, there was only a part-time office girl and a driver. 'I was off sick for three weeks and the place virtually ground to a standstill.'
By '82, he was buying Scanias for contract hire, and rental, and retailing a lot of used Scanias. In '82, the manufacturer, looking to replace its West Midlands dealer, called. At the time, Kelly also had around 100 trailers on hire. But he decided to take the plunge with Scania.
To raise funds. he auctioned off most of his trucks and all the trailers. A recession-hit local haulier, J & S Hemmings, which had a history going back to the horse and cart days, was also wanting to sell up, and the two combined their fleets into a single auction, handled by CMA from Leeds. Almost the whole lot was sold off.
Keltruck was the first new name on the Scania franchise network to replace a dealer (although Scania had bought out Scantruck), but Kelly was determined to break the mould in other ways, too. Many truck distributors had been sited up back streets, miles away from industrialised areas. 'I thought the right and logical place was next to the largest population and concentration of industrial manufacturing, and if possible couple this with a motorway.'
In fact Kelly's site, the old Corona typewriter works in West Bromwich, lies next to the M5, just short of the intersection with the M6. He got it at an ideal time, when industry in the Black Country was at a low level.
Being next to a motorway is not unique, and several dealers have moved to such sites in recent years. But you can't miss Keltruck from the M5. ‘Talk to truck drivers and ask them to name a distributor they know in the Midlands, and they're likely to say Keltruck. That to me has got to be a good thing.'
While Keltruck looks well positioned from the outside, internal management holds the key to success, he said. A lot of dealerships have gone under 'through lack of control systems within the business and lack of management awareness.'
He believes in paying high salaries. 'It's a very, very tough business, and you've got to have very good people.' Low salaries increasingly are a thing of the past now, he said.
Kelly has been almost as valuable to Scania as the maker has been to him. His tidy office is mirrored in the workshop and the yard
That's not to say they don't work for their money. Kelly is an entrepreneur who gives it all he's got, and he demands a lot from his staff. And he stated that he is not the sort of managing director of a company who allows a man to stay in a job if he's not performing as required.
Kelly said he'd had to learn how to run a bigger company. 'I've had to learn how to delegate and set guidelines and parameters to competent people.' He's been to three management courses at Ashridge College, arranged by Scania for dealer principles, and found them valuable. 'I wouldn't spend two-and-a-half days there if it was just a social gathering.’
Within the company, Kelly has used the Industrial Society in recent months as part of a programme aimed at building a management team. The IS was recommended by Kelly's brother-in-law, who is company secretary with a large group. Late last year he had the whole management team, including wives and children, at a weekend course organised by the IS, at a big West Midlands hotel. 'It gave the wives more of an appreciation of the hours people have to work in this industry.
'Operators of trucks are getting more and more demanding. Just like Arthur Scargill is trying to fend off six-day rota working, we have to work over seven days.' Management rotas have to take account of that, he said. (Keltruck has five breakdown vans, and a parts back-up stock which is highly regarded among Scania users in the Midlands.)
Kelly explained the IS involvement: 'It's just like building a football team. And we're trying to counter poaching.' At the moment there's a situation in the business of 'all change' when the whistle blows', Kelly said. 'The truck industry has failed to train younger people from within. We're looking for university graduates in business management or engineering to join us as management trainees.'
When Kelly takes his company onto the USM. he'll be offering employees shares in the enterprise. 'Share participation has been a great success for the NFC. I hope to do something similar, in a much smaller way.'
The team does not look the same as it did last year, as at least three managers have left the group, to join or set up a new company. Without being drawn on individual cases, Kelly acknowledges the departures. The changes are a consequence of moving from a smaller company to a larger firm. he said.
In the workshop it is no longer possible for customers simply to wander in and chat to individual fitters, which some customers had been used to, but which is impracticable in a large workshop. Tools tend to go ·missing, too, he added.
Kelly has adopted much of the current thinking on fitters. Not all are realistically able to be trained to do every job on a truck, and that should be recognised, he said. Changes in the workshop are aimed at making it more efficient. It's more formal, certainly, but should also prove more flexible and reliable for the truck operator.
The belt and braces approach is now clearly out at Keltruck, if it was ever in. Kelly wages war on clutter, and demands clarity at all times. In the workshop he has three men employed solely to keep the place clean and tidy. Trucks parked at the dealership ready to go out to customers are parked in immaculate rows, on Kelly's insistence.
But it is his office which most clearly shows the Chris Kelly style. Sited at an extreme corner of the main building, the room housed the water storage tank in the days when the place was a typewriter factory with a sprinkler system to put out fires.
When you go in, you can't see a desk. His work station is behind a partition, and is a fairly narrow shelf which of necessity prevents a build -up of paperwork. 'This way I can keep my own bits and pieces out of sight, and no-one can see the clutter. (By any normal standards, there is none.)
'In this trade there's a lot of good upside-down readers', he quipped. If anyone comes in to see him, they meet over a businesslike table, although there are leather armchairs, too.
Some trucks were ready for August 1 registration, but not as many as last year, as supply fell frustratingly behind demand
A couple of impressionist prints by Lavery are on the wall. They're Roger Stevens' taste,' (group marketing manager) he said.
Kelly plans to· put in similar work stations for his managers. 'It's the trend at the minute, but I think it's very good.' It gives people peace to concentrate on the job, he said.
Kelly's next development at West Bromwich will be a major redevelopment of the site, which will bring the supermarket concept to the UK truck industry, by the end of '88. There will be a complete range of t ruck maintenance and repair services on site, with facilities for drivers collecting, delivering, or waiting for a truck.
But most innovative of all, will be a parts 'supermarket', where customers will literally be able to pick parts off shelves. Keltruck aims not only to have a full Scania range, but trailer parts, and other components and accessories. He won't be following the Multipart line, though, and offering parts for Scania's competitor marques.
'There are quite a few places like that in the States, but there are only two or three in Europe, and there are none in Britain.'
Before that, Keltruck will open an out let in Stoke-on-Trent, to compete with other heavy truck dealers in the area. The site will be open by the end of the year, he said.
The Ashridge courses help to give a vision of where the industry is going, and where a dealer's business can fit in to it, Kelly said. He'll take the group onto the USM to enjoy the benefits he's worked for, and to raise cash to expand the business both internally and through acquisition.
So Kelly will be keeping an eye out for business opportunities associated with trucks. Tm not into property.' Business development has already taken him back into contract haulage, which he said has been a natural progression from truck contract hire, and which in turn was developed from truck retailing.
He has bought several haulage firms, in one case to turn round a traditional general haulage operation running older lorries to a new, streamlined firm, working on contract.
'I like the word contract,' he said, 'it's got some future to it. It means the work isn't here today, gone tomorrow.
'The traditional market for purchasing of trucks is declining substantially,' he said. Operators are increasingly looking for fixed prices. A new breed of businessman is coming into haulage, and looking carefully at the cost of use of trucks.
Trucks in future will be used more intensively than they have been, and they'll be cut up earlier, to avoid expensive breakdowns. Kelly has changed his views on extensive rebuilding of trucks, which has been given a boost by tax changes. The practice is common in the States, under the 'glider kit' system.
'I now believe that people haven't got the time,' he said. But it could vary from one part of the country to another. There's a lot of truck expertise available in Yorkshire and Lancashire at reasonable cost, for example.
'There's never been a better time to buy new and trade-in than now,' he said, adding: 'We're the best buyers for a clean used Scania.'
Kelly's biggest problem this year has been a shortage of trucks to sell, both second-hand and new. 'We're sold through now until September production,' he winced, talking to us in early July.
One area Kelly is not at all keen to attack again is spot rental of trailers. They're too much trouble. There's too much potential accident damage, unless they're on contract hire. And the trailers can go through a £1400 set of tyres in anything from six months to 12 months.' Also, tri-axle trailers rip off tyres much more than on tandem trailers.
While Chris Kelly is widely known to have a good nose for business, his nose itself is well known, too. The scar running across the bridge results from an exploding battery, in the early days of the second-hand business. 'I was charging up two 12V batteries overnight. When I went down to the yard at six o'clock the next morning to get the truck ready for a customer, I failed to switch the power off, and the battery exploded. It blew me back 10ft, and blew a hole in the workshop roof.'
Fortunately, he got blown against the wall right beside a tap, and was able to wash out his eyes.
The accident had its positive side. 'I used to make frequent trips to Scotland looking for used trucks. The scar was a useful means of identification for Scotsmen who weren't quite sure of my credit worthiness.'
Scotland has also made Chris Kelly teetotal. He admits, over a Perrier water, to once having bought a few rust buckets on the strength of some stiff whiskies at Glasgow airport.
Kelly's pace has been hectic. So much so that he's 'only had time' to drive 500miles in one of his prized possessions, a 4.2 E-type roadster that's done only 20,000miles (true).
He has built not only one of the most successful dealerships of the decade, but done so without the backing of one of the large groups which own so many truck outlets.
No longer a one-man-band, he is now boss of a multi-million business which has changed in character since it was set up just a few years ago. Not everyone agrees with or likes the changes at present. But Kelly is driving the business with commitment and imagination, and most people in the Midlands want to see him succeed.
Kelly demands neat parking. E-type is immaculate, but Kelly's pace is too hot – he doesn't have time to drive it