Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a (slightly) better version 09-Apr-14..

 

First flown as G-14-3068 with Short Brothers & Harland, the aircraft was leased to Inter City Airlines in Apr-81 as G-BITV. It was sub-leased to BAF British Air Ferries in Aug-83 and repossessed by Short Brothers in Nov-83. It was leased to Air Ecosse the following month. In Mar-85 it was sub-leased to Brymon Airways, returning to Air Ecosse in Sep-85. It was returned to Short Brothers in Sep-86 and then leased, short-term, to Syd-Aero between Oct/Dec-86. In May-87 it was leased to Connectair and operated on behalf of British Caledonian Commuter/Caledonian Link. Returning to Short Brothers in Jan-89, it was re-registered G-OGIL and leased to Gill Air the following month. On 10-Jul-92 the aircraft was damaged beyond repair at Newcastle during a taxiing accident. Gill Air bought it from the Insurers in Oct-92 and it was used for spares. The remains were later preserved at the North East Aircraft Museum, Sunderland, UK.

 

Note: The aircraft taxied into a vehicle and a hangar at Gill Air's base at Newcastle, UK, striking another Shorts 330, G-BIFH. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

 

I also have a photo of this aircraft in Inter City Airlines/Guernsey Airlines livery at www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/6925478533

REPLACED: Some quality improvements necessary for larger printing, and a less panoramic crop.

 

I got up early today (Wednesday 9/26) and went out on the beach at the north end of Pea Island just below the bridge. If you walk out a ways there is a jetty with a remote automated weather station on it.

 

I got these out there just before the sun came up.

 

Another one that looks like HDR, but the light was just right to capture it as a single image.

 

Olympus OM-D E-M5 and M.Zuiko 9-18mm f/4-5.6 lens and 32x ND filter.

 

Please visit the Entropic Remnants website or my Entropic Remnants blog -- THANKS!

 

UPDATE: I've printed this at 36x24 inches on metallic paper and it's hanging in my living room and it's lovely as a large print. One of my favorite landscapes I've taken with the OM-D E-M5.

Replaced a large chassis admiral 27k

Birmingham Oratory seen from Chamberlain Gardens.

 

It's founder is now Saint John Henry Newman.

  

The Birmingham Oratory is an English Catholic religious community of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, located in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. The community was founded in 1849 by the Blessed John Henry Newman, Cong.Orat., the first house of that congregation in England.

 

Part of the complex of the Oratory is the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as the Oratory Church. It now also serves as the national shrine to Newman.

  

The current church was constructed between 1907 and 1910 in the Baroque style to replace the original structure as a memorial to Newman. It was designed by the architect Edward Doran Webb. It is familiarly called the Little Rome in Birmingham.

 

Prior to a final determination regarding the beatification of Newman, the Holy See gave instructions that his remains were to be transferred from the Oratorian cemetery in the West Midlands to the Oratory Church. A marble tomb was built for this but not installed in the church. When church and civil authorities opened the grave in October 2008, however, they found no human remains from his grave.

 

The Grade II* listed church continues to serve the Congregation of the Oratory there. Elsewhere in England, there are also communities of the Congregation at the Brompton Oratory in London and the Oxford Oratory.

 

In February 2012, the church suffered the theft of a large metal cross from its roof. The loss was valued at £30,000.

  

Grade II* Listed Building

 

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (The Oratory), the Oratory Priests' House and the Former Oratory School Buildings

 

Summary

 

A Roman Catholic, Oratory church, designed by E Doran Webb and built between 1903-1909, incorporating earlier work by John Hungerford Pollen of 1858, Henry Clutton of 1872-3, and an addition by G B Cox in 1927, together with the accompanying presbytery building, designed by Terence Flanagan in 1851 and the former Oratory School buildings designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 and 1872-3.

Description

 

ORATORY CHURCH

A Roman Catholic, Oratory church, designed by E Doran Webb from 1903-1909 and incorporating earlier work by John Hungerford Pollen of 1858, Henry Clutton of 1872-3, and an addition by G B Cox in 1927.

MATERIALS: the building is of limestone ashlar with a lead roof and internally clad with a rich variety of marble veneers, inlays and mosaic work. The Tunnel vault over the nave is of chestnut which was painted in 1959.

PLAN: the building is oriented north-south, with the northern end representing the ritual eastern end. Ritual compass directions are used throughout this description. The basilican plan has a nave flanked by aisles. At either side of the nave alternating bays contain either a side chapel or a confessional, placed against the outer walls of the side aisles. The sanctuary has an apsidal end and there are transepts to each side whose outer walls are flush with those of the nave aisles. Above the crossing is a dome, and clerestory lighting is by large lights which pierce the sides of the tunnel vault. Further side chapels are placed at either side of the sanctuary. The organ gallery and loft are positioned in the south transept, above the altar of the Sacred Heart. The earlier St Philip’s Chapel (now dedicated to the Blessed John Newman) is attached to the south side of the south transept. The gallery at the western end of the nave is placed over bays of the earlier school cloister. The Oratory House lies to the south and is connected to the church through the Sacristy.

EXTERIOR: the west end of the church is fronted by the cloister garth of the former Oratory School. The façade is of three bays, divided by Composite pilasters with paired pilasters to the corners. At ground floor level it has three openings which front bays of the cloister. The central, taller, opening has a moulded, lugged surround above which is a pulvinated frieze and a broken, segmental pediment with figures of angels at either side, carved in relief and supporting an escutcheon with a coat of arms and a cardinal’s hat. At either side are portals with Gibbs surrounds and prominent triple keystones set against pulvinated friezes. At gallery level is a single, central light with segmental top, flanked by corbel brackets. The top of the wall has an entablature with pulvinated frieze and a triangular pediment.

The north flank of the nave has seven bays. The division of the bays is unmarked at ground-floor level, but buttresses with concave tops appear between the clerestory bays. At the top of the aisle walls is a balustrade with vase-shaped balusters and square piers. A similar balustrade is placed above the clerestory, along the skyline, and encircles the building above a full entablature with pulvinated frieze. The narrow nave windows which light the alternate bays housing confessionals have moulded surrounds and the larger clerestory windows have pilasters at either side and pedimental tops. The transept at left is blank, save for a niche with an arched head containing a statue of Philip Neri. The left corner has an octagonal staircase turret with a pepper-pot top. In the re-entrant angle between the eastern flank of the north transept and the chancel is the later Shrine of St Philip. This has walls clad with faience tiles, channelled rustication, canted corners and a stone surround to the half-glazed double doors at the centre of its north front. There is a dentilled cornice to the top of the wall. Above this is the drum of the dome, with pilasters placed between the segment-headed windows. Above the entablature the ribbed copper dome has a cross finial.

The chancel has a single window to the upper wall at left, but is otherwise blind, with square buttresses rising for the full height of the wall and continuing the cornice.

The south flank is largely masked by the Oratory House building, the Sacristy and Pollen’s Chapel of St Philip (now the Blessed John Newman), which are all characterised by red brick walling. The chapel has an apsidal end with three arched windows and above this the library has sash windows, all with stone surrounds. The eastern end of the south transept has an octagonal staircase turret, similar to that seen on the north side. In the re-entrant angle with the chancel is the lower Chapel of St Charles, which has three windows to its south flank. Above it both the transept and chancel have windows with moulded, pedimental surrounds.

The dome has four windows to its drum with moulded surrounds and floating pediments. Each window is flanked by three pairs of engaged Tuscan columns. There are four piers with arched niches, which were intended to be filled with carvings of the Evangelists, but this work was not carried out and the attached blocks project from the walls. Above the entablature is a parapet with balustrade panels and the ribbed dome, with its copper sheathing, rises above that to the stone lantern, which has arched lights and small, engaged columns. The domed top culminates in a ball and gilded cross.

INTERIOR: the nave has mosaic flooring laid in overlapping fan-shaped patterns. The aisle arcades have monolithic, unfluted columns of Breccia marble with bases of green Swedish marble and Composite capitals. These support a full entablature with plain frieze, from which springs the painted timber barrel vault.

The walls of the sanctuary are covered with panels of red African onyx with borders of yellow Siena marble. The altar stands forward from the rear wall on a stepped platform. It was designed by Dunstan Powell in 1899 for the old church. The tabernacle is circular with a domed roof which has enamel inlay. The frontal is of green Connemara marble with lapis lazuli plaques around the edges. Above the altar is a suspended baldacchino of gilded and painted wood. The ceiling of the apse has mosaic decoration representing the Coronation of the Virgin flanked by St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. Fixed to the side walls are choir stalls of Italian walnut, with tall backs, divided by panelled Corinthian pilasters and with a frieze of swags and ribbons to the top.

The pendentives at the crossing, below the dome, have mosaics representing the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Later decoration around the drum represents the Evangelists and major saints. The choir gallery is supported by a double colonnade supporting round arches. The grille to the front of the gallery is elaborately carved and gilded, as is the organ case above, both designed by Ernesto Sensi. At ground level, the altar of the Sacred Heart lies behind the double colonnade and was designed by John Pollen for the earlier church on this site. Against the northern wall of the north transept is Our Lady’s altar. The altar and altar rails were brought from the Church of S Andrea della Valle in Rome in 1911. The altar is flanked by columns of Siberian onyx, originally intended for Westminster Cathedral, which now support gilded statues of kneeling angels. The Shrine of St Philip Neri leads off from the east side of the transept. Its richly decorated interior has walls veneered in Siena marble and monolithic columns of red Languedoc marble to the corners. The Cosmatesque floor has a variety of inlayed patterns. The marble altar contains a wax effigy of the saint and the altar piece (after Guido Reni) has an elaborate gilded frame. To the south wall is a reliquary chest with relics and souvenirs of the saint given to Newman in Rome in 1846-7.

The series of side chapels off the nave all take the form of an apsidal niche with mosaic semi-dome and are richly decorated with panels of different marble veneers. Fixed altars have mosaic or marble fronts or, in the case of the chapel of St Athanasius, a glass panel revealing the decorated coffin of St Valentine. Confessionals are set in alternate bays which each have a stone screen, formed of a round arched central portal, flanked by two flat-headed entrances. Above this is a central stone sculpture niche, with carved consoles to its sides, flanked by a wrought metal screen. The wooden confessionals are set behind the stone screens, at the back of each side bay.

The baptistery is set in the western-most side bay of the north aisle. It was designed by Dunstan Powell and opened in 1912. It has a decorated metal barrier and richly-moulded plaster walls with swags and putti in high relief above ebony panelling. The bowl is of alabaster and the bronze cover (Hardman), which swings to one side, has a figure of St John the Baptist as finial.

The earlier side chapel, approached from the south transept and designed by JH Pollen in 1858, has an altarpiece of Chellaston alabaster designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1880.

 

ORATORY PRIESTS' HOUSE

A presbytery for Fathers of the Oratory, designed by Terence Flanagan in 1851 in an Italian Renaissance style.

MATERIALS & PLAN: the house is of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with ashlar dressings and a hipped, slate roof. It has three floors and a T-shaped arrangement of corridors on each floor, off which are individual rooms.

EXTERIOR: the southern front, facing Hagley Road, has five bays, symmetrically disposed. There are stone quoins at the corners and stone string courses between the floors, that between the ground and first floors having Vitruvian scroll ornament. A sill band also runs across the façade at first floor level. There are sash windows of twelve panes at ground and first floor levels, and six panes to the attic. Window surrounds are aedicular with lugs and panelled cornice heads at ground floor level. The central doorway has a similarly-moulded surround, above which is a square panel with a broken, segmental pediment, flanked by scrolls. The first floor windows are plainer with brackets below their sills, save for the central opening, which has a lugged surround with panelled cornice, as before, and scrolls to its side. The central, second-floor window has a lugged and shouldered surround. To the top of the wall is a dentilled cornice and the ridge carries four chimneys to full height.

The east front has two bays at left which continue the pattern of the street front. Recessed at right is a lower, two-storey range of four bays which have plainer window surrounds and a string course between the floors. At right again and projecting are five bays to the original height and pattern.

The north front has two widely-spaced bays at left, of the established pattern, with a C20 addition at ground floor level housing the kitchen. To right of this is a projecting single bay with Venetian window to the ground floor and at right again is the curved wall which marks the apsidal end of the chapel of St Philip Neri at ground floor level (now dedicated to the Blessed John Newman), added to the earlier church by Pollen in 1858. This has three arched lights at lower level, above which is the library of the Oratory House, with two blind windows with rectangular heads. Above the parapet and recessed is the curved timber and glass lantern which lights the library.

Chimneys across the building are to their original height and take the form of two square stacks joined by an arch.

INTERIOR: the entrance lobby is flanked by parlours with cornices. A central corridor runs north-south on all floors and a stone staircase with rectangular well is placed at the southern end. This has two metal balusters per tread and a mahogany handrail. The recreation room has an ante-room, divided from the main room by an arch, cornicing and a black marble fire surround. The dining room has wooden panelling, divided by pilasters with applied paterae and plaster anthemia to the top. There is an arched stove recess in the centre of the northern wall and a revolving cupboard by which food could be served to the fathers. In the north-east corner is a pulpit with panelled sides, tester and steps. At first floor level is a Chapter room with fitted platform, benches, cupboards and desk. Individual rooms at first floor level have an outer baize door, to denote private study, as well as an inner door. The study of Blessed John Newman is preserved as it was at his death, with bookcases, an altar and suspended baldacchino. The House library is at second floor level and has fitted bookcases to the walls and a cast iron gallery approached by a spiral staircase. Its deeply coved ceiling rises to the central timber and glass lantern.

 

ORATORY SCHOOL

A range of former school buildings, now part of the Oratory complex. The School Hall range facing the street was designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 and the cloister range, to the north, was designed in 1872-3.

MATERIALS & PLAN: red brick walling laid in English bond, with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The building has two storeys and is arranged around a rectangular cloister at the southern (ritual western) end of the Oratory church.

EXTERIOR: the southern front faces Hagley Road and abuts the earlier Oratory Priests' House to its right, which is slightly set back. The street frontage has blind brick walling at ground floor left, with a deep, flush stone band at the level of the springing of the round-arched portal at far right. This has a wrought-iron screen with a central gate and repoussé panels and leads through to the cloister behind this range. At first floor level are six windows with arched heads and pilasters at either side, supported by brackets. Flush stone bands run below the sills and at the level of the springing of the arches. The spandrel between the two central windows carries a circular, metal clock face. To the top of the wall is a cornice with brackets and above is a blocking course, sheathed with lead.

The short east flank is blind and abuts the Oratory Priests' House.

The west flank has two bays with first floor windows as before and two arched ground floor lights with prominent keystones. Projecting at left of this is a similar, single bay which appears to be part of an incomplete extension. A C20 extension in plum brick extends to the north of this.

The cloisters have brick vaults with stone dressings to the passage beneath the roadside range and to the northern side which abuts the ritual west front of the church. The east and west sides have beamed ceilings and the south side has deep stone brackets extending from square piers to support a first floor corridor. The east and west ranges and the northern range at either side of the church façade, which runs in front of part of the cloister, have short columns on high, tapered bases with Italian Romanesque capitals. First floor windows above the east and west cloister are arched lights or square-headed lancets.

INTERIOR: the ground floor former gymnasium (now the parish room) has transverse iron H-beams, from which hooks are suspended for gym equipment. A central row of iron columns supports the ceiling. A dog-leg staircase with stone treads leads to the generous first floor landing. The former school room has encased, transverse beams to the ceiling and arched sash windows to the north, south and west sides with a raised platform at the east end. The first floor Chapel has a canted north (ritual east) end, circular windows to the sides and a rectangular skylight.

 

Persuant to s1 (5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the angled lift extension to the west of the School buildings and the triangular, single-storey kitchen block to the north of the Oratory Priests' House are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

 

The congregation of the Oratory was founded in Rome in around 1552 by Philip Neri. His system of devotion was dependant on private and public prayer and contemplation, mixed with practical acts of charity. He attracted a group of disciples and their meetings, which included music and sermons, were moved to an ‘oratory’ or place of prayer. His group continued to grow and was granted the Church of S Maria in Valicella, which it rebuilt as the ‘Chiesa Nuova’, in which St Philip Neri is buried. The order spread widely in the C17 and C18, but contracted following the French Revolution and during the Italian Risorgimento. It was revived, especially in England, by John Newman, who had been an Anglican clergyman, but converted to Catholicism in 1845 and was then ordained priest in Rome in 1847. He founded the first Oratorian congregation in Birmingham in 1848, followed the following year by a second house in London. The first Birmingham community was based at Maryvale and then moved to a former gin distillery in Digbeth, where the community worked with the poor. Pope Pius IX had charged Newman with converting the educated classes, as well as the poor, and for this reason he moved the community to Edgbaston in 1852. The present House was built in that year, together with a temporary church. In 1859 he founded the Oratory School, a boarding school which was intended to be run on different lines to the Benedictine abbey schools which had previously dominated Catholic education in England. The school hall, which fronts Hagley Road, was designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 with a cloister range behind of 1872-3. All three buildings exist on the same site and physically overlap. Newman continued to live in the Oratory House as one of the community, even after his appointment as Cardinal in 1879, up until his death in 1890. In September 2010 Newman was beatified.

The church that John Newman had built in 1853 was designed by Terence Flanagan, who had also built the Oratory Priests' House. Despite ambitious designs by Louis Joseph Duc, also of 1853, and H R Yeoville Thomason, of 1860 (both in a Lombard Romanesque style), the initial construction was architecturally modest, and the roof timbers were salvaged from an abandoned factory. To this John Hungerford Pollen added an aisle with a round-arched arcade and an apse and transepts in 1858, but the essential form of the Flanagan church survived until after Newman’s death. In the following years it was decided to build a new church as a fitting tribute to the Cardinal and his work. The foundation stone of the new church, designed by E Doran Webb, was laid in 1903 and it was officially opened six years later. At its southern (ritual west) end it incorporates cloister bays of the former Oratory School, designed by Henry Clutton, of 1872-3, as well as the chapel of St Philip Neri (now dedicated to Cardinal Newman) designed by Pollen and built in 1858. The Shrine of St Philip Neri was designed by G B Cox and added to the north-west corner of the church (ritual north-east) in 1927.

Following the removal of the Oratory School to a site in Berkshire the school at Edgbaston was renamed St Philip's Grammar School. This has closed on the present site and the C19 buildings are now used as parish rooms.

Cardinal John Newman was beatified in September 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Birmingham.

 

Reasons for Listing

 

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Birmingham Oratory), The Oratory Priests' House and The Oratory School Buildings are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural quality and fittings: the group of three, inter-related Oratory buildings – church, school and priests’ house – have considerable design quality and form a unified whole; the design and craftsmanship of the fittings of the church are of very high quality;

* Survival of the original plan: the church, priests’ house and school are all very largely as they were originally completed and although the function of the school buildings has changed, its appearance is little altered;

* Interrelated grouping: the three parts of the group show the religious mission of the Congregation of the Oratory as interpreted by John Newman with a central church, its attendant priesthood and school.

I just replaced a CRT TV in the bedroom with a more discreet flat-panel, resulting in less power consumption and noise/hum. Having a TV in the bedroom was already a contentious topic with my wife- but she sees the benefits of what a Media Center can do.

 

We actually rarely use this system for TV other than in the morning when we're watching the news. More regularly I use it for listening to music, and more recently, Podcasts in the morning.

 

Some mornings when our son wakes up cranky, I put on a photo slideshow or home movie for him here to watch while he's drinking his morning bottle. He really seems to like it.

 

And yes, this picture made me realize we need to hang more pictures on the walls ;)

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with better version 10-Jun-21 (using Topaz DeNoiseAI).

 

Fleet No: "16103"

 

This aircraft was delivered to AWAS Ansett World Aviation Services as D-ABUX in Jul-91, it was sold to Condor Flugdienst on delivery. In Nov-93 Condor sold it to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and it was re-registered N691LF in Jan-94. It was leased to TWA Trans World Airlines in Feb-94. TWA was merged into American Airlines in Dec-01. The aircraft continued in service until it was withdrawn and stored at Greensboro, NC, USA in Nov-02 and returned to the lessor in Mar-03. It remained stored until it was leased to Lauda Air Italy SpA as I-LLAG in Sep-03. It was returned to ILFC in Dec-04 and immediately leased to Blue Panorama Airlines (Italy). It was transferred to Blue Panorama's 'low-cost' subsidiary 'blue-express,com'. ILFC transferred the aircraft to an Irish subsidiary in Apr-11 and it was re-registered EI-DJL. The lease to 'blue-express,com' continued until the aircraft was returned to the lessor in Jan-14 and stored at Goodyear, AZ, USA. It was sold to the Bank of Utah (trustee for ILFC) as N701LF in Mar-14. By now it was 23 years old and was sold to Universal Asset Management Inc in Aug-94. The aircraft was ferried to Tupelo, MS, USA a few days later and permanently retired. It was broken up at Tupelo in 2015.

The construction of a new fire station to replace Gipton and Stanks fire stations and removal of 24 fulltime posts from the establishment by way of planned retirements.

Key Points:

 Gipton is classed as a very high risk area and Stanks as medium risk area.

 Stanks fire station is poorly located at the outer edge of the local community and access/egress from the site is problematic.

 In the 5 year period between 2004/5 and 2009/10 operational demand in these areas reduced by 28% (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) . 2

 WYFRS has piloted a new type of vehicle (Fire Response Unit) to deal with smaller fires and incidents to free up fire appliances to respond to more serious emergencies.

 The pilot has been successful and it is believed that a District based Fire Response Unit will handle in the region of 3,000 calls per year.

 The new fire station would have lower running costs.

 The two Killingbeck fire appliances would be supplemented by a Resilience Pump for use during spate conditions.

 Targeted community safety and risk reduction work would continue.

  

1. Foreword

 

1.1 This proposal forms one of a number of similar initiatives developed by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) as part of its plans for the future provision of a highly effective and professional Fire and Rescue Service.

1.2 Each proposal is based on sound and comprehensive research, using real data from past performance and predictions of future demand and risk. Multiple sources of analysis have been used, allied to professional judgment and experience, to form the basis of robust business cases for change. The proposals are also reflective of the significant improvements in fire and community safety achieved over the past 10 years and represents a return on the investment made by the Authority on behalf of the public of West Yorkshire.

1.3 The proposals also incorporate a number of new and innovative approaches to addressing the challenge of maintaining high standards of performance for an emergency response service, within ever tightening financial constraints. The proposals have been developed as a package of inter related initiatives, representing major capital investment in local communities, whilst at the same time delivering annual recurring savings.

 

2. Introduction

 

2.1. Gipton fire station was constructed in 1937; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the residential and commercial areas of Gipton, Harehills, Burmantofts, Killingbeck, Halton Moor and Oakwood.

 The fire station area covers approximately 8.45 square miles.

 There is a population of 75,316.

 There are approximately 2015 commercial properties within the area.

2.2. Stanks fire station was constructed 1973; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the mainly residential locations of Whinmoor, Swarcliffe, Whitkirk, Colton, Halton, Crossgates, Scarcroft, North Seacroft, Wellington Hill, Manston, Barwick-in-Elmet, Scholes and Thorner.

 The station area covers approximately 14.39 square miles

 There is a population of 42,452

 There are approximately 663 commercial properties within the area.

2.3. Gipton has been classified as a very high risk area using the WYFRS Risk Matrix methodology. During 2009/10 there were 2196 operational incidents within this area including 86 dwelling fires and 33 Road Traffic Collisions. Stanks fire station area has been classified as medium risk and during the same period there were 688 operational incidents in the area including 34 dwelling fires and 12 Road Traffic Collisions. 1

2.4. Three fire appliances currently provide the initial fire and rescue coverage for Gipton and Stanks and are constantly crewed by 60 whole-time firefighters. The operational demand in these areas has reduced by 28% between 2004/5 and 2009/10 (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) yet the provision of operational resources has remained the same over this period of time. 24

 

3. Community Impact Assessment

 

3.1. The following statement is taken from the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy and emphasises our commitment to deliver an efficient economic and effective range of services, “Every area within WYFRS will be considered in order to provide a better service at reduced cost”.

3.2. To enable WYFRS to deliver against this commitment a wide range of analysis and modelling tools have been used to determine the current and predicted levels of service delivery, together with their associated costs. These tools have also been used to undertake four separate impact assessments in regard to WYFRS proposals which will seek to:

 Identify options which minimise reductions in service delivery standards and where there is scope for service delivery improvement.

 Develop measures that will mitigate any negative impact upon service delivery and where possible maximise opportunities to achieve improvements.

3.3. WYFRS has developed a risk matrix which allocates a separate score/rating for hazards within communities. It is possible to use this risk rating in conjunction with the costs for providing services to each fire station to compare the cost of fire and rescue cover for each area. Gipton is one of the more cost effective stations in West Yorkshire but Stanks is almost 50% more expensive proportionate to the risk. 6

3.4. For most parts of the day the operational demand on resources based at the new station will be comparable to those of equally resourced fire stations. Figure 1 compares the predicted average operational activity levels for the new station with those of two other fire stations provided with two appliances. It indicates that although operational activity levels are generally comparable they are slightly higher during the evening hours due to the occurrence of smaller nuisance fires. 7

3.5. A Fire Response Unit has been piloted in Leeds District; this unit will attend small fires, car fires and certain fire alarms. These types of incident occur frequently in the East Leeds area. Figure 2 shows the level of activity in the new fire station area with the incidents the Fire response Unit attends taken out of the activity levels. The benefit of the Fire Response Unit can clearly be seen. The activity levels for the new station have been reduced considerably compared to other stations; it also shows that the new station will be less operationally active during the evening than the other local stations.

3.6. The new station in East Leeds will have a comparable level of activity to other fire stations provided with two appliances. 7

Figure 2 - Activity Timeline of Incidents Excluding Secondary Fires and Some False Alarms

Site Locations

3.7. An extensive review of emergency response cover has recently been completed and this has included the use of evaluation tools alongside local knowledge and professional judgment to identify optimum locations to build new WYFRS fire stations.

3.8. A site search mapping system has identified a number of appropriate areas across the County to build new fire stations and a number of sites have been identified within these areas which would provide the best solutions. A new fire station site must first be available for purchase and also provide access to road networks, it must not be located within flood plains and it must meet local planning permission requirements.

3.9. Analysis has been undertaken using the Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC – see also para 3.15) toolkit, together with the Phoenix/Active resource modelling toolkit.

3.10. The optimum area for a fire station between Gipton and Stanks has been identified as being situated on the A64 in the vicinity of Killingbeck police station. This proposed site is approximately 1.6 miles from Gipton Approach and 2.2 miles from Sherburn Road. The presence of a large site owned by West Yorkshire Police at this location may also present some potential to co-locate resources.

Determining where resources should be located

3.11. Independent research has assisted WYFRS to determine the potential impact that the implementation of each proposal would have on fire appliance attendance times to operational incidents. A simulation model has been used to identify the performance impact of moving resources to the new fire station. This modelling measures how the location of a new fire station would have performed if it had been in existence and responded to the actual incidents that did occurred in this area between 2007/8 and 2009/10. 4

3.12. Models have been run for locating a two fire appliances at Gipton and closing Stanks, and then run again for locating a two fire appliances at Stanks and closing Gipton, both these options provide a significantly lower level of response performance than would be achieved by locating

 

3.13. The proposals has a small reduction in performance in fire appliance attendance times against the Risk based Planning Assumptions for all incidents across the whole of West Yorkshire of approximately 0.3% for first appliance and 0.1% for the second appliance. 4

3.14. Local Impact – Figure 3 identifies that:

 There is a reduction in response performance against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions in the Gipton station area. The main reason for this is simultaneous activity. This change will be greatly mitigated by the Fire Response Unit. The predicted response times still represent good performance and are appropriate for the. Further impact will be achieved by targeted risk reduction activities.

Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) toolkit

3.15 The FSEC software toolkit has been developed by Central Government (Department for Communities and Local Government) for use by Fire and Rescue Authorities in determining appropriate fire and emergency cover. It enables the relationship between dwelling fire casualties and the social demographics of small areas in the county (super output areas) and the location of response resources (fire stations) to be determined. Four demographic benchmarks are used to demonstrate this relationship and to represent predicted risk associated with a range of appliance response times.

3.16 Analysis of the FSEC outputs (which is a cost benefit analysis in regard to property and life risk) predicts that the relocating the fire station to Killingbeck will:

 Reduce the risk to the community.

 Result in significant efficiencies. 9

3.17 The FSEC modelling suggests that the impact of the Killingbeck proposal would be less than other relocation options

3.18 The Phoenix/Active software tool is another analysis tool used to identify the impact of any changes of the Risk Based Planning Assumptions referred to above. It predicts that locally there is likely to be a small adverse impact on the performance against Risk Based Planning Assumptions. Across the Brigade the impact is negligible. 10

Predicted Risk Level

3.19. A new fire station located, within the Killingbeck area would attract the same risk classification as the Gipton fire station area therefore the new fire station would be classified as very high risk. Targeted risk reduction activity will help to reduce the risk, with the aim of reducing it sufficiently enough to re-categorise the area as high risk in the future. 1

3.20. Isochrones (travel distance) can be drawn around the proposed location of the new fire station (Section 8). These indicate the distance the appliance would be able to travel within the Risk Based Planning Assumption time of 7 minutes.

3.21. Section 8 also illustrates that for this area of West Yorkshire a single fire station in the new location provides fire appliance coverage which is more proportionate to risk than the current arrangements.

Risk Reduction

3.20 During 2010 a comprehensive and integrated framework for service delivery was developed, this is outlined in the Community Risk Management Strategy 2011-15. This was implemented in 2011 and is proving a very effective means for targeting resources and reducing risk and is an essential method for reducing any negative impact of change in fire cover. Fundamental to this approach is the introduction of District Risk Reduction Teams and Local Area Risk Reductions Teams.

3.21 The location of a fire station in the Killingbeck area will enable targeted community safety activities such as Home Fire Safety Checks to continue.

 

4 Firefighter Safety Impact Assessment

 

Risk and firefighters gathering risk information about premises.

4.1 One of WYFRS’s risk indicators is dedicated solely to “Firefighter safety” and has taken cognisance of the following statement within the 2009 WYFRS Firefighter Safety Strategy; “Effective gathering and analysis of information prior to operational incident attendance is of critical importance”.

4.2 The firefighter safety indicator captures the following information to reflect this statement:

 The predominance of specified commercial properties within each fire station area.

 The availability of associated risk information held for commercial properties.

 The predominance of high-rise properties within each fire station area.

4.3 The swift arrival of supporting resources can have a beneficial impact upon the safe management of operational incidents and this is the rationale for this information being captured by the indicator.

4.4 Following the 2009/10 evaluation process the firefighter safety risk bandings for Gipton and Stanks have been determined as high and very low respectively. 1

8

4.5 The targets for operational risk information for the 2012/13 IRMP Action Plan will be set in a proportionate manner, with areas of higher risk levels receiving a greater number of operational risk information inspections. More inspections will take place in areas such as Gipton to increase the availability of risk information available to firefighters via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) and as more information is made available the corresponding risk level will be reduced.

4.6 The Premises Data-base currently indicates that there are a total of 1650 commercial properties within the Gipton and Stanks area that have not been made subject to an operational information inspection. A high priority has been placed on firefighters in Gipton visiting the premises where incidents could potentially occur. 11

4.7 It is therefore anticipated that the availability of risk information via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) for properties within all areas will be considerably improved by 2015, by which time the corresponding firefighter safety risk banding will have been reduced to Medium

The arrival times of the 2nd fire appliance

4.9. During 2009/10 there were a total of 333 operational incidents within the areas of Gipton and Stanks which required the attendance of more than one pumping appliance (one every 1.1 days). 12

4.10. Currently the North and East Leeds area has two fire appliances based at Gipton, Moortown and Leeds with one at Rothwell, Garforth, Stanks and Wetherby.

4.11. Increased second pump arrival times require the first attending crew to manage the initial stages of certain incidents in isolation; there is some potential for fires to become more developed in these initial stages.

4.12. The proposal improves the second appliance attendance times into Garforth station areas and there is little impact for the others local station areas.

 

5. Equality Impact Assessment

 

5.1 The new Public Sector Equality Duty places a requirement on the organisation to ensure where changes affect service delivery to the community or employees WYFRS assess those changes for any possible negative impact on equality. In this context equality refers to the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010, race, gender, disability, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age, gender-reassignment, maternity and pregnancy and marriage and civil partnerships.

5.2 This Equality Impact Assessment has been completed by using information drawn from the Office for National Statistics in regard to this area and has been used to determine whether the removal of a fire appliance from the area will lead to an adverse or disproportionate impact upon any sections of the population. 13

5.3 A 2008 report provided by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department analysed the correlation between dwelling fires and socio demographics. This report has been used to provide an indication of whether any particular groups within the population are at heightened risk from fire. The report indicates that sick/disabled persons, lone pensioners and Black Caribbean/African groups were associated with a greater incidence of dwelling fires.

5.4 The Gipton and Harehills population was estimated as being 24,904 during 2001 with a fairly equal gender distribution. The predominant ethnic group within the population is White British with Asian/Asian British representing the next major group, followed by Pakistani, Black British/Caribbean and Asian/British Bangladeshi.

9

5.5 Approximately 49% of the resident Gipton and Harehills population are Christians, 23% are of Muslim faith and 25% declared no religious preference. In 2001 16% of the population was aged over 60 and 20% of the population had a limiting long-term illness.

5.6 The WYFRS Prevention strategy contained within the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy emphasises that risk reduction activities will be focussed toward areas of the county identified as being at higher risk from dwelling fires, deliberate fire setting and road traffic collisions and that an appropriate and proportionate allocation of resources will be made available for District Risk Reduction Teams (DRRT) to achieve this.

5.7 Although the Ward statistics indicate that the communities of Gipton and Harehills are very diverse the findings of the Equality Impact Assessment are that this proposal will not lead to any negative changes in the delivery of Prevention, Protection and Response services and consequently there will be no anticipated impact upon any under-represented groups. The Equality Impact Assessment also confirms that there is no negative impact on any employee group.

 

6. Organisational Impact Assessment

 

Efficiencies

 

6.1 This proposal will enable WYFRS to manage some of the financial deficit caused by reduced government funding.

6.2. The proposal has considered the less than optimal positioning of existing fire stations and appliances together with the reduced operational demand placed and associated costs. The most cost effective solution to these issues is to provide a new fire station and ensure that two fire appliances will be crewed by nine firefighters who will respond to emergencies in less than two minutes from being mobilised.

6.3. This can be achieved by reducing the staffing at Gipton and Stanks by 24 posts; this will be done by way of planned retirements. The staffing and duty system at the new fire station will remain the same.

6.4. The removal of posts that coincide with forecasted retirements will achieve significant revenue savings.

6.5. Although capital investment will be required to construct a new fire station, part of these costs will potentially be off-set by the sale of the two existing fire station sites.

6.6. There will be other associated savings delivered by this proposal, including:

 Reduction of Personal Protective Equipment.

 Reduction in consumables and station maintenance costs.

 The new station will be more environmentally friendly and have energy efficiency technology.

6.7. The analysis undertaken for Gipton and Stanks has identified that there is considerable overlap in the existing Risk Based Planning Assumption isochrones (footprints) for these areas. This overlap represents a duplication of resource coverage and therefore one of the objectives for providing a more efficient service within these areas is to reduce this overlap. 14

10

Impact across West Yorkshire and Resilience

6.8 The reduction in pumping appliances in this area does have a small impact upon attendance times against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions across West Yorkshire for all incidents; performance is reduced by 0.3% for first appliances and 0.1% for second appliances. 4

6.9 In order to maintain WYFRS’s operational resilience, the fire appliance currently sited at Stanks will be relocated at the new fire station. This fire appliance will not be continually staff but will be activated during periods of anticipated or unanticipated high levels of operational activity and in response to significant events which could affect emergency response; such as wide area flooding, bonfire night, periods of bad weather or when attending very large incidents.

6.10 The use of Resilience Pumps supports WYFRS strategy of staffing the appropriate number of fire appliances for normal levels of activity and having the mechanisms to add further fire appliance when required. This strategy is important in maintaining an excellent fire and rescue service whilst meeting the efficiencies required by the reduction in public service budgets.

 

7. Conclusions

 

7.1 The existing fire stations at Gipton and Stanks are 3.7 miles apart and consolidating resources at a new fire station at a central location is an economic, effective and efficient way of providing fire and rescue services for these areas.

7.2 The provision of two front-line fire appliances constantly crewed by whole-time firefighters is still deemed appropriate for this area despite the success of previous year’s risk reduction activities.

7.3 Targeted risk reduction initiatives co-ordinated by the Leeds Outer North East, Inner North East and Outer East Local Area Risk Reduction Teams will be undertaken.

7.4 It is expected that the targets established for gathering safety critical risk information, will mitigate the impact upon the safety of WYFRS firefighters resulting from the removal of a pumping appliance from this area.

7.5 The introduction of a Resilience Pump will maintain three appliances in the area and support WYFRSs resilience arrangements

7.6 The consolidation of Gipton and Stanks resources at one central location together with the addition of a Resilience Pump will deliver significant efficiency savings whilst maintaining a high level of service delivery and providing employees with vastly improved accommodation facilities.

 

Replaced with a different edit.

Model is Becca.

This was a British Men's Club. This building was replaced with a larger building in 1909. The newest building was the location of the first KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in China (1990-1996). See Wikipedia "Shanghai Club Building".

 

This is a collection of 70 postcards collected by John W. Millaway, 1st Sargent , United States Marine Corps, in preparation of the world circumnavigation by the Great White Fleet 1907-1909. He visited many of the ports that the Fleet would visit about a year before the Fleet. He collected these postcards for his girlfriend "Miss Miriam Purnell" and wrote her name on each card. Only one of the post cards was actually mailed. He also signed and dated each card. This is about one third of the postcards he collected.

 

The Soviet Union learned as much from the Vietnam War as the United States. One of the lessons learned was that the MiG-21, while a fair dogfighter and more agile than its usual opponent, the F-4 Phantom II, only had that advantage at close range. At long range, the F-4 had all of the advantages, with a superb radar, long-range missiles, and plenty of fuel. A new design was needed to replace the MiG-21 and give Eastern Bloc pilots true beyond visual range (BVR) capability. Another lesson learned, this time from the Six-Day War, was that long runways were terribly vulnerable to being destroyed: Israeli Mirages had knocked out most of their opponents’ airbases on the first day. As the MiG-21 also needed a long runway, this was a problem that needed to be addressed as well.

 

Mikoyan-Gurevich began work on two prototypes in 1965. One was a redesigned MiG-21, Project 23-01, that used vertical-takeoff lift jets; this was unsatisfactory, however, as the lift jets were useless once airborne and became just more weight. Project 23-11 was more promising: this was an entirely new design that used variable-sweep “swing” wings for better low-speed handling and shorter takeoff and landing performance. With the knowledge that the Americans were also working on a swing-wing fighter (the F-111), the Soviet Air Force (V-VS) chose the latter design as the MiG-23 in 1967, and the first MiG-23S flew in 1969. It was given the reporting name Flogger by NATO soon thereafter.

 

The MiG-23S, which retained the MiG-21’s more primitive S-21 “Jay Bird” radar, was only an interim version until the baseline MiG-23M could enter production; equipped with the S-23 “High Lark” radar, this finally gave the V-VS a fighter with reliable long-range missile capability and look-down, shoot-down radar. The MiG-23MS, retaining the Jay Bird radar, was exported to Soviet client states, but was despised as it was no improvement over the MiG-21 and less maneuverable. The resulting backlash led the Soviets to begin exporting only slightly downgraded MiG-23MFs to its allies.

 

The MiG-23 supplemented (though never quite replaced) the MiG-21 in the air superiority role, and was considered roughly analogous to the F-4 in capability and performance. It was soon in combat, though not with Soviet forces: the first Flogger to see action was a Syrian MiG-23MS, which allegedly shot down two Israeli F-4s in combat in 1974. The type was decimated in combat with Israeli F-15s and F-16s over the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon in 1982, where something like sixty MiG-23s were lost; experiences in other battles were just as bad. In Angola in the late 1980s, Cuban-flown MiG-23s were barely able to achieve parity with South African Mirage F.1s; clashes over the border of Afghanistan with Pakistani F-16s proved even Soviet pilots had trouble with the design. Iraqi MiG-23s suffered against Iranian F-4s and F-14s, and Libyan MiG-23s had the dubious distinction of being shot down by Egyptian MiG-21s armed with American Sidewinders, and later US Navy F-14s. This led many Western observers to conclude that the MiG-23 was a poor design and no dogfighter.

 

This reputation was to change somewhat in the mid-1980s. Egypt had secretly supplied a few early MiG-23s to the United States in the late 1970s, while a Syrian pilot defected to Israel with a brand-new MiG-23MF in 1983. In flight tests, the Flogger was found to actually have better acceleration in the vertical and horizontal than the F-4 and F-16, and could outperform the F-16 in the vertical. Like most Russian designs, it was rugged and relatively easy to maintain. Those who flew the MiG-23 in the West concluded that the Flogger mainly suffered from flawed tactics and poor training of its pilots. Across the Iron Curtain, V-VS pilots agreed with the assessment. The result was the MiG-23ML, which removed one fuel tank and streamlined the design to lessen weight, and the final Flogger fighter variant, the MiG-23MLD, which introduced a dogtoothed leading edge to improve maneuverability. While these aircraft were still inferior to the F-15 and later model F-16Cs, they were far better dogfighters, and also were equipped with better radars and missiles.

 

Probably luckily for both sides of the Cold War, MiG-23MLD pilots would never learn how their improved “Super Floggers” would do against Western opponents. The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the production of the MiG-29 and Su-27 spelled an early end to the Flogger’s career. While MiG-23s continued to serve in former Soviet client states’ air forces, the new Russian Air Force rapidly retired their aircraft beginning in 1993. Other former Warsaw Pact nations followed suit, as the MiG-23 was more expensive to operate than the venerable MiG-21 or the more advanced MiG-29. By 1998, the MiG-23 fighter variants had become rare, with only Angola, North Korea, and Syria using them in numbers. 5047 MiG-23s were built, and many can be seen in museums, even in the West—there are eleven flyable MiG-23s in the United States alone.

 

This is a MiG-23MLD variant, recognizable by its lack of the early extended tail fillet and dogtoothed leading edge. It is configured for a fighter mission, with two radar-guided R-23 (AA-7 Apex) missiles under the wing “glove” and two R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) short-range missiles under the fuselage, along with two external fuel tanks. The two shades of green and dark brown over medium gray fuselage was commonly used by MiG-23 units worldwide, and was similar to the American Southeast Asia scheme.

 

Cherry Blossom. Washington, DC. USA. Mar/2016

 

A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is called sakura after the Japanese (桜 or 櫻; さくら).

Cherry blossom is speculated to be native to the Himalayas.[4] Currently it is widely distributed, especially in the temperate zone of theNorthern Hemisphere including Europe, West Siberia, India, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, and the United States. The cherry blossom is considered the national flower of Japan.

Japan gave 3,020 cherry blossom trees as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the nations' then-growing friendship, replacing an earlier gift of 2000 trees which had to be destroyed due to disease in 1910. These trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and line the shore of the Tidal Basin and the roadway in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The first two original trees were planted by first ladyHelen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the bank of the Tidal Basin. The gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965.In Washington, D.C. the cherry blossom trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival) when they reach full bloom in early spring

 

Todos os anos o Festival Nacional das Cerejeiras celebra a floração das cerejeiras dadas à cidade de Washington, em 1912, pelo prefeito de Tóquio. O presente foi uma homenagem do prefeito à longa história de amizade entre Estados Unidos e Japão. As cerejeiras floridas marcam a chegada da primavera na cidade e proporcionam uma das vistas mais apreciadas da região. Um dos lugares mais bonitos para observação é ao redor do Tidal Basin, espelho d’água no centro de Washington próximo ao Washington Monument, ao Lincoln Memorial, ao Jefferson Memorial e ao Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. O pico da florada é definido como o dia em que 70% das flores do Tidal Basin estão abertas

 

Houve a coordenação de muitas pessoas para assegurar a chegada das cerejeiras. Um primeiro lote de 2.000 árvores chegou doente em 1910, mas isso não impediu as partes envolvidas de envidarem todos os esforços para a concretização do intento. Entre os governos dos dois países, com as coordenações do Dr. Jokichi Takamine, um químico famoso mundialmente e fundador da Sankyo Co., Ltd. (hoje conhecida como Daiichi Sankyo), Dr. David Fairchild, do Departamento de Agricultura dos Estados Unidos, de Eliza Scidmore, primeiro membro da diretoria feminina da National Geographic Society e da primeira-dama Helen Herron Taft, mais de 3.000 árvores chegaram a Washington, D.C. em 1912. Em uma cerimônia simples, em 27 de março de 1912, a primeira-dama Helen Herron Taft e a Viscondessa Chinda, esposa do embaixador do Japão, plantaram as duas primeiras árvores do Japão na margem norte do Tidal Basin em West Potomac Park. Ao longo dos anos, os presentes foram trocados entre os dois países. Em 1915, o Governo dos Estados Unidos retribuiu com um presente de árvores chamadas “dogwood” (que também tem belas florações) para o povo do Japão. (tradução:nationalcherryblossom)

  

Cherry Blossom. Washington, DC. USA. Mar/2016

 

A cherry blossom is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry, Prunus serrulata, which is called sakura after the Japanese (桜 or 櫻; さくら).

Cherry blossom is speculated to be native to the Himalayas.[4] Currently it is widely distributed, especially in the temperate zone of theNorthern Hemisphere including Europe, West Siberia, India, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, and the United States. The cherry blossom is considered the national flower of Japan.

Japan gave 3,020 cherry blossom trees as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the nations' then-growing friendship, replacing an earlier gift of 2000 trees which had to be destroyed due to disease in 1910. These trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and line the shore of the Tidal Basin and the roadway in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The first two original trees were planted by first ladyHelen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the bank of the Tidal Basin. The gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965.In Washington, D.C. the cherry blossom trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival) when they reach full bloom in early spring

 

Todos os anos o Festival Nacional das Cerejeiras celebra a floração das cerejeiras dadas à cidade de Washington, em 1912, pelo prefeito de Tóquio. O presente foi uma homenagem do prefeito à longa história de amizade entre Estados Unidos e Japão. As cerejeiras floridas marcam a chegada da primavera na cidade e proporcionam uma das vistas mais apreciadas da região. Um dos lugares mais bonitos para observação é ao redor do Tidal Basin, espelho d’água no centro de Washington próximo ao Washington Monument, ao Lincoln Memorial, ao Jefferson Memorial e ao Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. O pico da florada é definido como o dia em que 70% das flores do Tidal Basin estão abertas

 

Houve a coordenação de muitas pessoas para assegurar a chegada das cerejeiras. Um primeiro lote de 2.000 árvores chegou doente em 1910, mas isso não impediu as partes envolvidas de envidarem todos os esforços para a concretização do intento. Entre os governos dos dois países, com as coordenações do Dr. Jokichi Takamine, um químico famoso mundialmente e fundador da Sankyo Co., Ltd. (hoje conhecida como Daiichi Sankyo), Dr. David Fairchild, do Departamento de Agricultura dos Estados Unidos, de Eliza Scidmore, primeiro membro da diretoria feminina da National Geographic Society e da primeira-dama Helen Herron Taft, mais de 3.000 árvores chegaram a Washington, D.C. em 1912. Em uma cerimônia simples, em 27 de março de 1912, a primeira-dama Helen Herron Taft e a Viscondessa Chinda, esposa do embaixador do Japão, plantaram as duas primeiras árvores do Japão na margem norte do Tidal Basin em West Potomac Park. Ao longo dos anos, os presentes foram trocados entre os dois países. Em 1915, o Governo dos Estados Unidos retribuiu com um presente de árvores chamadas “dogwood” (que também tem belas florações) para o povo do Japão. (tradução:nationalcherryblossom)

The County of Santa Clara Animal Care and Control Department needed to replace their makeshift former residence with several additions and portables into an adequate home for the area’s needy animals.

 

Dreyfuss + Blackford Architecture — working with animal care designer, The Bacon Group — created the County’s new Animal Services Center campus with state-of-the-art animal care functions in a park-like setting, providing innovative and sustainable building systems and amenities in the 24/7 facility.

 

The new Animal Services Center has capacity for 54 dogs and 90 cats, with spaces for other types of animals including rabbits, horses, and goats. To house and showcase larger animals, a barn is sited along the main building frontage, increasing visibility.

 

Taking a distinct departure from traditional shelter design, dog kennels are organized around an outdoor landscaped courtyard named “The Park”. Together with surrounding “Get Acquainted” pods, the experience offers a bright and open area to meet and greet potential pets in a natural park-like environment.

 

In addition to animal adoption, a primary objective of the Animal Services Center is to educate the public about the benefits of spaying and neutering. The County is taking a proactive approach to overpopulation by educating the public on reducing the number of animals ending up at the Animal Services Center through the use of the public surgery suite, located inside the facility’s clinic.

Another key solution the Animal Services Center provides is its large Educational Meeting facility. Not only will animal-specific community events be held there, but other County agencies will also be able to utilize the assembly space for conferences and gatherings up to 150 occupants—a resource they previously lacked.

 

The County of Santa Clara Animal Services Center is designed to achieve LEED Silver certification.

 

Photo by Tim Griffith.

Some background:

The MBR-04 series were the first combat-ready Destroids and the most successful land-combat weapon Destroids that were built with OverTechnology of Macross. The abbreviation MBR (Main Battle Robot) indicates the model was developed as a walking humanoid weapon emphasizing the heavy armor firepower of an artillery combat vehicle, designed to replace mainline battle tanks. The Type 04 series was developed jointly by Viggers and Chrauler. Unlike the variable fighters, which had to be designed to accommodate transformation mechanisms, the MBR series featured a structure with a large capacity that allowed plenty of room for machinery and armor.

 

The initial development line, the "Tomahawk" multipurpose battle robot and comparable in its intended role with former main battle tanks, had inferior anti-aircraft abilities, even though it boasted firepower like no other biped vehicle from the Destroid series. Originally, the Tomahawk was just called "MBR Mk. I", but once its systems and structural elements became the basis for other models, its designation changed into the "Type 04" Destroid. The main frame from the waist down, a module which consolidated the thermonuclear reactor and ambulatory OverTechnology system of the Destroids, was common to all of the Type 04 series of biped battle robots. Production line integration using this module was a key goal of Destroid development, and the quick development of further variants.

 

The ADR-04-Mk. X Defender Destroid was one of these family members, a walking weapon developed using OverTechnology for deployment by the United Nations Military. During development of the MBR-04-Mk I, a version of the Destroid ambulatory system with the anti-aircraft Contraves system (for use during the early stages of battle) was simultaneously being developed in a joint effort by Viggers-Chrauler under direction from the United Nations. This initial support Destroid, tentatively designated ADR-04-Mk. II, which still shared many components and even hull sections with the Tomahawk, did not progress beyond prototype stage - primarily because of a focus on the Tomahawk as UN's primary ground weapon. It nevertheless provided vital input for the ADR-04-Mk. X Defender, which became an important defensive asset to protect ground troops and vital locations, as well as for operations in space on board of the SDF-1.

 

Designed for the purpose of super-long-range firing in atmosphere and space, the Defender was rolled out in March 2009 and immediately put into action against the Zentraedi military. Unfortunately, the cost of the unit was high and posed significant difficulties for manufacturing, especially installing the high-definition targeting system, which lead to a bottleneck during mass production.

 

The ADR-04-Mk. X Defender's only weapons were two stub arms, each featuring a pair of large-caliber, specialized interception capability guns instead of manipulators, similar to the eventual mass-produced MBR-04-Mk. VI Tomahawk. The anti-aircraft engagement model (anti-tank class) wide-bore guns each fired 500 rounds per minute and all four barrels firing in combination were able to unleash continuous 2,000 rounds per minute, even though only short bursts of four rounds or just single shots were typically fired to save ammunition. The 78 mm rounds were aimed via an Erlikon Contraves fire control system and fired at an impressive muzzle velocity of 3,300 meters per second. A wide range of ammunition types could be fired, including HE, AP, APDS high speed, massive kinetic impact rounds, EMP grenades and rounds with chaff/flare/thermal mist charges. The internal belt magazines made it was possible to load up to three different types per twin gun and deliberately switch between them. The overall supply was, however, rather limited.

 

The rotating mechanism structure of the upper body allowed the unit to respond quickly to enemies approaching even from the rear, for a full 360° coverage of the whole hemisphere above the Destroid. Due to the independent arms, the Defender could even engage two targets separately and split its firepower among them. Additionally, the targeting system was capable of long-range firing in space and could perform extremely precise shooting at long distances in a vacuum/zero-G environment. Hence, the Defender Destroid was more a next generation anti-aircraft tank and in service frequently moonlighted as a movable defensive turret. However, despite featuring a common Destroid ambulatory system, the Defender's mobility was rather limited in direct comparison with a variable fighter Battroid, and it lacked any significant close-combat capability, so that it remained a dedicated support vehicle for other combat units.

 

180 ADR-04-Mk. X Defenders were ordered, built and operated by UN ground and space forces, about half of them were deployed on board of SDF-1. During the First Space War, around sixty more Defenders were converted from revamped MBR-04 series chassis, mostly from battle-damaged Tomahawks, but some later Phalanx' units were modified, too.

During its career the Defender was gradually upgraded with better sensors and radar systems, and its armament was augmented, too. A common upgrade were enlarged ammunition bays on the shoulders that could hold 50 more rounds per gun, even though this stressed the ambulatory system since the Defender's center of gravity was raised. Therefore, this modification was almost exclusively executed among stationary "gun turret" units. Another late upgrade was the addition of launch rails for AMM-1 anti-aircraft missiles on the gun pods and/or the torso. Again, this was almost exclusively implemented on stationary Defenders.

 

A short-range sub-variant, under the project handle "Cheyenne", was developed in 2010, too, but it was only produced in small number for evaluation purposes. It was based on the Defender's structure, but it carried a different armament, consisting of a pair of 37 mm six-barrel gatling guns plus AMM-1 missiles, and a more clutter-resistant radar system against fast and low-flying targets. The Cheyenne was intended as a complementary aerial defense unit, but the results from field tests were not convincing, so that the project was mothballed. However, in 2012 the concept was developed further into the ADR-04-Mk.XI "Manticore", which was fully tailored to the short-range defense role.

  

General characteristics:

Equipment Type: aerial defense robot, series 04

Government: U.N. Spacy

Manufacturer: Viggers/Chrauler

Introduction: March 2009

Accommodation: 1 pilot

 

Dimensions:

Height 11.37 meters (overall)

10.73 meters (w/o surveillance radar antenna)

Length 4.48 meters (hull only)

7.85 meters (guns forward)

Width 8.6 meters

Mass: 27.1 metric tons

 

Power Plant:

Kranss-Maffai MT828 thermonuclear reactor, output rated at 2800 shp;

plus an auxiliary GE EM10T fuel power generator, output rated at 510 kW

 

Propulsion:

2x thrust nozzles mounted in the lower back region, allowing the capability to perform jumps,

plus several vernier nozzles around the hull for Zero-G manoeuvers

 

Performance:

Max. walking speed: 72 kph when fully loaded

 

Design features:

- Detachable weapons bay (attaches to the main body via two main locks);

- Type 966 PFG Contraves radar and fire control set (a.k.a. Contraves II)

with respective heat exchanger on the upper back

- Rotating surveillance antenna for full 360° air space coverage

- Optical sensor unit equipped with four camera eyes, moving along a vertical slit,

protected by a polarized light shield;

- Capable of performing Zero-G manoeuvers via 16 x thrust nozzles (mounted around the hull);

- Reactor radiator with exhaust ports in the rear;

- Cockpit can be separated from the body in an emergency (only the cockpit block is recovered);

- Option pack featuring missiles or enlarged ammunition bays;

 

Armament:

2x Erlikon 78mm liquid-cooled high-speed 2-barrel automatic cannon with 200 rounds each,

mounted as arms

  

The kit and its assembly:

A kind of nostalgia trip, because my first ever mecha kit I bought and built in the Eighties was this 1:100 Destroid Defender! It still exists, even though only as a re-built model, and I thought that it was about time to build another, “better” one, to complete my collection of canonical Macross Destroids.

 

With this objective, the vintage kit was built basically OOB, just with some detail enhancements. The biggest structural change is a new hip joint arrangement, made from steel wire. It allows a more or less flexible 3D posture of the legs, for a more dynamic “walking” pose, and the resulting gaps were filled with paper tissue drenched in white glue and acrylic paint.

A more cosmetic change concerns the Defender’s optical sensor array on its “head”. OOB it just consists of a wide “slit” with a square window – very basic, but that’s how the defender is depicted in the TV series. However, I have a Macross artbook with original design sketches from Studio Nue, which reveal more details of this arrangement, and these include a kind of louvre that covers the mobile sensor array’s guide rails, and the sensor array itself consists of several smaller optical units – the relatively new 1:72 Defender from WAVE features these details, too, but the old 1:72 Defender from Arii (and later Bandai) also only has a red box, even though under a clear cover, which is IMHO dubious, though. The louvres were created from hemispherical styrene profile bits, the sensor array was scratched with a front wheel from an 1:100 VF-1 and more styrene bits.

 

The guns/arms were taken OOB, but I reduced the opening at the shoulder (and with it the angle the arms can be swiveled) with styrene profile material, which also hides the foo fit of the shoulder halves that hold the guns and a reinforcement styrene plate inside of them.

While I could have enlarged the ammunition boxes on the Defender’s shoulders (they are extended backwards), I left them in the original and OOB configuration. Another hull mod I eventually did not carry out were clear replacements for the molded searchlights. Having some visible depth and true clear covers would have been nice, but then I doubted the benefits vs. the mess their integration into the body would mean, so that I went for a simple paint solution (see below).

 

A final cosmetic modification tried to improve the look of the shanks – but it did not help much. On the Defender, there are two continuous ridges that run across the lower legs. This is a molding simplification and wrong because the Defender (and all other 04-Series chassis’) only features the ends of the ridges.

I tried to sand the inner sections away, but upon gluing the parts finally together I realized that the fit of these parts is abysmal, and PSRing on the resulting concave surface between the leftover humps was a nightmare. Did not work well, and it looks poor.

 

With this in mind, a general word about the Arii 1:100 Destroids with the Series 04 chassis: there are three kits (Defender, Tomahawk and Phalanx), and you’d expect that these used the same lower body just with different torsos. But that’s not the case – they are all different, and the Defender is certainly the worst version, with its odd “toe” construction, the continuous ridges and the horrible fit of the lower leg halves as well as the shoulders that hold the stub arms. The Tomahawk is better, but also challenging, and IMHO, when you are only looking for the lower body section, the Phalanx is the best kit or the trio.

  

Painting and markings:

This Defender was supposed to remain canonical and close to the OOB finish, so this became a simple affair.

All Macross Destroids tend to carry a uniform livery, and esp. the Tomahawk/Defender/Phalanx family is kept in murky/dull tones of green, brown and ochre: unpretentious "mud movers".

The Defender appears to carry an overall olive drab livery, and I settled on RAL 7008 (Khakigrau), which is - according to the RAL color list - supposed to be a shade of grey, but it comes out as a dull, yellowish green-brown.

This tone was applied overall from a rattle can, and the few contrast sections like the ammunition boxes or the dust guards of the knee joints were painted with NATO olive green (RAL 6014, Gelboliv, Revell 46). The hull was later treated with Modelmaster Olive Drab (FS 34087), which adds a more greenish hue to the basic paint.

 

The kit received a thorough black ink washing, then some dry-brushing with Humbrol 72 (Khaki Drill) was applied. The decals came next, taken from the OOB sheet, plus four decals for those vernier thrusters that had not been molded into the kit’s surface. The only change is a different piece of “nose art” on the left leg, replacing the original, rather small decal. It actually belongs to a Czech AF MiG-21MF (one of the two famous Fishbeds from Pardubice in 1989, aircraft “1114”) and filled the bumpy area over the lower leg’s seam (see above) well – a kind of visual distraction from the PSR mess underneath...

 

Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish, its major sub-assemblies put together. The optical sensors received lenses with clear paint over a silver base. The large searchlights were painted, too, with a silver base plus white and clear blue reflections on top, covered with a generous coat of Humbrol’s Clearfix to mimic a clear, glossy cover.

After final assembly, some mineral pigments were dusted onto the model’s lower areas with a soft, big brush.

  

I knew that the Defender was trouble, but esp. the legs turned out to be horrible to build. However, the small cosmetic changes really improve the model’s look, and I am quite happy with the result.

The internet and mobile technology has revolutionised the way we live, for both good and bad. At the touch of a button you can buy just about anything (!), though it has turned the younger generation into zombies – a generation that's never known any other way of communicating.

 

Information for people under 25 – this is the inside of a telephone kiosk, those odd glass boxes you occasionally see on roadsides (some are red, with lots of little windows in). Think of it as a Tardis, just in REAL life? Try texting (or sexting!) on one of these!! Also, you have to insert coins, real ones not bitcoins, and it's not paid for by mum and dad... no contract either!

 

Sadly, this is not the sort of WEB the 'phone box was designed for – this example in Upper Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, is a prime example of how we've fallen out of favour with the dated technology that the phone box has become. This one still works, though no one has used it in ages, by the looks. Another example in nearby Stowfield was just the same – working but overgrown and forgotten...

The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation received a Save America's Treasures grant, a Georgia Heritage Grant, and numerous donations from Friends of Andalusia to restore the Hill house at Andalusia. andalusiafarm.org/andalusia/restoration.htm

 

The plot on the corner of Christchurch Rd and Spurgeon Rd was occupied by by the Clarence Park Motor Works as early as 1911, with the site retaining an association with servicing the needs of the local motoring community, ending its days as a petrol station, until being replaced by a Tesco Express store in 2006.

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A [ very ] potted history of Pokesdown......

 

Prior to 1810 there was no town of Bournemouth. All that lay between Poole and Christchurch, themselves not the large towns they are today, was unspoilt heathland with the more fertile land of the Stour Valley to the north and east that had supported small farming communities such as Wick, Iford, Holdenhurst, Throop, Muccleshell and Ensbury for centuries.

 

Although these communities were centred on the individual villages, farms and smallholdings would have been scattered across the surrounding area, an example being Pokesdown Farm which, along with a few cottages for farm workers, stood on the very edge of the heath where it began to slope down on the sides of the Stour Valley overlooking Iford and Wick.

Most of the farms, smallholdings and associated cottages came and went without being recorded on maps although Pokesdown Farm is one of the few exceptions, its origins are a little lost in the mists of time, some claim to have traced it back to 1580 although it was certainly there in the 1660s.

 

In 1766 when Edmond Bott had a large home called Stourfield House built at Pokesdown [ see seperate images and set for further info ] which at the time would have been in the middle of nowhere and perhaps a very unlikely place to want to build a house.

Stourfield House would no doubt have been a catalyst for more development at Pokesdown if only in the form of cottages for those drawn there by the employment opportunities such a relatively large house and grounds would bring to an impoverished rural community. It is likely that the former Pokesdown Farm morphed into Stourfield Farm in connection with the house.

The last two remaining old thatched cottages, known as 'Lily of the Valley Cottages' and being at least 200 years old, were demolished in the latter 1960s when Appletree Close was created, and with their passing went the last ties with the area's rural past.

The building of Stourfield House predates the official birth of Bournemouth in 1810 by some 44 years and except for the modest Bourne Tregonwell estate that remained all but unknown to the outside world, the first notable development to take place, and what really sparked the development of the town of Bournemouth was Sir George Gervis' 'Marine Village of Bourne' in the mid to late 1830s.

As Bournemouth began to expand around the mouth of the Bourne Stream in today's town centre the community of Pokesdown also continued to grow.

Bournemouth expanded its boundaries to take in neighbouring areas such as the fledgling Boscombe in 1876 and Westbourne in 1884 but Pokesdown, that had a chapel built in 1835, followed by a church, a couple of pubs, two blacksmiths, two schools, laundries and, in 1886 , a railway station, and who's population had grown from 171 in 1861, 867 in 1871 to almost 4500 in 1893, became an urban district that allowed it to govern itself on a local level but ultimately Pokesdown became part of the fast expanding Bournemouth in 1901.

Originally Pokesdown covered a larger area than it does today, reaching to the coast and a lot further into Boscombe. Twenty first century Pokesdown is a densely built up area with busy main roads and side streets clogged with parked cars, a problem that blights the modern world.

Stood outside Pokesdown Station with our back to the entrance i suppose we'd class Pokesdown as covering Christchurch Rd to the right towards Boscombe up to the junction with Parkwood Rd, Christchurch Rd to the left going over the railway bridge and along to the brow of what is called Pokesdown Hill that actually runs through an area that prefers to call itself Boscombe East on its way to Iford, and Seabourne Rd opposite until it meets Southbourne Grove.

 

The area boasts an interesting variety of architecture but has seen some buildings replaced by blocks of flats and tenement houses which is understandable if older properties, though full of character, don't meet the needs of modern society. It's a problem that needs to be managed carefully and is by no means one unique to Bournemouth and is being experienced across the country.

 

At the time of writing some traders and residents are involved in promoting Pokesdown as Bournemouth's 'vintage quarter'. a destination for independent shops as well as those offering a wider range of goods and services, in a bid to raise the area's profile.

The green on the corner of Christchurch Rd and Seabourne Rd next to the Seabournes Pub and directly opposite the railway station is being transformed with borders of flowers and an information board that highlights the area's history, with the aid of a £22,000 Lottery grant..

 

FURTHER READING.

www.pokesdown.org/history/PokesdownPast/04_Village_Starts...

Click on the 'history' tag to read J A Young's 'Pokesdown's Past'.

 

Pokesdown and Neighbourhood 1895 - 1910. A memoir by E G Wills A Bournemouth Local Studies Publication.

           

Replacing the usual A350-900.

Clementine: Avrei voluto che fossi rimasto.

Joel: E io vorrei averlo fatto. Ora vorrei essere rimasto. Vorrei aver fatto molte cose. Vorrei... vorrei essere rimasto. Davvero.

Clementine: Tornai subito di sotto, ma non c'eri!

Joel: Ero uscito, me n'ero andato via.

Clementine: Perché?

Joel: Non lo so! Ero come un bambino spaventato e... era una cosa più grande di me. Non lo so...

Clementine: Avevi paura?!

Joel: Sì... pensavo che l'avessi capito.

The Palais Theatre, on the corner of the Lower Esplanade and Cavell Street in the seaside Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, was constructed in 1927 as the Palais Pictures, a picture theatre, to a design by prominent Sydney based theatre and cinema architect, Henry E. White. It was built on leased Crown land for the American entrepreneurs, Herman, Harold and Leon Phillips, who had previously established Luna Park in 1912 and the St Kilda Palais de Danse in 1913.

 

The Palais Pictures building replaced an earlier Palais Pictures designed by American architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876 – 1937) which was commenced in 1920 and destroyed by fire in 1926, just before its opening. It was designed to seat up to 3000 patrons and incorporated generous backstage facilities and a broad proscenium. Like its predecessor, the form of the new Palais Pictures conformed to that of the adjacent Palais de Danse, with the adoption of a curved, aircraft hangar-type structure.

 

The Palais Theatre is a free-standing, rendered, concrete encased steel frame building, with brick infill walls. The roof is a two level, shallow-curved corrugated iron roof, supported on steel trusses. Extensive use was made of steel framing, with the dress circle cantilevered from a steel frame, to minimise the number of columns required in the auditorium.

 

The design of the Palais Theatre is highly eclectic in style, and reflects a wide range of influences, some relating to the local St Kilda context, others to broad developments in architectural thinking of the day, and still others that are specific to cinema and theatre design. The highly visible side and rear facades of the free-standing building have minimal decoration, placing emphasis on the front facade. Conceived as a signboard, the central section of this main facade incorporates a large descriptive sign on a curved, rendered parapet. Domed towers flank the facade in a similar manner to the Luna Park entrance and the Palais de Danse facade.

 

Wanting to convey a sense of modernity, Henry White stated that he adopted no particular style in the design of the Palais Pictures building. He used Baroque, Modern Gothic and Neoclassical elements to heighten the perceived emotional effect of the cinema interior on an audience. Henry White’s interest in Modern Gothic design was combined with a striking Spanish-Baroque influence in the detailing, leaving the interior described at times as Spanish, French and Oriental. The Palais Theatre has a large, double-height entrance foyer with giant order columns, and two sweeping staircases to the dress circle foyer above. Walls are decorated with a disc-like surface pattern and columns have a scagliola finish. Two open wells in the upper foyer, a rectangular one over the lower foyer and an elliptical one over the back stalls, are an important aspect of the design.

 

The Palais Theatre is one of the few theatres with a foyer in the true sense of the word. The Paris Opera House was the first theatre to include fireplaces on its landings. The French word for fire is “feu”, and it was this that led for the landings to be subsequently known as foyers. The Palais Theatre has two Rococo style fireplaces located on the first level foyer. They have imitation plaster logs that were fired by gas to create an atmosphere of cosy warmth for patrons. The internal early or original decorative scheme of the Palais Theatre, designed mainly by Melbourne firm A. E. Higgins, is still substantially intact. The interior of the Palais Theatre is adorned by a variety of lighting, including candelabras, wall lamps and illuminated glazed panels. The lighting is either part of the A. E. Higgins decorative scheme or is part of a suite of light fittings manufactured especially for the Palais Theatre by Victoria's pre-eminent manufacturer of lighting and hardware, William Bedford Pty Ltd. Some of the William Bedford light fittings are now located off-site. A switchboard located in the dome originally controlled the lighting in the theatre. In addition to the light fittings, the building retains many other carefully resolved original or early design features including: illuminated glass directional signs to the ladies and gentlemen's cloakrooms; illuminated exit signs; tip-up theatre seating, associated foot warmers and attendant piping; arm chair style seating and carved timber benches; wall-mounted usher's seating; stage curtains and wall and door drapes; and moulded spotlight housings. The Palais Theatre also contains an array of original and early service equipment and some remnants of orchestra pit balustrading that contributes to an understanding of how the theatre originally operated. The carved benches located on the first floor foyer, made especially by a Melbourne furniture manufacturer, were created for the original Walter Burley Griffin building of 1920, which was far more Art Deco in style.

 

After World War II some alterations were made to the building to enable large live performances. The Palais Theatre subsequently became home to the Elizabethan Theatre Trust's ballet and opera seasons, and home to the Melbourne Film Festival from 1962 to 1981. In 1973 the outdoor promenade to the upper foyer was infilled across the front facade, significantly altering the building's external appearance. Affected by the opening of the Arts Centre theatres in the 1980s, the use of the Palais Theatre became sporadic, and it has been used largely as a live music venue since this time.

 

The Palais Theatre is of historical significance for its association with the development of St Kilda as an important seaside resort and as an integral part of the St Kilda foreshore entertainment complex. Its vast scale and solid construction reflect the confidence in the location and the medium of film, by the 1920s. The Palais Theatre is of historical significance for its continuous association with a major form of popular entertainment in the twentieth century. This includes its original association with American entrepreneurs, the Phillips brothers, and its continued operation through the 1960s-1980s when many other amusements in the vicinity were closed, demolished or burnt down.

 

One of the most impressive gothic sacred buildings in Prague, built between the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century. At the end of the 17th century the interior was rebuilt in Baroque style. The church is an extensive gallery for Gothic, early Baroque and Renaissance works. The most famous among them are the altarpieces of Karl Škréta and the tombstone of the astronomer Tycho Brahe. The present organ from 1673 is the oldest in Prague.

At this point stood already in the 11th century an older Romanesque church, a small one. It was a hospital church for foreign traders who came to the Ungelt. This one was replaced in the second half of the 13th century by an early-Gothic construction which was about two-thirds smaller than that of today's church. Inside preached to his death the critic of church morality Konrad Waldhauser and also Johann Militsch of Kremsier. In the first half of the 14th century, today's high-Gothic church was founded, which was given the function of the main church of the old town and the parish church. Concurrently with the construction of the new church, the old church was gradually abandoned. On the building had a considerable influence the builder's hut of Matthias of Arras and above all of Peter Parler. To Parler, in particular, remembers the amply decorated front window at a height of 28 m, the window tracery of the main nave, the presbytery and the magnificent north portal. At the beginning of the fifteenth century still the towers, the gables, and the truss were missing. In the Hussite period, the Tyn Church dominated a group of Huss supporters with Jakobus of Mies at the head, and since 1427, the chosen Hussite Archbishop, Johann von Rokitzan, has been serving here as priest, who has also found here his last resting place. After the end of the Hussite wars, the building was to be roofed, but the wood needed for the truss was used for the construction of the gallows for Johann Roháč of Dauba and his 50 mates, who after the conquest of the last bastion of the hussites by Sigismund have been executed on Old Town Square. The roof was then 20 years later built with wood provided for the construction of the solemn grandstands for the wedding of the Bohemian King Ladislaus Postumus with the French princess Magdalena. The wedding did not take place, because Ladislaus Postumus died. The church was completed under the reign of Georg von Podiebrad, who was elected king in the nearby Old Town Town Hall. In the times of his reign the gable of the main nave and the northern tower were built. On the pediment, at the request of Johann von Rokitzan, his statue "of the Hussit king" was placed, and beneath a gilded giant chalice, the symbol of the communion under both figures. The portrait of the king was then replaced in 1626 by the Madonna figure of Kaspar Bechteler, and of the chalice was made the Madonna's halo. The southern tower dates from 1511.

The towers are 80 meters high. The northern tower is called Eve, the southern tower (about 1 m higher) Adam. They were built at that time from an advanced scaffolding, its floor was laid on beams that were stuck in the openings which were at regular intervals inserted in the walls. It was thus possible to work both internally and externally. In 1679, the church burned down, the main nave was then lowered and Baroque-like vaulted.

The church is a three-nave basilica with towers at the western front and with three choirs at each nave on the east side. It has admirable dimensions: length 52 m, width 28 m, height of the nave 44 m and of the lateral naves 24 m.

The church is an extensive gallery of Gothic, Renaissance and early Baroque buildings. Of the sculptures, the Parler-Portal of the Teyn-Alley of 1390 is the most significant one, decorated with tympanum, on which can be found scenes from the suffering of Christ. The Tympanon original is now housed in the National Gallery. The gothic pewter basin from the year 1414 (the oldest in Prague) stands out from the interior, adorned with relief apostles, then the Gothic stone carving and finally two Gothic benches with consoles in the form of crowned heads. On the pillars between the main nave and the left aisle is the late-Gothic canopy of Matthias Rejsek from the year 1493 (originally on the tomb of Bishop Lucian of Mirandola, ordaining priests of Kalixtin).

The main altar with the paintings of Karel Škréta is an illustration of the early Baroque portal architecture from 1649. The famous Gothic sculpture of the Madonna with Christ Child, the so-called Madonna of Teyn dating from around 1420, stands at the neo-gothic altar on the wall in the right side aisle. The Calvary, the work of the master of the Tyn crucifixion from the beginning of the 15th century, is at the Baroque altar at the end of the left aisle. Fourteen large canvases of the Cross painted 1854 František Čermák. There are 19 altars in the church, in whose emergence and ornamentation Franz Maximilian Kaňka, Karel Škréta, Jan Georg Bendl, Joseph Adalbert Hellich, Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff, Johann Georg Heinsch and others took part. At the beginning of the year 2000 the restorers discovered in the church a rarely preserved Gothic fresco from the end of the 14th century which was hidden behind one of the altars in the north side nave. On it Saint Jerome is depicted with a lion and the client of the painting.

The local organ is the oldest in Prague. It was built by German master builder Hans Heinrich Mundt and his assistants in 1673. The organ was restored in the Rhineland town of Bonn and returned to the church in 2000.

The Tyn Church prides itself on possessing a large number of preserved tombstones. About 60 are known, some are unknown, others have been removed from here once when the new ground was laid. Among the best known is the tombstone of Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer at the imperial court of Rudolph II from 1601. The next grave belongs to Wenzel Berka of Dauba, the commander and councilor at the Bohemian chamber, passing away in 1575. It is one of the most succeeded renaissance portrait tombs with an unusual detail picture of a man in harness. Legend has it that in the church was also buried the heart of Georg von Podiebrad, while his body rests in the tomb of the Bohemian kings on the Prague Castle. Interesting is the tombstone of a boy - a renegade from the Jewish religion of Simon Abeles, who wanted to be baptized. His father but preferred to kill him, and then hanged himself. Because he actually died for faith, a pompous funeral was held, in which all people of Prague took part, and here he was subsequently buried. In 1631, the heads of the twelve of twenty-seven Bohemian lords decapitated at the Old Town Square in 1621 were taken down from the shameful cage on the Old Town Bridge Tower and buried in the Tyn Church. Since then, they were often searched in vain there. There are also many children's tombstones, including also a mother with six daughters and six sons. Many tombstones are damaged due to the entering, because standing on the tombstone once was not regarded as a dishonor to the deceased. On the contrary, it has been believed that it helps against toothache.

Since 1973, the total reconstruction of the Tyn Church has taken place. Since the German occupation, the bell tower in the north tower was yawning empty. The new 960 kg bronze bell from the workshop of Manoušek was put into operation only at Easter 1992. The bell is consecrated to the Pieta and Saint Anastasia of Bohemia. On the 19th February 2008, three new bells were installed: Johann von Nepomuk (more than 300 kg), Ludmilla (more than 500 kg) and Archangel Gabriel (2.5 tons), which have been created in the workshop of the Dietrich family - translated into Czech language, Dytrych) in Brodek near Prerau.

The Tyn Church is a national cultural monument.

 

Einer der eindrucksvollsten gotischen Sakralbauten in Prag, errichtet ab der Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts bis zum Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts. Am Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts wurde die Inneneinrichtung im Barockstil umgebaut. Die Kirche ist eine weitläufige Galerie für gotische, frühbarocke und Renaissance-Werke. Die bekanntesten unter ihnen sind die Altarbilder von Karl Škréta und der Grabstein des Astronomen Tycho Brahe. Die heutige Orgel aus dem Jahre 1673 ist die älteste in Prag.

An dieser Stelle stand bereits im 11. Jahrhundert eine ältere romanische Kleinkirche. Es war eine Spitalkirche für fremde Händler, die zum Ungelt kamen. Diese wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts durch einen frühgotischen im Vergleich zur heutigen Kirche etwa um zwei Drittel kleineren Bau ersetzt. Drin predigte bis zu seinem Tode der Kritiker der kirchlichen Sitten Konrad Waldhauser und auch Johann Militsch von Kremsier. In der Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts wurde die heutige hochgotische Kirche gegründet, die die Funktion der Hauptkirche der Altstadt und der Pfarrkirche erhielt. Gleichzeitig mit dem Bau der neuen Kirche ging schrittweise die alte Kirche unter. Auf den Bau hatte einen erheblichen Einfluss die Hofhütte von Matthias von Arras und vor allem von Peter Parler. An Parler erinnern insbesondere das reichlich geschmückte Frontfenster in einer Höhe von 28 m, die Fenstermaßwerke des Hauptschiffs, das Presbyterium und das großartige Nordportal. Anfang des 15. Jahrhunderts fehlten nur noch die Türme, der Giebel und der Dachstuhl. In den Hussitenzeiten beherrschte die Teynkirche eine Gruppe der Huss-Anhänger mit Jakobellus von Mies an der Spitze und seit 1427 diente hier als Pfarrer der gewählte Hussitenerzbischof Johann von Rokitzan, der hier auch beigesetzt ist. Nach dem Ende der Hussitenkriege sollte der Bau überdacht werden, aber das für den Dachstuhl erforderliche Holz wurde für den Bau der Galgen für Johann Roháč von Dauba und seine 50 Kumpel verbraucht, die nach der Eroberung der letzten Hussitenbastei, der Burg Sion, von Sigismund auf dem Altstädterring hingerichtet wurden. Der Dachstuhl wurde dann 20 Jahre später aus für den Bau der feierlichen Tribünen für die Hochzeit des böhmischen Königs Ladislaus Postumus mit der französischen Prinzessin Magdalena vorgesehenem Holz gefertigt. Die Hochzeit fand nicht statt, Ladislaus Postumus starb nämlich. Die Kirche wurde unter der Regierung von Georg von Podiebrad fertig gestellt, der im unweit liegenden Altstädter Rathaus zum König gewählt wurde. In den Zeiten seiner Macht wurden der Giebel des Hauptschiffs und der Nordturm gebaut. Auf den Giebel wurde auf Antrag von Johann von Rokitzan seine Statue “des Hussitenkönigs“ gestellt und darunter ein vergoldeter Riesenkelch, das Symbol der Kommunion unter beiden Gestalten. Das Portrait des Königs wurde dann im Jahre 1626 durch die Madonna-Gestalt von Kaspar Bechteler ersetzt und aus dem Kelch wurde Madonnas Heiligenschein gefertigt. Der Südturm stammt aus dem Jahr 1511.

Die Türme sind 80 Meter hoch. Der Nordturm heißt Eva, der Südturm (ca. um 1 m höher) Adam. Sie wurden zu damaligen Zeiten von einem vorgeschobenen Gerüst gebaut, sein Boden wurde auf in den Öffnungen hindurchgesteckte Balken gelegt, die in regelmäßigen Zeitabständen in Wänden belassen wurden. So war es möglich, zugleich von innen sowie von außen zu arbeiten. 1679 brannte die Kirche nieder, das Hauptschiff wurde dann herabgesetzt und barockartig gewölbt.

Die Kirche ist eine Dreischiffbasilika mit Türmen an der westlichen Stirnseite und mit drei Chören an jedem Schiff auf der Ostseite. Sie hat verehrungswürdige Maße: Länge 52 m, Breite 28 m, Höhe des Mittelschiffs 44 m und der Nebenschiffe 24 m.

Die Kirche ist eine ausgedehnte Galerie von Gotik-, Renaissance- und Frühbarockwerken. Von den Plastiken ist das Parler-Portal von der Teyn-Gasse ca. aus 1390, verziert mit Tympanon, am bedeutendsten, auf dem sich Szenen aus dem Leiden Christi befinden. Das Tympanonoriginal ist heute in der Nationalgalerie untergebracht. Von der Inneneinrichtung ragt das gotische Zinntaufbecken aus dem Jahr 1414 (das älteste in Prag) hervor, verziert mit Reliefapostelgestalten, die gotische Steinkanzel, zwei gotische Bänke mit Konsolen in der Form gekrönter Köpfe. Auf den Pfeilern zwischen dem Hauptschiff und dem linken Seitenschiff ist das spätgotische Baldachin von Matthias Rejsek aus dem Jahr 1493 (ursprünglich über dem Grab von Bischof Lucian von Mirandola, der Kalixtinerpriester weihte).

Der Hauptaltar mit den Bildern von Karel Škréta (Mariä Himmelfahrt und Allerheiligste Dreifältigkeit) ist eine Veranschaulichung der Frühbarockportalarchitektur aus dem Jahr 1649. Die bekannte gotische Skulptur der Madonna mit Christkind, der so genannten Madonna von Teyn aus der Zeit um 1420, steht am neugotischen Altar an der Wand im rechten Seitenschiff. Der Kalvarienberg, das Werk des Meisters der Teyn-Kreuzigung aus dem Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts, befindet sich am Barockaltar zum Schluss des linken Seitenschiffs. Vierzehn große Leinwände des Kreuzwegs malte 1854 František Čermák. In der Kirche gibt es insgesamt 19 Altäre, an deren Entstehung und Verzierung sich Franz Maximilian Kaňka, Karel Škréta, Jan Georg Bendl, Joseph Adalbert Hellich, Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff, Johann Georg Heinsch und weitere beteiligten. Zu Beginn des Jahres 2000 entdeckten die Restauratoren in der Kirche eine selten erhaltene gotische Freske aus dem Ende des 14. Jahrhunderts, die hinter einem der Altäre im seitlichen Nordschiff versteckt war. Es sind darauf der Hl. Hieronymus mit einem Löwen und der Auftraggeber des Gemäldes abgebildet.

Die hiesige Orgel ist die älteste in Prag. Sie wurde vom deutschen Baumeister Hans Heinrich Mundt und von seinen Gehilfen 1673 gebaut. Die Orgel wurde in der rheinländischen Stadt Bonn restauriert und im Jahre 2000 wieder in die Kirche zurückgebracht.

Die Teynkirche rühmt sich mit einer großen Zahl erhaltener Grabsteine. Etwa 60 sind bekannt, manche sind unbekannt, andere wurden von hier einst beseitigt, als der neue Boden gelegt wurde. Unter die bekanntesten gehört der Grabstein von Tycho der Brahe, dem dänischen Sternforscher auf dem kaiserlichen Hof von Rudolph II. aus dem Jahr 1601. Der nächste Grabstein gehört Wenzel Berka von Dauba, dem Heerführer und Rat bei der böhmischen Kammer, der 1575 entschlummert ist. Es ist einer der gelungensten Renaissanceportraitgrabsteine mit einer ungewöhnlichen Detailabbildung eines Mannes im Harnisch. Die Legende erzählt, dass in der Kirche auch das Herz von Georg von Podiebrad begraben wurde, während sein Körper in der Gruft der böhmischen Könige auf der Prager Burg ruht. Interessant ist der Grabstein eines Jungen - eines Abtrünnigen von der jüdischen Religion Simon Abeles, der sich taufen lassen wollte. Sein Vater brachte ihn jedoch lieber um und erhängte sich dann selbst. Weil er eigentlich für den Glauben starb, wurde ihm ein pompöses Begräbnis ausgerichtet, an dem das ganze Prag teilnahm, und hier wurde er dann beigesetzt. 1631 wurden vom schmählichen Käfig auf dem Altstädter Brückenturm die Köpfe der zwölf von siebenundzwanzig am Altstädterring im Jahre 1621 enthaupteten böhmischen Herren heruntergenommen und in der Teynkirche beigesetzt. Seit damals wurden sie hier sehr oft vergeblich gesucht. Hier gibt es auch viele Kindergrabsteine, unter anderem auch eine Mutter mit sechs Töchtern und sechs Söhnen. Viele Grabsteine sind durch das langjährige Betreten beschädigt, denn am Grabstein herumzustehen wurde früher als keine Unehre zum Verstorbenen betrachtet. Man hat im Gegenteil daran geglaubt, dass es gegen Zahnschmerzen hilft.

Seit 1973 verlief die Gesamtrenovierung der Teynkirche. Seit der deutschen Besetzung war der Glockenturm im Nordturm gähnend leer. Die neue 960 kg wiegende Bronzeglocke aus der Werkstatt der Firma Manoušek wurde erst zu Ostern 1992 in Betrieb gesetzt. Die Glocke ist der Pieta und der Heiligen Anastasia von Böhmen eingeweiht. Am 19. 2. 2008 wurden drei neue Glocken eingesetzt: Johann von Nepomuk (über 300 kg schwer), Ludmilla (über 500 kg schwer) und Erzengel Gabriel (2,5 Tonen schwer), die in der Werkstatt der Familie Dietrich (vertschechischt zu Dytrych) in Brodek bei Prerau entstanden.

Die Teynkirche ist ein Volkskulturdenkmal.

www.prague.eu/de/objekt/orte/76/kirche-st-maria-vor-dem-t...

  

Replaced all of the sound proofing under the cab

Finally got round to replacing the 500GB disc in my three year old iMac. A slightly daunting procedure made far easier by following the guidance in Brian Dorey's excellent video guide at: vimeo.com/2252036.

 

Took slightly longer than the 30 minutes Brian suggests and my iMac is slightly different internally from the one he's working on.

 

Required tools: Torx 6 and 9 drivers available from Maplin and a four suction available from Screwfix for about £10.

 

Note the laptop so that I can follow his instructions on Vimeo as I work thru the transplant. I also needed to clone the content of the 500GB drive onto the 2TB drive. This cloning procedure took seven and a half hours! I used Carbon Copy Cloner. I then transferred the drive from the WD caddy into the iMac. Handling the 24" flat panel with no screen protection and a hell of a lot of dust was a bit nerve wracking. Anyway I managed it but had to be really careful to lay the 20 or so screws out in the right order so that I could re-assemble properly. Just follow Brian's instructions, make sure there are no small children running around, make sure you've got the right kit, take care and you'll be fine!

 

Computer works fine, seems a bit faster and it's great to have 1.5TB free!

  

Replacing an earlier scanned 6"x4" print with a better version 30-Dec-14, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 31-Mar-23.

 

This aircraft was delivered to Bavaria Fluggesellschaft as D-BIBI in May-64. It was sold back to Handley Page Aircraft as G-AVPN in Jun-67 and leased to Itavia as I-TIVB the following month. Itavia bought it in Jul-70.

 

It was sold to BIA British Island Airways as G-AVPN in Jul-73 and BIA was merged into AirUK in Jan-80. It was wet-leased to 'Skyguard' in Aug-85 and returned to AirUK in Sep-85. In Feb-86 the aircraft was sold to Nordic Oil Services and leased to Business Air Centre.

 

In Mar-86 it was sub-leased to Euroair Transport and returned to Business Air Centre in Sep-86. The aircraft was returned to Nordic Oil Services in Aug-87 and stored at Norwich, UK.

 

It was leased to British Air Ferries as a small package freighter in Nov-89 and then sold to Channel Express Air Services in Nov-91. It was sold to The Dart Group PLC (owners of Channel Express and later Jet2.com) in Feb-92 and leased back to Channel Express.

 

After 33 years in service the aircraft was permanently retired at Bournemouth, UK in Jul-97. It was donated to the Yorkshire Air Museum in Oct-97 and placed on display at Elvington, Yorkshire. I was advised in Apr-19 that over the intervening years the airfame had suffered from extensive corrosion and at that time only the nose section survived.

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On November 12th 2015 GETTY IMAGES unveiled plans for a new stills upload platform called ESP (Enterprise Submission Platform), to replace the existing 'Moment portal', and on November 13th I was invited to Beta test the new system prior to it being rolled out to the general public in December. (ESP went live on Tuesday December 15th 2015)

  

***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on March 1st 2016

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/507554922 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 1,781st frame to be selected for sale in the Getty Images collection and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

  

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This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 07:39am), at an altitude of Three metres, at 07:44am on Thursday January 28th 2016 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

I set off at 05:00am on a clear morning, the moon and the stars out to dazzle in temperatures around five degrees, on a pleanst hour and half long journey to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 200mm 1/3200s f/5.6 iso640 RAW (14Bit) Nikon back focus button enabled. AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance. Nikon AF Fine tune set to +6.

  

Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. Power UP 95mm HD UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 18.63s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 19.33s

ALTITUDE: 3.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 27.81MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Replaced my M-stem with a H-stem, Aberhallo stem adapter and straight handle bars (58 cm)

 

It is about 2cm lower now. Brake/shifter cables are not modified.

Pay day.

 

Which is good.

 

So: Dateline Norwich, Norfolk.

 

I wake at half six, with buses and trucks heading into the city just outside the bedroom window, whatever, I slept well, so messed around online for an hour, had a shower and then went down for breakfast. Dressing first, of course.

 

I chose the "continental breakfast", of fruit and toast, and two pots of coffee which set me for the day.

 

I had a number of plans: first was to go to Cantley and the Limpenoe for some churchcrawling, but with the swing bridges at Reedham and Somerleyton closes for maintenance, that meant rail replacement buses. The other choice was to go to Cromer to the church there, have lunch of chips beside the seaside, beside the sea.

 

But first, a a walk to St Stephen's on Theatre Street, as I had not been there before, and was oepn, apparently.

 

Despite being the end of October, it was warm and humid, and would exceed 20 degrees in the afternoon. But was cloudy, and there was a chance of rain.

 

More than a chance as it turned out.

 

So, after breakfast I set out through Tombland, past The Halls where the beer festival was being held, and fresh supplies were being delivered.

 

Through the market, up the steps and across from The Forum to Theatre Street where the doors of the church had just been opened. What greeted me was a fine large East Anglian church, but instead of pews or rows of chairs, was tables and chairs all set out to be a café.

 

All churches do their best, I know, but St Stephens is now a calling point on the entrance to the once new shopping centre, the windows offer a large and bright space, but not very churchy.

 

I made the mistake of asking a volunteer when it stopped being a church: it's still a church, and the tables can be quickly replaced with rows of chairs, it seems.

 

I go round and get shots, but avoiding, as warned, not to get people in my shots. Its a big church, so I managed that pretty well.

 

Ten minutes later, St Peter Mancroft opened I wanted to snap the east windows as best I could, so with my compact I did my best. A guy sat behind me and tutted loudly as I took shots and when I asked a warden if I could take a shot of a memorial in the chancel. He had the whole church to sit in, but chose to sit behind me, already taking shots, apparently just so he could complain.

 

So screw you.

 

I got my shots, and left, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Outside rain had began to fall. Falling hard enough not to be pleasant. My plan had been to walk tot he station, but wasn't going to walk in this weather. So, I walked through the market, lingering as rain fell harder, then crossing to Royal Arcade before emerging onto Back of the Inns, and walking into Castle Mall, taking a series of escalators to the top, all the while hoping that by the time I reached the top, rain would have stopped.

 

It hadn't.

 

But I did snap the decorative paving marking the source of an ancient spring, then headed down Timber Hill to the Murderers, where I went in and had a pint. And ended up staying for another and a lunch of nachos.

 

Last stop was St John Maddermarket, where I retook many shots, but had a long and interesting conversation with the warden about the church and the font found at St John in Folkestone.

 

I went back to the hotel, lay on the bed for a snooze edit some shots and post them with a description which became the backbone for the previous blog post.

 

For the evening, I had been invited for dinner at my good friend's, Sarah's.

 

So at five, I walk up through the City to Pottergate, then along, through the underpass and estate beyond, arriving at her door at just gone six.

 

Darkness was falling, the street was ankle deep in golden leaves, quite the most fabulous place, really.

 

We have a drink, chat abut churches, butterflies, orchids and Norwich City, after which we eat: a kind of duck stew, which was hearty and very good. Along with that, we sup from the bottle of fruity red I had bought on the way to her house.

 

The evening slipped by, and after walking 15,000 steps, I got a taxi back to the hotel, along fairly deserted roads, dropping me at the door of the hotel, where just inside a wedding reception was nearing its end, back in my room, I put in ear plugs and slept long and deep.

 

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This square church is a familiar sight to shoppers, where the pedestrianised identikit shops of London Street give way to earthier Pottergate. There used to be a wonderful vegetarian restaurant on this corner, and I mourn its passing. St John the Baptist became redundant as a result of the Brooke Report, which is also sad, but understandable given the proximity of St Andrew and St Peter Mancroft. For a while, it was used by the Greek Orthodox community, which unfortunately made it inaccessible to other people, but since they moved on to the Mother of God, the building has come into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, making it accessible again. George Plunkett's 1938 photographs show it at once familar and different, the exposed graveyard rather startling.

 

St John the Baptist is well-known for its processional way beneath the elegant but hemmed-in tower; at one time, there was another one at the east end, through which Maddermarket Street ran; but the chancel was demolished in the late 16th century, making Maddermarket Street clear for traffic, and giving the church its square shape today. The extraordinarily high clerestory, faced in stone, accentuates the strangeness of the shape. This is a typical 15th century Perpendicular church, but the tracery of the east windows is earlier; considering that the main one is now in the place of the chancel arch, there is reason to think that they may be 19th century additions, perhaps of medieval tracery from elsewhere.

The north porch, now no longer used, has a funny little turret on it. There isn't really a south porch; you step straight down in to the south aisle. Stepping inside to the dark, smoky, devotional inside, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Greeks were still in possession. In fact, this Baroque interior is almost wholly the work of William Busby, arch-Anglo-Catholic Rector in the early years of the 20th century, much of it collected from other churches, the rest made to his orders.

 

The outstandingly ugly font shows us something of his tastes, but altogether it is certainly effective, and the chancel has a quite different 18th century feel to it compared with the rationalism of St George Colegate. The lovely Arts and Crafts Annunciation scene by the King workshop is not overpowered by all this, but would be better known and thought of in a plainer setting.

This church is most famous for the enormous number of memorials, both in brass and stone. They are too many to list here, but do not miss the brass of John Tuddenham, who died in 1450. He has a complete prayer clause inscription in English. From the other side of the religious divide are the two astonishing Sotherton memorials, one of 1540 and the other of 1606, the couple in each case facing each other across a prayerdesk. The Sothertons were exactly the kind of family that powered the English Reformation, mayors and merchants who had benefited from the Black Death's freeing of capital and land to rise to prominence. Here they are, in all their glory.

    

Simon Knott, December 2005

 

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichjohnmaddermarket/norwich...

 

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The Church of St John the Baptist, Maddermarket, is a redundant Anglican church in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,[1] and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust

 

There may have been a church on the site in the 11th century, but the earliest fabric in the present church dates from the 14th century. Most of the church dates from a major rebuilding between about 1445 to 1510. At some time the east end of the church was shortened.[3] There has been a tradition that this took place in 1578 when the street was widened for a visit by Elizabeth I,[2][3] but this is considered to be untrue.[4] Following this, the major changes were to the interior of the church. At some time a medieval chancel screen was removed. In 1849 a gallery was installed at the west end. Restorations took place in the 19th century; these included rebuilding the tower in 1822, and refurbishing the interior of the roof and rebuilding the walls in 1863.[3] Also in 1863 the interior was reordered.[4] There was a gas explosion in 1876, in which much of the stained glass was damaged.[3] At the beginning of the 20th century the vicar, Rev William Busby, installed items of furniture collected from other churches.[2] In 1914–15 work was done on the Lady chapel. The church was closed for Anglican worship in 1982, and used by a community from the Greek Orthodox Church until 1990, when it was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust,

 

The church is constructed mainly in flint with stone and brick dressings. The clerestory is faced with ashlar. The aisles are roofed with lead, and the rest of the church is slated. Its plan consists of a four-bay nave and chancel in one unit, north and south aisles extending the full length of the church, north and south porches, a north vestry, and a west tower.[1] The east ends of the aisles have been converted into chapels, the south chapel being the Lady Chapel and on the north side the Jesus Chapel.[3] The church is almost as wide as it is long.[2] The tower is in four stages with diagonal buttresses. The bottom stage is open to the north and south, providing a passage for processions; the west arch is blocked.[1] Above this is a rib vault decorated with twelve carved bosses.[4] Over the west arch is a three-light Perpendicular window. In the top stage are three-light louvred bell openings on each side. The parapet is crenellated, with corner pinnacles and statues. Along the south wall of the south aisle are five buttresses, with three three-light windows in the eastern bays. The western bay incorporates a two-storey porch. Under the easternmost window is a priest's door.[1] Also on the south wall is a sundial dating from the 17th or 18th century.[3] Along the clerestory are eight three-light Perpendicular windows. At the east end of the chancel is a large five-light window with Decorated tracery, and at the east end of each aisle is a three-light window. The north porch also has two storeys. The arch over its doorway is decorated with a band of shields, and over the arch is a niche for a statue and a three-light square-headed window.

 

At the east end of the church the altar is surrounded by a massive wooden surround, known as a baldachin. It is thought that this had been made for the church of St Miles Coslany in 1741 and moved into St John's in 1917.[4] Behind the altar is a painting of the Last Supper attributed to the Renaissance painter Livio Agresti. There is another altar in the north aisle. The font dates from 1864, and is decorated with inlaid pieces of coloured marble. The pulpit dates from the same year. Above it is a sounding board from the 17th century.[3] The revolving lectern dates from the 18th century, and is probably Italian. Around the church are memorials to local historical personages, including Thomas Rawlins, Joseph Stannard a Norwich School painter of marine-scenes, Walter Nugent Monck founder of the Maddermarket Theatre and Margaret Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, who died in 1564.[4][5]

 

The church also houses commemorations of several mayors of the City throughout the centuries including the Southerton's, Bubbin and Ralph Segram (died 1472). Segram was a merchant who became a member of parliament and Mayor of Norwich. He commissioned a rood screen for the church, from which two panels of painted oak are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. One panel depicts both William of Norwich, holding a hammer and with three nails in his head, and Agatha of Sicily, holding pincers and her severed breast.[6] The other panel depicts Leonard of Noblac (holding manicles) and Catherine of Alexandria, holding a sword and a book.[7]

  

The Layer Monument Marble polychrome mural monument circa 1600. South aisle of the west wall of the church.

Located semi-obscured on the south aisle of the church's west wall is The Layer Monument, a marble polychrome mural monument installed circa 1600 to commemorate the merchant, lawyer and mayor Christopher Layer. Its four figurines housed in its pilasters, Pax, Gloria, Vanitas and Labor are sculpted in the art-style of Northern Mannerism. Collectively the Layer Quaternity use polarised and esoteric symbolism. The church also has identifiable associations with early British Freemasonry including a 19th-century headstone in its graveyard which depicts Masonic compasses along with the ancient Greek gnostic symbol of the Ouroboros.

 

The church houses one of the largest collections of brasses in England, the oldest dating from the middle of the 15th century.[3] Most of the stained glass dates from the 19th and 20th centuries, although there are fragments of 15th-century glass in the centre window of the north aisle. The east window dates from 1870 and depicts the healing of the Centurion's servant. In the north chapel is a depiction of the Annunciation made by James Powell and Sons, and in the south chapel is a Tree of Jesse from 1916, probably by King of Norwich.[4]

 

The two-manual organ was made in 1888 by Norman and Beard for St Peter's Church, Lowestoft.[8] It was moved to Norwich in 1904 and in 1913 it was rebuilt by Norman and Beard, and moved to the west gallery.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John_the_Baptist,_Maddermarke...

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 13-Jun-20.

 

Taken from the Pendleton bridge.

 

Fleet No: "5TA".

 

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to TWA Trans World Airlines as N701TW in Jul-96. TWA was merged into American Airlines in Dec-01. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Nov-06 and sold to L-3 Communications Advanced Aviation LLC in Jan-07. L-3 Communications specialise in electronic surveillance equipment (amongst other things!) and the aircraft was used as a flying testbed. It was retro fitted with blended winglets in 2007. The aircraft was transferred to the United States Air Force serialled 09-0016 in Mar-11 as an 'Elint' (Electronic Intelligence) aircraft. Current, updated (Jun-20).

Replaced those glass leaves with flowers I like it much better - now to grout and put a few other things on her!

Replace the mystery bracket/shield/whatever. Snap the wiring connector back into its bracket and plug in the one for the top of the CAS.

Replaced some more old parts with fresh new parts. Replaced the old distributor cap, distributor rotor and the cabling with fresh new ones :)

 

Car is smooth again, as it showed some jerkiness onder WOT.

Blades on port engine replaced but engineers not happy with alignment/balancing issues.

 

© DM Parody 2016 (www.dotcom.gi/photos) These images are protected by copyright. You CANNOT copy or republish any of these photos without written consent of the photographer even if you retain the watermark (if present) and/or credit the photographer. You cannot use on any media including social media either. You CAN post a link to the page where the image appears without reference to the photographer. Copyright infringements will be followed up, legally if necessary. Thank you for your understanding.

Replaced with a few modern houses quite some time ago and before that it was a Fina site in its last days - see below. www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.2063511,1.5809145,3a,75y,90h,90...

Eagle Scout Slade Henderson led a project to replace a fencing H-brace, which was burned in a wildfire. During the project, scouts and Bureau of Land Management staff also re-stretched and replaced wire damaged by wildfire. Henderson’s project covered half of a one mile total fencing project. (BLM Photo by Deej Brown)

Replace the blue parts.

Prints available from www.photoboxgallery.com/dharmarajphotographic/collection?...

Replacing rail ties and spikes. www.dailydieseldose.com for more!

Replaced componants.

Cathedral Rd, Calcutta.

This Anglican cathedral replaced St John's Church (see my photo at flickr.com/photos/23268776@N03/2584732902/in/set-72157606... ) as the establishment place of worship in colonial Calcutta. Completed in the "Indo-Gothic" style, so described by Bishop Cotton as "spurious Gothic adapted to the exigencies of the Indian climate", it was designed by Major William Nairn Forbes of the Bengal Engineers.

 

The British Library online gallery has a photo of the Cathedral taken in 1851 by Frederick Fiebig at :-

www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/s/019pho0...

 

The photo shows that the original structure was topped by a spired tower; this was damaged by earthquakes in 1897 and 1934, after which it was finally removed. The renovated spire-less tower was modelled on that of Canterbury Cathedral in England, known as the Bell Harry Tower. Another old photo can be seen on the pages of fellow flickrite wobblyturkey at www.flickr.com/photos/wobblyturkey/257081248/in/set-72157... .

 

The interior of the Cathedral is a beautiful and evocative place to visit. It pays tribute to a very British Calcutta (with its statues of notable residents, plaques commemorating heroic deeds in long-forgotten wars, stained-glass and wonderful mosaics) and it is a world away from the chaos of modern Kolkata. It sits at the southern end of the Maidan, close to the Victoria Memorial and in a calm,green and shaded oasis, it is far removed from the chaos of the city.

August 2006: Berlin / Potsdamer Platz - DRI

 

i replaced the original photo with this suggested cropped version.

look here for the original.

Over the span of summer, I've been wanting to secure a space for the Nikon in my kit by replacing my 50 1.8G for a "super 50mm" lens. I've been comparing the 58, the sony A7+ZA55 combo and the Sigma 50ART as candidates. Although the 50ART and the ZA55 rate many times higher than the 58 almost everything, I still went for the 58 for the way it renders life and from images I've shot with it (these are the first ones), it's plenty sharp for me. There are clearly no such lenses in the dSLR world that has autofocus and the rendering quality of the ZM C Sonnar 50mm f/1.5 (despite its field curvature problem) aside from the 58.

 

The way it brings the subject into the frame and the way it makes the background go wild in such interesting yet smooth yet undistracting way (so many ways) is perhaps the one reason why this lens exist and for those who truly understand its purpose can create images of the unique (all of this with the usual 2000$ Nikon lens goodies of Nanocoating and optical magical colors etc...)

 

Now to use this lens, you absolutely need an AF system that needs to keep up with it. Since the lens has the strong design intentions of Haruo Sato (well respected lens designer at Nikon), most of the emphasis has been put on balancing correction (aberations, glow) with rendering (colors, bokeh, etc) and has resulted in a very short depth of field focus zone that needs to be nailed wide open. I was fortunate to have the D750 to calibrate the lens with (it took a week or two to get it perfectly right to an absurd number).

 

If you are new to 50mm lens, by all means go for the 50 1.8g or go for anything else than this pricey one. You buy the 58 because you have tried all and you require the lens to accomplish something specific in which not many lens company has had the guts to make in this day and age of high technology, in this case bokeh rendering.

During 1916 the British born Australian architect Walter Richmond Butler (1864 – 1949) designed a new Anglican Mission to Seamen to be built on an oddly shaped triangular block of land at 717 Flinders Street on the outskirts of the Melbourne central city grid, to replace smaller premises located in adjoining Siddeley Street, which had been resumed by the Harbour Trust during wharf extensions.

 

The Missions to Seamen buildings, built on reinforced concrete footings, are in rendered brick with tiled roofs. Walter Butler designed the complex using an eclectic mixture of styles, one of which was the Spanish Mission Revival which had become a prevalent style on the west coast of America, especially in California and New Mexico during the 1890s. The style revived the architectural legacy of Spanish colonialism of the Eighteenth Century and the associated Franciscan missions. The revival of the style is explicit in the Mission’s small, yet charming chapel with its rough-hewn timber trusses, in the bell tower with its pinnacles and turret surmounted by a rustic cross and in the monastic-like courtyard, which today still provides a peaceful retreat from the noisy world just beyond the Missions to Seamen’s doorstep. The chapel also features many gifts donated by members of the Harbour Trust and Ladies’ Harbour Lights Guild, including an appropriately themed pulpit in the shape of a ship's prow and two sanctuary chairs decorated with carved Australian floral motifs. Some of the stained glass windows in the chapel depict stories and scenes associated with the sea intermixed with those Biblical scenes more commonly found in such places of worship.

 

The adjoining Mission to Seamen’s administration, residential and recreational building shows the influence of English domestic Arts and Crafts architecture, with its projecting gable, pepper pot chimneys and three adjoining oriel windows. The lobby, with its appropriately nautically inspired stained glass windows, features a large mariner's compass inlaid in the terrazzo floor. Built-in timber cupboards, wardrobes, paneling and studded doors throughout the buildings evoke a ship's cabin.

 

Walter Butler, architect to the Anglican Diocese in Melbourne, had come to Australia with an intimate knowledge and experience of the Arts and Crafts movement and continued to use the style in his residential designs of the 1920s. The main hall has a reinforced concrete vaulted ceiling. Lady Stanley, wife of the Mission's patron, Governor Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, laid the foundation stone of the complex in November 1916. The buildings were financed partly by a compensation payment from the Harbour Trust of £8,500.00 and £3,000.00 from local merchants and shipping firms. The Ladies' Harbour Lights Guild raised over £800.00 for the chapel. Most of the complex was completed by late 1917 whilst the Pantheon-like gymnasium with oculus was finished soon afterwards. The substantially intact interiors, including extensive use of wall paneling in Tasmanian hardwood, form an integral part of the overall design.

 

The Missions to Seamen buildings are architecturally significant as a milestone in the early introduction of the Spanish Mission style to Melbourne. The style was to later find widespread popularity in the suburbs of Melbourne. The choice of Spanish Mission directly refers to the Christian purpose of the complex. The Missions to Seamen buildings are unusual for combining two distinct architectural styles, for they also reflect the imitation of English domestic architecture, the Arts and Crafts movement. Walter Butler was one of the most prominent and progressive architects of the period and the complex is one of his most unusual and distinctive works.

 

The Missions to Seamen buildings have historical and social significance as tangible evidence of prevailing concerns for the religious, moral, and social welfare of seafarers throughout most of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The complex has a long association with the Missions to Seamen, an organisation formed to look after the welfare of seafarers, both officers and sailors, men "of all nationalities". It had its origins in Bristol, England when a Seamen's Mission was formed in 1837. The first Australian branch was started in 1856 by the Reverend Kerr Johnston, a Church of England clergyman, and operated from a hulk moored in Hobsons Bay; later the Mission occupied buildings in Williamstown and Port Melbourne. In 1905 the Reverend Alfred Gurney Goldsmith arrived at the behest of the London Seamen's Mission to establish a city mission for sailors working on the river wharves and docks. The building reflects the diverse role played by the Mission with its chapel, hall and stage, billiards room, reading room, dining room, officers' and men’s quarters, chaplain's residence, and gymnasium. It is still in use to this day under the jurisdiction of a small, but passionate group of workers, providing a welcome place of refuge to seamen visiting the Port of Melbourne.

 

Walter Butler was considered an architect of great talent, and many of his clients were wealthy pastoralists and businessmen. His country-house designs are numerous and include “Blackwood” (1891) near Penshurst, for R. B. Ritchie, “Wangarella” (1894) near Deniliquin, New South Wales, for Thomas Millear, and “Newminster Park” (1901) near Camperdown, for A. S. Chirnside. Equally distinguished large houses were designed for the newly established Melbourne suburbs: “Warrawee” (1906) in Toorak, for A. Rutter Clark; “Thanes” (1907) in Kooyong, for F. Wallach; “Kamillaroi” (1907) for Baron Clive Baillieu, and extensions to “Edzell” (1917) for George Russell, both in St Georges Road, Toorak. These are all fine examples of picturesque gabled houses in the domestic Queen Anne Revival genre. Walter Butler was also involved with domestic designs using a modified classical vocabulary, as in his remodelling of “Billilla” (1905) in Brighton, for W. Weatherley, which incorporates panels of flat-leafed foliage. Walter Butler also regarded himself as a garden architect.

 

As architect to the diocese of Melbourne from 1895, he designed the extensions to “Bishopscourt” (1902) in East Melbourne. His other church work includes St Albans (1899) in Armadale, the Wangaratta Cathedral (1907), and the colourful porch and tower to Christ Church (c.1910) in Benalla. For the Union Bank of Australia he designed many branch banks and was also associated with several tall city buildings in the heart of Melbourne’s central business district such as Collins House (1910) and the exceptionally fine Queensland Insurance Building (1911). For Dame Nellie Melba Butler designed the Italianate lodge and gatehouse at “Coombe Cottage” (1925) at Coldstream.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_Museum

 

Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.

 

The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century. Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of industrial revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres (140 ha) estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.

 

The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has influenced other living museums. It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.

 

History

Genesis

In 1958, days after starting as director of the Bowes Museum, inspired by Scandinavian folk museums, and realising the North East's traditional industries and communities were disappearing, Frank Atkinson presented a report to Durham County Council urging that a collection of items of everyday history on a large scale should begin as soon as possible, so that eventually an open air museum could be established. As well as objects, Atkinson was also aiming to preserve the region's customs and dialect. He stated the new museum should "attempt to make the history of the region live" and illustrate the way of life of ordinary people. He hoped the museum would be run by, be about and exist for the local populace, desiring them to see the museum as theirs, featuring items collected from them.

 

Fearing it was now almost too late, Atkinson adopted a policy of "unselective collecting" — "you offer it to us and we will collect it." Donations ranged in size from small items to locomotives and shops, and Atkinson initially took advantage of a surplus of space available in the 19th-century French chateau-style building housing the Bowes Museum to store items donated for the open air museum. With this space soon filled, a former British Army tank depot at Brancepeth was taken over, although in just a short time its entire complement of 22 huts and hangars had been filled, too.

 

In 1966, a working party was established to set up a museum "for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and the way of life of the north of England", and it selected Beamish Hall, having been vacated by the National Coal Board, as a suitable location.

 

Establishment and expansion

In August 1970, with Atkinson appointed as its first full-time director together with three staff members, the museum was first established by moving some of the collections into the hall. In 1971, an introductory exhibition, "Museum in the Making" opened at the hall.

 

The museum was opened to visitors on its current site for the first time in 1972, with the first translocated buildings (the railway station and colliery winding engine) being erected the following year. The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973. The Town station was formally opened in 1976, the same year the reconstruction of the colliery winding engine house was completed, and the miners' cottages were relocated. Opening of the drift mine as an exhibit followed in 1979.

 

In 1975 the museum was visited by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and by Anne, Princess Royal, in 2002. In 2006, as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, The Duke of Kent visited, to open the town masonic lodge.

 

With the Co-op having opened in 1984, the town area was officially opened in 1985. The pub had opened in the same year, with Ravensworth Terrace having been reconstructed from 1980 to 1985. The newspaper branch office had also been built in the mid-1980s. Elsewhere, the farm on the west side of the site (which became Home Farm) opened in 1983. The present arrangement of visitors entering from the south was introduced in 1986.

 

At the beginning of the 1990s, further developments in the Pit Village were opened, the chapel in 1990, and the board school in 1992. The whole tram circle was in operation by 1993.[8] Further additions to the Town came in 1994 with the opening of the sweet shop and motor garage, followed by the bank in 1999. The first Georgian component of the museum arrived when Pockerley Old Hall opened in 1995, followed by the Pockerley Waggonway in 2001.

 

In the early 2000s two large modern buildings were added, to augment the museum's operations and storage capacity - the Regional Resource Centre on the west side opened in 2001, followed by the Regional Museums Store next to the railway station in 2002. Due to its proximity, the latter has been cosmetically presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works. Additions to display areas came in the form of the Masonic lodge (2006) and the Lamp Cabin in the Colliery (2009). In 2010, the entrance building and tea rooms were refurbished.

 

Into the 2010s, further buildings were added - the fish and chip shop (opened 2011)[28] band hall (opened 2013) and pit pony stables (built 2013/14) in the Pit Village, plus a bakery (opened 2013) and chemist and photographers (opened 2016) being added to the town. St Helen's Church, in the Georgian landscape, opened in November 2015.

 

Remaking Beamish

A major development, named 'Remaking Beamish', was approved by Durham County Council in April 2016, with £10.7m having been raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £3.3m from other sources.

 

As of September 2022, new exhibits as part of this project have included a quilter's cottage, a welfare hall, 1950s terrace, recreation park, bus depot, and 1950s farm (all discussed in the relevant sections of this article). The coming years will see replicas of aged miners' homes from South Shields, a cinema from Ryhope, and social housing will feature a block of four relocated Airey houses, prefabricated concrete homes originally designed by Sir Edwin Airey, which previously stood in Kibblesworth. Then-recently vacated and due for demolition, they were instead offered to the museum by The Gateshead Housing Company and accepted in 2012.

 

Museum site

The approximately 350-acre (1.4 km2) current site, once belonging to the Eden and Shafto families, is a basin-shaped steep-sided valley with woodland areas, a river, some level ground and a south-facing aspect.

 

Visitors enter the site through an entrance arch formed by a steam hammer, across a former opencast mining site and through a converted stable block (from Greencroft, near Lanchester, County Durham).

 

Visitors can navigate the site via assorted marked footpaths, including adjacent (or near to) the entire tramway oval. According to the museum, it takes 20 minutes to walk at a relaxed pace from the entrance to the town. The tramway oval serves as both an exhibit and as a free means of transport around the site for visitors, with stops at the entrance (south), Home Farm (west), Pockerley (east) and the Town (north). Visitors can also use the museum's buses as a free form of transport between various parts of the museum. Although visitors can also ride on the Town railway and Pockerley Waggonway, these do not form part of the site's transport system (as they start and finish from the same platforms).

 

Governance

Beamish was the first English museum to be financed and administered by a consortium of county councils (Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear) The museum is now operated as a registered charity, but continues to receive support from local authorities - Durham County Council, Sunderland City Council, Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council and North Tyneside Council. The supporting Friends of Beamish organisation was established in 1968. Frank Atkinson retired as director in 1987. The museum has been 96% self-funding for some years (mainly from admission charges).

 

Sections of the museum

1913

The town area, officially opened in 1985, depicts chiefly Victorian buildings in an evolved urban setting of 1913.

 

Tramway

The Beamish Tramway is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, with four passing loops. The line makes a circuit of the museum site forming an important element of the visitor transportation system.

 

The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973, with the whole circle in operation by 1993.[8] It represents the era of electric powered trams, which were being introduced to meet the needs of growing towns and cities across the North East from the late 1890s, replacing earlier horse drawn systems.

 

Bakery

Presented as Joseph Herron, Baker & Confectioner, the bakery was opened in 2013 and features working ovens which produce food for sale to visitors. A two-storey curved building, only the ground floor is used as the exhibit. A bakery has been included to represent the new businesses which sprang up to cater for the growing middle classes - the ovens being of the modern electric type which were growing in use. The building was sourced from Anfield Plain (which had a bakery trading as Joseph Herron), and was moved to Beamish in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The frontage features a stained glass from a baker's shop in South Shields. It also uses fittings from Stockton-on-Tees.

 

Motor garage

Presented as Beamish Motor & Cycle Works, the motor garage opened in 1994. Reflecting the custom nature of the early motor trade, where only one in 232 people owned a car in 1913, the shop features a showroom to the front (not accessible to visitors), with a garage area to the rear, accessed via the adjacent archway. The works is a replica of a typical garage of the era. Much of the museum's car, motorcycle and bicycle collection, both working and static, is stored in the garage. The frontage has two storeys, but the upper floor is only a small mezzanine and is not used as part of the display.

 

Department Store

Presented as the Annfield Plain Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd, (but more commonly referred to as the Anfield Plain Co-op Store) this department store opened in 1984, and was relocated to Beamish from Annfield Plain in County Durham. The Annfield Plain co-operative society was originally established in 1870, with the museum store stocking various products from the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), established 1863. A two-storey building, the ground floor comprises the three departments - grocery, drapery and hardware; the upper floor is taken up by the tea rooms (accessed from Redman Park via a ramp to the rear). Most of the items are for display only, but a small amount of goods are sold to visitors. The store features an operational cash carrier system, of the Lamson Cash Ball design - common in many large stores of the era, but especially essential to Co-ops, where customer's dividends had to be logged.

 

Ravensworth Terrace

Ravensworth Terrace is a row of terraced houses, presented as the premises and living areas of various professionals. Representing the expanding housing stock of the era, it was relocated from its original site on Bensham Bank, having been built for professionals and tradesmen between 1830 and 1845. Original former residents included painter John Wilson Carmichael and Gateshead mayor Alexander Gillies. Originally featuring 25 homes, the terrace was to be demolished when the museum saved it in the 1970s, reconstructing six of them on the Town site between 1980 and 1985. They are two storey buildings, with most featuring display rooms on both floors - originally the houses would have also housed a servant in the attic. The front gardens are presented in a mix of the formal style, and the natural style that was becoming increasingly popular.

 

No. 2 is presented as the home of Miss Florence Smith, a music teacher, with old fashioned mid-Victorian furnishings as if inherited from her parents. No. 3 & 4 is presented as the practice and home respectively (with a knocked through door) of dentist J. Jones - the exterior nameplate having come from the surgery of Mr. J. Jones in Hartlepool. Representing the state of dental health at the time, it features both a check-up room and surgery for extraction, and a technicians room for creating dentures - a common practice at the time being the giving to daughters a set on their 21st birthday, to save any future husband the cost at a later date. His home is presented as more modern than No.2, furnished in the Edwardian style the modern day utilities of an enamelled bathroom with flushing toilet, a controllable heat kitchen range and gas cooker. No. 5 is presented as a solicitor's office, based on that of Robert Spence Watson, a Quaker from Newcastle. Reflecting the trade of the era, downstairs is laid out as the partner's or principal office, and the general or clerk's office in the rear. Included is a set of books sourced from ER Hanby Holmes, who practised in Barnard Castle.

 

Pub

Presented as The Sun Inn, the pub opened in the town in 1985. It had originally stood in Bondgate in Bishop Auckland, and was donated to the museum by its final owners, the Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. Originally a "one-up one down" cottage, the earliest ownership has been traced to James Thompson, on 21 January 1806. Known as The Tiger Inn until the 1850s, from 1857 to 1899 under the ownership of the Leng family, it flourished under the patronage of miners from Newton Cap and other collieries. Latterly run by Elsie Edes, it came under brewery ownership in the 20th Century when bought by S&N antecedent, James Deuchar Ltd. The pub is fully operational, and features both a front and back bar, the two stories above not being part of the exhibit. The interior decoration features the stuffed racing greyhound Jake's Bonny Mary, which won nine trophies before being put on display in The Gerry in White le Head near Tantobie.

 

Town stables

Reflecting the reliance on horses for a variety of transport needs in the era, the town features a centrally located stables, situated behind the sweet shop, with its courtyard being accessed from the archway next to the pub. It is presented as a typical jobmaster's yard, with stables and a tack room in the building on its north side. A small, brick built open air, carriage shed is sited on the back of the printworks building. On the east side of the courtyard is a much larger metal shed (utilising iron roof trusses from Fleetwood), arranged mainly as carriage storage, but with a blacksmith's shop in the corner. The building on the west side of the yard is not part of any display. The interior fittings for the harness room came from Callaly Caste. Many of the horses and horse-drawn vehicles used by the museum are housed in the stables and sheds.

 

Printer, stationer and newspaper branch office

Presented as the Beamish Branch Office of the Northern Daily Mail and the Sunderland Daily Echo, the two storey replica building was built in the mid-1980s and represents the trade practices of the era. Downstairs, on the right, is the branch office, where newspapers would be sold directly and distributed to local newsagents and street vendors, and where orders for advertising copy would be taken. Supplementing it is a stationer's shop on the left hand side, with both display items and a small number of gift items on public sale. Upstairs is a jobbing printers workshop, which would not produce the newspapers, but would instead print leaflets, posters and office stationery. Split into a composing area and a print shop, the shop itself has a number of presses - a Columbian built in 1837 by Clymer and Dixon, an Albion dating back to 1863, an Arab Platen of c. 1900, and a Wharfedale flat bed press, built by Dawson & Son in around 1870. Much of the machinery was sourced from the print works of Jack Ascough's of Barnard Castle. Many of the posters seen around the museum are printed in the works, with the operation of the machinery being part of the display.

 

Sweet shop

Presented as Jubilee Confectioners, the two storey sweet shop opened in 1994 and is meant to represent the typical family run shops of the era, with living quarters above the shop (the second storey not being part of the display). To the front of the ground floor is a shop, where traditional sweets and chocolate (which was still relatively expensive at the time) are sold to visitors, while in the rear of the ground floor is a manufacturing area where visitors can view the techniques of the time (accessed via the arched walkway on the side of the building). The sweet rollers were sourced from a variety of shops and factories.

 

Bank

Presented as a branch of Barclays Bank (Barclay & Company Ltd) using period currency, the bank opened in 1999. It represents the trend of the era when regional banks were being acquired and merged into national banks such as Barclays, formed in 1896. Built to a three-storey design typical of the era, and featuring bricks in the upper storeys sourced from Park House, Gateshead, the Swedish imperial red shade used on the ground floor frontage is intended to represent stability and security. On the ground floor are windows for bank tellers, plus the bank manager's office. Included in a basement level are two vaults. The upper two storeys are not part of the display. It features components sourced from Southport and Gateshead

 

Masonic Hall

The Masonic Hall opened in 2006, and features the frontage from a former masonic hall sited in Park Terrace, Sunderland. Reflecting the popularity of the masons in North East England, as well as the main hall, which takes up the full height of the structure, in a small two story arrangement to the front of the hall is also a Robing Room and the Tyler's Room on the ground floor, and a Museum Room upstairs, featuring display cabinets of masonic regalia donated from various lodges. Upstairs is also a class room, with large stained glass window.

 

Chemist and photographer

Presented as W Smith's Chemist and JR & D Edis Photographers, a two-storey building housing both a chemist and photographers shops under one roof opened on 7 May 2016 and represents the growing popularity of photography in the era, with shops often growing out of or alongside chemists, who had the necessary supplies for developing photographs. The chemist features a dispensary, and equipment from various shops including John Walker, inventor of the friction match. The photographers features a studio, where visitors can dress in period costume and have a photograph taken. The corner building is based on a real building on Elvet Bridge in Durham City, opposite the Durham Marriot Hotel (the Royal County), although the second storey is not part of the display. The chemist also sells aerated water (an early form of carbonated soft drinks) to visitors, sold in marble-stopper sealed Codd bottles (although made to a modern design to prevent the safety issue that saw the original bottles banned). Aerated waters grew in popularity in the era, due to the need for a safe alternative to water, and the temperance movement - being sold in chemists due to the perception they were healthy in the same way mineral waters were.

 

Costing around £600,000 and begun on 18 August 2014, the building's brickwork and timber was built by the museum's own staff and apprentices, using Georgian bricks salvaged from demolition works to widen the A1. Unlike previous buildings built on the site, the museum had to replicate rather than relocate this one due to the fact that fewer buildings are being demolished compared to the 1970s, and in any case it was deemed unlikely one could be found to fit the curved shape of the plot. The studio is named after a real business run by John Reed Edis and his daughter Daisy. Mr Edis, originally at 27 Sherburn Road, Durham, in 1895, then 52 Saddler Street from 1897. The museum collection features several photographs, signs and equipment from the Edis studio. The name for the chemist is a reference to the business run by William Smith, who relocated to Silver Street, near the original building, in 1902. According to records, the original Edis company had been supplied by chemicals from the original (and still extant) Smith business.

 

Redman Park

Redman Park is a small lawned space with flower borders, opposite Ravensworth Terrace. Its centrepiece is a Victorian bandstand sourced from Saltwell Park, where it stood on an island in the middle of a lake. It represents the recognised need of the time for areas where people could relax away from the growing industrial landscape.

 

Other

Included in the Town are drinking fountains and other period examples of street furniture. In between the bank and the sweet shop is a combined tram and bus waiting room and public convenience.

 

Unbuilt

When construction of the Town began, the projected town plan incorporated a market square and buildings including a gas works, fire station, ice cream parlour (originally the Central Cafe at Consett), a cast iron bus station from Durham City, school, public baths and a fish and chip shop.

 

Railway station

East of the Town is the Railway Station, depicting a typical small passenger and goods facility operated by the main railway company in the region at the time, the North Eastern Railway (NER). A short running line extends west in a cutting around the north side of the Town itself, with trains visible from the windows of the stables. It runs for a distance of 1⁄4 mile - the line used to connect to the colliery sidings until 1993 when it was lifted between the town and the colliery so that the tram line could be extended. During 2009 the running line was relaid so that passenger rides could recommence from the station during 2010.

 

Rowley station

Representing passenger services is Rowley Station, a station building on a single platform, opened in 1976, having been relocated to the museum from the village of Rowley near Consett, just a few miles from Beamish.

 

The original Rowley railway station was opened in 1845 (as Cold Rowley, renamed Rowley in 1868) by the NER antecedent, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, consisting of just a platform. Under NER ownership, as a result of increasing use, in 1873 the station building was added. As demand declined, passenger service was withdrawn in 1939, followed by the goods service in 1966. Trains continued to use the line for another three years before it closed, the track being lifted in 1970. Although in a state of disrepair, the museum acquired the building, dismantling it in 1972, being officially unveiled in its new location by railway campaigner and poet, Sir John Betjeman.

 

The station building is presented as an Edwardian station, lit by oil lamp, having never been connected to gas or electricity supplies in its lifetime. It features both an open waiting area and a visitor accessible waiting room (western half), and a booking and ticket office (eastern half), with the latter only visible from a small viewing entrance. Adorning the waiting room is a large tiled NER route map.

 

Signal box

The signal box dates from 1896, and was relocated from Carr House East near Consett. It features assorted signalling equipment, basic furnishings for the signaller, and a lever frame, controlling the stations numerous points, interlocks and semaphore signals. The frame is not an operational part of the railway, the points being hand operated using track side levers. Visitors can only view the interior from a small area inside the door.

 

Goods shed

The goods shed is originally from Alnwick. The goods area represents how general cargo would have been moved on the railway, and for onward transport. The goods shed features a covered platform where road vehicles (wagons and carriages) can be loaded with the items unloaded from railway vans. The shed sits on a triangular platform serving two sidings, with a platform mounted hand-crane, which would have been used for transhipment activity (transfer of goods from one wagon to another, only being stored for a short time on the platform, if at all).

 

Coal yard

The coal yard represents how coal would have been distributed from incoming trains to local merchants - it features a coal drop which unloads railway wagons into road going wagons below. At the road entrance to the yard is a weighbridge (with office) and coal merchant's office - both being appropriately furnished with display items, but only viewable from outside.

 

The coal drop was sourced from West Boldon, and would have been a common sight on smaller stations. The weighbridge came from Glanton, while the coal office is from Hexham.

 

Bridges and level crossing

The station is equipped with two footbridges, a wrought iron example to the east having come from Howden-le-Wear, and a cast iron example to the west sourced from Dunston. Next to the western bridge, a roadway from the coal yard is presented as crossing the tracks via a gated level crossing (although in reality the road goes nowhere on the north side).

 

Waggon and Iron Works

Dominating the station is the large building externally presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works, estd 1857. In reality this is the Regional Museums Store (see below), although attached to the north side of the store are two covered sidings (not accessible to visitors), used to service and store the locomotives and stock used on the railway.

 

Other

A corrugated iron hut adjacent to the 'iron works' is presented as belonging to the local council, and houses associated road vehicles, wagons and other items.

 

Fairground

Adjacent to the station is an events field and fairground with a set of Frederick Savage built steam powered Gallopers dating from 1893.

 

Colliery

Presented as Beamish Colliery (owned by James Joicey & Co., and managed by William Severs), the colliery represents the coal mining industry which dominated the North East for generations - the museum site is in the former Durham coalfield, where 165,246 men and boys worked in 304 mines in 1913. By the time period represented by Beamish's 1900s era, the industry was booming - production in the Great Northern Coalfield had peaked in 1913, and miners were relatively well paid (double that of agriculture, the next largest employer), but the work was dangerous. Children could be employed from age 12 (the school leaving age), but could not go underground until 14.

 

Deep mine

Reconstructed pitworks buildings showing winding gear

Dominating the colliery site are the above ground structures of a deep (i.e. vertical shaft) mine - the brick built Winding Engine House, and the red painted wooden Heapstead. These were relocated to the museum (which never had its own vertical shaft), the winding house coming from Beamish Chophill Colliery, and the Heapstead from Ravensworth Park Mine in Gateshead. The winding engine and its enclosing house are both listed.

 

The winding engine was the source of power for hauling miners, equipment and coal up and down the shaft in a cage, the top of the shaft being in the adjacent heapstead, which encloses the frame holding the wheel around which the hoist cable travels. Inside the Heapstead, tubs of coal from the shaft were weighed on a weighbridge, then tipped onto jigging screens, which sifted the solid lumps from small particles and dust - these were then sent along the picking belt, where pickers, often women, elderly or disabled people or young boys (i.e. workers incapable of mining), would separate out unwanted stone, wood and rubbish. Finally, the coal was tipped onto waiting railway wagons below, while the unwanted waste sent to the adjacent heap by an external conveyor.

 

Chophill Colliery was closed by the National Coal Board in 1962, but the winding engine and tower were left in place. When the site was later leased, Beamish founder Frank Atkinson intervened to have both spot listed to prevent their demolition. After a protracted and difficult process to gain the necessary permissions to move a listed structure, the tower and engine were eventually relocated to the museum, work being completed in 1976. The winding engine itself is the only surviving example of the type which was once common, and was still in use at Chophill upon its closure. It was built in 1855 by J&G Joicey of Newcastle, to an 1800 design by Phineas Crowther.

 

Inside the winding engine house, supplementing the winding engine is a smaller jack engine, housed in the rear. These were used to lift heavy equipment, and in deep mines, act as a relief winding engine.

 

Outdoors, next to the Heapstead, is a sinking engine, mounted on red bricks. Brought to the museum from Silksworth Colliery in 1971, it was built by Burlington's of Sunderland in 1868 and is the sole surviving example of its kind. Sinking engines were used for the construction of shafts, after which the winding engine would become the source of hoist power. It is believed the Silksworth engine was retained because it was powerful enough to serve as a backup winding engine, and could be used to lift heavy equipment (i.e. the same role as the jack engine inside the winding house).

 

Drift mine

The Mahogany Drift Mine is original to Beamish, having opened in 1855 and after closing, was brought back into use in 1921 to transport coal from Beamish Park Drift to Beamish Cophill Colliery. It opened as a museum display in 1979. Included in the display is the winding engine and a short section of trackway used to transport tubs of coal to the surface, and a mine office. Visitor access into the mine shaft is by guided tour.

 

Lamp cabin

The Lamp Cabin opened in 2009, and is a recreation of a typical design used in collieries to house safety lamps, a necessary piece of equipment for miners although were not required in the Mahogany Drift Mine, due to it being gas-free. The building is split into two main rooms; in one half, the lamp cabin interior is recreated, with a collection of lamps on shelves, and the system of safety tokens used to track which miners were underground. Included in the display is a 1927 Hailwood and Ackroyd lamp-cleaning machine sourced from Morrison Busty Colliery in Annfield Plain. In the second room is an educational display, i.e., not a period interior.

 

Colliery railways

The colliery features both a standard gauge railway, representing how coal was transported to its onward destination, and narrow-gauge typically used by Edwardian collieries for internal purposes. The standard gauge railway is laid out to serve the deep mine - wagons being loaded by dropping coal from the heapstead - and runs out of the yard to sidings laid out along the northern-edge of the Pit Village.

 

The standard gauge railway has two engine sheds in the colliery yard, the smaller brick, wood and metal structure being an operational building; the larger brick-built structure is presented as Beamish Engine Works, a reconstruction of an engine shed formerly at Beamish 2nd Pit. Used for locomotive and stock storage, it is a long, single track shed featuring a servicing pit for part of its length. Visitors can walk along the full length in a segregated corridor. A third engine shed in brick (lower half) and corrugated iron has been constructed at the southern end of the yard, on the other side of the heapstead to the other two sheds, and is used for both narrow and standard gauge vehicles (on one road), although it is not connected to either system - instead being fed by low-loaders and used for long-term storage only.

 

The narrow gauge railway is serviced by a corrugate iron engine shed, and is being expanded to eventually encompass several sidings.

 

There are a number of industrial steam locomotives (including rare examples by Stephen Lewin from Seaham and Black, Hawthorn & Co) and many chaldron wagons, the region's traditional type of colliery railway rolling stock, which became a symbol of Beamish Museum. The locomotive Coffee Pot No 1 is often in steam during the summer.

 

Other

On the south eastern corner of the colliery site is the Power House, brought to the museum from Houghton Colliery. These were used to store explosives.

 

Pit Village

Alongside the colliery is the pit village, representing life in the mining communities that grew alongside coal production sites in the North East, many having come into existence solely because of the industry, such as Seaham Harbour, West Hartlepool, Esh Winning and Bedlington.

 

Miner's Cottages

The row of six miner's cottages in Francis Street represent the tied-housing provided by colliery owners to mine workers. Relocated to the museum in 1976, they were originally built in the 1860s in Hetton-le-Hole by Hetton Coal Company. They feature the common layout of a single-storey with a kitchen to the rear, the main room of the house, and parlour to the front, rarely used (although it was common for both rooms to be used for sleeping, with disguised folding "dess" beds common), and with children sleeping in attic spaces upstairs. In front are long gardens, used for food production, with associated sheds. An outdoor toilet and coal bunker were in the rear yards, and beyond the cobbled back lane to their rear are assorted sheds used for cultivation, repairs and hobbies. Chalkboard slates attached to the rear wall were used by the occupier to tell the mine's "knocker up" when they wished to be woken for their next shift.

 

No.2 is presented as a Methodist family's home, featuring good quality "Pitman's mahogany" furniture; No.3 is presented as occupied by a second generation well off Irish Catholic immigrant family featuring many items of value (so they could be readily sold off in times of need) and an early 1890s range; No.3 is presented as more impoverished than the others with just a simple convector style Newcastle oven, being inhabited by a miner's widow allowed to remain as her son is also a miner, and supplementing her income doing laundry and making/mending for other families. All the cottages feature examples of the folk art objects typical of mining communities. Also included in the row is an office for the miner's paymaster.[11] In the rear alleyway of the cottages is a communal bread oven, which were commonplace until miner's cottages gradually obtained their own kitchen ranges. They were used to bake traditional breads such as the Stottie, as well as sweet items, such as tea cakes. With no extant examples, the museum's oven had to be created from photographs and oral history.

 

School

The school opened in 1992, and represents the typical board school in the educational system of the era (the stone built single storey structure being inscribed with the foundation date of 1891, Beamish School Board), by which time attendance at a state approved school was compulsory, but the leaving age was 12, and lessons featured learning by rote and corporal punishment. The building originally stood in East Stanley, having been set up by the local school board, and would have numbered around 150 pupils. Having been donated by Durham County Council, the museum now has a special relationship with the primary school that replaced it. With separate entrances and cloakrooms for boys and girls at either end, the main building is split into three class rooms (all accessible to visitors), connected by a corridor along the rear. To the rear is a red brick bike shed, and in the playground visitors can play traditional games of the era.

 

Chapel

Pit Hill Chapel opened in 1990, and represents the Wesleyan Methodist tradition which was growing in North East England, with the chapels used for both religious worship and as community venues, which continue in its role in the museum display. Opened in the 1850s, it originally stood not far from its present site, having been built in what would eventually become Beamish village, near the museum entrance. A stained glass window of The Light of The World by William Holman Hunt came from a chapel in Bedlington. A two handled Love Feast Mug dates from 1868, and came from a chapel in Shildon Colliery. On the eastern wall, above the elevated altar area, is an angled plain white surface used for magic lantern shows, generated using a replica of the double-lensed acetylene gas powered lanterns of the period, mounted in the aisle of the main seating area. Off the western end of the hall is the vestry, featuring a small library and communion sets from Trimdon Colliery and Catchgate.

 

Fish bar

Presented as Davey's Fried Fish & Chip Potato Restaurant, the fish and chip shop opened in 2011, and represents the typical style of shop found in the era as they were becoming rapidly popular in the region - the brick built Victorian style fryery would most often have previously been used for another trade, and the attached corrugated iron hut serves as a saloon with tables and benches, where customers would eat and socialise. Featuring coal fired ranges using beef-dripping, the shop is named in honour of the last coal fired shop in Tyneside, in Winlaton Mill, and which closed in 2007. Latterly run by brothers Brian and Ramsay Davy, it had been established by their grandfather in 1937. The serving counter and one of the shop's three fryers, a 1934 Nuttal, came from the original Davy shop. The other two fryers are a 1920s Mabbott used near Chester until the 1960s, and a GW Atkinson New Castle Range, donated from a shop in Prudhoe in 1973. The latter is one of only two known late Victorian examples to survive. The decorative wall tiles in the fryery came to the museum in 1979 from Cowes Fish and Game Shop in Berwick upon Tweed. The shop also features both an early electric and hand-powered potato rumblers (cleaners), and a gas powered chip chopper built around 1900. Built behind the chapel, the fryery is arranged so the counter faces the rear, stretching the full length of the building. Outside is a brick built row of outdoor toilets. Supplementing the fish bar is the restored Berriman's mobile chip van, used in Spennymoor until the early 1970s.

 

Band hall

The Hetton Silver Band Hall opened in 2013, and features displays reflecting the role colliery bands played in mining life. Built in 1912, it was relocated from its original location in South Market Street, Hetton-le-Hole, where it was used by the Hetton Silver Band, founded in 1887. They built the hall using prize money from a music competition, and the band decided to donate the hall to the museum after they merged with Broughtons Brass Band of South Hetton (to form the Durham Miners' Association Brass Band). It is believed to be the only purpose built band hall in the region. The structure consists of the main hall, plus a small kitchen to the rear; as part of the museum it is still used for performances.

 

Pit pony stables

The Pit Pony Stables were built in 2013/14, and house the museum's pit ponies. They replace a wooden stable a few metres away in the field opposite the school (the wooden structure remaining). It represents the sort of stables that were used in drift mines (ponies in deep mines living their whole lives underground), pit ponies having been in use in the north east as late as 1994, in Ellington Colliery. The structure is a recreation of an original building that stood at Rickless Drift Mine, between High Spen and Greenside; it was built using a yellow brick that was common across the Durham coalfield.

 

Other

Doubling as one of the museum's refreshment buildings, Sinker's Bait Cabin represents the temporary structures that would have served as living quarters, canteens and drying areas for sinkers, the itinerant workforce that would dig new vertical mine shafts.

 

Representing other traditional past-times, the village fields include a quoits pitch, with another refreshment hut alongside it, resembling a wooden clubhouse.

 

In one of the fields in the village stands the Cupola, a small round flat topped brick built tower; such structures were commonly placed on top of disused or ventilation shafts, also used as an emergency exit from the upper seams.

 

The Georgian North (1825)

A late Georgian landscape based around the original Pockerley farm represents the period of change in the region as transport links were improved and as agriculture changed as machinery and field management developed, and breeding stock was improved. It became part of the museum in 1990, having latterly been occupied by a tenant farmer, and was opened as an exhibit in 1995. The hill top position suggests the site was the location of an Iron Age fort - the first recorded mention of a dwelling is in the 1183 Buke of Boldon (the region's equivalent of the Domesday Book). The name Pockerley has Saxon origins - "Pock" or "Pokor" meaning "pimple of bag-like" hill, and "Ley" meaning woodland clearing.

 

The surrounding farmlands have been returned to a post-enclosure landscape with ridge and furrow topography, divided into smaller fields by traditional riven oak fencing. The land is worked and grazed by traditional methods and breeds.

 

Pockerley Old Hall

The estate of Pockerley Old Hall is presented as that of a well off tenant farmer, in a position to take advantage of the agricultural advances of the era. The hall itself consists of the Old House, which is adjoined (but not connected to) the New House, both south facing two storey sandstone built buildings, the Old House also having a small north–south aligned extension. Roof timbers in the sandstone built Old House have been dated to the 1440s, but the lower storey (the undercroft) may be from even earlier. The New House dates to the late 1700s, and replaced a medieval manor house to the east of the Old House as the main farm house - once replaced itself, the Old House is believed to have been let to the farm manager. Visitors can access all rooms in the New and Old House, except the north–south extension which is now a toilet block. Displays include traditional cooking, such as the drying of oatcakes over a wooden rack (flake) over the fireplace in the Old House.

 

Inside the New House the downstairs consists of a main kitchen and a secondary kitchen (scullery) with pantry. It also includes a living room, although as the main room of the house, most meals would have been eaten in the main kitchen, equipped with an early range, boiler and hot air oven. Upstairs is a main bedroom and a second bedroom for children; to the rear (i.e. the colder, north side), are bedrooms for a servant and the servant lad respectively. Above the kitchen (for transferred warmth) is a grain and fleece store, with attached bacon loft, a narrow space behind the wall where bacon or hams, usually salted first, would be hung to be smoked by the kitchen fire (entering through a small door in the chimney).

 

Presented as having sparse and more old fashioned furnishings, the Old House is presented as being occupied in the upper story only, consisting of a main room used as the kitchen, bedroom and for washing, with the only other rooms being an adjoining second bedroom and an overhanging toilet. The main bed is an oak box bed dating to 1712, obtained from Star House in Baldersdale in 1962. Originally a defensive house in its own right, the lower level of the Old House is an undercroft, or vaulted basement chamber, with 1.5 metre thick walls - in times of attack the original tenant family would have retreated here with their valuables, although in its later use as the farm managers house, it is now presented as a storage and work room, housing a large wooden cheese press.[68] More children would have slept in the attic of the Old House (not accessible as a display).

 

To the front of the hall is a terraced garden featuring an ornamental garden with herbs and flowers, a vegetable garden, and an orchard, all laid out and planted according to the designs of William Falla of Gateshead, who had the largest nursery in Britain from 1804 to 1830.

 

The buildings to the east of the hall, across a north–south track, are the original farmstead buildings dating from around 1800. These include stables and a cart shed arranged around a fold yard. The horses and carts on display are typical of North Eastern farms of the era, Fells or Dales ponies and Cleveland Bay horses, and two wheeled long carts for hilly terrain (as opposed to four wheel carts).

 

Pockerley Waggonway

The Pockerley Waggonway opened in 2001, and represents the year 1825, as the year the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened. Waggonways had appeared around 1600, and by the 1800s were common in mining areas - prior to 1800 they had been either horse or gravity powered, before the invention of steam engines (initially used as static winding engines), and later mobile steam locomotives.

 

Housing the locomotives and rolling stock is the Great Shed, which opened in 2001 and is based on Timothy Hackworth's erecting shop, Shildon railway works, and incorporating some material from Robert Stephenson and Company's Newcastle works. Visitors can walk around the locomotives in the shed, and when in steam, can take rides to the end of the track and back in the line's assorted rolling stock - situated next to the Great Shed is a single platform for passenger use. In the corner of the main shed is a corner office, presented as a locomotive designer's office (only visible to visitors through windows). Off the pedestrian entrance in the southern side is a room presented as the engine crew's break room. Atop the Great Shed is a weather vane depicting a waggonway train approaching a cow, a reference to a famous quote by George Stephenson when asked by parliament in 1825 what would happen in such an eventuality - "very awkward indeed - for the coo!".

 

At the far end of the waggonway is the (fictional) coal mine Pockerley Gin Pit, which the waggonway notionally exists to serve. The pit head features a horse powered wooden whim gin, which was the method used before steam engines for hauling men and material up and down mineshafts - coal was carried in corves (wicker baskets), while miners held onto the rope with their foot in an attached loop.

 

Wooden waggonway

Following creation of the Pockerley Waggonway, the museum went back a chapter in railway history to create a horse-worked wooden waggonway.

 

St Helen's Church

St Helen's Church represents a typical type of country church found in North Yorkshire, and was relocated from its original site in Eston, North Yorkshire. It is the oldest and most complex building moved to the museum. It opened in November 2015, but will not be consecrated as this would place restrictions on what could be done with the building under church law.

 

The church had existed on its original site since around 1100. As the congregation grew, it was replaced by two nearby churches, and latterly became a cemetery chapel. After closing in 1985, it fell into disrepair and by 1996 was burnt out and vandalised leading to the decision by the local authority in 1998 to demolish it. Working to a deadline of a threatened demolition within six months, the building was deconstructed and moved to Beamish, reconstruction being authorised in 2011, with the exterior build completed by 2012.

 

While the structure was found to contain some stones from the 1100 era, the building itself however dates from three distinct building phases - the chancel on the east end dates from around 1450, while the nave, which was built at the same time, was modernised in 1822 in the Churchwarden style, adding a vestry. The bell tower dates from the late 1600s - one of the two bells is a rare dated Tudor example. Gargoyles, originally hidden in the walls and believed to have been pranks by the original builders, have been made visible in the reconstruction.

 

Restored to its 1822 condition, the interior has been furnished with Georgian box pews sourced from a church in Somerset. Visitors can access all parts except the bell tower. The nave includes a small gallery level, at the tower end, while the chancel includes a church office.

 

Joe the Quilter's Cottage

The most recent addition to the area opened to the public in 2018 is a recreation of a heather-thatched cottage which features stones from the Georgian quilter Joseph Hedley's original home in Northumberland. It was uncovered during an archaeological dig by Beamish. His original cottage was demolished in 1872 and has been carefully recreated with the help of a drawing on a postcard. The exhibit tells the story of quilting and the growth of cottage industries in the early 1800s. Within there is often a volunteer or member of staff not only telling the story of how Joe was murdered in 1826, a crime that remains unsolved to this day, but also giving visitors the opportunity to learn more and even have a go at quilting.

 

Other

A pack pony track passes through the scene - pack horses having been the mode of transport for all manner of heavy goods where no waggonway exists, being also able to reach places where carriages and wagons could not access. Beside the waggonway is a gibbet.

 

Farm (1940s)

Presented as Home Farm, this represents the role of North East farms as part of the British Home Front during World War II, depicting life indoors, and outside on the land. Much of the farmstead is original, and opened as a museum display in 1983. The farm is laid out across a north–south public road; to the west is the farmhouse and most of the farm buildings, while on the east side are a pair of cottages, the British Kitchen, an outdoor toilet ("netty"), a bull field, duck pond and large shed.

 

The farm complex was rebuilt in the mid-19th century as a model farm incorporating a horse mill and a steam-powered threshing mill. It was not presented as a 1940s farm until early 2014.

 

The farmhouse is presented as having been modernised, following the installation of electric power and an Aga cooker in the scullery, although the main kitchen still has the typical coal-fired black range. Lino flooring allowed quicker cleaning times, while a radio set allowed the family to keep up to date with wartime news. An office next to the kitchen would have served both as the administration centre for the wartime farm, and as a local Home Guard office. Outside the farmhouse is an improvised Home Guard pillbox fashioned from half an egg-ended steam boiler, relocated from its original position near Durham.

 

The farm is equipped with three tractors which would have all seen service during the war: a Case, a Fordson N and a 1924 Fordson F. The farm also features horse-drawn traps, reflecting the effect wartime rationing of petrol would have had on car use. The farming equipment in the cart and machinery sheds reflects the transition of the time from horse-drawn to tractor-pulled implements, with some older equipment put back into use due to the war, as well as a large Foster thresher, vital for cereal crops, and built specifically for the war effort, sold at the Newcastle Show. Although the wartime focus was on crops, the farm also features breeds of sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry that would have been typical for the time. The farm also has a portable steam engine, not in use, but presented as having been left out for collection as part of a wartime scrap metal drive.

 

The cottages would have housed farm labourers, but are presented as having new uses for the war: Orchard Cottage housing a family of evacuees, and Garden Cottage serving as a billet for members of the Women's Land Army (Land Girls). Orchard Cottage is named for an orchard next to it, which also contains an Anderson shelter, reconstructed from partial pieces of ones recovered from around the region. Orchard Cottage, which has both front and back kitchens, is presented as having an up to date blue enameled kitchen range, with hot water supplied from a coke stove, as well as a modern accessible bathroom. Orchard Cottage is also used to stage recreations of wartime activities for schools, elderly groups and those living with dementia. Garden Cottage is sparsely furnished with a mix of items, reflecting the few possessions Land Girls were able to take with them, although unusually the cottage is depicted with a bathroom, and electricity (due to proximity to a colliery).

 

The British Kitchen is both a display and one of the museum's catering facilities; it represents an installation of one of the wartime British Restaurants, complete with propaganda posters and a suitably patriotic menu.

 

Town (1950s)

As part of the Remaking Beamish project, with significant funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the museum is creating a 1950s town. Opened in July 2019, the Welfare Hall is an exact replica of the Leasingthorne Colliery Welfare Hall and Community Centre which was built in 1957 near Bishop Auckland. Visitors can 'take part in activities including dancing, crafts, Meccano, beetle drive, keep fit and amateur dramatics' while also taking a look at the National Health Service exhibition on display, recreating the environment of an NHS clinic. A recreation and play park, named Coronation Park was opened in May 2022 to coincide with the celebrations around the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

 

The museum's first 1950s terrace opened in February 2022. This included a fish and chip shop from Middleton St George, a cafe, a replica of Norman Cornish's home, and a hairdressers. Future developments opposite the existing 1950s terrace will see a recreation of The Grand Cinema, from Ryhope, in Sunderland, and toy and electricians shops. Also underdevelopment are a 1950s bowling green and pavilion, police houses and aged miner's cottages. Also under construction are semi-detached houses; for this exhibit, a competition was held to recreate a particular home at Beamish, which was won by a family from Sunderland.

 

As well as the town, a 1950s Northern bus depot has been opened on the western side of the museum – the purpose of this is to provide additional capacity for bus, trolleybus and tram storage once the planned trolleybus extension and the new area are completed, providing extra capacity and meeting the need for modified routing.

 

Spain's Field Farm

In March 2022, the museum opened Spain's Field Farm. It had stood for centuries at Eastgate in Weardale, and was moved to Beamish stone-by-stone. It is exhibited as it would have been in the 1950s.

 

1820s Expansion

In the area surrounding the current Pockerley Old Hall and Steam Wagon Way more development is on the way. The first of these was planned to be a Georgian Coaching Inn that would be the museum's first venture into overnight accommodation. However following the COVID-19 pandemic this was abandoned, in favour of self-catering accommodation in existing cottages.

 

There are also plans for 1820s industries including a blacksmith's forge and a pottery.

 

Museum stores

There are two stores on the museum site, used to house donated objects. In contrast to the traditional rotation practice used in museums where items are exchanged regularly between store and display, it is Beamish policy that most of their exhibits are to be in use and on display - those items that must be stored are to be used in the museum's future developments.

 

Open Store

Housed in the Regional Resource Centre, the Open Store is accessible to visitors. Objects are housed on racks along one wall, while the bulk of items are in a rolling archive, with one set of shelves opened, with perspex across their fronts to permit viewing without touching.

 

Regional Museums Store

The real purposes of the building presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works next to Rowley Station is as the Regional Museums Store, completed in 2002, which Beamish shares with Tyne and Wear Museums. This houses, amongst other things, a large marine diesel engine by William Doxford & Sons of Pallion, Sunderland (1977); and several boats including the Tyne wherry (a traditional local type of lighter) Elswick No. 2 (1930). The store is only open at selected times, and for special tours which can be arranged through the museum; however, a number of viewing windows have been provided for use at other times.

 

Transport collection

Main article: Beamish Museum transport collection

The museum contains much of transport interest, and the size of its site makes good internal transportation for visitors and staff purposes a necessity.

 

The collection contains a variety of historical vehicles for road, rail and tramways. In addition there are some modern working replicas to enhance the various scenes in the museum.

 

Agriculture

The museum's two farms help to preserve traditional northcountry and in some cases rare livestock breeds such as Durham Shorthorn Cattle; Clydesdale and Cleveland Bay working horses; Dales ponies; Teeswater sheep; Saddleback pigs; and poultry.

 

Regional heritage

Other large exhibits collected by the museum include a tracked steam shovel, and a coal drop from Seaham Harbour.

 

In 2001 a new-build Regional Resource Centre (accessible to visitors by appointment) opened on the site to provide accommodation for the museum's core collections of smaller items. These include over 300,000 historic photographs, printed books and ephemera, and oral history recordings. The object collections cover the museum's specialities. These include quilts; "clippy mats" (rag rugs); Trade union banners; floor cloth; advertising (including archives from United Biscuits and Rowntree's); locally made pottery; folk art; and occupational costume. Much of the collection is viewable online and the arts of quilting, rug making and cookery in the local traditions are demonstrated at the museum.

 

Filming location

The site has been used as the backdrop for many film and television productions, particularly Catherine Cookson dramas, produced by Tyne Tees Television, and the final episode and the feature film version of Downton Abbey. Some of the children's television series Supergran was shot here.

 

Visitor numbers

On its opening day the museum set a record by attracting a two-hour queue. Visitor numbers rose rapidly to around 450,000 p.a. during the first decade of opening to the public, with the millionth visitor arriving in 1978.

 

Awards

Museum of the Year1986

European Museum of the Year Award1987

Living Museum of the Year2002

Large Visitor Attraction of the YearNorth East England Tourism awards2014 & 2015

Large Visitor Attraction of the Year (bronze)VisitEngland awards2016

It was designated by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 1997 as a museum with outstanding collections.

 

Critical responses

In responding to criticism that it trades on nostalgia the museum is unapologetic. A former director has written: "As individuals and communities we have a deep need and desire to understand ourselves in time."

 

According to the BBC writing in its 40th anniversary year, Beamish was a mould-breaking museum that became a great success due to its collection policy, and what sets it apart from other museums is the use of costumed people to impart knowledge to visitors, rather than labels or interpretive panels (although some such panels do exist on the site), which means it "engages the visitor with history in a unique way".

 

Legacy

Beamish was influential on the Black Country Living Museum, Blists Hill Victorian Town and, in the view of museologist Kenneth Hudson, more widely in the museum community and is a significant educational resource locally. It can also demonstrate its benefit to the contemporary local economy.

 

The unselective collecting policy has created a lasting bond between museum and community.

Replacing the alternator while on the camp site

 

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To replace the aging PBM Mariner, Martin began work on the P5M Marlin in 1946. The first XP5M-1 was essentially an upgraded Mariner, with a new fuselage. To keep the engines clear of the spray, the Mariner's gull wing was kept, though the floats were made more hydrodynamic; to improve the Marlin's performance on the water, "hydroflaps" were introduced. In the air, the hydroflaps doubled as speedbrakes, while in the water, they were used to improve the Marlin's turning circle in narrow harbors. The P5M-1 went into service in 1952. Because it was intended more as an antisubmarine warfare/rescue aircraft, the three turrets of the XP5M-1 were deleted on production aircraft.

 

While the P5M-1 was adequate and well-liked by its crews, Martin wanted to improve the design. The P5M-2 was nearly a new aircraft, with a redesigned forward fuselage to cut down on water spray even more, and a more aerodynamic T-tail, which also allowed for the inclusion of a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) boom at the base of the tail. An improved radar was mounted on the nose, making the Marlin a superb antisubmarine platform. In 1962, the P5M-2 was redesignated the SP-5B.

 

Though Marlins were used during the Cold War to patrol the coasts of the US, their first and only combat deployment was to Vietnam in 1965 to assist in Operation Market Time. Market Time was the mostly successful attempt to stem resupply of the Viet Cong by sea from North Vietnam. The Marlin's ability to detect small targets and its long loiter time, and its ability to operate from any body of water, made it valuable for the role. Several detachments were rotated out of Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, from NAS Sangley Point in the Philippines.

 

The Navy, however, felt that the day of the seaplane was drawing to a close, and the Marlin's role could be better done by longer-ranged, land-based P-3 Orions. The last US Navy seaplane squadron, VP-40, deactivated in 1967; the Marlin would prove to be the last aircraft produced in numbers by the Martin company before its merger with Convair. A few were operated briefly by the US Coast Guard, and ten were leased for a short time by the French Aeronavale. Of 258 P5Ms built, today only a single example survives at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida.

 

This side view of a VP-48 SP-5B is another from the Lockwood collection. Not only does it show a Marlin from the side, it also shows how big of an aircraft it was (note the men in the shadow of the wing). This shows the Marlin's early 1960s scheme of white over dark blue; some Marlins carried this until the end of their careers. Mr. Lockwood took this picture at NAS Sangley Point, Philippines, in 1966. He passed away in 2015, and these pictures are presented in his honor.

September 13, 2019:

19-572259

Ottawa,

Ottawa Transit,

OC Transpo (Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission),

OC Transpo Bus Fleet,

OC Transpo 6643 NFI D60LFR (2010-11) Bus,

Bus Westbound On Albert St The Day Before The Confederation Line (Line 1) LRT System (Sept 14) That Will Replace All Current Buses Routes On This Street Oct 07/2019,

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 23-Oct-19, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 30-Jan-24.

 

Landing on the far runway with quite a bit of heat shimmer!

 

A purpose built freighter, this aircraft was first flown in Feb-99 with the McDonnell Douglas test registration N9030Q.

 

It was stored at Kingman, AZ, USA after it's 1st flight and returned to Longbeach, CA, USA prior to delivery to EVA Air Cargo as B-16113 in Aug-99.

 

After only 16 years in service the aircraft was permanently retired at San Bernardino, CA, USA in Mar-15. It was last noted still at San Bernardino in Oct-16.

I have to feather back the paint edges, apply some primer , then color and blend in the clear coats. There will be some baking and sanding mixed in there also.

Replaced a 8-8-12.