View allAll Photos Tagged Winchester Community Review

Excalibur Hotel and Casino is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in the United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International.

 

Excalibur, named for the mythical sword of King Arthur, uses the medieval theme in several ways. Its facade is a stylized image of a castle (see also: List of castles in the United States). Until 2007, a wizard-like figure representing Merlin looked out from a high turret (since replaced by a figure advertising Dick's Last Resort).

 

Excalibur is situated at the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. The hotel is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to neighboring casinos to the north (New York-New York, across Tropicana Avenue) and to the east (Tropicana, across the Strip). A free tram connects Excalibur to its sister MGM Resorts International properties to the south, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

 

The land on which the Excalibur sits was originally the proposed site of the Xanadu Resort envisioned in 1975. The 1,730 room Asian-tropical-themed resort would have been the first mega-resort in Las Vegas. The project was never built when the developers could not secure a deal with the county on the sewer infrastructure such a large project would have required.

 

Circus Circus Enterprises constructed Excalibur which opened on June 19, 1990, as the largest resort hotel in the world, with more than 4,000 rooms covering over 70 acres. As of 2016 it is the seventh-largest hotel (by total number of rooms) in Las Vegas, and the thirteenth-largest hotel worldwide. MGM Resorts International purchased the property in 2005.

 

Excalibur was designed in line with the "theme resort" strategy popular among some casino operators during the 1990s, which included the traditional Las Vegas gaming experience coupled with family-oriented elements. However, since 2006 most of the medieval-themed statues and scenery have been removed as part of a four-year renovation and modernization project. As of 2010, few of the themed wall murals still remained as Excalibur was updated to include more modern and understated elements, including contemporary furniture and flat-screen plasma TVs in 2,000 renovated guest rooms.

 

On March 21, 2003, Josh Ford of Los Angeles hit the largest Megabucks Jackpot to date of US$39.7 million at Excalibur.

 

Ownership of the Excalibur, along with many other MGM properties, was transferred to MGM Growth Properties in 2016, while MGM Resorts continued to operate it under a lease agreement. Vici Properties acquired MGM Growth, including the Excalibur, in 2022.

 

The 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) gaming area at Excalibur consists of table games and more than 1,200 slot machines. In addition to casino space, the Excalibur resort includes a renovated pool area, a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) spa and fitness center, eight restaurants and a food court, the Chapel at Excalibur, and the Octane Lounge & The Lounge with live music on the weekends, and an arcade.

 

In May 1999, the casino partnered with World Championship Wrestling to open the WCW Nitro Grill, which was the first professional wrestling themed restaurant and nightclub in the United States; the restaurant was frequently visited by numerous professional wrestlers. WCW Nitro Grill operated for 16 months before closing in September 2000 due in part to WCW's financial problems; the restaurant's current space would later be occupied by a Dick's Last Resort location, where it remains to this day.

 

Excalibur is home to three permanent shows: the all-male revue Thunder From Down Under, The Australian Bee Gees Show, a tribute to the Bee Gees and the medieval-themed dinner show Tournament of Kings. Thunder From Down Under moved to Excalibur in July 2001 and since then has received recognition as one of the best all-male strip shows in Las Vegas. In 2006, the performance space was renamed the "Thunder From Down Under Showroom" in honor of the troupe. Tournament of Kings is a medieval jousting tournament performed with 12 breeds of horses and 32 cast members in a 925-seat amphitheater called King Arthur's Arena. The show includes a banquet feast served by a costumed serf or wench and is meant to be eaten without utensils. Tournament of Kings debuted along with the opening of Excalibur in 1990.

 

Dick's Last Resort restaurant opened at Excalibur in June 2007. Dick's is known for its unusual dining experience in which servers purposefully act obnoxious towards guests. Employee "Taco" is considered Dick's mascot and entertains guests with his own version of the Bellagio fountain show using water dispensers behind the bar.

 

Excalibur's food court housed one of the few McDonald's in the world to vend Pepsi instead of Coke until the restaurant closed in early 2016.

 

The fun dungeon is an arcade from which you can access the Tournament of Kings arena, and also includes a laser tag arena.

 

In 1993, the Excalibur introduced a new attraction featuring a 71 foot animatronic dragon fighting with Merlin in the moat of the castle. Every day between 6 p.m. and midnight, visitors could watch the mechanical puppets designed by Alvaro Villa's AVG Entertainment. The hourly show, which had been awarded the "Worst Attraction" accolade by Las Vegas Review-Journal twice, was discontinued in 2004.

 

Excalibur has been featured in several video game and television productions since opening in 1990. Excalibur itself, or a hotel resembling Excalibur, makes appearances in the video games Driver 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In television productions, Excalibur was the setting for a stunt on the Las Vegas edition of Fear Factor and was featured in an episode of South Park called "It Hits the Fan". Also, season six of Top Chef contestant Jennifer used Excalibur as the inspiration for one of her meals. The mobile game Fate/Grand Order's 2019 summer event is set in Las Vegas and takes place at a fictional casino modeled after Excalibur called "Camelot & Co.", run by Merlin and Altria, the series' gender-flipped version of King Arthur.

 

The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about 4.2 mi (6.8 km) long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".

 

Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are on the Strip, known for its contemporary architecture, lights, and wide variety of attractions. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas's economy. Most of the Strip has been designated as an All-American Road, and the North and South Las Vegas Strip routes are classified as Nevada Scenic Byways and National Scenic Byways.

 

The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first full service casino-resort on what is currently called 'The Strip' was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 bungalow hotel rooms on April 3, 1941. (The 'El Rancho Vegas' showroom and casino were destroyed by a fire in 1960. The El Rancho Vegas bungalows were not damaged, and were rented out until the early 1980's). Its success spawned a second hotel on what would become the Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. Organized crime figures such as Bugsy Siegel, originally from New York, later residing in California, took an intense interest in the growing Las Vegas gaming center, and funded another resort- mob financing for the finishing of the Flamingo construction. The Flamingo construction was started by famed Hollywood publisher Billy Wilkerson. The Flamingo casino opened in December 1946, and the hotel opened in March 1947. Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn resort opened in 1950. The funding for many Las Vegas projects was provided through the American National Insurance Company, which was based in the then-notorious gambling empire of Galveston, Texas.

 

Las Vegas Boulevard South was previously called Hwy 91, or the Arrowhead Highway, or Los Angeles Highway.[citation needed]The Strip was named by Los Angeles police officer and businessman Guy McAfee, after his hometown's Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

 

In 1950, Mayor Ernie Cragin of the City of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which was unincorporated Clark County territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. Instead, Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo led a group of casino executives to lobby the Clark County commissioners for town status. Two unincorporated towns were eventually created, Paradise and Winchester. More than two decades later, the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down a 1975 Nevada state law that would have folded the Strip and the rest of the urban areas of Clark County into the City of Las Vegas.

 

Caesars Palace was established in 1966. In 1968, Kirk Kerkorian purchased the Flamingo and hired Sahara Hotels Vice President Alex Shoofey as president. Alex Shoofey brought along 33 of Sahara's top executives.[citation needed] The Flamingo was used to train future employees of the International Hotel, which was under construction. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel, with 1,512 rooms, began the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as Westgate Las Vegas today.

 

The first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, also a Kerkorian property, opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. At the time, this was one of the largest hotels in the world by number of rooms. The Rossiya Hotel built in 1967 in Moscow, for instance, had 3,200 rooms; however, most of the rooms in the Rossiya Hotel were single rooms of 118 sq. ft (roughly 1/4 size of a standard room at the MGM Grand Resort). On November 21, 1980, MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas as a result of electrical problems, killing 87 people. It reopened eight months later. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing, and it was renamed Bally's.

 

The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. Some of the key features of The Mirage included tropical landscapes with waterfalls, an erupting volcano, restaurants with world-class chefs, and a show with illusionists Siegfried & Roy. In the 1990s, more than 12 new hotels opened, including themed hotels like the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. At $1.7B, the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, The Bellagio, was built in the 1990s.[30] These huge facilities offer entertainment and dining options, as well as gambling and lodging. This change affected the smaller, well-known and now historic hotels and casinos, like the Dunes, the Sands, and the Stardust.[citation needed] In 1993, the launch of the Mystère show at the new Treasure Island hotel by Cirque du Soleil marked a key point in transforming Las Vegas Strip entertainment.

 

In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared toward youth, but had limited success. The Wet 'n Wild water park opened in 1985 and was located on the south side of the Sahara hotel. It closed at the end of the 2004 season and was later demolished. The current MGM Grand opened in 1993 with MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park, but the park closed in 2000 due to lack of interest.[citation needed] Similarly, in 2003 Treasure Island closed its own video arcade and abandoned the previous pirate theme, adopting the new ti name.

 

In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, the Strip is home to many attractions, such as M&M's World, Adventuredome and the Fashion Show Mall. Starting in the mid-1990s, the Strip became a popular New Year's Eve celebration destination.

 

With the opening of Bellagio, Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn and Encore resorts, the strip trended towards the luxurious high end segment through most of the 2000s, while some older resorts added major expansions and renovations, including some de-theming of the earlier themed hotels. High end dining, specialty retail, spas and nightclubs increasingly became options for visitors in addition to gambling at most Strip resorts. There was also a trend towards expensive residential condo units on the strip.

 

In 2004, MGM Mirage announced plans for CityCenter, a 66-acre (27 ha), $7 billion multi-use project on the site of the Boardwalk hotel and adjoining land. It consists of hotel, casino, condo, retail, art, business and other uses on the site. CityCenter is currently the largest such complex in the world. Construction began in April 2006, with most elements of the project opened in late 2009. Also in 2006, the Las Vegas Strip lost its longtime status as the world's highest-grossing gambling center, falling to second place behind Macau.

 

In 2012, the High Roller Ferris wheel and a retail district called The LINQ Promenade broke ground in an attempt to diversify attractions beyond that of casino resorts. Renovations and rebrandings such as The Cromwell Las Vegas and the SLS Las Vegas continued to transform the Strip in 2014. The Las Vegas Festival Grounds opened in 2015. In 2016, T-Mobile Arena, The Park, and the Park Theater opened.

 

On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred on the Strip at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay hotel. 60 people were killed, and 867 were injured. The murderer was a well known Las Vegas high roller named Stephen Paddock. Paddock's motive was never determined, and he committed suicide after the murders were committed. Paddock used several rifles to shoot guests at the Route 91 Festival. These murders became the deadliest mass shootings in modern United States history.

 

In 2018, the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino was renamed the Park MGM and in 2019, the SLS changed its name back to Sahara Las Vegas.

 

In 2021, the Pinball Hall of Fame moved near the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign at the south end of the Strip. Later that year, Resorts World Las Vegas, the first new hotel-casino built in a decade, opened on the site of the former Stardust Resort and Casino. Resorts World incorporates portions of a previously planned resort known as Echelon Place, which was canceled in 2008.

 

In 2022, Bally's was renamed the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

 

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife, with most venues centered on downtown Las Vegas and more to the Las Vegas Strip just outside city limits. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053, making it the 25th-most populous city in the United States.

 

The city bills itself as the Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels. With over 2.9 million visitors as of 2019, Las Vegas is the sixth-most visited city in the U.S., after New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, and San Francisco. It is a top-three destination in the U.S. for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment had earned it the nickname "Sin City", and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

 

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s and into the 21st century, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Strip, which are actually in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Southern Nevada, already one of the driest regions in the United States, have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Las Vegas's water security.

 

Nevada is a state in the Western region of the United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, the 32nd-most populous, and the 9th-least densely populated of the U.S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, including three of the state's four largest incorporated cities. Nevada's capital is Carson City. Las Vegas is the largest city in the state.

 

Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State" because it achieved statehood during the Civil War (the words "Battle Born" also appear on its state flag); due to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the Union benefited immensely from the support of newly awarded statehood by the infusion of the monetary support of nearly $400 million in silver ore generated at the time by the Comstock Lode. It is also known as the "Sagebrush State", for the native plant of the same name; and as the "Sage-hen State". The state's name means "snowy" in Spanish, referring to Nevada's small overlap with the Sierra Nevada mountain range; however, the rest of Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada lie on the western edge. About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U.S. federal government, both civilian and military.

 

American Indians of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes inhabit what is now Nevada. The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada (snowy) because of the snow which covered the mountains in winter, similar to the Sierra Nevada in Spain. The area formed from mostly Alta California and part of Nuevo México's territory within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which gained independence as Mexico in 1821. The United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of the New Mexico and Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, as the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War (the first being West Virginia).

 

Nevada is known for its libertarian laws. In 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populous state, Wyoming. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century. Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in its most populated regions – Clark County (Las Vegas), Washoe County (Reno) and Carson City (which, as an independent city, is not within the boundaries of any county). The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing as a substantial sector of the economy: Nevada is the fourth-largest producer of gold in the world. Nevada is the driest state, and over time, and influenced by climate change, droughts in Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Nevada's water security.

The Church of All Saints at Nunney, Somerset, England, is a Grade I listed building dating from the 12th century.

 

It was probably built on the site of an earlier Saxon or Norman church from which a Saxon cross and Norman font can still be seen. A 15th-century wagon or Barrel vault used to cover the nave however the timber rotted and it was demolished in 1957. A temporary roof was installed and hidden by a suspended ceiling. Plans are being drawn up to replace the roof and fundraising is under way.

 

Sir John Delamare and other lords of Nunney Castle are buried in the church.

 

The Anglican parish is part of the benefice of Postlebury within the archdeaconry of Wells.

 

Nunney is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It is located 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Frome and the parish includes the hamlet of Holwell.

 

The name of the village comes from Old English and means Nunna's island.

 

Today, the tourist attractions are the ruins of Nunney Castle, a historic church, and ducks wandering the streets near the river. The village hall is host to Nunney Acoustic Cafe which provides live music, homemade food, a bar and children's art activities on the second Sunday of each month (except July and August).

 

On 30 September 2007, Nunney was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 report, asking whether "the prettiest village in England" is a place where we can learn "how to mend our broken society".

 

"Visit Nunney" the community interest group closed down in 2021.

 

Evidence of Roman settlement has been provided by the discovery of a hoard of Roman coins in 1869 at Westdown Farm and a villa with a mosaic floor.

 

Nunney is mentioned as a manor belonging to William de Moyon in the Domesday Book in 1086, but the book does not mention a castle.

 

The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.

 

For many years, from the medieval period until the 19th century, Nunney was the site of water-powered mills owned initially by the Hoddinotts and then by James Fussell.

 

The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.

 

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, the village comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Frome Rural District.

 

Nunney is part of the Somerton and Frome county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post electoral system.

 

The village falls within the Cranmore, Doulting and Nunney electoral ward. Starting at Doulting in the west, the ward stretches eastwards through Cranmore and Nunney to finish in the east at Whatley. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 2,374.

 

Cloford Quarry is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Geological Conservation Review site important for the exposures of sediments of Triassic and Jurassic age which occur in major fissures within the Carboniferous Limestone laid down beneath the sea some 350 million years ago.

 

The Holwell Quarries are another geological Site of Special Scientific Interest which represent an internationally important geological locality. A comprehensive assemblage of Triassic (including Rhaetic), Lower Jurassic and Middle Jurassic fissure fillings are well displayed. The Rhaetic fissure fillings have yielded the richest assemblage of vertebrate faunas known from the British Triassic.

 

Along with the rest of South West England, Nunney has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F) with seasonal and diurnal variations, but due to the modifying effect of the sea, the range is less than in most other parts of the United Kingdom. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 °C (34 °F) and 2 °C (36 °F). July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around 21 °C (70 °F). In general, December is the dullest month and June the sunniest. The south west of England enjoys a favoured location, particularly in summer, when the Azores High extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK.

 

Cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and reduces exposure to sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds and a large proportion of the annual precipitation falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around 800–900 mm (31–35 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest. The predominant wind direction is from the south west.

 

The market cross across the road from the church is Grade II* listed. It was originally built around 1100, when stood in the churchyard of All Saints' Church. It was removed in 1869, as the noise from children playing on the steps annoyed the rector. The stone was discovered in a builders yard and rebuilt in his garden by the squire of Whatley and the Celtic cross added. After his death and a fire which destroyed his house, the cross was again dismantled and rebuilt on its present site in 1959.

 

There are over 30 other listed buildings in the village, including Rockfield House which was built in 1805 by John Pinch.

 

The Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed building dating from the 12th century.

 

Nunney Castle is a small, French-style castle surrounded by a deep moat, built for Sir John Delamare in 1373, and said to have been based on the Bastille in Paris, and shows a strong awareness of contemporary French practice. It was later the property of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, before passing to several owners and in 1577 was sold by Swithun Thorpe to John Parker who only kept it for a year before selling it to Richard Prater, at a cost of £2000. During the English Civil Wars (1642–51) Colonel Richard Prater, who held the castle until 1645, lost it to Fairfax, the commander of Cromwell's forces in the battle that took place at Nunney. The castle was besieged for two days, but capitulated when Cromwell's men used cannon to blast a great hole in the north west wall of the castle.

 

The George at Nunney Inn is close to the church and opposite Nunney Castle. It dates from the mid-18th century. Since that time it has been much extended and is now a 10 bedroom hotel with holiday cottages. The interior still features many of the original features with stone walls, exposed beams, and large open fireplaces. It is a Grade II listed building.

 

The Nunney Players are a Drama group, who meet up every year to put on a performance at the village hall. The Nunney Players have won many awards and have put on shows such as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Pinocchio.

 

The village website, run by Visit Nunney community interest company (CIC), was a finalist for UK Information/News Website of the Year in The Good Web Guide Awards in November 2014.

 

Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.

 

Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.

 

The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.

 

There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.

 

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

 

Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.

 

Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.

 

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.

 

Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.

 

At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.

 

There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.

 

The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.

 

The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.

 

Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.

 

Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.

 

The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.

 

Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.

 

Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of mints including Arles and Lyons in France, Trier in Germany and Rome.

 

In April 2010, the Frome Hoard, one of the largest-ever hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found by a metal detectorist. The hoard of 52,500 coins dated from the 3rd century AD and was found buried in a field near Frome, in a jar 14 inches (36 cm) below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

 

This is the period from about 409 AD to the start of Saxon political control, which was mainly in the late 7th century, though they are said to have captured the Bath area in 577 AD. Initially the Britons of Somerset seem to have continued much as under the Romans but without the imperial taxation and markets. There was then a period of civil war in Britain though it is not known how this affected Somerset. The Western Wandsdyke may have been constructed in this period but archaeological data shows that it was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. This area became the border between the Romano-British Celts and the West Saxons following the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the Celts as a defence against Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the British Celtic tribes, with victories at Bradford-on-Avon (in the Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 652 AD, and further south at the Battle of Peonnum (at Penselwood) in 658 AD, followed by an advance west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett.

 

The Saxon advance from the east seems to have been halted by battles between the British and Saxons, for example; at the siege of Badon Mons Badonicus (which may have been in the Bath region e.g. at Solsbury Hill), or Bathampton Down. During the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, Somerset was probably partly in the Kingdom of Dumnonia, partly in the land of the Durotriges and partly in that of the Dobunni. The boundaries between these is largely unknown, but may have been similar to those in the Iron Age. Various "tyrants" seem to have controlled territories from reoccupied hill forts. There is evidence of an elite at hill forts such as Cadbury Castle and Cadbury Camp; for example, there is imported pottery. Cemeteries are an important source of evidence for the period and large ones have been found in Somerset, such as that at Cannington, which was used from the Roman to the Saxon period. The towns of Somerset seem to have been little used during that period but there continued to be farming on the villa sites and at the Romano-British villages.

 

There may have been effects from plague and volcanic eruption during this period as well as marine transgression into the Levels.

 

The language spoken during this period is thought to be Southwestern Brythonic, but only one or two inscribed stones survive in Somerset from this period. However, a couple of curse tablets found in the baths at Bath may be in this language. Some place names in Somerset seem to be Celtic in origin and may be from this period or earlier, e.g. Tarnock. Some river names, such as Parrett, may be Celtic or pre-Celtic. The religion of the people of Somerset in this period is thought to be Christian but it was isolated from Rome until after the Council of Hertford in 673 AD when Aldhelm was asked to write a letter to Geraint of Dumnonia and his bishops. Some church sites in Somerset are thought to date from this period, e.g., Llantokay Street.

 

Most of what is known of the history of this period comes from Gildas's On the Ruin of Britain, which is thought to have been written in Durotrigan territory, possibly at Glastonbury.

 

The earliest fortification of Taunton started for King Ine of Wessex and Æthelburg, in or about the year 710 AD. However, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle this was destroyed 12 years later.

 

This is the period from the late 7th century (for most of Somerset) to 1066, though for part of the 10th and 11th centuries England was under Danish control. Somerset, like Dorset to the south, held the West Saxon advance from Wiltshire/Hampshire back for over a century, remaining a frontier between the Saxons and the Romano-British Celts.

 

The Saxons conquered Bath following the Battle of Deorham in 577, and the border was probably established along the line of the Wansdyke to the north of the Mendip Hills. Then Cenwalh of Wessex broke through at Bradford-on-Avon in 652, and the Battle of Peonnum possibly at Penselwood in 658, advancing west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett. In 661 the Saxons may have advanced into what is now Devon as a result of a battle fought at Postesburh, possibly Posbury near Crediton.

 

Then in the period 681–85 Centwine of Wessex conquered King Cadwaladr and "advanced as far as the sea", but it is not clear where this was. It is assumed that the Saxons occupied the rest of Somerset about this time. The Saxon rule was consolidated under King Ine, who established a fort at Taunton, demolished by his wife in 722. It is sometimes said that he built palaces at Somerton and South Petherton but this does not seem to be the case. He fought against Geraint in 710. In 705 the diocese of Sherborne was formed, taking in Wessex west of Selwood. Saxon kings granted land in Somerset by charter from the 7th century onward. The way and extent to which the Britons survived under the Saxons is a debatable matter. However, King Ine's laws make provision for Britons. Somerset originally formed part of Wessex and latter became a separate "shire". Somersetshire seems to have been formed within Wessex during the 8th century though it is not recorded as a name until later. Mints were set up at times in various places in Somerset in the Saxon period, e.g., Watchet.

 

Somerset played an important part in defeating the spread of the Danes in the 9th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 845 Alderman Eanwulf, with the men of Somersetshire (Sumorsǣte), and Bishop Ealstan, and Alderman Osric, with the men of Dorsetshire, conquered the Danish army at the mouth of the Parret. This was the first known use of the name Somersæte. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that in January 878 the King Alfred the Great fled into the marshes of Somerset from the Viking's invasion and made a fort at Athelney. From the fort Alfred was able to organize a resistance using the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

 

Viking raids took place for instance in 987 and 997 at Watchet and the Battle of Cynwit. King Alfred was driven to seek refuge from the Danes at Athelney before defeating them at the Battle of Ethandun in 878, usually considered to be near Edington, Wiltshire, but possibly the village of Edington in Somerset. Alfred established a series of forts and lookout posts linked by a military road, or Herepath, so his army could cover Viking movements at sea. The Herepath has a characteristic form which is familiar on the Quantocks: a regulation 20 m wide track between avenues of trees growing from hedge laying embankments. The Herepath ran from the ford on the River Parrett at Combwich, past Cannington hill fort to Over Stowey, where it climbed the Quantocks along the line of the current Stowey road, to Crowcombe Park Gate. Then it went south along the ridge, to Triscombe Stone. One branch may have led past Lydeard Hill and Buncombe Hill, back to Alfred's base at Athelney. The main branch descended the hills at Triscombe, then along the avenue to Red Post Cross, and west to the Brendon Hills and Exmoor. A peace treaty with the Danes was signed at Wedmore and the Danish king Guthrum the Old was baptised at Aller. Burhs (fortified places) had been set up by 919, such as Lyng. The Alfred Jewel, an object about 2.5 inch long, made of filigree gold, cloisonné-enamelled and with a rock crystal covering, was found in 1693 at Petherton Park, North Petherton. Believed to have been owned by Alfred the Great it is thought to have been the handle for a pointer that would have fit into the hole at its base and been used while reading a book.

 

Monasteries and minster churches were set up all over Somerset, with daughter churches from the minsters in manors. There was a royal palace at Cheddar, which was used at times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot, and there is likely to have been a "central place" at Somerton, Bath, Glastonbury and Frome since the kings visited them. The towns of Somerset seem to have been in occupation in this period though evidence for this is limited because of subsequent buildings on top of remains from this period. Agriculture flourished in this period, with a re-organisation into centralised villages in the latter part in the east of the county.

 

In the period before the Norman Conquest, Somerset came under the control of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his family. There seems to have been some Danish settlement at Thurloxton and Spaxton, judging from the place-names. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown, with fortifications such as Dunster Castle used for control and defence.

 

This period of Somerset's history is well documented, for example in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of Alfred.

 

This is the period from 1066 to around 1500. Following the defeat of the Saxons by the Normans in 1066, various castles were set up in Somerset by the new lords such as that at Dunster, and the manors was awarded to followers of William the Conqueror such as William de Moyon and Walter of Douai. Somerset does not seem to have played much part in the civil war in King Stephen's time, but Somerset lords were main players in the murder of Thomas Becket.

 

A good picture of the county in 1086 is given by Domesday Book, though there is some difficulty in identifying the various places since the hundreds are not specified. The total population given for the county, which had different boundaries to those today, was 13,399, however this only included the heads of households, so with their families this may have been around 67,000. Farming seems to have prospered for the next three centuries but was severely hit by the Black Death which in 1348 arrived in Dorset and quickly spread through Somerset, causing widespread mortality, perhaps as much as 50% in places. It re-occurred, resulting in a change in feudal practices since the manpower was no longer so available.

 

Reclamation of land from marsh in the Somerset Levels increased, largely under monastic influence. Crafts and industries also flourished, the Somerset woollen industry being one of the largest in England at this time. "New towns" were founded in this period in Somerset, i.e. Newport, but were not successful. Coal mining on the Mendips was an important source of wealth while quarrying also took place, an example is near Bath.

 

The towns grew, again often by monastic instigation, during this period and fairs were started. The church was very powerful at this period, particularly Glastonbury Abbey. After their church burnt down, the monks there "discovered" the tomb of "King Arthur" and were able rebuild their church. There were over 20 monasteries in Somerset at this period including the priory at Hinton Charterhouse which was founded in 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury who also founded Lacock Abbey. Many parish churches were re-built in this period. Between 1107 and 1129 William Giffard the Chancellor of King Henry I, converted the bishop's hall in Taunton into Taunton Castle. Bridgwater Castle was built in 1202 by William Brewer. It passed to the king in 1233 and in 1245 repairs were ordered to its motte and towers. During the 11th century Second Barons' War against Henry III, Bridgwater was held by the barons against the King. In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Sir Francis Wyndham. Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed in 1645.

 

During the Middle Ages sheep farming for the wool trade came to dominate the economy of Exmoor. The wool was spun into thread on isolated farms and collected by merchants to be woven, fulled, dyed and finished in thriving towns such as Dunster. The land started to be enclosed and from the 17th century onwards larger estates developed, leading to establishment of areas of large regular shaped fields. During this period a Royal Forest and hunting ground was established, administered by the Warden. The Royal Forest was sold off in 1818.

 

In the medieval period the River Parrett was used to transport Hamstone from the quarry at Ham Hill, Bridgwater was part of the Port of Bristol until the Port of Bridgwater was created in 1348, covering 80 miles (130 km) of the Somerset coast line, from the Devon border to the mouth of the River Axe. Historically, the main port on the river was at Bridgwater; the river being bridged at this point, with the first bridge being constructed in 1200 AD. Quays were built in 1424; with another quay, the Langport slip, being built in 1488 upstream of the Town Bridge. A Customs House was sited at Bridgwater, on West Quay; and a dry dock, launching slips and a boat yard on East Quay. The river was navigable, with care, to Bridgwater Town Bridge by 400 to 500 tonnes (440 to 550 tons) vessels. By trans-shipping into barges at the Town Bridge the Parrett was navigable as far as Langport and (via the River Yeo) to Ilchester.

 

This is the period from around 1500 to 1800. In the 1530s, the monasteries were dissolved and their lands bought from the king by various important families in Somerset. By 1539, Glastonbury Abbey was the only monastery left, its abbot Richard Whiting was then arrested and executed on the orders of Thomas Cromwell. From the Tudor to the Georgian times, farming specialised and techniques improved, leading to increases in population, although no new towns seem to have been founded. Large country houses such as at Hinton St George and Montacute House were built at this time.

 

The Bristol Channel floods of 1607 are believed to have affected large parts of the Somerset Levels with flooding up to 8 feet (2 m) above sea level. In 1625, a House of Correction was established in Shepton Mallet and, today, HMP Shepton Mallet is England's oldest prison still in use.

 

During the English Civil War, Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, although Dunster was a Royalist stronghold. The county was the site of important battles between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, notably the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643 and the Battle of Langport in 1645. The castle changed hands several times during 1642–45 along with the town. During the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake, from July 1644 to July 1645. This war resulted in castles being destroyed to prevent their re-use.

 

In 1685, the Duke of Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion in which Somerset people fought against James II. The rebels landed at Lyme Regis and travelled north hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, puritan soldiers damaged the west front of Wells Cathedral, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and the furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave. They were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last battle fought on English soil. The Bloody Assizes which followed saw the losers being sentenced to death or transportation.

 

The Society of Friends established itself in Street in the mid-17th century, and among the close-knit group of Quaker families were the Clarks: Cyrus started a business in sheepskin rugs, later joined by his brother James, who introduced the production of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. C&J Clark still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.

 

The 18th century was largely one of peace and declining industrial prosperity in Somerset. The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelt the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. However, farming continued to flourish, with the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society being founded in 1777 to improve methods. John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 but found that methods could still be improved.

 

Arthur Wellesley took his title, Duke of Wellington from the town of Wellington. He is commemorated on a nearby hill with a large, spotlit obelisk, known as the Wellington Monument.

 

In north Somerset, mining in the Somerset coalfield was an important industry, and in an effort to reduce the cost of transporting the coal the Somerset Coal Canal was built; part of it was later converted into a railway. Other canals included the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Westport Canal, Grand Western Canal, Glastonbury Canal and Chard Canal.[9] The Dorset and Somerset Canal was proposed, but very little of it was ever constructed.

 

The 19th century saw improvements to Somerset's roads with the introduction of turnpikes and the building of canals and railways. The usefulness of the canals was short-lived, though they have now been restored for recreation. The railways were nationalised after the Second World War, but continued until 1965, when smaller lines were scrapped; two were transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines.

 

In 1889, Somerset County Council was created, replacing the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions.

 

The population of Somerset has continued to grow since 1800, when it was 274,000, particularly in the seaside towns such as Weston-super-Mare. Some population decline occurred earlier in the period in the villages, but this has now been reversed, and by 1951 the population of Somerset was 551,000.

 

Chard claims to be the birthplace of powered flight, as it was here in 1848 that the Victorian aeronautical pioneer John Stringfellow first demonstrated that engine-powered flight was possible through his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage. North Petherton was the first town in England (and one of the few ever) to be lit by acetylene gas lighting, supplied by the North Petherton Rosco Acetylene Company. Street lights were provided in 1906. Acetylene was replaced in 1931 by coal gas produced in Bridgwater, as well as by the provision of an electricity supply.

 

Around the 1860s, at the height of the iron and steel era, a pier and a deep-water dock were built, at Portishead, by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway to accommodate the large ships that had difficulty in reaching Bristol Harbour. The Portishead power stations were coal-fed power stations built next to the dock. Construction work started on Portishead "A" power station in 1926. It began generating electricity in 1929 for the Bristol Corporation's Electricity Department. In 1951, Albright and Wilson built a chemical works on the opposite side of the dock from the power stations. The chemical works produced white phosphorus from phosphate rock imported, through the docks, into the UK. The onset of new generating capacity at Pembroke (oil-fired) and Didcot (coal-fired) in the mid-1970s brought about the closure of the older, less efficient "A" Station. The newer of the two power stations ("B" Station) was converted to burn oil when the Somerset coalfields closed. Industrial activities ceased in the dock with the closure of the power stations. The Port of Bristol Authority finally closed the dock in 1992, and it has now been developed into a marina and residential area.

 

During the First World War hundreds of Somerset soldiers were killed, and war memorials were put up in most of the towns and villages; only a few villages escaped casualties. There were also casualties – though much fewer – during the Second World War, who were added to the memorials. The county was a base for troops preparing for the 1944 D-Day landings, and some Somerset hospitals still date partly from that time. The Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Bridgwater was constructed early in World War II for the Ministry of Supply. It was designed as an Explosive ROF, to produce RDX, which was then a new experimental high-explosive. It obtained water supplies from two sources via the Somerset Levels: the artificial Huntspill River which was dug during the construction of the factory and also from the King's Sedgemoor Drain, which was widened at the same time. The Taunton Stop Line was set up to resist a potential German invasion, and the remains of its pill boxes can still be seen, as well as others along the coast. A decoy town was constructed on Black Down, intended to represent the blazing lights of a town which had neglected to follow the black-out regulations. Sites in the county housed Prisoner of War camps including: Norton Fitzwarren, Barwick, Brockley, Goathurst and Wells. Various airfields were built or converted from civilian use including: RNAS Charlton Horethorne (HMS Heron II), RAF Weston-super-Mare, RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron), Yeovil/Westland Airport, RAF Weston Zoyland, RAF Merryfield, RAF Culmhead and RAF Charmy Down.

 

Exmoor was one of the first British National Parks, designated in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. and is named after its main river. It was expanded in 1991 and in 1993 Exmoor was designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area. The Quantock Hills were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1956, the first such designation in England under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The Mendip Hills followed with AONB designation in 1972.

 

Hinkley Point A nuclear power station was a Magnox power station constructed between 1957 and 1962 and operating until ceasing generation in 2000. Hinkley Point B is an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) which was designed to generate 1250 MW of electricity (MWe). Construction of Hinkley Point B started in 1967. In September 2008 it was announced, by Électricité de France (EDF), that a third, twin-unit European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) power station known as Hinkley Point C is planned, to replace Hinkley Point B which was due for closure in 2016, but has now has its life extended until 2022.

 

Somerset today has only two small cities, Bath and Wells, and only small towns in comparison with other areas of England. Tourism is a major source of employment along the coast, and in Bath and Cheddar for example. Other attractions include Exmoor, West Somerset Railway, Haynes Motor Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum as well as the churches and the various National Trust and English Heritage properties in Somerset.

 

Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries take place in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the number of apple orchards has reduced.

 

In the late 19th century the boundaries of Somerset were slightly altered, but the main change came in 1974 when the county of Avon was set up. The northern part of Somerset was removed from the administrative control of Somerset County Council. On abolition of the county of Avon in 1996, these areas became separate administrative authorities, "North Somerset" and "Bath and North East Somerset". The Department for Communities and Local Government was considering a proposal by Somerset County Council to change Somerset's administrative structure by abolishing the five districts to create a Somerset unitary authority. The changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. However, support for the county council's bid was not guaranteed and opposition among the district council and local population was strong; 82% of people responding to a referendum organised by the five district councils rejected the proposals. It was confirmed in July 2007 that the government had rejected the proposals for unitary authorities in Somerset, and that the present two-tier arrangements of Somerset County Council and the district councils will remain.

Jones, Walter G., Pvt. 8th New York Cavalry, Co. C., U.S.A.

 

"I am not a Hobson, a Dewey, a Schley, nor a Sampson, but I was a High Private in Co. C., 8th N. Y. Cavary, and carried this little Testament in my blouse pocket, which in two battles, saved my life from bullets, as represented in the above photo. The bullet in the upper corner was shot at me at Cedar Creek, Va., October 19, 1864. The bullet in the centre crashed into the Testament during the battle of Appomattox (better known as Lee's surrender), April 8th and 9th, 1865. Walter G. Jones

McDonough, N. Y.

 

From NPS:

 

Walter G. Jones (First_Last)

Regiment Name 8 N. Y. Cavalry

Side Union

Company C

Soldier's Rank_In Priv.

Soldier's Rank_Out Priv.

Alternate Name

Notes

Film Number M551 roll 72

UNION NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS

 

8th Regiment, New York Cavalry

 

Organized at Rochester, N. Y., and mustered in November 23, 1861. Moved to Washington, D. C., November 28-30, 1861. Attached to Cavalry Brigade. Army of the Potomac, to March, 1862. Cavalry Brigade. Banks' 5th Corps, to April, 1862. Hatch's Cavalry Brigade. Department of the Shenandoah, to May, 1862. Railroad Brigade, 8th Corps. Middle Department, to September, 1862. 4th Brigade. Pleasanton's Cavalry Division. Army of the Potomac. to November, 1862. 1st Cavalry Brigade, Right Grand Division, Army of the Potomac. to February, 1863. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, and Army of the Shenandoah. Middle Military Division, to June, 1865.

 

Duty in the Defences of Washington, D. C., till March, 1862, and at various points in Maryland by detachments, till May. Operations in the Shenandoah Valley May 15-June 17. Berryville May 24. Retreat to Williamsport May 24-25. Battle of Winchester May 25. Stevenson's Station May 25. Harper's Ferry May 28-30. Near Charlestown September 4. Summit Point September 3. Siege of Harper's Ferry September 12-15. Near Williamsport and Greencastle September 15. Antietam, Md., September 16-17. Near Shephardstown September 20. Snlcker's Gap Oetober 27. Philomont November 1-2. Union and Bloomfield November 2-3. Barbee's Cross Roads, Chester Gap and Markham November 5-6. Waterloo Bridge November 7. Corbin's Cross Roads near Amissville November 10. Jefferson November 14. Uniontown November 20. Fredericksburg December 12-15. Near Warrenton December 30-31. Warrenton January 4, 1863. Somerville February 9. Belle Plains February 11. Near Dumfrles March 2. Independence Hill, Prince William County, March 4. Near Dumfries March 29. Beverly Ford April 1. Beverly Ford, Freeman's Ford and Hazel Run April 15. Stoneman's Raid April 27-May 8. Kelly's Ford April 29. Culpeper April 30. Rapidan Station May 1. Ely's Ford May 2. Rapidan Bridge May 4. Brandy Station and Beverly Ford June 9. Aldie June 17. Ashby's Gap June 20. Upperville June 21. Aldie June 23. Near Middleburg and Upperville June 27. Fairfield, Pa., June 30. Gettysburg, Pa., July 1-3. Williamsport July 6. Funkstown July 6. Boonsboro July 8. Benevola or Beaver Creek July 9. Funkstown July 10-13. Falling Waters July 14. Chester Gap July 21-22. Wapping Heights July 23. Barber's Cross Roads July 25. Kelly's Ford July 31-August 1. Brandy Station August 1, 4 and 10. Advance from the Rappahannock to the Rapidan September 13-17. Culpeper Court House September 13. Rapidan Station September 14-15. Raccoon Ford September 19. Reconnoissance across the Rapidan September 21-23. Jack's Shop, Madison Court House, September 22. Germania Ford October 1. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Germania, Raccoon and Morton's Fords October 10. Stevensburg and near Kelly's Station October 11. Brandy Station October 12. Oak Hill October 15. Hunter's Ford October 17-18. Bealeton October 24-26. Snicker's Gap October 27. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Muddy Run November 8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Locust Grove November 27. Parker's Store November 29. Demonstration on the Rapidan February 6-7, 1864. Morton's Ford February 6-7. James City March 4. Rapidan Campaign May-June. Craig's Meeting House May 5. Wilderness May 5-7. The Furnaces May 7. Alsop's Farm, Spottsylvania. May 8. Sheridan's Raid to James River May 9-24. North Anna River May 9-10. Ground Squirrel Church and Yellow Tavern May 11. Fortifications of Richmond and Meadow Bridge May 12. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Demonstration on Little Creek May 26. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Mechump's Creek May 30. Hanover Court House May 31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Gaines Mill, Totopotomoy and Salem Church June 2. Sumner's Upper Bridge June 2. Haw's Shop June 3. Old Church June 10-11. Riddell's Shop and Long Bridge June 12. White Oak Swamp June 13. Near Harrison Landing June 14. St. Mary's Church and Malvern Hill June 15. Before Petersburg June 17-July 30. Wilson's Raid on South Side & Danville Railroad June 22-30. Ream's Station June 22. Black and White Station and Nottaway Court House Juno 23. Staunton Bridge and Roanoke Station June 25. Columbia Grove June 27. Sappony Church or Stony Creek June 28. Ream's Station June 29. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign August 7-November 28. Winchester August 17. Charlestown Summit Point August 21. Halltown August 23. Kearneysville August 25. Berryville September 3. Near Brucetown and near Winchester September 7. Locke's Ford September 13. Snicker's Gap September 16. Battle of Opequan, Winchester, September 19. Near Cedarville September 2O. Front Royal Pike September 21. Milford September 22. Luray September 25. Staunton September 26. Waynesboro September 29. Mt. Crawford September 30. Columbia Furnace October 7. Tom's Brook, "Woodstock Races," October 8-9. Mt. Olive October 9. Battle of Cedar Creek October 19. Near Kernstown November 10. Newtown and Middle Road, Cedar Creek, November 12. Rude's Hill, near Mt. Jackson, November 22. Expedition to Lacy Springs December 19-22. Lacy Springs December 21. Expedition from Winchester to Moorefield, W. Va., February 4-6, 1865. Sheridan's Raid from Winchester February 27-March 25, 1865. Waynesboro March 2. Occupation of Charlottesville March 3. Beaver Dam Station March 13. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. Dinwiddie Court House March 30-31. Five Forks April 1. Fall of Petersburg April 2. Namozine Church April 3. Jettersville April 4. Sailor's Creek April 6. Appomattox Station April 8. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. Expedition to Danville April 23-29. March to Washington, D. C., May -. Grand Review May 23. Mustered out June 27, 1865, and honorably discharged from service.

 

Regiment lost during service 14 Officers and 91 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 5 Officers and 200 Enlisted men by disease. Total 310.

  

Library of Congress

TITLE: [Photograph of Walter G. Jones, Pvt., 8th New York Cavalry, Co. C., U.S.A., half-length, facing front and his New Testament with bullet holes, and the two bullets which lodged in the book]

 

CALL NUMBER: Civil War Reference File [item] [P&P]

 

REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-ppmsca-09873 (digital file from copy neg.)

LC-B8184- 10398 (b&w film copy neg.)

 

RIGHTS INFORMATION: No known restrictions on publication.

 

Editor’s Note: In conjunction with the Chenango County Civil War Commemoration Project Team, The Evening Sun will present a monthly series chronicling items of local interest during the war between the states, compiled and written by a number of local history enthusiasts.

  

By Christine E. Buck

 

Smithville Historical Society President

 

In 1840, Walter Godfrey Jones was born into religion. His father was the Reverend A.B. Jones, a respected Baptist clergyman and farmer. Not only did Walter have an early religious start, but faith served him well during the Civil War.

 

When Walter was six years old, the Jones family moved from their Broome County home to Chenango County. Reverend Jones was engaged as the resident pastor of the small Baptist Church in Genegantslet, a hamlet in the Town of Greene. For a time, he also served two miles away at the Baptist Church in Smithville Flats.

 

The only boy in a family of six sisters, Walter had blue eyes, light hair, and a fair complexion. As an adult, he was tall, compared with many men. His height was five feet, ten and one-half inches. On Christmas Eve of 1859, at age nineteen, he became a married man. Miss Lola Nusom was his bride.

 

Walter was a farmer. He, his wife, and their year-old son Eddie lived in Smithville in the summer of 1862. The Civil War was raging. The Union Army called for additional troops to quell the rebellion, and the Town was responsible for raising fifty-two volunteer soldiers. If the County’s quota wasn’t met by September 1, men would be drafted into service. Each town was to do its part.

 

To generate volunteers, Smithville held motivational meetings – called War Meetings – with booming cannons, martial bands, and skillful speakers from around the County. The meetings were meant to arouse patriotism and motivate men to volunteer. At the meetings, citizens pledged funds to help promote enlistments.

 

Greene’s Chenango American newspaper articles of that time are a mix of community news – agricultural fairs, fires, and festivals – and war news, including deaths of soldiers from the area. One brief item reported that a recruiting officer from the 8th NY Cavalry Regiment was in the area, and “the opportunity for enlisting is yet open.” Walter G. Jones took that opportunity in Smithville and enlisted for three years. Walter, age twenty-two, a man with a wife and young son and farm work to be done. He was mustered in that same day. Lucy Jones, his stepmother, gave him a small pocket Bible to carry to the battlefront.

 

Two weeks later, Walter’s name appeared in the newspaper as one of a full company of recruits quartered in Greene – more than 100 men. They awaited their official orders to leave for the South. Mr. R.P. Barnard of Greene presented the men with “Soldiers Kits” that had been made by the Ladies’ Aid Society.

 

During the war, the 8th NY Cavalry performed constant, hard service. Their loss of officers and men was great. But because of his stepmother’s gift, Walter was one of the fortunate men.

 

At the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia, October 19, 1864, Walter was shot in the chest. In what should have been a fatal shot, the Bible he carried in his left pocket took the strike and stopped the bullet. Six months later, at the Battle of Appomattox (Lee’s surrender), he was shot with another bullet. Again, it struck the Bible and stopped. Each bullet entered the front cover and tore through the Bible’s pages, one traveling back to the Book of Revelations. Walter’s life was saved twice by the Bible given him by his stepmother.

 

Walter was discharged from service in Washington, DC in June of 1865. Despite some crippling injuries, he returned safely to a full life in Chenango County. He bought a farm in McDonough (just over the Smithville border) two years later. For many years, he farmed that land and later was a merchant in McDonough. In addition to the son born before he volunteered, he and Lola had three daughters.

 

The rest of his life, Walter told his Bible story to family, friends, and fellow soldiers. He preserved the Bible and the two bullets and declared that if the shots had been fired at a two-inch white oak board, they would have penetrated it.

 

In 1896 Walter attended a National Encampment in Boston, and he took along his treasured war souvenir. He was offered $200 for it. “I am a poor man,” he said, “but $5,000 wouldn’t buy it today.”

 

He had taken part in forty-two military engagements and lived to tell his story of the Bible until 1909. He and Lola are buried in the McDonough Union Cemetery.

 

Private Walter G. Jones had descendants through his children Eddie Jones, Lydia Jones Morse, and Carrie Jones Purdy. Some live in the area, and we’re told his story has been passed down through the generations. Walter, one of the fortunate men, would be pleased.

www.evesun.com/news/stories/2013-01-04/16572/Chenango-in-...

The Postcard

 

A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Weymouth using a 2d. stamp on Sunday the 15th. July 1951 to:

 

Miss P. Summerfield,

9, Western Road,

Wylde Green,

Nr. Sutton Coldfield.

 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"7, Bradford Road,

Weymouth.

Dear Phil,

Pleased to say we are

having a nice time.

Weather is lovely so

far, hope it will keep

fine.

We are just having a

lazy time - plenty of

rest which we all needed.

Hope all are well at home.

Love from Laura."

 

The back of the card has been hand-stamped with a red ellipse containing the following:

 

'11 Mar 1973

Warning - Avoid Dealers.

Send Details to:

Postcards & Postmarks

Library Skegness.

Extra Payment Before 1911.'

 

Weymouth

 

Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is 11 kilometres (7 mi) south of Dorchester and 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of the Isle of Portland. The town's population in 2011 was 52,300.

 

Weymouth is a tourist resort, and its economy depends on its harbour and visitor attractions; the town is a gateway situated halfway along the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms.

 

Weymouth Harbour has provided a berth for cross-channel ferries, and is home to pleasure boats and private yachts, and nearby Portland Harbour is home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games were held.

 

The history of the borough stretches back to the 12th century; including involvement in the spread of the Black Death, the settlement of the Americas, the development of Georgian architecture, and a major departure point for the Normandy Landings.

 

The Weymouth Clock Tower

 

Weymouth's Jubilee Clock Tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria's 50 years of reign in 1887. The tower was paid for by public subscription, with £100 having been collected during celebrations on Her Majesty's Jubilee day of the 21st. June 1887.

 

The Jubilee Committee then approached the Council with the idea for the clock tower, which was readily accepted. As fundraising did not amount to enough to provide the clock itself, Sir Henry Edwards donated one, while the gas company agreed to keep the clock illuminated for free in perpetuity. Weymouth Corporation provided the stone base.

 

The cast and wrought-iron clock tower was unveiled on the 31st. October 1888. Erected on Weymouth's esplanade, it was originally set in front of the Esplanade and jutted out onto the sands of Weymouth Beach.

 

In the 1920's, the clock was set back from the beach as the esplanade was extended around it to protect the beach from the encroachment of shingle from the eastern end. The clock tower was also painted in bright colours during the same decade. It is Grade II listed.

 

John Straffen

 

So what else happened on the day that Laura posted the card?

 

Well, on the 15th. July 1951, John Straffen murdered a child.

 

John Thomas Straffen, who was born on the 27th. February 1930, was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British history.

 

After killing two young girls in the summer of 1951, he was found unfit to plead at trial, and was committed to Broadmoor Hospital. During a brief escape in 1952, he killed again.

 

This time, Straffen was convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. Reprieved because of his mental state, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. Straffen remained in prison until his death after 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days of incarceration.

 

John Straffen - The Early Years

 

John Straffen's father, John Straffen Senior, was a soldier in the British Army. The younger Straffen was the third child in the family; his older sister was a "high grade mental defective" who died in 1952.

 

Straffen was born at Bordon Camp in Hampshire, where his father was then based. When Straffen was two years old, his father was posted abroad, and the family spent six years in India. Returning to the United Kingdom in March 1938, Straffen's father took a discharge from the Army, and the family settled in Bath, Somerset.

 

In October 1938, Straffen was referred to a child guidance clinic for stealing and truancy. In June 1939, he first came before a juvenile court for stealing a purse from a girl, and was given two years probation.

 

Straffen's probation officer found that he did not understand the difference between right and wrong, or the meaning of probation. The family was living in crowded lodgings at the time, and Straffen's mother had no time to help, so the probation officer took the boy to a psychiatrist.

 

As a result, Straffen was certified as a mental defective under the Mental Deficiency Act 1927. A report was compiled on Straffen in 1940 which assessed his I.Q. as 58, and placed his mental age at six.

 

From June 1940, the local council sent Straffen to a residential school for mentally defective children, St Joseph's School in Sambourne, Warwickshire. Two years later, he was moved to Besford Court, a senior school.

 

Straffen was observed as a solitary boy who took correction very badly. At the age of 14, he was suspected of strangling two geese. At the age of 16, the school authorities undertook a review which found his I.Q. was 64, and his mental age was nine years six months, recommending his discharge.

 

John Straffen's Criminal Career

 

Straffen returned home to Bath in March 1946, where the Medical Officer of Health examined him and found he still warranted certification under the Mental Deficiency Act. After several short-term jobs, he found a place as a machinist in a clothing factory.

 

Early in 1947, Straffen began to enter unoccupied homes and steal small items to hide them; he never took them home or gave the items to others. Straffen had no friends, and had begun stealing without being enticed by others.

 

On the 27th. July 1947, a 13-year-old girl reported to police that a boy called John had assaulted her by putting his hand over her mouth and saying:

 

"What would you do if I killed

you? I have done it before."

 

This incident was not connected to Straffen at the time. Six weeks later, Straffen was found to have strangled five chickens belonging to the father of a girl with whom he had a row.

 

When arrested, he was also under suspicion for burglary and, in his police interview, cheerfully confessed to it and to many other incidents to which he had not been connected. Straffen was remanded in custody, and the Medical Officer of HM Prison Horfield examined him, certifying that he was mentally retarded.

 

On the 10th. October 1947, Straffen was committed to Hortham Colony in Bristol under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913. Hortham was an "open" colony which specialised in training mentally disabled offenders for resettlement in the community. As Straffen had been under investigation for burglary, his certificate stated that:

 

"He is not of violent or

dangerous propensities."

 

Straffen was well-behaved at Hortham and isolated from other inmates. As a result, in July 1949 he was transferred to a lower-security agricultural hostel in Winchester. There he did well initially, but fell back into old ways when he stole a bag of walnuts and was sent back to Hortham in February 1950.

 

In August 1950, Straffen was in trouble with Hortham authorities when he went home without leave and resisted the police when they went to recapture him.

 

John Straffen's Mental Health

 

In 1951, Straffen was examined at a Bristol hospital, where electroencephalograph readings showed that:

 

"He has suffered wide and severe damage to

the cerebral cortex, probably from an attack of

encephalitis in India before the age of six."

 

By now, however, Straffen was considered sufficiently rehabilitated to be allowed a period of unescorted home leave. He used the time to gain a job at a market garden, which he was allowed to keep. Hortham licensed Straffen to the care of his mother, as the family home was less overcrowded.

 

When Straffen's 21st. birthday came, under the Mental Deficiency Act, he had to be reassessed by Hortham, which continued his certificate for a further five years. However the family disputed the assessment and appealed.

 

As a result, the Medical Officer of Health for Bath examined Straffen again on the 10th. July 1951, and found improvement in mental age to ten; he recommended that Straffen's certificate be renewed only for six months, with a view to discharge at the end.

 

Child Killings

 

According to Letitia Fairfield in the introduction to the Notable British Trials series volume about Straffen, he had a "smouldering hatred" and an "intense resentment" of the police, and blamed them for all his troubles from the age of 8.

 

On the morning of Straffen's assessment, a young girl named Christine Butcher was murdered. Fairfield speculates that Straffen saw the press coverage that followed and made the connection that strangling young girls gave the maximum amount of trouble to the police.

 

On 15 July 1951, Straffen visited the cinema unaccompanied. His route took him past 1 Camden Crescent in Bath, where 5-year-old Brenda Goddard lived with her foster parents. To see Camden Crescent, please search for the tag 36BCC32

 

According to Straffen's later statement to the police, he saw Brenda gathering flowers, and offered to show her a better place.

 

He lifted Brenda over a fence into a copse, after which she supposedly fell and hit her head on a stone. She was unconscious, and he strangled her. Straffen did not make any attempt to hide the body. Instead he simply continued to the cinema to watch the 1949 film 'Shockproof' starring Cornel Wilde before returning home.

 

In her postcard of the 15th. July 1951, Laura noted that the weather in Weymouth was very good; Bath is only 53 miles (85 kilometres) from Weymouth, and was probably also experiencing good weather. If the weather had been bad on that day, Brenda would not have been out gathering flowers, and would have survived.

 

Although Bath police had not previously suspected that Straffen was violent, he was considered a suspect in the murder, and was interviewed by police on the 3rd. August 1951. Meanwhile, the police had visited his employer to check on his movements; this resulted in Straffen being dismissed on the 31st. July.

 

In a later interview with a prison psychiatrist, Straffen said that he knew he was under suspicion, and wanted to annoy the police, because he hated them for shadowing him.

 

On the 8th. August 1951, Straffen was again at the cinema when he met 9-year-old Cicely Batstone. He first took Cicely to a different cinema to see another film, and then went on the bus to a meadow known as "Tumps" on the outskirts of Bath. There he murdered her by strangulation.

 

The circumstances of the crime produced many witnesses who had seen Straffen with the girl. The bus conductor recognised him as a former workmate, a courting couple in the meadow had seen him very closely, and a policeman's wife had also seen the two together.

 

She mentioned it to her husband; when the alarm was raised the next morning, she guided police to where she had seen the two, and Cicely's body was discovered. Her description of the man was enough to identify Straffen immediately as the suspect.

 

Arrest and Conviction

 

The police drove to Straffen's home and arrested him for the murder of Cicely on the morning of the 9th. August 1951. Straffen made a statement admitting he had killed Cicely, and also confessed to the murder of Brenda:

 

"The other girl, I did her the same."

 

He was charged with murder and remanded in custody. On the 31st. August, after a two-day hearing at Bath Magistrates' Court, a date was set for Straffen's trial for the murder of Brenda.

 

At Taunton Assize Court, on the 17th. October 1951, Straffen stood trial for murder before Mr Justice Oliver. However, the only witness to be heard was Peter Parkes, medical officer at Horfield Prison, who testified to Straffen's medical history, and stated his conclusion that Straffen was unfit to plead.

 

Oliver commented:

 

"In this country we do not try people who

are insane. You might as well try a baby in

arms. If a man cannot understand what is

going on, he cannot be tried."

 

The jury formally returned a verdict that Straffen was insane, and unfit to plead.

 

Straffen was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire. Broadmoor had originally been termed a criminal lunatic asylum, but responsibility for it had been transferred to the Ministry of Health, and those committed to it had been renamed patients. In Broadmoor, Straffen was given a job as a cleaner.

 

Escape From Broadmoor and the Murder of Linda Bowyer

 

On the 29th. April 1952, Straffen managed to surmount Broadmoor's ten-foot wall by climbing onto the roof of a shed during a work detail. He was wearing civilian clothes under his work clothes.

 

Some hours later he killed 5-year-old Linda Bowyer, who was riding her bicycle in Farley Hill. He was captured not long after.

 

Bowyer's body was found the next morning. Police questioned Straffen before news reached the hospital, asking him whether he had committed a crime while free; he replied:

 

"I did not kill her."

 

Before police had mentioned anything about a bicycle, he further said:

 

"I did not kill the little

girl on the bicycle."

 

He was charged with the murder of Linda, and sent to HM Prison Brixton while awaiting trial, since Broadmoor had failed to hold him. A system of sirens to warn of any escape from Broadmoor was set up later in 1952.

 

When Straffen's murder trial opened on the 21st. July 1952, he pleaded not guilty, and the defence opted to leave the question of his sanity as an issue to be determined by the jury. At the request of the prosecution (led by the Solicitor-General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller) the judge ruled that evidence about the prior murders in Bath would be admissible.

 

That evening, one of the jurors attended a club and declared that one of the prosecution witnesses had murdered Bowyer. The next morning the judge announced that the jury would be discharged and the trial re-begun with a new jury.

 

The judge required the errant juror to remain in court throughout the trial, before calling him to apologise for:

 

"Your wicked discharge of

your duties as a citizen".

 

Straffen's defence called several of those who had seen him in earlier years to give evidence about his mental condition. The prosecution then called prison medical officers and psychiatrists to give evidence in rebuttal.

 

Dr. Thomas Munro, who was a specialist in mental deficiency and had seen Straffen, testified that Straffen had said:

 

"Murder is wrong because it is

breaking the law, and because

it is one of the commandments".

 

When Munro asked Straffen to name the other commandments, Straffen could only remember four.

 

After retiring for just under an hour, the jury returned with a verdict of guilty, which implicitly declared Straffen sane. Mr Justice Cassels sentenced Straffen to death.

 

Straffen appealed on the grounds that the evidence relating to the Bath murders was wrongly admitted, and that his statements on the morning after Linda's murder were wrongly admitted because they had been made before he was cautioned.

 

Both grounds of the appeal were dismissed, and Straffen was refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords. The date for his execution was fixed for the 4th. September 1952.

 

Reprieve and Prison

 

However, on the 29th. August, it was announced that Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe had recommended to the Queen that Straffen be reprieved, and this was granted.

 

After his reprieve, Straffen was moved to HM Prison Wandsworth. In November 1952, the Home Office denied a rumour that he was about to be moved to the Rampton mental institution.

 

In 1956, Straffen was moved to Horfield Prison after officers discovered an escape attempt by Wandsworth prisoners. They had intended to take Straffen with them as a diversion. The news caused extreme concern in Bristol, and a petition demanding his removal was organised by a local councillor and signed by 12,000 people within weeks.

 

While in Horfield, Straffen was described by former politician Peter Baker, briefly a fellow prisoner, as always being conspicuous when he was exercising, being much taller than anyone else, and wearing distinctive clothing for a special watch prisoner.

 

Baker recalled that:

 

"The long, emaciated, miserable figure

looked like a dying butterfly or a caged

animal."

 

Baker reported rumours that Straffen had made application to the governor each month on the chance a date had been set for his release.

 

A new 28-cell high-security wing at HM Prison Parkhurst was built and ready for opening in early 1966. The Home Office pointedly did not deny rumours that Straffen had been secretly transferred there on the 31st. January 1966.

 

In May 1968, Straffen was moved to HM Prison Durham. Placed in the top security E wing, he was joined by another child killer, Ian Brady.

 

Crime author Jonathan Goodman wrote that:

 

"The shambling lunatic [Straffen] ... is in

prison only because no mental institution

is secure enough to guarantee his

confinement."

 

Many years later, a prison officer recalled seeing Straffen:

 

"Circling, banging the fence

every couple of minutes."

 

One fellow officer described him as aloof and hostile:

 

"Never talks unless he has to ask

for something. Always on his own".

 

Sentencing Terms

 

For most of the time that Straffen was in prison, the Home Secretary was required to agree to the release of any life sentence prisoner.

 

No occupant of the office was ever willing to let Straffen out. In 1994, Michael Howard decided to compile a select list of about twenty prisoners serving life sentences who must never be released, and Straffen's name was said to be on it. The whole list was published by the News of the World in December 1997; this report confirmed that Straffen would spend the rest of his life in prison.

 

In 2001, with the fiftieth anniversary of Straffen's imprisonment approaching, his solicitors called for his case to be reopened on the grounds that he had not been fit to stand trial.

 

In May 2002, the European Court of Human Rights decided a case brought by a life sentence prisoner which challenged the authority of the Home Secretary to refuse to release him after the Parole Board recommended he be freed.

 

The court decided that politicians should not interfere in life sentences, and that therefore the current practice was unlawful. It was immediately observed that this meant an opportunity for release for Straffen, who had been in HM Prison Long Lartin since 2000.

 

Investigative journalist Bob Woffinden, who examined previously confidential records, uncovered that Straffen had been reprieved after a majority of doctors who examined him found that he was insane.

 

Woffinden also doubted Straffen's guilt in the murder of Linda, because he had no fingernails with which to cause injuries seen on her body and because some local witnesses placed the time of the murder after his recapture. However, Straffen's application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission was turned down in December 2002.

 

The Death of John Straffen

 

Straffen died at HM Prison Frankland in County Durham on the 19th. November 2007 at the age of 77. He had been in prison for a British record of 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days.

The Homestead Strike, also known as the Homestead Steel Strike, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, second only to the Battle of Blair Mountain. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (the AA) and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.

Carnegie Steel made major technological innovations in the 1880s, especially the installation of the open-hearth system at Homestead in 1886. It now became possible to make steel suitable for structural beams and for armor plate for the United States Navy, which paid far higher prices for the premium product. In addition, the plant moved increasingly toward the continuous system of production. Carnegie installed vastly improved systems of material-handling, like overhead cranes, hoists, charging machines, and buggies. All of this greatly sped up the process of steelmaking, and allowed the production of vastly larger quantities of the product. As the mills expanded, the labor force grew rapidly, especially with less skilled workers. In response, the more-skilled union members reacted with a strike designed to protect their historic position.

The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876. It was a craft union representing skilled iron and steel workers. The AA's membership was concentrated in ironworks west of the Allegheny Mountains. The union negotiated national uniform wage scales on an annual basis; helped regulate working hours, workload levels and work speeds; and helped improve working conditions. It also acted as a hiring hall, helping employers find scarce puddlers and rollers.

The AA organized the independently-owned Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works in Homestead in 1881. The AA engaged in a bitter strike at the Homestead works on January 1, 1882 in an effort to prevent management from forcing yellow-dog contracts on all workers. Violence occurred on both sides, and the plant brought in numerous strikebreakers. The strike ended on March 20 in a complete victory for the union.

The AA struck the steel plant again on July 1, 1889, when negotiations for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement failed. The strikers seized the town and once again made common cause with various immigrant groups. Backed by 2,000 townspeople, the strikers drove off a trainload of strikebreakers on July 10. When the sheriff returned with 125 newly deputized agents two days later, the strikers rallied 5,000 townspeople to their cause. Although victorious, the union agreed to significant wage cuts that left tonnage rates less than half those at the nearby Jones and Laughlin works, where technological improvements had not been made.

Carnegie officials conceded that the AA essentially ran the Homestead plant after the 1889 strike. The union contract contained 58 pages of footnotes defining work-rules at the plant and strictly limited management's ability to maximize output.

For its part, the AA saw substantial gains after the 1889 strike. Membership doubled, and the local union treasury had a balance of $146,000. The Homestead union grew belligerent, and relationships between workers and managers grew tense.

The Homestead strike was organized and purposeful, a harbinger of the type of strike which would mark the modern age of labor relations in the United States. The AA strike at the Homestead steel mill in 1892 was different from previous large-scale strikes in American history such as the Great railroad strike of 1877 or the Great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886. Earlier strikes had been largely leaderless and disorganized mass uprisings of workers.

Andrew Carnegie placed industrialist Henry Clay Frick in charge of his company's operations in 1881. Frick resolved to break the union at Homestead. "The mills have never been able to turn out the product they should, owing to being held back by the Amalgamated men," he complained in a letter to Carnegie.

Carnegie was publicly in favor of labor unions. He condemned the use of strikebreakers and told associates that no steel mill was worth a single drop of blood. But Carnegie agreed with Frick's desire to break the union and "reorganize the whole affair, and . . . exact good reasons for employing every man. Far too many men required by Amalgamated rules." Carnegie ordered the Homestead plant to manufacture large amounts of inventory so the plant could weather a strike. He also drafted a notice (which Frick never released) withdrawing recognition of the union.

With the collective bargaining agreement due to expire on June 30, 1892, Frick and the leaders of the local AA union entered into negotiations in February. With the steel industry doing well and prices higher, the AA asked for a wage increase; the AA represented about 800 of the 3,800 workers at the plant. Frick immediately countered with a 22% wage decrease that would affect nearly half the union's membership and remove a number of positions from the bargaining unit. Carnegie encouraged Frick to use the negotiations to break the union: "...the Firm has decided that the minority must give way to the majority. These works, therefore, will be necessarily non-union after the expiration of the present agreement." Carnegie believed that the Amalgamated was a hindrance to efficiency; furthermore it was not representative of the workers. It admitted only a small group of skilled workers. It was in its own way an elitist, discriminatory organization that was not worthy of the Republic, Carnegie felt.

Frick announced on April 30, 1892 that he would bargain for 29 more days. If no contract was reached, Carnegie Steel would cease to recognize the union. Carnegie formally approved Frick's tactics on May 4. Then Frick offered a slightly better wage scale and advised the Superintendent to tell the workers, "We do not care whether a man belongs to a union or not, nor do we wish to interfere. He may belong to as many unions or organizations as he chooses, but we think our employees at Homestead Steel Works would fare much better working under the system in vogue at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne."

Frick locked workers out of the plate mill and one of the open hearth furnaces on the evening of June 28. When no collective bargaining agreement was reached on June 29, Frick locked the union out of the rest of the plant. A high fence topped with barbed wire, begun in January, was completed and the plant sealed to the workers. Sniper towers with searchlights were constructed near each mill building, and high-pressure water cannons (some capable of spraying boiling-hot liquid) were placed at each entrance. Various aspects of the plant were protected, reinforced or shielded.

At a mass meeting on June 30, local AA leaders reviewed the final negotiating sessions and announced that the company had broken the contract by locking out workers a day before the contract expired. The Knights of Labor, which had organized the mechanics and transportation workers at Homestead, agreed to walk out alongside the skilled workers of the AA. Workers at Carnegie plants in Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Union Mills and Beaver Falls struck in sympathy the same day.

 

The Declaration of the Strike Committee, dated July 20, 1892 reads in part,

'The employees in the mill of Messrs. Carnegie, Phipps & Co., at Homestead, Pa., have built there a town with its homes, its schools and its churches; have for many years been faithful co-workers with the company in the business of the mill; have invested thousands of dollars of their savings in said mill in the expectation of spending their lives in Homestead and of working in the mill during the period of their efficiency. . . . “Therefore, the committee desires to express to the public as its firm belief that both the public and the employees aforesaid have equitable rights and interests in the said mill which cannot be modified or diverted without due process of law; that the employees have the right to continuous employment in the said mill during efficiency and good behavior without regard to religious, political or economic opinions or associations; that it is against public policy and subversive of the fundamental principles of American liberty that a whole community of workers should be denied employment or suffer any other social detriment on account of membership in a church, a political party or a trade union; that it is our duty as American citizens to resist by every legal and ordinary means the unconstitutional, anarchic and revolutionary policy of the Carnegie Company, which seems to evince a contempt [for] public and private interests and a disdain [for] the public conscience. . . .

The striking workers were determined to keep the plant closed. They secured a steam-powered river launch and several rowboats to patrol the Monongahela River, which ran alongside the plant. Men also divided themselves into units along military lines. Picket lines were thrown up around the plant and the town, and 24-hour shifts established. Ferries and trains were watched. Strangers were challenged to give explanations for their presence in town; if one was not forthcoming, they were escorted outside the city limits. Telegraph communications with AA locals in other cities were established to keep tabs on the company's attempts to hire replacement workers. Reporters were issued special badges which gave them safe passage through the town, but the badges were withdrawn if it was felt misleading or false information made it into the news. Tavern owners were even asked to prevent excessive drinking.

Frick was also busy. The company placed ads for replacement workers in newspapers as far away as Boston, St. Louis and even Europe.

But unprotected strikebreakers would be driven off. On July 4, Frick formally requested that Sheriff William H. McCleary intervene to allow supervisors access to the plant. Carnegie corporation attorney Philander Knox gave the go-ahead to the sheriff on July 5, and McCleary dispatched 11 deputies to the town to post handbills ordering the strikers to stop interfering with the plant's operation. The strikers tore down the handbills and told the deputies that they would not turn over the plant to nonunion workers. Then they herded the deputies onto a boat and sent them downriver to Pittsburgh.

Frick had ordered the construction of a solid board fence topped with barbed wire around mill property. The workers dubbed the newly fortified mill "Fort Frick." With the mill ringed by striking workers, agents from the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which Frick had contracted to provide security at the plant in April 1892, planned to access the plant grounds from the river. Three hundred Pinkerton detectives assembled on the Davis Island Dam on the Ohio River about five miles (8 km) below Pittsburgh at 10:30 p.m. on the night of July 5, 1892. They were given Winchester rifles, placed on two specially-equipped barges and towed upriver with the object of removing the workers by force. Upon their landing, a large mêlée between workers and Pinkerton detectives ensued. Several men were killed, nine workers among them, and the riot was ultimately quelled only by the intervention of 8,000 armed state militia. Among working-class Americans, Frick's actions against the strikers were condemned as excessive, and he soon became a target of even more union organizers.

 

Battle on July 6

 

Frick's intent was to open the works with nonunion men on July 6. Knox devised a plan to get the Pinkertons onto the mill property. With the mill ringed by striking workers, the agents would access the plant grounds from the river. Three hundred Pinkerton agents assembled on the Davis Island Dam on the Ohio River about five miles below Pittsburgh at 10:30 p.m. on the night of July 5, 1892. They were given Winchester rifles, placed on two specially-equipped barges and towed upriver.

The strikers were prepared for them; the AA had learned of the Pinkertons as soon as they had left Boston for the embarkation point. The small flotilla of union boats went downriver to meet the barges. Strikers on the steam launch fired a few random shots at the barges, then withdrew—blowing the launch whistle to alert the plant. The strikers blew the plant whistle at 2:30 a.m., drawing thousands of men, women and children to the plant.

The Pinkertons attempted to land under cover of darkness about 4 a.m. A large crowd of families had kept pace with the boats as they were towed by a tug into the town. A few shots were fired at the tug and barges, but no one was injured. The crowd tore down the barbed-wire fence and strikers and their families surged onto the Homestead plant grounds. Some in the crowd threw stones at the barges, but strike leaders shouted for restraint.

The Pinkerton agents attempted to disembark, and shots were fired. Conflicting testimony exists as to which side fired the first shot. John T. McCurry, a boatman on the steamboat Little Bill (which had been hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency to ferry its agents to the steel mill) and one of the men wounded by the strikers, said: "The armed Pinkerton men commenced to climb up the banks. Then the workmen opened fire on the detectives. The men shot first, and not until three of the Pinkerton men had fallen did they respond to the fire. I am willing to take an oath that the workmen fired first, and that the Pinkerton men did not shoot until some of their number had been wounded." But according to The New York Times, the Pinkertons shot first. The newspaper reported that the Pinkertons opened fire and wounded William Foy, a worker. Regardless of which side opened fire first, the first two individuals wounded were Frederick Heinde, captain of the Pinkertons, and Foy. The Pinkerton agents aboard the barges then fired into the crowd, killing two and wounding 11. The crowd responded in kind, killing two and wounding 12. The firefight continued for about 10 minutes.

The strikers then huddled behind the pig and scrap iron in the mill yard, while the Pinkertons cut holes in the side of the barges so they could fire on any who approached. The Pinkerton tug departed with the wounded agents, leaving the barges stranded. The strikers soon set to work building a rampart of steel beams further up the riverbank from which they could fire down on the barges. Hundreds of women continued to crowd on the riverbank between the strikers and the agents, calling on the strikers to 'kill the Pinkertons'.

The strikers continued to sporadically fire on the barges. Union members took potshots at the ships from their rowboats and the steam-powered launch. The burgess of Homestead, John McLuckie, issued a proclamation at 6:00 a.m. asking for townspeople to help defend the peace; more than 5,000 people congregated on the hills overlooking the steelworks. A 20-pounder brass cannon was set up on the shore opposite the steel mill, and an attempt was made to sink the barges. Six miles away in Pittsburgh, thousands of steelworkers gathered in the streets, listening to accounts of the attacks at Homestead; hundreds, many of them armed, began to move toward the town to assist the strikers.

The Pinkertons attempted to disembark again at 8:00 a.m. A striker high up the riverbank fired a shot. The Pinkertons returned fire, and four more strikers were killed (one by shrapnel sent flying when cannon fire hit one of the barges). Many of the Pinkerton agents refused to participate in the firefight any longer; the agents crowded onto the barge farthest from the shore. More experienced agents were barely able to stop the new recruits from abandoning the ships and swimming away. Intermittent gunfire from both sides continued throughout the morning. When the tug attempted to retrieve the barges at 10:50 a.m., gunfire drove it off. More than 300 riflemen positioned themselves on the high ground and kept a steady stream of fire on the barges. Just before noon, a sniper shot and killed another Pinkerton agent.

After a few more hours, the strikers attempted to burn the barges. They seized a raft, loaded it with oil-soaked timber and floated it toward the barges. The Pinkertons nearly panicked, and a Pinkerton captain had to threaten to shoot anyone who fled. But the fire burned itself out before it reached the barges. The strikers then loaded a railroad flatcar with drums of oil and set it afire. The flatcar hurtled down the rails toward the mill's wharf where the barges were docked. But the car stopped at the water's edge and burned itself out. Dynamite was thrown at the barges, but it only hit the mark once (causing a little damage to one barge). At 2:00 p.m., the workers poured oil onto the river, hoping the oil slick would burn the barges; attempts to light the slick failed.

The AA worked behind the scenes to avoid further bloodshed and defuse the tense situation. At 9:00 a.m., outgoing AA international president William Weihe rushed to the sheriff's office and asked McCleary to convey a request to Frick to meet. McCleary did so, but Frick refused. He knew that the more chaotic the situation became, the more likely it was that Governor Robert E. Pattison would call out the state militia.

Sheriff McCleary resisted attempts to call for state intervention until 10 a.m. on July 7. In a telegram to Gov. Pattison, he described how his deputies and the Carnegie men had been driven off, and noted that the workers and their supporters actively resisting the landing numbered nearly 5,000. Pattison responded by requiring McCleary to exhaust every effort to restore the peace. McCleary asked again for help at noon, and Pattison responded by asking how many deputies the sheriff had. A third telegram, sent at 3:00 p.m., again elicited a response from the governor exhorting McCleary to raise his own troops.

At 4:00 p.m., events at the mill quickly began to wind down. More than 5,000 men—most of them armed mill hands from the nearby South Side, Braddock and Duquesne works—arrived at the Homestead plant. Weihe wanted to prevent further trouble at Homestead, so he pleaded with Frick to confer with representatives of the Amalgamated to return to Homestead and stop the riot. Weihe urged the strikers to let the Pinkertons surrender, but he was shouted down. Weihe tried to speak again, but this time his pleas were drowned out as the strikers bombarded the barges with fireworks left over from the recent Independence Day celebration. Hugh O'Donnell, a heater in the plant and head of the union's strike committee, then spoke to the crowd. He demanded that each Pinkerton be charged with murder, forced to turn over his arms and then be removed from the town. The crowd shouted their approval.

The Pinkertons, too, wished to surrender. At 5:00 p.m., they raised a white flag and two agents asked to speak with the strikers. O'Donnell guaranteed them safe passage out of town. Upon arrival, their arms were stripped from them. With heads uncovered, to distinguish them from the mill hands, they passed along between two rows of guards armed with Winchesters. As the Pinkertons crossed the grounds of the mill, the crowd formed a gauntlet through which the agents passed. Men and women threw sand and stones at the Pinkerton agents, spat on them and beat them. Several Pinkertons were clubbed into unconsciousness. Members of the crowd ransacked the barges, then burned them to the waterline.

As the Pinkertons were marched through town to the Opera House (which served as a temporary jail), the townspeople continued to assault the agents. Two agents were beaten as horrified town officials looked on. The press expressed shock at the treatment of the Pinkerton agents, and the torrent of abuse helped turn media sympathies away from the strikers.

The strike committee met with the town council to discuss the handover of the agents to McCleary. But the real talks were taking place between McCleary and Weihe in McCleary's office. At 10:15 p.m., the two sides agreed to a transfer process. A special train arrived at 12:30 a.m. on July 7. McCleary, the international AA's lawyer and several town officials accompanied the Pinkerton agents to Pittsburgh.

But when the Pinkerton agents arrived at their final destination in Pittsburgh, state officials declared that they would not be charged with murder (per the agreement with the strikers) but rather simply released. The announcement was made with the full concurrence of the AA attorney. A special train whisked the Pinkerton agents out of the city at 10:00 a.m. on July 7.

On July 7, the strike committee sent a telegram to Gov. Pattison to attempt to persuade him that law and order had been restored in the town. Pattison replied that he had heard differently. Union officials traveled to Harrisburg and met with Pattison on July 9. Their discussions revolved not around law and order, but the safety of the Carnegie plant.

Pattison, however, remained unconvinced by the strikers' arguments. Although Pattison had ordered the Pennsylvania militia to muster on July 6, he had not formally charged it with doing anything. Pattison's refusal to act rested largely on his concern that the union controlled the entire city of Homestead and commanded the allegiance of its citizens. Pattison refused to order the town taken by force, for fear a massacre would occur. But once emotions had died down, Pattison felt the need to act. He had been elected with the backing of a Carnegie-supported political machine, and he could no longer refuse to protect Carnegie interests.

The steelworkers resolved to meet the militia with open arms, hoping to establish good relations with the troops. But the militia managed to keep its arrival in the town a secret almost to the last moment. At 9:00 a.m. on July 12, the Pennsylvania state militia arrived at the small Munhall train station near the Homestead mill (rather than the downtown train station as expected). Their commander, Major General George R. Snowden, made to clear to local officials that he sided with the owners. When Hugh O'Donnell, the head of the union's strike committee attempted to welcome Snowden and pledge the cooperation of the strikers, Snowden told him that the strikers had not been law abiding, and that "I want you to distinctly understand that I am the master of this situation." More than 4,000 soldiers surrounded the plant. Within 20 minutes they had displaced the picketers; by 10:00 a.m., company officials were back in their offices. Another 2,000 troops camped on the high ground overlooking the city.

The company quickly brought in strikebreakers and restarted production under the protection of the militia. Despite the presence of AFL pickets in front of several recruitment offices across the nation, Frick easily found employees to work the mill. The company quickly built bunk houses, dining halls and kitchens on the mill grounds to accommodate the strikebreakers. New employees, many of them black, arrived on July 13, and the mill furnaces relit on July 15. When a few workers attempted to storm into the plant to stop the relighting of the furnaces, militiamen fought them off and wounded six with bayonets. But all was not well inside the plant. A race war between nonunion black and white workers in the Homestead plant broke out on July 22, 1892.

Desperate to find a way to continue the strike, the AA appealed to Whitelaw Reid, the Republican candidate for vice president, on July 16. The AA offered to make no demands or set any preconditions; the union merely asked that Carnegie Steel reopen the negotiations. Reid wrote to Frick, warning him that the strike was hurting the Republican ticket and pleading with him to reopen talks. Frick refused.

Frick, too, needed a way out of the strike. The company could not operate for long with strikebreakers living on the mill grounds, and permanent replacements had to be found. On July 18, the town was placed under martial law, further disheartening many of the strikers.

National attention became riveted on Homestead when, on July 23, Alexander Berkman, a New York anarchist with no connection to steel or to organized labor, plotted with his lover Emma Goldman to assassinate Frick. He came in from New York, gained entrance to Frick's office, then shot and stabbed the executive. Frick survived and continued his role; Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

The Berkman assassination attempt undermined public support for the union and prompted the final collapse of the strike. Hugh O'Donnell was removed as chair of the strike committee when he proposed to return to work at the lower wage scale if the unionists could get their jobs back. On August 12, the company announced that 1,700 men were working at the mill and production had resumed at full capacity. The national AFL refused to intervene, the East European workers ignored the union and it had no strategy left. The union voted to go back to work on Carnegie's terms; the strike had failed and the union had collapsed.

The company had waged a second front in state court, and was winning. On July 18, 16 of the strike leaders were charged with conspiracy, riot and murder. Each man was jailed for one night and forced to post a $10,000 bond.

The union retaliated by charging company executives with murder as well. The company men, too, had to post a $10,000 bond, but they were not forced to spend any time in jail. One judge issued treason charges against the Advisory Committee on August 30 for making itself the law. Most of the men could not raise the bail bond, and went to jail or into hiding. A compromise was reached whereby both sides dropped their charges.

Support for the strikers evaporated. The AFL refused to call for a boycott of Carnegie products in September 1892. Wholesale crossing of the picket line occurred, first among Eastern European immigrants and then among all workers. The strike had collapsed so much that the state militia pulled out on October 13, ending the 95-day occupation. The AA was nearly bankrupted by the job action. Weekly Union relief for a member averaged $6.25 but totalled a staggering $10,000 per week when including 1,600 strikers. With only 192 out of more than 3,800 strikers in attendance, the Homestead chapter of the AA voted, 101 to 91, to return to work on November 20, 1892.

In the end, only four workers were ever tried on the actual charges filed on July 18. Three AA members were found innocent of all charges. Hugh Dempsey, the leader of the local Knights of Labor District Assembly, was found guilty of conspiring to poison nonunion workers at the plant—despite the state's star witness recanting his testimony on the stand. Dempsey served a seven-year prison term. In February 1893, Knox and the union agreed to drop the charges filed against one another, and no further prosecutions emerged from the events at Homestead.

The striking AA affiliate in Beaver Falls gave in the same day as the Homestead lodge. The AA affiliate at Union Mills held out until August 14, 1893. But by then the union had only 53 members. The union had been broken; the company had been operating the plant at full capacity for almost a year, since September 1892.

The Homestead strike broke the AA as a force in the American labor movement. Many employers refused to sign contracts with their AA unions while the strike lasted. A deepening in 1889 of the Long Depression led most steel companies to seek wage decreases similar to those imposed at Homestead.

An organizing drive at the Homestead plant in 1896 was crushed by Frick. In May 1899, 300 Homestead workers actually formed an AA lodge, but Frick ordered the Homestead works shut down and the unionization effort collapsed. Carnegie Steel remained nonunion for the next 40 years.

De-unionization efforts throughout the Midwest began against the AA in 1897 when Jones and Laughlin Steel refused to sign a contract. By 1900, not a single steel plant in Pennsylvania remained union. The AA presence in Ohio and Illinois continued for a few more years, but the union continued to collapse. Many lodges disbanded, their members disillusioned. Others were easily broken in short battles. Carnegie Steel's Mingo Junction, Ohio plant was the last major unionized steel mill in the country. But it, too, successfully withdrew recognition without a fight in 1903.

AA membership sagged to 10,000 in 1894 from its high of over 24,000 in 1891. A year later, it was down to 8,000. A 1901 strike against Carnegie's successor company, U.S. Steel collapsed. By 1909, membership in the AA had sunk to 6,300. A nationwide steel strike of 1919 also was unsuccessful.

The AA maintained a rump membership in the steel industry until its takeover by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in 1936. The two organizations officially disbanded and formed the United Steelworkers May 22, 1942.

A railroad bridge over the Monongahela near the site of the battle is named Pinkerton's Landing Bridge in honor of the dead.

The pumphouse where the gunfight occurred remains as a museum and meeting hall. There are several historical markers as well as a metal commemorative sign with the US Steel logo that reads "In Honor Of The Workers." (Wikipedia)

 

Excalibur Hotel and Casino is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in the United States. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International.

 

Excalibur, named for the mythical sword of King Arthur, uses the medieval theme in several ways. Its facade is a stylized image of a castle (see also: List of castles in the United States). Until 2007, a wizard-like figure representing Merlin looked out from a high turret (since replaced by a figure advertising Dick's Last Resort).

 

Excalibur is situated at the Tropicana – Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. The hotel is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to neighboring casinos to the north (New York-New York, across Tropicana Avenue) and to the east (Tropicana, across the Strip). A free tram connects Excalibur to its sister MGM Resorts International properties to the south, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

 

The land on which the Excalibur sits was originally the proposed site of the Xanadu Resort envisioned in 1975. The 1,730 room Asian-tropical-themed resort would have been the first mega-resort in Las Vegas. The project was never built when the developers could not secure a deal with the county on the sewer infrastructure such a large project would have required.

 

Circus Circus Enterprises constructed Excalibur which opened on June 19, 1990, as the largest resort hotel in the world, with more than 4,000 rooms covering over 70 acres. As of 2016 it is the seventh-largest hotel (by total number of rooms) in Las Vegas, and the thirteenth-largest hotel worldwide. MGM Resorts International purchased the property in 2005.

 

Excalibur was designed in line with the "theme resort" strategy popular among some casino operators during the 1990s, which included the traditional Las Vegas gaming experience coupled with family-oriented elements. However, since 2006 most of the medieval-themed statues and scenery have been removed as part of a four-year renovation and modernization project. As of 2010, few of the themed wall murals still remained as Excalibur was updated to include more modern and understated elements, including contemporary furniture and flat-screen plasma TVs in 2,000 renovated guest rooms.

 

On March 21, 2003, Josh Ford of Los Angeles hit the largest Megabucks Jackpot to date of US$39.7 million at Excalibur.

 

Ownership of the Excalibur, along with many other MGM properties, was transferred to MGM Growth Properties in 2016, while MGM Resorts continued to operate it under a lease agreement. Vici Properties acquired MGM Growth, including the Excalibur, in 2022.

 

The 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) gaming area at Excalibur consists of table games and more than 1,200 slot machines. In addition to casino space, the Excalibur resort includes a renovated pool area, a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) spa and fitness center, eight restaurants and a food court, the Chapel at Excalibur, and the Octane Lounge & The Lounge with live music on the weekends, and an arcade.

 

In May 1999, the casino partnered with World Championship Wrestling to open the WCW Nitro Grill, which was the first professional wrestling themed restaurant and nightclub in the United States; the restaurant was frequently visited by numerous professional wrestlers. WCW Nitro Grill operated for 16 months before closing in September 2000 due in part to WCW's financial problems; the restaurant's current space would later be occupied by a Dick's Last Resort location, where it remains to this day.

 

Excalibur is home to three permanent shows: the all-male revue Thunder From Down Under, The Australian Bee Gees Show, a tribute to the Bee Gees and the medieval-themed dinner show Tournament of Kings. Thunder From Down Under moved to Excalibur in July 2001 and since then has received recognition as one of the best all-male strip shows in Las Vegas. In 2006, the performance space was renamed the "Thunder From Down Under Showroom" in honor of the troupe. Tournament of Kings is a medieval jousting tournament performed with 12 breeds of horses and 32 cast members in a 925-seat amphitheater called King Arthur's Arena. The show includes a banquet feast served by a costumed serf or wench and is meant to be eaten without utensils. Tournament of Kings debuted along with the opening of Excalibur in 1990.

 

Dick's Last Resort restaurant opened at Excalibur in June 2007. Dick's is known for its unusual dining experience in which servers purposefully act obnoxious towards guests. Employee "Taco" is considered Dick's mascot and entertains guests with his own version of the Bellagio fountain show using water dispensers behind the bar.

 

Excalibur's food court housed one of the few McDonald's in the world to vend Pepsi instead of Coke until the restaurant closed in early 2016.

 

The fun dungeon is an arcade from which you can access the Tournament of Kings arena, and also includes a laser tag arena.

 

In 1993, the Excalibur introduced a new attraction featuring a 71 foot animatronic dragon fighting with Merlin in the moat of the castle. Every day between 6 p.m. and midnight, visitors could watch the mechanical puppets designed by Alvaro Villa's AVG Entertainment. The hourly show, which had been awarded the "Worst Attraction" accolade by Las Vegas Review-Journal twice, was discontinued in 2004.

 

Excalibur has been featured in several video game and television productions since opening in 1990. Excalibur itself, or a hotel resembling Excalibur, makes appearances in the video games Driver 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In television productions, Excalibur was the setting for a stunt on the Las Vegas edition of Fear Factor and was featured in an episode of South Park called "It Hits the Fan". Also, season six of Top Chef contestant Jennifer used Excalibur as the inspiration for one of her meals. The mobile game Fate/Grand Order's 2019 summer event is set in Las Vegas and takes place at a fictional casino modeled after Excalibur called "Camelot & Co.", run by Merlin and Altria, the series' gender-flipped version of King Arthur.

 

The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about 4.2 mi (6.8 km) long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas city limits in the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, but is often referred to simply as "Las Vegas".

 

Many of the largest hotel, casino, and resort properties in the world are on the Strip, known for its contemporary architecture, lights, and wide variety of attractions. Its hotels, casinos, restaurants, residential high-rises, entertainment offerings, and skyline have established the Strip as one of the most popular and iconic tourist destinations in the world and is one of the driving forces for Las Vegas's economy. Most of the Strip has been designated as an All-American Road, and the North and South Las Vegas Strip routes are classified as Nevada Scenic Byways and National Scenic Byways.

 

The first casino to be built on Highway 91 was the Pair-o-Dice Club in 1931, but the first full service casino-resort on what is currently called 'The Strip' was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with 63 bungalow hotel rooms on April 3, 1941. (The 'El Rancho Vegas' showroom and casino were destroyed by a fire in 1960. The El Rancho Vegas bungalows were not damaged, and were rented out until the early 1980's). Its success spawned a second hotel on what would become the Strip, the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. Organized crime figures such as Bugsy Siegel, originally from New York, later residing in California, took an intense interest in the growing Las Vegas gaming center, and funded another resort- mob financing for the finishing of the Flamingo construction. The Flamingo construction was started by famed Hollywood publisher Billy Wilkerson. The Flamingo casino opened in December 1946, and the hotel opened in March 1947. Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn resort opened in 1950. The funding for many Las Vegas projects was provided through the American National Insurance Company, which was based in the then-notorious gambling empire of Galveston, Texas.

 

Las Vegas Boulevard South was previously called Hwy 91, or the Arrowhead Highway, or Los Angeles Highway.[citation needed]The Strip was named by Los Angeles police officer and businessman Guy McAfee, after his hometown's Sunset Strip in Hollywood.

 

In 1950, Mayor Ernie Cragin of the City of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which was unincorporated Clark County territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. Instead, Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo led a group of casino executives to lobby the Clark County commissioners for town status. Two unincorporated towns were eventually created, Paradise and Winchester. More than two decades later, the Supreme Court of Nevada struck down a 1975 Nevada state law that would have folded the Strip and the rest of the urban areas of Clark County into the City of Las Vegas.

 

Caesars Palace was established in 1966. In 1968, Kirk Kerkorian purchased the Flamingo and hired Sahara Hotels Vice President Alex Shoofey as president. Alex Shoofey brought along 33 of Sahara's top executives.[citation needed] The Flamingo was used to train future employees of the International Hotel, which was under construction. Opening in 1969, the International Hotel, with 1,512 rooms, began the era of mega-resorts. The International is known as Westgate Las Vegas today.

 

The first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, also a Kerkorian property, opened in 1973 with 2,084 rooms. At the time, this was one of the largest hotels in the world by number of rooms. The Rossiya Hotel built in 1967 in Moscow, for instance, had 3,200 rooms; however, most of the rooms in the Rossiya Hotel were single rooms of 118 sq. ft (roughly 1/4 size of a standard room at the MGM Grand Resort). On November 21, 1980, MGM Grand suffered the worst resort fire in the history of Las Vegas as a result of electrical problems, killing 87 people. It reopened eight months later. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand to Bally Manufacturing, and it was renamed Bally's.

 

The opening of The Mirage in 1989 set a new level to the Las Vegas experience, as smaller hotels and casinos made way for the larger mega-resorts. Some of the key features of The Mirage included tropical landscapes with waterfalls, an erupting volcano, restaurants with world-class chefs, and a show with illusionists Siegfried & Roy. In the 1990s, more than 12 new hotels opened, including themed hotels like the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay. At $1.7B, the most expensive hotel in the world at the time, The Bellagio, was built in the 1990s.[30] These huge facilities offer entertainment and dining options, as well as gambling and lodging. This change affected the smaller, well-known and now historic hotels and casinos, like the Dunes, the Sands, and the Stardust.[citation needed] In 1993, the launch of the Mystère show at the new Treasure Island hotel by Cirque du Soleil marked a key point in transforming Las Vegas Strip entertainment.

 

In an effort to attract families, resorts offered more attractions geared toward youth, but had limited success. The Wet 'n Wild water park opened in 1985 and was located on the south side of the Sahara hotel. It closed at the end of the 2004 season and was later demolished. The current MGM Grand opened in 1993 with MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park, but the park closed in 2000 due to lack of interest.[citation needed] Similarly, in 2003 Treasure Island closed its own video arcade and abandoned the previous pirate theme, adopting the new ti name.

 

In addition to the large hotels, casinos and resorts, the Strip is home to many attractions, such as M&M's World, Adventuredome and the Fashion Show Mall. Starting in the mid-1990s, the Strip became a popular New Year's Eve celebration destination.

 

With the opening of Bellagio, Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn and Encore resorts, the strip trended towards the luxurious high end segment through most of the 2000s, while some older resorts added major expansions and renovations, including some de-theming of the earlier themed hotels. High end dining, specialty retail, spas and nightclubs increasingly became options for visitors in addition to gambling at most Strip resorts. There was also a trend towards expensive residential condo units on the strip.

 

In 2004, MGM Mirage announced plans for CityCenter, a 66-acre (27 ha), $7 billion multi-use project on the site of the Boardwalk hotel and adjoining land. It consists of hotel, casino, condo, retail, art, business and other uses on the site. CityCenter is currently the largest such complex in the world. Construction began in April 2006, with most elements of the project opened in late 2009. Also in 2006, the Las Vegas Strip lost its longtime status as the world's highest-grossing gambling center, falling to second place behind Macau.

 

In 2012, the High Roller Ferris wheel and a retail district called The LINQ Promenade broke ground in an attempt to diversify attractions beyond that of casino resorts. Renovations and rebrandings such as The Cromwell Las Vegas and the SLS Las Vegas continued to transform the Strip in 2014. The Las Vegas Festival Grounds opened in 2015. In 2016, T-Mobile Arena, The Park, and the Park Theater opened.

 

On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred on the Strip at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay hotel. 60 people were killed, and 867 were injured. The murderer was a well known Las Vegas high roller named Stephen Paddock. Paddock's motive was never determined, and he committed suicide after the murders were committed. Paddock used several rifles to shoot guests at the Route 91 Festival. These murders became the deadliest mass shootings in modern United States history.

 

In 2018, the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino was renamed the Park MGM and in 2019, the SLS changed its name back to Sahara Las Vegas.

 

In 2021, the Pinball Hall of Fame moved near the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign at the south end of the Strip. Later that year, Resorts World Las Vegas, the first new hotel-casino built in a decade, opened on the site of the former Stardust Resort and Casino. Resorts World incorporates portions of a previously planned resort known as Echelon Place, which was canceled in 2008.

 

In 2022, Bally's was renamed the Horseshoe Las Vegas.

 

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-largest in the Southwestern United States. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife, with most venues centered on downtown Las Vegas and more to the Las Vegas Strip just outside city limits. The Las Vegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had 641,903 residents in 2020, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053, making it the 25th-most populous city in the United States.

 

The city bills itself as the Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its luxurious and extremely large casino-hotels. With over 2.9 million visitors as of 2019, Las Vegas is the sixth-most visited city in the U.S., after New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, and San Francisco. It is a top-three destination in the U.S. for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world. Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment had earned it the nickname "Sin City", and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.

 

Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated North American city founded within that century (a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century). Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s and into the 21st century, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city ("Las Vegas" in this case) is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Strip, which are actually in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Southern Nevada, already one of the driest regions in the United States, have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Las Vegas's water security.

 

Nevada is a state in the Western region of the United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, the 32nd-most populous, and the 9th-least densely populated of the U.S. states. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, including three of the state's four largest incorporated cities. Nevada's capital is Carson City. Las Vegas is the largest city in the state.

 

Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State" because it achieved statehood during the Civil War (the words "Battle Born" also appear on its state flag); due to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the Union benefited immensely from the support of newly awarded statehood by the infusion of the monetary support of nearly $400 million in silver ore generated at the time by the Comstock Lode. It is also known as the "Sagebrush State", for the native plant of the same name; and as the "Sage-hen State". The state's name means "snowy" in Spanish, referring to Nevada's small overlap with the Sierra Nevada mountain range; however, the rest of Nevada is largely desert and semi-arid, much of it within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada lie on the western edge. About 86% of the state's land is managed by various jurisdictions of the U.S. federal government, both civilian and military.

 

American Indians of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes inhabit what is now Nevada. The first Europeans to explore the region were Spanish. They called the region Nevada (snowy) because of the snow which covered the mountains in winter, similar to the Sierra Nevada in Spain. The area formed from mostly Alta California and part of Nuevo México's territory within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which gained independence as Mexico in 1821. The United States annexed the area in 1848 after its victory in the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated as part of the New Mexico and Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that became an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864, as the second of two states added to the Union during the Civil War (the first being West Virginia).

 

Nevada is known for its libertarian laws. In 1940, with a population of just over 110,000 people, Nevada was by far the least-populated state, with less than half the population of the next least-populous state, Wyoming. However, legalized gambling and lenient marriage and divorce laws transformed Nevada into a major tourist destination in the 20th century. Nevada is the only U.S. state where prostitution is legal, though it is illegal in its most populated regions – Clark County (Las Vegas), Washoe County (Reno) and Carson City (which, as an independent city, is not within the boundaries of any county). The tourism industry remains Nevada's largest employer, with mining continuing as a substantial sector of the economy: Nevada is the fourth-largest producer of gold in the world. Nevada is the driest state, and over time, and influenced by climate change, droughts in Nevada have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Nevada's water security.

  

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.

 

Founded in 597, the cathedral was completely rebuilt from 1070 to 1077. The east end was greatly enlarged at the beginning of the twelfth century, and largely rebuilt in the Gothic style following a fire in 1174, with significant eastward extensions to accommodate the flow of pilgrims visiting the shrine of Thomas Becket, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170. The Norman nave and transepts survived until the late fourteenth century, when they were demolished to make way for the present structure.

  

The cathedral's first archbishop was Augustine of Canterbury, previously abbot of St. Andrew's Benedictine Abbey in Rome. He was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in 596 as a missionary to the Anglo-Saxons. Augustine founded the cathedral in 597 and dedicated it to Jesus Christ, the Holy Saviour.

 

Augustine also founded the Abbey of St. Peter and Paul outside the city walls. This was later rededicated to St. Augustine himself and was for many centuries the burial place of the successive archbishops. The abbey is part of the World Heritage Site of Canterbury, along with the cathedral and the ancient Church of St. Martin.

  

Bede recorded that Augustine reused a former Roman church. The oldest remains found during excavations beneath the present nave in 1993 were, however, parts of the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon building, which had been constructed across a Roman road. They indicate that the original church consisted of a nave, possibly with a narthex, and side-chapels to the north and south. A smaller subsidiary building was found to the south-west of these foundations. During the ninth or tenth century this church was replaced by a larger structure (49 m. by 23 m.) with a squared west end. It appears to have had a square central tower. The eleventh century chronicler Eadmer, who had known the Saxon cathedral as a boy, wrote that, in its arrangement, it resembled St Peter's in Rome, indicating that it was of basilican form, with an eastern apse.

 

During the reforms of Archbishop Dunstan (c909-988), a Benedictine abbey named Christ Church Priory was added to the cathedral. But the formal establishment as a monastery seems to date only to c.997 and the community only became fully monastic from Lanfranc's time onwards (with monastic constitutions addressed by him to prior Henry). Dunstan was buried on the south side of the High Altar.

 

The cathedral was badly damaged during Danish raids on Canterbury in 1011. The Archbishop, Alphege, was taken hostage by the raiders and eventually killed at Greenwich on 19 April 1012, the first of Canterbury's five martyred archbishops. After this a western apse was added as an oratory of St. Mary, probably during the archbishopric of Lyfing (1013–1020) or Aethelnoth (1020–1038).

 

The 1993 excavations revealed that the new western apse was polygonal, and flanked by hexagonal towers, forming a westwork. It housed the archbishop's throne, with the altar of St Mary just to the east. At about the same time that the westwork was built, the arcade walls were strengthened and towers added to the eastern corners of the church.

Norman period

 

The cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1067, a year after the Norman Conquest. Rebuilding began in 1070 under the first Norman archbishop, Lanfranc (1070–77). He cleared the ruins and reconstructed the cathedral to a design based closely on that of the Abbey of St. Etienne in Caen, where he had previously been abbot, using stone brought from France. The new church, its central axis about 5m south of that of its predecessor, was a cruciform building, with an aisled nave of nine bays, a pair of towers at the west end, aiseless transepts with apsidal chapels, a low crossing tower, and a short choir ending in three apses. It was dedicated in 1077.

 

After this time, the responsibility for the rebuilding or improvement of the cathedral's fabric was largely left in the hands of the priors. Following the election of Prior Ernulf in 1096, Lanfranc's inadequate east end was demolished, and replaced with an eastern arm 198 feet long, doubling the length of the cathedral. It was raised above a large and elaborately decorated crypt. Ernulf was succeeded in 1107 by Conrad, who completed the work by 1126. The new choir took the form of a complete church in itself, with its own transepts; the east end was semicircular in plan, with three chapels opening off an ambulatory. A free standing campanile was built on a mound in the cathedral precinct in about 1160.

 

As with many Romanesque church buildings, the interior of the choir was richly embellished. William of Malmesbury wrote: "Nothing like it could be seen in England either for the light of its glass windows, the gleaming of its marble pavements, or the many-coloured paintings which led the eyes to the panelled ceiling above.

 

Though named after the sixth century founding archbishop, The Chair of St. Augustine may date from the Norman period. Its first recorded use is in 1205.

 

A pivotal moment in the history of the Cathedral was the murder of the archbishop, Thomas Becket, in the north-west transept (also known as the Martyrdom) on Tuesday 29 December 1170 by knights of King Henry II. The king had frequent conflicts with the strong-willed Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" The knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own cathedral. Becket was the second of four Archbishops of Canterbury who were murdered (see also Alphege).

 

The posthumous veneration of Becket made the Cathedral a place of pilgrimage. This brought both the need to expand the Cathedral, and the wealth that made it possible.

 

In September 1174 the choir was severely damaged by fire, necessitating a major reconstruction, the progress of which was recorded in detail by a monk named Gervase. The crypt survived the fire intact, and it was found possible to retain the outer walls of the choir, which were increased in height by 12 feet (3.7 m) in the course of the rebuilding, but with the round-headed form of their windows left unchanged. Everything else was replaced in the new Gothic style, with pointed arches, rib vaulting and flying buttresses. The limestone used was imported from Caen in Normandy, and Purbeck marble was used for the shafting. The choir was back in use by 1180, and in that year the remains of St Dunstan and St Alphege were moved there from the crypt.

 

The master-mason appointed to rebuild the choir was a Frenchman, William of Sens. Following his injury in a fall from the scaffolding in 1179 he was replaced by one of his former assistants, known as "William the Englishman.

 

In 1180-4, in place of the old, square-ended, eastern chapel, the present Trinity chapel was constructed, a broad extension with an ambulatory, designed to house the shrine of St Thomas Becket. A further chapel, circular in plan, was added beyond that, which housed further relics of Becket, widely believed to have included the top of his skull, struck off in the course of his assassination. This latter chapel became known as the "Corona" or "Becket's Crown". These new parts east of the choir transepts were raised on a higher crypt than Ernulf's choir, necessitating flights of steps between the two levels. Work on the chapel was completed in 1184, but Becket's remains were not moved from his tomb in the crypt until 1220. Further significant interments in the Trinity Chapel included those of Edward Plantagenet (The "Black Prince") and King Henry IV.

  

The shrine in the Trinity Chapel was placed directly above Becket's original tomb in the crypt. A marble plinth, raised on columns, supported what an early visitor, Walter of Coventry, described as "a coffin wonderfully wrought of gold and silver, and marvellously adorned with precious gems". Other accounts make clear that the gold was laid over a wooden chest, which in turn contained an iron-bound box holding Becket's remains. Further votive treasures were added to the adornments of the chest over the years, while others were placed on pedestals or beams nearby, or attached to hanging drapery. For much of the time the chest (or "ferotory") was kept concealed by a wooden cover, which would be theatrically raised by ropes once a crowd of pilgrims had gathered. Erasmus, who visited in 1512–4, recorded that, once the cover was raised, "the Prior ... pointed out each jewel, telling its name in French, its value, and the name of its donor; for the principal of them were offerings sent by sovereign princes.

 

The income from pilgrims (such as those portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) who visited Becket's shrine, which was regarded as a place of healing, largely paid for the subsequent rebuilding of the Cathedral and its associated buildings. This revenue included the profits from the sale of pilgrim badges depicting Becket, his martyrdom, or his shrine.

 

The shrine was removed in 1538. Henry VIII summoned the dead saint to court to face charges of treason. Having failed to appear, he was found guilty in his absence and the treasures of his shrine were confiscated, carried away in two coffers and twenty-six carts.

  

A bird's-eye view of the cathedral and its monastic buildings, made in about 1165 and known as the "waterworks plan" is preserved in the Eadwine Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It shows that Canterbury employed the same general principles of arrangement common to all Benedictine monasteries, although, unusually, the cloister and monastic buildings were to the north, rather than the south of the church. There was a separate chapter-house.

 

The buildings formed separate groups around the church. Adjoining it, on the north side, stood the cloister and the buildings devoted to the monastic life. To the east and west of these were those devoted to the exercise of hospitality. To the north a large open court divided the monastic buildings from menial ones, such as the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse, brew house and laundries, inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. At the greatest possible distance from the church, beyond the precinct of the monastery, was the eleemosynary department. The almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, formed the paupers' hospitium.

 

The group of buildings devoted to monastic life included two cloisters. The great cloister was surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life of the monks,-- the church to the south, with the refectory placed as always on the side opposite, the dormitory, raised on a vaulted undercroft, and the chapter-house adjacent, and the lodgings of the cellarer, responsible for providing both monks and guests with food, to the west. A passage under the dormitory lead eastwards to the smaller or infirmary cloister, appropriated to sick and infirm monks.

 

The hall and chapel of the infirmary extended east of this cloister, resembling in form and arrangement the nave and chancel of an aisled church. Beneath the dormitory, overlooking the green court or herbarium, lay the "pisalis" or "calefactory," the common room of the monks. At its north-east corner access was given from the dormitory to the necessarium, a building in the form of a Norman hall, 145 ft (44 m) long by 25 broad (44.2 m × 7.6 m), containing fifty-five seats. It was constructed with careful regard to hygiene, with a stream of water running through it from end to end.

 

A second smaller dormitory for the conventual officers ran from east to west. Close to the refectory, but outside the cloisters, were the domestic offices connected with it: to the north, the kitchen, 47 ft (14 m) square (200 m2), with a pyramidal roof, and the kitchen court; to the west, the butteries, pantries, etc. The infirmary had a small kitchen of its own. Opposite the refectory door in the cloister were two lavatories, where the monks washed before and after eating.

 

The buildings devoted to hospitality were divided into three groups. The prior's group were "entered at the south-east angle of the green court, placed near the most sacred part of the cathedral, as befitting the distinguished ecclesiastics or nobility who were assigned to him." The cellarer's buildings, where middle class visitors were entertained, stood near the west end of the nave. The inferior pilgrims and paupers were relegated to the north hall or almonry, just within the gate.

 

Priors of Christ Church Priory included John of Sittingbourne (elected 1222, previously a monk of the priory) and William Chillenden, (elected 1264, previously monk and treasurer of the priory). The monastery was granted the right to elect their own prior if the seat was vacant by the pope, and — from Gregory IX onwards — the right to a free election (though with the archbishop overseeing their choice). Monks of the priory have included Æthelric I, Æthelric II, Walter d'Eynsham, Reginald fitz Jocelin (admitted as a confrater shortly before his death), Nigel de Longchamps and Ernulf. The monks often put forward candidates for Archbishop of Canterbury, either from among their number or outside, since the archbishop was nominally their abbot, but this could lead to clashes with the king and/or pope should they put forward a different man — examples are the elections of Baldwin of Forde and Thomas Cobham.

  

Early in the fourteenth century, Prior Eastry erected a stone choir screen and rebuilt the chapter house, and his successor, Prior Oxenden inserted a large five-light window into St Anselm's chapel.

 

The cathedral was seriously damaged by an earthquake of 1382, losing its bells and campanile.

 

From the late fourteenth century the nave and transepts were rebuilt, on the Norman foundations in the Perpendicular style under the direction of the noted master mason Henry Yevele. In contrast to the contemporary rebuilding of the nave at Winchester, where much of the existing fabric was retained and remodelled, the piers were entirely removed, and replaced with less bulky Gothic ones, and the old aisle walls completely taken down except for a low "plinth" left on the south side. More Norman fabric was retained in the transepts, especially in the east walls and the old apsidal chapels were not replaced until the mid-15th century. The arches of the new nave arcade were exceptionally high in proportion to the clerestory. The new transepts, aisles and nave were roofed with lierne vaults, enriched with bosses. Most of the work was done during the priorate of Thomas Chillenden (1391–1411): Chillenden also built a new choir screen at the east end of the nave, into which Eastry's existing screen was incorporated. The Norman stone floor of the nave, however survived until its replacement in 1786.

 

From 1396 the cloisters were repaired and remodelled by Yevele's pupil Stephen Lote who added the lierne vaulting. It was during this period that the wagon-vaulting of the chapter house was created.

 

A shortage of money, and the priority given to the rebuilding of the cloisters and chapter-house meant that the rebuilding of the west towers was neglected. The south-west tower was not replaced until 1458, and the Norman north-west tower survived until 1834, when it was replaced by a replica of its Perpendicular companion.

 

In about 1430 the south transept apse was removed to make way for a chapel, founded by Lady Margaret Holland and dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. The north transept apse was replaced by a Lady Chapel, built in 1448-55.

 

The 235-foot crossing tower was begun in 1433, although preparations had already been made during Chillenden's priorate, when the piers had been reinforced. Further strengthening was found necessary around the beginning of the sixteenth century, when buttressing arches were added under the southern and western tower arches. The tower is often known as the "Angel Steeple", after a gilded angel that once stood on one of its pinnacles.

  

The cathedral ceased to be an abbey during the Dissolution of the Monasteries when all religious houses were suppressed. Canterbury surrendered in March 1539, and reverted to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'. The New Foundation came into being on 8 April 1541.

  

The original Norman northwest tower, which had a lead spire until 1705, was demolished in 1834, due to structural concerns. It was replaced with a Perpendicular-style twin of the southwest tower, now known as the "Arundel Tower"'. This was the last major structural alteration to the cathedral to be made.

 

The cathedral is the Regimental Church of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.

Furnishings

 

In 1688, the joiner Roger Davis, citizen of London, removed the 13th century misericords and replaced them with two rows of his own work on each side of the choir. Some of Davis's misericords have a distinctly medieval flavour and he may have copied some of the original designs. When Sir George Gilbert Scott carried out renovations in the 19th century, he replaced the front row of Davis' misericords, with new ones of his own design, which seem to include many copies of those at Gloucester Cathedral, Worcester Cathedral and New College, Oxford.

  

The Foundation is the authorised staffing establishment of the cathedral, few of whom are clergy. The head of the cathedral is the dean, currently the Very Reverend Robert Willis, who is assisted by a chapter of 30 canons, four of whom are residentiary, the others being honorary appointments of senior clergy in the diocese. There are also a number of lay canons who altogether form the greater chapter which has the legal responsibility both for the cathedral itself and also for the formal election of an archbishop when there is a vacancy-in-see. By English law and custom they may only elect the person who has been nominated by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. The Foundation also includes the choristers, lay clerks, organists, King's Scholars, the Six Preachers and a range of other officers; some of these posts are moribund, such as that of the cathedral barber. The cathedral has a work force of over 300 (many of whom work part-time), and approximately 800 volunteers.

 

The cathedral has a total of twenty one bells in the three towers:

 

The South West Tower (Oxford Tower) contains the cathedral’s main ring of bells, hung for change ringing in the English style. There are fourteen bells – a ring of twelve with two semi-tones, which allow for ringing on ten, eight or six bells while still remaining in tune. All of the bells were cast in 1981 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry from seven bells of the old peal of twelve with new metal added, and re-hung in a new frame. The length (draught) of the ropes was increased by lowering the floor of the ringing chamber to the level of the south aisle vault at the same time. The heaviest bell of this ring weighs 34cwt (1.72 tonnes). The ringers practice on Thursday at 7.15pm.

 

The North West Tower (Arundel Tower) contains the cathedral’s clock chime. The five quarter chimes were taken from the old peal of twelve in the Oxford Tower (where the clock was originally), and hung from beams in the Arundel Tower. The chimes are stuck on the eighth Gregorian tone, which is also used at Merton College, Oxford. The hour is struck on Great Dunstan, the largest bell in Kent 63cwt (3.2 tonnes), which is also swung on Sunday mornings for Matins.

 

In 1316 Prior Henry of Eastry gave a large bell dedicated to St Thomas, which weighed 71½ cwt (3.63 tonnes). Later, in 1343, Prior Hathbrand gave bells dedicated to Jesus and St Dunstan. At this time the bells in campanile were rehung and their names recorded as “Jesus”, “Dunstan”, “Mary”, “Crundale”, “Elphy” (Alphege) and “Thomas”. In the great earthquake of 1382 the campanile fell, destroying the first three named bells. Following its reconstruction, the other three bells were rehung, together with two others, of whose casting no record remains.

 

The oldest bell in the cathedral is Bell Harry, which hangs in a cage atop the central tower to which the bell lends its name. This bell was cast in 1635, and is struck at 8am and 9pm every day to announce the opening and closing of the cathedral, and also occasionally for services as a Sanctus bell.

  

The cathedral library has a collection of about 30,000 books and pamphlets printed before the 20th century and about 20,000 later books and serials. Many of the earlier books were acquired as part of donated collections. It is rich in church history, older theology, British history (including local history), travel, science and medicine, and the anti-slavery movement. The library's holdings are included in the online catalogue of the library of the University of Kent.

  

In 2006, a new fundraising appeal to raise £50 million was launched to much media attention under the dramatic banner "Save Canterbury Cathedral".

 

The Canterbury Cathedral Appeal was launched to protect and enhance Canterbury Cathedral's future as a religious, heritage and cultural centre. Every five years the cathedral carries out a major structural review. The last so-called Quinquennial made it very clear that a combination of centuries of weathering, pollution and constant use had taken its toll on the building and there were some serious problems at Canterbury Cathedral that needed urgent action.

 

Much of the cathedral's stonework is damaged and crumbling, the roofs are leaking and much of the stained glass is badly corroded. It is thought that if action is not taken now, the rate of decay and damage being inflicted on the building will increase dramatically with potentially disastrous results, including closure of large sections of the cathedral in order to guarantee the safety of the million plus worshippers, pilgrims and tourists who visit the cathedral every year.

 

As well as restoring much of the historic fabric of the cathedral, the appeal aims to fund enhancements to visitor facilities and investment to build on the cathedral's musical tradition. By November 2008, the appeal had raised more than £9 million. Previous major appeals were run in the 1950s and 1970s.

 

In the summer of 2009, stones in the South West Transept were discovered to have cracked around several iron braces surrounding the Great South Window. The cracks are presumed to be the result of the metal expanding and contracting in hot and cold weather, and have severely compromised the structure of the window. The transept was closed while scaffolding was erected, and the area immediately in front of the inside of the window was closed off and covered, to maintain access via the south door beneath it. Permission was given in 2013 for the window to be re-built and work started on the extensive repair of the window in August 2013.

 

Wiki

The Church of All Saints at Nunney, Somerset, England, is a Grade I listed building dating from the 12th century.

 

It was probably built on the site of an earlier Saxon or Norman church from which a Saxon cross and Norman font can still be seen. A 15th-century wagon or Barrel vault used to cover the nave however the timber rotted and it was demolished in 1957. A temporary roof was installed and hidden by a suspended ceiling. Plans are being drawn up to replace the roof and fundraising is under way.

 

Sir John Delamare and other lords of Nunney Castle are buried in the church.

 

The Anglican parish is part of the benefice of Postlebury within the archdeaconry of Wells.

 

Nunney is a village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It is located 3 miles (5 km) south-west of Frome and the parish includes the hamlet of Holwell.

 

The name of the village comes from Old English and means Nunna's island.

 

Today, the tourist attractions are the ruins of Nunney Castle, a historic church, and ducks wandering the streets near the river. The village hall is host to Nunney Acoustic Cafe which provides live music, homemade food, a bar and children's art activities on the second Sunday of each month (except July and August).

 

On 30 September 2007, Nunney was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 report, asking whether "the prettiest village in England" is a place where we can learn "how to mend our broken society".

 

"Visit Nunney" the community interest group closed down in 2021.

 

Evidence of Roman settlement has been provided by the discovery of a hoard of Roman coins in 1869 at Westdown Farm and a villa with a mosaic floor.

 

Nunney is mentioned as a manor belonging to William de Moyon in the Domesday Book in 1086, but the book does not mention a castle.

 

The parish was part of the hundred of Frome.

 

For many years, from the medieval period until the 19th century, Nunney was the site of water-powered mills owned initially by the Hoddinotts and then by James Fussell.

 

The parish council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.

 

For local government purposes, since 1 April 2023, the village comes under the unitary authority of Somerset Council. Prior to this, it was part of the non-metropolitan district of Mendip, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Frome Rural District.

 

Nunney is part of the Somerton and Frome county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post electoral system.

 

The village falls within the Cranmore, Doulting and Nunney electoral ward. Starting at Doulting in the west, the ward stretches eastwards through Cranmore and Nunney to finish in the east at Whatley. The total ward population taken at the 2011 census was 2,374.

 

Cloford Quarry is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Geological Conservation Review site important for the exposures of sediments of Triassic and Jurassic age which occur in major fissures within the Carboniferous Limestone laid down beneath the sea some 350 million years ago.

 

The Holwell Quarries are another geological Site of Special Scientific Interest which represent an internationally important geological locality. A comprehensive assemblage of Triassic (including Rhaetic), Lower Jurassic and Middle Jurassic fissure fillings are well displayed. The Rhaetic fissure fillings have yielded the richest assemblage of vertebrate faunas known from the British Triassic.

 

Along with the rest of South West England, Nunney has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F) with seasonal and diurnal variations, but due to the modifying effect of the sea, the range is less than in most other parts of the United Kingdom. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 1 °C (34 °F) and 2 °C (36 °F). July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around 21 °C (70 °F). In general, December is the dullest month and June the sunniest. The south west of England enjoys a favoured location, particularly in summer, when the Azores High extends its influence north-eastwards towards the UK.

 

Cloud often forms inland, especially near hills, and reduces exposure to sunshine. The average annual sunshine totals around 1600 hours. Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic depressions or with convection. In summer, convection caused by solar surface heating sometimes forms shower clouds and a large proportion of the annual precipitation falls from showers and thunderstorms at this time of year. Average rainfall is around 800–900 mm (31–35 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest. The predominant wind direction is from the south west.

 

The market cross across the road from the church is Grade II* listed. It was originally built around 1100, when stood in the churchyard of All Saints' Church. It was removed in 1869, as the noise from children playing on the steps annoyed the rector. The stone was discovered in a builders yard and rebuilt in his garden by the squire of Whatley and the Celtic cross added. After his death and a fire which destroyed his house, the cross was again dismantled and rebuilt on its present site in 1959.

 

There are over 30 other listed buildings in the village, including Rockfield House which was built in 1805 by John Pinch.

 

The Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed building dating from the 12th century.

 

Nunney Castle is a small, French-style castle surrounded by a deep moat, built for Sir John Delamare in 1373, and said to have been based on the Bastille in Paris, and shows a strong awareness of contemporary French practice. It was later the property of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, before passing to several owners and in 1577 was sold by Swithun Thorpe to John Parker who only kept it for a year before selling it to Richard Prater, at a cost of £2000. During the English Civil Wars (1642–51) Colonel Richard Prater, who held the castle until 1645, lost it to Fairfax, the commander of Cromwell's forces in the battle that took place at Nunney. The castle was besieged for two days, but capitulated when Cromwell's men used cannon to blast a great hole in the north west wall of the castle.

 

The George at Nunney Inn is close to the church and opposite Nunney Castle. It dates from the mid-18th century. Since that time it has been much extended and is now a 10 bedroom hotel with holiday cottages. The interior still features many of the original features with stone walls, exposed beams, and large open fireplaces. It is a Grade II listed building.

 

The Nunney Players are a Drama group, who meet up every year to put on a performance at the village hall. The Nunney Players have won many awards and have put on shows such as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Pinocchio.

 

The village website, run by Visit Nunney community interest company (CIC), was a finalist for UK Information/News Website of the Year in The Good Web Guide Awards in November 2014.

 

Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.

 

Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.

 

The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.

 

There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.

 

Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.

 

Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.

 

Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.

 

The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.

 

Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.

 

At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.

 

There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.

 

The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.

 

The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.

 

Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.

 

Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.

 

The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.

 

Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.

 

Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of mints including Arles and Lyons in France, Trier in Germany and Rome.

 

In April 2010, the Frome Hoard, one of the largest-ever hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found by a metal detectorist. The hoard of 52,500 coins dated from the 3rd century AD and was found buried in a field near Frome, in a jar 14 inches (36 cm) below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

 

This is the period from about 409 AD to the start of Saxon political control, which was mainly in the late 7th century, though they are said to have captured the Bath area in 577 AD. Initially the Britons of Somerset seem to have continued much as under the Romans but without the imperial taxation and markets. There was then a period of civil war in Britain though it is not known how this affected Somerset. The Western Wandsdyke may have been constructed in this period but archaeological data shows that it was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. This area became the border between the Romano-British Celts and the West Saxons following the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the Celts as a defence against Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the British Celtic tribes, with victories at Bradford-on-Avon (in the Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 652 AD, and further south at the Battle of Peonnum (at Penselwood) in 658 AD, followed by an advance west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett.

 

The Saxon advance from the east seems to have been halted by battles between the British and Saxons, for example; at the siege of Badon Mons Badonicus (which may have been in the Bath region e.g. at Solsbury Hill), or Bathampton Down. During the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, Somerset was probably partly in the Kingdom of Dumnonia, partly in the land of the Durotriges and partly in that of the Dobunni. The boundaries between these is largely unknown, but may have been similar to those in the Iron Age. Various "tyrants" seem to have controlled territories from reoccupied hill forts. There is evidence of an elite at hill forts such as Cadbury Castle and Cadbury Camp; for example, there is imported pottery. Cemeteries are an important source of evidence for the period and large ones have been found in Somerset, such as that at Cannington, which was used from the Roman to the Saxon period. The towns of Somerset seem to have been little used during that period but there continued to be farming on the villa sites and at the Romano-British villages.

 

There may have been effects from plague and volcanic eruption during this period as well as marine transgression into the Levels.

 

The language spoken during this period is thought to be Southwestern Brythonic, but only one or two inscribed stones survive in Somerset from this period. However, a couple of curse tablets found in the baths at Bath may be in this language. Some place names in Somerset seem to be Celtic in origin and may be from this period or earlier, e.g. Tarnock. Some river names, such as Parrett, may be Celtic or pre-Celtic. The religion of the people of Somerset in this period is thought to be Christian but it was isolated from Rome until after the Council of Hertford in 673 AD when Aldhelm was asked to write a letter to Geraint of Dumnonia and his bishops. Some church sites in Somerset are thought to date from this period, e.g., Llantokay Street.

 

Most of what is known of the history of this period comes from Gildas's On the Ruin of Britain, which is thought to have been written in Durotrigan territory, possibly at Glastonbury.

 

The earliest fortification of Taunton started for King Ine of Wessex and Æthelburg, in or about the year 710 AD. However, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle this was destroyed 12 years later.

 

This is the period from the late 7th century (for most of Somerset) to 1066, though for part of the 10th and 11th centuries England was under Danish control. Somerset, like Dorset to the south, held the West Saxon advance from Wiltshire/Hampshire back for over a century, remaining a frontier between the Saxons and the Romano-British Celts.

 

The Saxons conquered Bath following the Battle of Deorham in 577, and the border was probably established along the line of the Wansdyke to the north of the Mendip Hills. Then Cenwalh of Wessex broke through at Bradford-on-Avon in 652, and the Battle of Peonnum possibly at Penselwood in 658, advancing west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett. In 661 the Saxons may have advanced into what is now Devon as a result of a battle fought at Postesburh, possibly Posbury near Crediton.

 

Then in the period 681–85 Centwine of Wessex conquered King Cadwaladr and "advanced as far as the sea", but it is not clear where this was. It is assumed that the Saxons occupied the rest of Somerset about this time. The Saxon rule was consolidated under King Ine, who established a fort at Taunton, demolished by his wife in 722. It is sometimes said that he built palaces at Somerton and South Petherton but this does not seem to be the case. He fought against Geraint in 710. In 705 the diocese of Sherborne was formed, taking in Wessex west of Selwood. Saxon kings granted land in Somerset by charter from the 7th century onward. The way and extent to which the Britons survived under the Saxons is a debatable matter. However, King Ine's laws make provision for Britons. Somerset originally formed part of Wessex and latter became a separate "shire". Somersetshire seems to have been formed within Wessex during the 8th century though it is not recorded as a name until later. Mints were set up at times in various places in Somerset in the Saxon period, e.g., Watchet.

 

Somerset played an important part in defeating the spread of the Danes in the 9th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 845 Alderman Eanwulf, with the men of Somersetshire (Sumorsǣte), and Bishop Ealstan, and Alderman Osric, with the men of Dorsetshire, conquered the Danish army at the mouth of the Parret. This was the first known use of the name Somersæte. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that in January 878 the King Alfred the Great fled into the marshes of Somerset from the Viking's invasion and made a fort at Athelney. From the fort Alfred was able to organize a resistance using the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

 

Viking raids took place for instance in 987 and 997 at Watchet and the Battle of Cynwit. King Alfred was driven to seek refuge from the Danes at Athelney before defeating them at the Battle of Ethandun in 878, usually considered to be near Edington, Wiltshire, but possibly the village of Edington in Somerset. Alfred established a series of forts and lookout posts linked by a military road, or Herepath, so his army could cover Viking movements at sea. The Herepath has a characteristic form which is familiar on the Quantocks: a regulation 20 m wide track between avenues of trees growing from hedge laying embankments. The Herepath ran from the ford on the River Parrett at Combwich, past Cannington hill fort to Over Stowey, where it climbed the Quantocks along the line of the current Stowey road, to Crowcombe Park Gate. Then it went south along the ridge, to Triscombe Stone. One branch may have led past Lydeard Hill and Buncombe Hill, back to Alfred's base at Athelney. The main branch descended the hills at Triscombe, then along the avenue to Red Post Cross, and west to the Brendon Hills and Exmoor. A peace treaty with the Danes was signed at Wedmore and the Danish king Guthrum the Old was baptised at Aller. Burhs (fortified places) had been set up by 919, such as Lyng. The Alfred Jewel, an object about 2.5 inch long, made of filigree gold, cloisonné-enamelled and with a rock crystal covering, was found in 1693 at Petherton Park, North Petherton. Believed to have been owned by Alfred the Great it is thought to have been the handle for a pointer that would have fit into the hole at its base and been used while reading a book.

 

Monasteries and minster churches were set up all over Somerset, with daughter churches from the minsters in manors. There was a royal palace at Cheddar, which was used at times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot, and there is likely to have been a "central place" at Somerton, Bath, Glastonbury and Frome since the kings visited them. The towns of Somerset seem to have been in occupation in this period though evidence for this is limited because of subsequent buildings on top of remains from this period. Agriculture flourished in this period, with a re-organisation into centralised villages in the latter part in the east of the county.

 

In the period before the Norman Conquest, Somerset came under the control of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his family. There seems to have been some Danish settlement at Thurloxton and Spaxton, judging from the place-names. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown, with fortifications such as Dunster Castle used for control and defence.

 

This period of Somerset's history is well documented, for example in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of Alfred.

 

This is the period from 1066 to around 1500. Following the defeat of the Saxons by the Normans in 1066, various castles were set up in Somerset by the new lords such as that at Dunster, and the manors was awarded to followers of William the Conqueror such as William de Moyon and Walter of Douai. Somerset does not seem to have played much part in the civil war in King Stephen's time, but Somerset lords were main players in the murder of Thomas Becket.

 

A good picture of the county in 1086 is given by Domesday Book, though there is some difficulty in identifying the various places since the hundreds are not specified. The total population given for the county, which had different boundaries to those today, was 13,399, however this only included the heads of households, so with their families this may have been around 67,000. Farming seems to have prospered for the next three centuries but was severely hit by the Black Death which in 1348 arrived in Dorset and quickly spread through Somerset, causing widespread mortality, perhaps as much as 50% in places. It re-occurred, resulting in a change in feudal practices since the manpower was no longer so available.

 

Reclamation of land from marsh in the Somerset Levels increased, largely under monastic influence. Crafts and industries also flourished, the Somerset woollen industry being one of the largest in England at this time. "New towns" were founded in this period in Somerset, i.e. Newport, but were not successful. Coal mining on the Mendips was an important source of wealth while quarrying also took place, an example is near Bath.

 

The towns grew, again often by monastic instigation, during this period and fairs were started. The church was very powerful at this period, particularly Glastonbury Abbey. After their church burnt down, the monks there "discovered" the tomb of "King Arthur" and were able rebuild their church. There were over 20 monasteries in Somerset at this period including the priory at Hinton Charterhouse which was founded in 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury who also founded Lacock Abbey. Many parish churches were re-built in this period. Between 1107 and 1129 William Giffard the Chancellor of King Henry I, converted the bishop's hall in Taunton into Taunton Castle. Bridgwater Castle was built in 1202 by William Brewer. It passed to the king in 1233 and in 1245 repairs were ordered to its motte and towers. During the 11th century Second Barons' War against Henry III, Bridgwater was held by the barons against the King. In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Sir Francis Wyndham. Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed in 1645.

 

During the Middle Ages sheep farming for the wool trade came to dominate the economy of Exmoor. The wool was spun into thread on isolated farms and collected by merchants to be woven, fulled, dyed and finished in thriving towns such as Dunster. The land started to be enclosed and from the 17th century onwards larger estates developed, leading to establishment of areas of large regular shaped fields. During this period a Royal Forest and hunting ground was established, administered by the Warden. The Royal Forest was sold off in 1818.

 

In the medieval period the River Parrett was used to transport Hamstone from the quarry at Ham Hill, Bridgwater was part of the Port of Bristol until the Port of Bridgwater was created in 1348, covering 80 miles (130 km) of the Somerset coast line, from the Devon border to the mouth of the River Axe. Historically, the main port on the river was at Bridgwater; the river being bridged at this point, with the first bridge being constructed in 1200 AD. Quays were built in 1424; with another quay, the Langport slip, being built in 1488 upstream of the Town Bridge. A Customs House was sited at Bridgwater, on West Quay; and a dry dock, launching slips and a boat yard on East Quay. The river was navigable, with care, to Bridgwater Town Bridge by 400 to 500 tonnes (440 to 550 tons) vessels. By trans-shipping into barges at the Town Bridge the Parrett was navigable as far as Langport and (via the River Yeo) to Ilchester.

 

This is the period from around 1500 to 1800. In the 1530s, the monasteries were dissolved and their lands bought from the king by various important families in Somerset. By 1539, Glastonbury Abbey was the only monastery left, its abbot Richard Whiting was then arrested and executed on the orders of Thomas Cromwell. From the Tudor to the Georgian times, farming specialised and techniques improved, leading to increases in population, although no new towns seem to have been founded. Large country houses such as at Hinton St George and Montacute House were built at this time.

 

The Bristol Channel floods of 1607 are believed to have affected large parts of the Somerset Levels with flooding up to 8 feet (2 m) above sea level. In 1625, a House of Correction was established in Shepton Mallet and, today, HMP Shepton Mallet is England's oldest prison still in use.

 

During the English Civil War, Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, although Dunster was a Royalist stronghold. The county was the site of important battles between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, notably the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643 and the Battle of Langport in 1645. The castle changed hands several times during 1642–45 along with the town. During the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake, from July 1644 to July 1645. This war resulted in castles being destroyed to prevent their re-use.

 

In 1685, the Duke of Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion in which Somerset people fought against James II. The rebels landed at Lyme Regis and travelled north hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, puritan soldiers damaged the west front of Wells Cathedral, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and the furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave. They were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last battle fought on English soil. The Bloody Assizes which followed saw the losers being sentenced to death or transportation.

 

The Society of Friends established itself in Street in the mid-17th century, and among the close-knit group of Quaker families were the Clarks: Cyrus started a business in sheepskin rugs, later joined by his brother James, who introduced the production of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. C&J Clark still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.

 

The 18th century was largely one of peace and declining industrial prosperity in Somerset. The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelt the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. However, farming continued to flourish, with the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society being founded in 1777 to improve methods. John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 but found that methods could still be improved.

 

Arthur Wellesley took his title, Duke of Wellington from the town of Wellington. He is commemorated on a nearby hill with a large, spotlit obelisk, known as the Wellington Monument.

 

In north Somerset, mining in the Somerset coalfield was an important industry, and in an effort to reduce the cost of transporting the coal the Somerset Coal Canal was built; part of it was later converted into a railway. Other canals included the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Westport Canal, Grand Western Canal, Glastonbury Canal and Chard Canal.[9] The Dorset and Somerset Canal was proposed, but very little of it was ever constructed.

 

The 19th century saw improvements to Somerset's roads with the introduction of turnpikes and the building of canals and railways. The usefulness of the canals was short-lived, though they have now been restored for recreation. The railways were nationalised after the Second World War, but continued until 1965, when smaller lines were scrapped; two were transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines.

 

In 1889, Somerset County Council was created, replacing the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions.

 

The population of Somerset has continued to grow since 1800, when it was 274,000, particularly in the seaside towns such as Weston-super-Mare. Some population decline occurred earlier in the period in the villages, but this has now been reversed, and by 1951 the population of Somerset was 551,000.

 

Chard claims to be the birthplace of powered flight, as it was here in 1848 that the Victorian aeronautical pioneer John Stringfellow first demonstrated that engine-powered flight was possible through his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage. North Petherton was the first town in England (and one of the few ever) to be lit by acetylene gas lighting, supplied by the North Petherton Rosco Acetylene Company. Street lights were provided in 1906. Acetylene was replaced in 1931 by coal gas produced in Bridgwater, as well as by the provision of an electricity supply.

 

Around the 1860s, at the height of the iron and steel era, a pier and a deep-water dock were built, at Portishead, by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway to accommodate the large ships that had difficulty in reaching Bristol Harbour. The Portishead power stations were coal-fed power stations built next to the dock. Construction work started on Portishead "A" power station in 1926. It began generating electricity in 1929 for the Bristol Corporation's Electricity Department. In 1951, Albright and Wilson built a chemical works on the opposite side of the dock from the power stations. The chemical works produced white phosphorus from phosphate rock imported, through the docks, into the UK. The onset of new generating capacity at Pembroke (oil-fired) and Didcot (coal-fired) in the mid-1970s brought about the closure of the older, less efficient "A" Station. The newer of the two power stations ("B" Station) was converted to burn oil when the Somerset coalfields closed. Industrial activities ceased in the dock with the closure of the power stations. The Port of Bristol Authority finally closed the dock in 1992, and it has now been developed into a marina and residential area.

 

During the First World War hundreds of Somerset soldiers were killed, and war memorials were put up in most of the towns and villages; only a few villages escaped casualties. There were also casualties – though much fewer – during the Second World War, who were added to the memorials. The county was a base for troops preparing for the 1944 D-Day landings, and some Somerset hospitals still date partly from that time. The Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Bridgwater was constructed early in World War II for the Ministry of Supply. It was designed as an Explosive ROF, to produce RDX, which was then a new experimental high-explosive. It obtained water supplies from two sources via the Somerset Levels: the artificial Huntspill River which was dug during the construction of the factory and also from the King's Sedgemoor Drain, which was widened at the same time. The Taunton Stop Line was set up to resist a potential German invasion, and the remains of its pill boxes can still be seen, as well as others along the coast. A decoy town was constructed on Black Down, intended to represent the blazing lights of a town which had neglected to follow the black-out regulations. Sites in the county housed Prisoner of War camps including: Norton Fitzwarren, Barwick, Brockley, Goathurst and Wells. Various airfields were built or converted from civilian use including: RNAS Charlton Horethorne (HMS Heron II), RAF Weston-super-Mare, RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron), Yeovil/Westland Airport, RAF Weston Zoyland, RAF Merryfield, RAF Culmhead and RAF Charmy Down.

 

Exmoor was one of the first British National Parks, designated in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. and is named after its main river. It was expanded in 1991 and in 1993 Exmoor was designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area. The Quantock Hills were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1956, the first such designation in England under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The Mendip Hills followed with AONB designation in 1972.

 

Hinkley Point A nuclear power station was a Magnox power station constructed between 1957 and 1962 and operating until ceasing generation in 2000. Hinkley Point B is an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) which was designed to generate 1250 MW of electricity (MWe). Construction of Hinkley Point B started in 1967. In September 2008 it was announced, by Électricité de France (EDF), that a third, twin-unit European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) power station known as Hinkley Point C is planned, to replace Hinkley Point B which was due for closure in 2016, but has now has its life extended until 2022.

 

Somerset today has only two small cities, Bath and Wells, and only small towns in comparison with other areas of England. Tourism is a major source of employment along the coast, and in Bath and Cheddar for example. Other attractions include Exmoor, West Somerset Railway, Haynes Motor Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum as well as the churches and the various National Trust and English Heritage properties in Somerset.

 

Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries take place in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the number of apple orchards has reduced.

 

In the late 19th century the boundaries of Somerset were slightly altered, but the main change came in 1974 when the county of Avon was set up. The northern part of Somerset was removed from the administrative control of Somerset County Council. On abolition of the county of Avon in 1996, these areas became separate administrative authorities, "North Somerset" and "Bath and North East Somerset". The Department for Communities and Local Government was considering a proposal by Somerset County Council to change Somerset's administrative structure by abolishing the five districts to create a Somerset unitary authority. The changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. However, support for the county council's bid was not guaranteed and opposition among the district council and local population was strong; 82% of people responding to a referendum organised by the five district councils rejected the proposals. It was confirmed in July 2007 that the government had rejected the proposals for unitary authorities in Somerset, and that the present two-tier arrangements of Somerset County Council and the district councils will remain.

Local Government and Community Development Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie (right), greets Executive Director of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), Yvonne Hall (2nd left), during a special construction sector awareness forum at the BSJ’s Winchester Road offices in Kingston on May 31. The forum was staged in collaboration with the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA). Looking on (from left) are: Director of Industrial Training, BSJ, Sonia Morgan; and NCRA Chief Executive Officer, Lorice Edwards Brown.

Part of the old-growth virgin forest that formed Chickasaw Bluffs, “Lea’s Woods”— named for Overton and Ella Lea of Nashville— once covered over 342 acres. Overton Lea was a grandson of John Overton, co-founder of Memphis in 1819 with Andrew Jackson and James Winchester. At the time Memphis acquired the tract for the public good in 1901, the Old Forest was two hundred acres, of which 150 acres remain today.

 

Designed by the renowned landscape architect George E. Kessler, Overton Park has been listed on the National Historic Register since 1979 and contains such public attractions as the Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis Zoo, and a golf course.

 

The Old Forest itself remains an oasis of natural ecosystems. It contains more than 330 plant species, with some of the trees exceeding two hundred years of age. Some 166 bird species have been also been found frequenting the forest. Public trails wind through the tract, and guided nature walks are provided every month.

 

Overton Park became nationally significant in 1971 for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as the Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, pitting the Federal Highway Administration, which wanted to build Interstate 40 through the park, against local desires to maintain the natural ecosystem. After losing two court cases, including in the Sixth Circuit Court, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park filed an emergency motion with the United States Supreme Court, and the group’s final victory became a landmark administrative law case cited in thousands of legal opinions. It was one of the few times that a nonprofit organization won against a federal agency.

 

Associated with the Progressive era and City Beautiful Movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the development of the Memphis Park and Parkway System laid the foundation for municipal park systems across Tennessee. The Memphis system also represented one of the earliest efforts in the South to introduce basic concepts of modern comprehensive urban planning and design by George E. Kessler (1862-1923), widely regarded as one of the fathers of urban planning in America.

 

The Memphis Park and Parkway System resulted from the vision of the new civic capitalists who emerged in the wake of the yellow fever epidemics of the 1870s. In 1895 these well-educated, well-traveled, and prosperous capitalists established the Greater Memphis Movement (GMM), a loose organization devoted to the promotion of a progressive civic agenda that included annexation of suburban areas to the east, establishment of a public water and gas utility, extension of George Waring’s revolutionary sewer system, and construction of a system of parks and connecting boulevards to unite the new city with the old.

 

Work began in 1897, following the election of Mayor John J. Williams and supportive aldermen. Initially the GMM program faced frustrating legal and legislative battles to establish the city’s right to form an independent park commission, issue bonds, and exercise eminent domain in the condemnation of property for the park. While the Williams administration awaited resolution of these delays, the GMM entered into a three-year relationship with John C. Olmstead, son of Frederick Law Olmstead Sr., the famous landscape architect. Olmstead provided advice on the drafting of legislation and designed an alignment for a proposed parkway to connect two park sites, one on Riverside (Cow Island) Road and the other on an old farm tract known as Lea’s Woods.

 

In 1899 the city annexed seven square miles, quadrupling its size, and in 1900 the Tennessee Supreme Court resolved the legal issues surrounding the establishment of the Memphis Park Commission, which met for the first time on November 6, 1900, and elected Judge J. B. McFarland as chairman. In less than three weeks, the mayor and city aldermen authorized the acquisition of property for the establishment of the parks. The speed with which the city and its staff moved suggests that the preliminary work had been completed and only awaited the court’s decision. The purchase of Lea’s Woods and the Wilderberger Farm on Cow Island Road were finalized on October 26, 1901.

 

In November 1901 the city accepted the bid of George E. Kessler of Kansas City to design the parks and parkway systems. Over the next thirteen years, Kessler and his protégé and partner, Henry C. Wright Sr., executed an impressive program of park development, largely based on the model presented by Kessler in Kansas City in 1891. Their designs for the site plans and structures of Lea’s Woods (renamed Overton Park) and the Wilderberger Farm site (named Riverside Park) progressed with impressive speed despite the firm’s simultaneous commission to design the Louisiana Purchase World’s Fair grounds in St. Louis in 1903-4.

 

The complex and ambitious Memphis project included the redesign and development of three of the city’s four original 1819 squares; the design of three new small urban parks, including Forrest, Confederate, and Gaston Parks; the design and development of Overton and Riverside Parks; and the design for a new system of parkways to connect these parks and spur development in the newly annexed areas. By the end of 1906 more than 1,750 acres of parkland had been purchased, designed, developed, and opened.

 

Political pressure forced Kessler to address Overton Park first with a picturesque landscape design, largely derived from the design traditions of New York City’s Central Park. The design was completed in early 1902, and initial development of the drives, open areas, lakes, and pavilions was completed by August. The work on Riverside Park progressed at a slower pace during 1902 and 1903, due in part to its location away from the city’s residential development. At its opening in 1903, for instance, access was limited by a four-mile carriage ride from the city, or a twenty-minute trip by river steamer. Greater public access by streetcar connections was not completed until 1913.

 

The key to the vision of Kessler and the commissioners lay in the creation of parkways to connect the major parks. Kessler eventually abandoned the idea of a meandering parkway in the English Romantic landscape tradition in favor of a rectilinear alignment that ran over a series of existing roads. Kessler envisioned a portion of the parkway to resemble New York’s Riverside Drive, a pleasure drive designed to allow city dwellers the opportunity to race their horses and carriages. Called the Speedway, this colorful feature of the parkway survived only until 1910, when the commission responded to public pressure and voted to enforce a speed limit along the parkways.

 

Development of the parkways encountered another obstacle when a lawsuit challenged the commission’s authority to use eminent domain to build what many saw as merely roadways. After two years, the Tennessee Supreme Court resolved the issue in favor of the commission in Memphis v. Hastings. The commission broke ground for the parkways in November 1904 and officially completed the routes in April 1906.

 

The park and parkway system also stimulated residential development. In 1906 the Park Commission received the power to review and comment on all development plans submitted for approval by the mayor and board in order to ensure that future development would enhance the appearance of the city’s parks and parkways. In practice, the review process provided the commission with ad hoc powers to act as a city planning commission. The relationship between the Memphis Park Commission and George Kessler ended in 1914.

 

The Memphis Park Commission has continued to grow over the years and currently acts as steward for six thousand acres of parkland, the city’s museum system, seven golf courses, twenty-five community centers, eight senior citizen centers, thirteen “After School” programs, and the Mid-South Fairgrounds, among other facilities. It stands as an object of pride to Memphians and a tribute to the vision of its founders and designers.

Local Government and Community Development Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie (right), is greeted by Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica (IMAJ) President, Carvel Stewart (left), during a special construction sector awareness forum at the Bureau of Standards Jamaica’s (BSJ) Winchester Road offices in Kingston on May 31. The forum was staged in collaboration with the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA). Looking on is lecturer in the Department of Physics, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Dr. Victor Douse, who was one of the presenters.

The Green Man, also known as a foliate head,[1] is a motif in architecture and art, of a face made of, or completely surrounded by, foliage, which normally spreads out from the centre of the face.[2] Apart from a purely decorative function, the Green Man is primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring.

 

The Green Man motif has many variations. Branches or vines may sprout from the mouth, nostrils, or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Found in many cultures from many ages around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetation deities. Often used as decorative architectural ornaments, where they are a form of mascaron or ornamental head, Green Men are frequently found in architectural sculpture on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings in the Western tradition. In churches in England, the image was used to illustrate a popular sermon describing the mystical origins of the cross of Jesus.

 

"Green Man" type foliate heads first appeared in England during the early 12th century deriving from those of France, and were especially popular in the Gothic architecture of the 13th to 15th centuries. The idea that the Green Man motif represents a pagan mythological figure, as proposed by Lady Raglan in 1939, despite its popularity with the lay public, is not supported by evidence.[1][3][4][5]

 

Types

 

6th-century Byzantine mosaic in the Great Palace Mosaic Museum, Istanbul

Usually referred to in art history as foliate heads or foliate masks, representations of the Green Man take many forms, but most just show a "mask" or frontal depiction of a face, which in architecture is usually in relief. The simplest depict a man's face peering out of dense foliage. Some may have leaves for hair, perhaps with a leafy beard. Often leaves or leafy shoots are shown growing from his open mouth and sometimes even from the nose and eyes as well. In the most abstract examples, the carving at first glance appears to be merely stylised foliage, with the facial element only becoming apparent on closer examination. The face is almost always male; green women are rare. Lady Raglan coined the term "Green Man" for this type of architectural feature in her 1939 article The Green Man in Church Architecture in The Folklore Journal.[6] It is thought that her interest stemmed from carvings at St. Jerome's Church in Llangwm, Monmouthshire.[7]

 

The Green Man appears in many forms, with the three most common types categorized as:

 

the Foliate Head: completely covered in green leaves

the Disgorging Head: spews vegetation from its mouth

the Bloodsucker Head: sprouts vegetation from all facial orifices (e.g. tear ducts, nostrils, mouth, and ears)[8][9]

History

 

Sculpture of Green Man in ruins of Hatra, modern Iraq, 2nd century

In terms of formalism, art historians see a connection with the masks in Iron Age Celtic art, where faces emerge from stylized vegetal ornament in the "Plastic style" metalwork of La Tène art.[10] Since there are so few survivals, and almost none in wood, the lack of a continuous series of examples is not a fatal objection to such a continuity.

 

The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore suggests that they ultimately have their origins in late Roman art from leaf masks used to represent gods and mythological figures.[1] A character superficially similar to the Green Man, in the form of a partly foliate mask surrounded by Bacchic figures, appears at the centre of the 4th-century silver salver in the Mildenhall Treasure, found at a Roman villa site in Suffolk, England; the mask is generally agreed to represent Neptune or Oceanus and the foliation is of seaweed.[11]

 

In his lectures at Gresham College, historian and professor Ronald Hutton traces the green man to India, stating "the component parts of Lady Raglan's construct of the Green Man were dismantled. The medieval foliate heads were studied by Kathleen Basford in 1978 and Mercia MacDermott in 2003. They were revealed to have been a motif originally developed in India, which travelled through the medieval Arab empire to Christian Europe. There it became a decoration for monks’ manuscripts, from which it spread to churches."

 

A late 4th-century example of a green man disgorging vegetation from his mouth is at St. Abre, in St. Hilaire-le-grand, France.[12] 11th century Romanesque Templar churches in Jerusalem have Romanesque foliate heads. Harding tentatively suggested that the symbol may have originated in Asia Minor and been brought to Europe by travelling stone carvers.[citation needed] The tradition of the Green Man carved into Christian churches is found across Europe, including examples such as the Seven Green Men of Nicosia carved into the facade of the thirteenth century St Nicholas Church in Cyprus.[citation needed] The motif fitted very easily into the developing use of vegetal architectural sculpture in Romanesque and Gothic architecture in Europe.[citation needed] Later foliate heads in churches may have reflected the legends around Seth, the son of Adam, according to which he plants seeds in his dead father's mouth as he lies in his grave. The tree that grew from them became the tree of the true cross of the crucifixion. This tale was in The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, a very popular thirteenth century compilation of Christian religious stories, from which the subjects of church sermons were often taken, especially after 1483, when William Caxton printed an English translation of the Golden Legend.[13]

 

According to the Christian author Stephen Miller, author of "The Green Man in Medieval England: Christian Shoots from Pagan Roots" (2022),[14] "It is a Christian/Judaic-derived motif relating to the legends and medieval hagiographies of the Quest of Seth – the three twigs/seeds/kernels planted below the tongue of post-fall Adam by his son Seth (provided by the angel of mercy responsible for guarding Eden) shoot forth, bringing new life to humankind".[15] This notion was first proposed by James Coulter (2006).[16]

 

From the Renaissance onward, elaborate variations on the Green Man theme, often with animal heads rather than human faces, appear in many media other than carvings (including manuscripts, metalwork, bookplates, and stained glass). They seem to have been used for purely decorative effect rather than reflecting any deeply held belief.

 

Pennal, Gwynedd: one of the few examples on stained glass church windows

Pennal, Gwynedd: one of the few examples on stained glass church windows

 

Romanesque carving, doorway of Norman church at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, mid 12th century

Romanesque carving, doorway of Norman church at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, mid 12th century

 

Green Man in the presbytery of St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, ca. twelfth-thirteenth centuries, Norman and Romanesque.

Green Man in the presbytery of St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney, ca. twelfth-thirteenth centuries, Norman and Romanesque.

 

St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland: 13th century

St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Ireland: 13th century

 

Romanesque sandstone carving, archway in church at Garway, Herefordshire c.13th century

Romanesque sandstone carving, archway in church at Garway, Herefordshire c.13th century

 

A medieval Green Man on the capital of a column in an English church in Lincolnshire

A medieval Green Man on the capital of a column in an English church in Lincolnshire

 

Green man at Southwell Minster chapter house c. 1300

Green man at Southwell Minster chapter house c. 1300

 

Detail of a "disgorging" medieval misericord in Ludlow parish church, Shropshire.

Detail of a "disgorging" medieval misericord in Ludlow parish church, Shropshire.

 

Stone carving at Dore Abbey, Herefordshire, England

Stone carving at Dore Abbey, Herefordshire, England

 

Medieval misericord; abbey-church of Vendôme, France

Medieval misericord; abbey-church of Vendôme, France

 

Painted wooden roof boss from Rochester Cathedral, Kent (medieval)

Painted wooden roof boss from Rochester Cathedral, Kent (medieval)

 

Wood carving of a "foliate head" type on Renaissance screen at Dore Abbey.

Wood carving of a "foliate head" type on Renaissance screen at Dore Abbey.

 

Ceiling boss in Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire

Ceiling boss in Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire

 

Carved capital, south door of Maria Laach Abbey, Germany

Carved capital, south door of Maria Laach Abbey, Germany

 

Keystone of the cross vault in the tower chapel of Ligerz, Switzerland

Keystone of the cross vault in the tower chapel of Ligerz, Switzerland

 

Copper Green Man at St Margaret Mary Church, Omaha

Copper Green Man at St Margaret Mary Church, Omaha

Modern times

In Britain, the image of the Green Man enjoyed a revival in the 19th century, becoming popular with architects during the Gothic revival and the Arts and Crafts era, when it appeared as a decorative motif in and on many buildings, both religious and secular.[citation needed] American architects took up the motif around the same time.[citation needed] Many variations can be found in Neo-gothic Victorian architecture. He was popular amongst Australian stonemasons and can be found on many secular and sacred buildings,[citation needed] including an example on Broadway, Sydney.[citation needed] In 1887 a Swiss engraver, Numa Guyot, created a bookplate depicting a Green Man in exquisite detail.[17]

 

In April 2023, a Green Man's head was depicted on the invitation for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla, designed by heraldic artist and manuscript illuminator Andrew Jamieson. According to the official royal website: "Central to the design is the motif of the Green Man, an ancient figure from British folklore, symbolic of spring and rebirth, to celebrate the new reign. The shape of the Green Man, crowned in natural foliage, is formed of leaves of oak, ivy, and hawthorn, and the emblematic flowers of the United Kingdom."[18][19] which alluded to "the nature worshipper in King Charles" but polarized the public.[5] Indeed, as the medieval art historian Cassandra Harrington pointed out, although vegetal figures were abundant throughout the medieval and early modern period, the foliate head motif is not ‘an ancient figure from British folklore’, as the Royal Household has proclaimed, but a European import.'[3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man#Further_reading

In folklore

What was the name of the green man? In her seminal article in Folklore, Lady Raglan first drew general attention to the ubiquitous renderings of foliate heads in medieval church architecture, usually done in oak leaves but often ivy, an iconic motif she felicitously termed the "Green Man" (Raglan 1939).(1) The term caught on and has since been the standard descriptor for a phenomenon which spans Europe and extends back to the Romans (Basford 1978; Anderson 1990). But by what name did people refer to this entity back then? When we call it the "Green Man," do we impose a set of images and connotations which are ours rather than theirs?

 

Lady Raglan herself described the naming of the "Green Man" as an intuitive leap:

 

It is now about eight years ago since my attention was first drawn by the Revd. J. Griffith, then vicar of Llangwm, in Monmouthshire, and himself a folklorist, to a curious carving. It is a man's face, with oak leaves growing from the mouth and ears, and completely encircling the head. Mr. Griffith suggested that it was intended to symbolise the spirit of inspiration, but it seemed to me certain that it was a man and not a spirit, and moreover that it was a "Green Man." So l named it, and the evidence that I have collected to support this title is the reason for this paper (Raglan 1939, 45).

 

However, as is generally true of intuitions, she did not conjure the name out of thin air. Rather, she was drawing upon her knowledge of folk life:

 

This figure, I am convinced, is neither a figment of the imagination nor a symbol, but is taken from real life, and the question is whether there was any figure in real life from which it could have been taken. The answer, I think, is that there is only one of sufficient importance, the figure variously known as the Green Man, Jack-in-the-Green, Robin Hood, the King of May, and the Garland, who is the central figure in the Mayday celebrations throughout Northern and Central Europe [...] I should like to remind you that there is an extraordinary number of "Green Man" inns all over the country [sic]. I have noticed them particularly in East Anglia (ibid., 50 and 53).

 

And that is all she has to say. Lady Raglan's allusions to Robin Hood, the King of May, and so on, display what was then a fashionably Frazerian catholicity (or, as we would say today, lack of discrimination), but they do not address the question of the name itself. Still, she cast her net wide enough to include Central Europe, which was strategic, for it is only in parts of Germany that the leafy May figures are referred to as der Grune Mann (Weber-Kellerman 1958).

 

The problem with this line of reasoning is that any leaf-covered figure is bound to be called the "Green Man" sooner or later. A case in point is the Jack-in-the-Green. Unfortunately for Lady Raglan's thesis, Roy Judge has demonstrated that the Jack-in-the-Green was essentially a popular May Day money-making scheme developed by chimney sweeps in the late-eighteenth century (Judge 1979). Nevertheless, the Jack-in-the-Green has been occasionally referred to as the Green Man "for a punning or humorous effect" (Judge 1991, 52) or as a purely idiosyncratic usage (Judge 1979, 100).

 

As for the Green Man inns, the Green Man apparently did not exist as an innkeeper's sign prior to the seventeenth century (Lilywhite 1972, 247-50). Furthermore, no Green Man establishment at the time of Lady Raglan's investigations is documented to have used the foliate head as its iconic emblem, this Green Man being variously represented by a forester or gamekeeper (Judge 1979, 76).

 

Under the circumstances, Lady Raglan's intuitive leap begins to look more imaginative than we would like. In his Green Man, William Anderson nicely summarises the attractions and dangers:

 

Much of what has been said about the connexion of the Green Man as he appears in ecclesiastical and secular buildings with folklore is presumption - a presumption based on a desire I certainly share and have to be warned against. That desire is for every tradition to be as ancient as possible (Anderson 1990, 26).

 

In a review of Anderson's Green Man, Kathleen Basford put it more bluntly: "No one, I think, ever called a foliate head a 'Green Man' before Lady Raglan; now we all do, even though we may not accept her hypothesis" (Basford 1991, 238). After reviewing the matter, Judge concluded that Lady Raglan's "Green Man" was a particularly successful example of modern mythmaking, a "case study in the 'invention of tradition'" (Judge 1991, 51). After extensive research, both Basford and Anderson concluded that the name of the foliate head is undeterminable (Basford 1978, 14-15;Anderson 1990, 111-12). The sculptor of a fountain at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, carved c. 1200, inscribed Silvan over his rendering of the "Green Man." In his book of architectural sketches, written c. 1235, the master mason Villard de Honnecourt drew it in various formats, calling it Tete de Feuilles ("head of leaves"). That is all. As discussed by Basford and Anderson, the former is probably a misattribution by the original sculptor, since the Roman god Silvanus was never portrayed as a "Green Man." The latter was simply a descriptive designation.

 

Lady Raglan's error lay, not in that she cast her net too wide, but that she cast it in the wrong direction. Determined to see the "Green Man" as a Frazerian fertility symbol, she either chose to overlook or was simply unaware that there were other Green Man entities to be taken into account besides the Green Man inns and der Grune Mann, namely the Green Men of English pageantry and the Green Man distilleries. Whether these latter have anything to do with the foliate head - and, if so, what light they throw upon what it might have been called - is the subject of the present inquiry.(2)

 

The Green Men of English Pageantry

 

The Green Men were a regular feature in the pageants and entertainments of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England - so much so that in John Kirke's play, The Seven Champions of Christendome, the Clown queries a foreigner, "Have you any squibs in your Country? any Green-men in your shows ...?" (Kirke 1638, sig. H2). They were especially associated with the London Lord Mayor's Pageant where they functioned as whifflers, those exotically garbed men whose role was to clear a way through the throng for the pageant proper with the aid of flaming torches and fireworks. This is summarised succinctly by Matthew Taubman in his Lord Mayor's Pageant, London's Yearly Jubilee: "In the front of all before these, twenty Savages or Green Men, with Squibs and Fire-works, to sweep the Streets, and keep off the Crowd" (Taubman 1686, 1213). This was not without its hazards. In Robert Wilson's play, The Coblers Prophecy, Raph Cobler cautions, "Comes there a Pageant by, Ile stand out of the greene mens way for burning my vestment" (Wilson 1594, sig. C1). In the earliest written reference to the pageant Green Men, the Green Men themselves take the stage, albeit only briefly. In George Whetstone's play, The Second Parte of the Famous Historie of Promos and Cassandra (1578), Phallax (who is up to no good) has an encounter with the Green Men (sig. H1):

 

Actus. I. Scena. 6.

 

Phallax, Two men, apparrelled, lyke greene men at the Mayors feast, with clubbes of fyre worke.

 

Phal. This geare fadgeth now, that these fellowes peare, Friendes where weight you?

 

First. In Jesus Street to keepe a passadge cleare, That the King and his trayne, may passe with ease.

 

Phal. O, very good.

 

Second. Ought else Syr, do you please?

 

Phal. No, no: about your charge.

 

Both. We are gone:

 

Exeunt.

 

And they are. We have questions we would like to ask, but they have already left. Still, it is clear from Phallax's encounter that the pageant Green Men were a well-established institution by 1578 and were known for their distinctive attire. But what was their attire? For that information we must leave London and go to the Midlands and Chester.

 

In 1610, Chester was graced with a visit by the heir apparent, Prince Henry, on St George's Day, 23 April. The former Sheriff of Chester, Robert Amerie, prepared the Royal Entertainment with the exuberance of Bottom, everything being duly described later that year in Chesters Triumph in Honor of Her Prince. The opening act was an acrobat who ascended "by strange devices" to the spire atop St Peter's Steeple where, after some preliminaries, he "stood upon his hands with his feet into the Ayre, very dangerously and wonderfully to the view of the beholders."

 

Lady Raglan's error lay, not in that she cast her net too wide, but that she cast it in the wrong direction. Determined to see the "Green Man" as a Frazerian fertility symbol, she either chose to overlook or was simply unaware that there were other Green Man entities to be taken into account besides the Green Man inns and der Grune Mann, namely the Green Men of English pageantry and the Green Man distilleries. Whether these latter have anything to do with the foliate head - and, if so, what light they throw upon what it might have been called - is the subject of the present inquiry.(2)

 

The Green Men of English Pageantry

 

The Green Men were a regular feature in the pageants and entertainments of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England - so much so that in John Kirke's play, The Seven Champions of Christendome, the Clown queries a foreigner, "Have you any squibs in your Country? any Green-men in your shows ...?" (Kirke 1638, sig. H2). They were especially associated with the London Lord Mayor's Pageant where they functioned as whifflers, those exotically garbed men whose role was to clear a way through the throng for the pageant proper with the aid of flaming torches and fireworks. This is summarised succinctly by Matthew Taubman in his Lord Mayor's Pageant, London's Yearly Jubilee: "In the front of all before these, twenty Savages or Green Men, with Squibs and Fire-works, to sweep the Streets, and keep off the Crowd" (Taubman 1686, 1213). This was not without its hazards. In Robert Wilson's play, The Coblers Prophecy, Raph Cobler cautions, "Comes there a Pageant by, Ile stand out of the greene mens way for burning my vestment" (Wilson 1594, sig. C1). In the earliest written reference to the pageant Green Men, the Green Men themselves take the stage, albeit only briefly. In George Whetstone's play, The Second Parte of the Famous Historie of Promos and Cassandra (1578), Phallax (who is up to no good) has an encounter with the Green Men (sig. H1):

Two disguised, called Greene-men, their habit Embroydred and Stitch'd on with Ivie-leaves with blacke-side,(3) having hanging to their shoulders, a huge black shaggie Hayre, Savage-like, with Ivie Garlands upon their heads, bearing Herculian Clubbes in their hands, an artificiall Dragon, very lively to behold, pursuing the Savages entring their Denne, casting Fire from his mouth, which afterwards was slaine, to the great pleasure of the spectators, bleeding, fainting, and staggering, as though hee endured a feeling paine, even at the last gaspe, and farewell (Amerie 1610, sig. A3).

 

Some might find it pleasantly Frazerian to speculate that we have here an enactment of the ancient battle between Summer and Winter, with the Green Men of Summer eventually killing the Dragon of Winter "even at the last gaspe, and farewell." Fortunately, that fantasy is scotched by the survival of the actual preparatory notes for the Chester triumph in the Harleian MS. entitled, "The maner of the showe, that is, if God spare life and health, shall be seen by all the behoulders upon St Georges Day next, being the 23 of Aprill, 1610"(4):

 

It. ii men in greene leaves set with work upon their other habet with black heare & black beards very owgly to behould, and garlands upon their heads with great clubs in their hands with fireworks to scatter abroad to maintaine way for the rest of the show (Harl. MS. No. 2150, fol. 356. Quoted Larwood and Hotten 1866, 367).

 

advertisement

Click Here

This confirms the appearance of the Green Men, but also makes clear that their original function was to do the usual whiffler work, until Amerie had the last-minute inspiration to make use of them in a crowd-pleasing skit. So much for Summer and Winter.

 

The Green Man Distilleries

 

These descriptions of the pageant Green Men are corroborated by the 1630 sign of the distillers "Green Man and Still" [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. There he stands, complete with "Herculian" club, "owgly" beard, and garlanded head. He is covered with leaves except for the chest, shoulders and face, which remain bare. John Bagford (1650-1716) tells us that the Green Man and Still continued to be a common emblem of distilleries in his day:

 

They are called woudmen, or wildmen, thou' at thes day we in ye signe [trade] call them Green Men, couered with grene boues: and are used for singes by stiflers of strong watters ... and a fit emblem for those that use that intosticating licker which berefts them of their sennes (Quoted Larwood and Hotten 1866, 367).

 

Bagford makes clear that the term "Green Man" had gone out of general parlance towards the end of the seventeenth century, and that only specialists such as signboard makers still used the term to distinguish him from the otherwise similar Wild Man [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2 OMITTED].

 

Like pageant Green Men, pageant Wild Men primarily served as whifflers but could also be employed in brief skits or tableaux, the visual difference being that Wild Men were covered with hair whereas Green Men were covered with leaves. From the point of view of seventeenth-century pageant-makers they were probably seen as completely interchangeable. Thus, for the 1686 Lord Mayor's Pageant, Matthew Taubman described his whifflers indifferently as "Savages or Green Men," and in the Chester triumph of 1610 the ivy-covered Green Men are likewise referred to as "Savages." (The French term for "Wild Man" being homme sauvage [Bernheimer 1952, 20], "Savage" served as a synonym for "Wild Man.") Was the pageant Green Man just a leafy variant of the Wild Man? The general public evidently did not think so, for while Green Man inns and taverns have been abundant since the first half of the seventeenth century, Wild Man establishments have always been rare (Lilywhite 1972). The publicans and distillers - and their customers - were making a clear distinction.

 

The source of this distinction can be found in the nature of the Wild Man himself (Bernheimer 1972; Husband 1980; Bartra 1994). To simplify a complex subject, this mythical figure emerged in the medieval period as the iconic representation of Man sans God and, therefore, sans civilisation (see esp. White 1972). The Wild Man embodied the necessity of God, without whom human beings would be mere beasts. Opinions varied, but the Wild Man was generally envisaged as human in shape but lacking both a human soul and human intelligence, and therefore devoid of even the most rudimentary culture - no clothing, no shelter, no fire, not even the gift of language. Note how in Figure 2 the Wild Man's club or staff is so crudely fashioned that it still has leaves attached to it. Some portrayals of the Wild Man went so far as to show him locomoting on all fours. Such a primitive creature would know nothing of alcohol and would be incapable of producing it - a point not lost on tavernkeepers and distillers. Indeed, the medieval Wild Man appears to be as ignorant of alcohol as he is of everything else. Medieval accounts of the Wild Man do not dwell upon the possibilities of intoxication.

 

advertisement

Click Here

In contrast, in stating that the Green Man is "a fit emblem for those that use that intosticating licker which berefts them of their sennes," Bagford implies that he is well familiar with Green Men acting as if drunk. This returns us to the pageant Green Men, for their function was not merely to control the crowd but also to serve as an opening act, employing various antics to elevate the mood of the onlookers in anticipation of the pageant proper. From Bagford's remarks it can be concluded that the characteristic drollery of the pageant Green Man was to behave as though thoroughly intoxicated. This explains why inns, taverns and distilleries overwhelmingly favoured the Green Man over the Wild Man as their emblem: the Green Man was pleasantly stupified, whereas the Wild Man was merely stupid.

 

Incidentally, the information from the Chester triumph and the distillery sign regarding the Green Man's appearance allows us to dispose of a red herring. In his Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, Joseph Strutt (1749-1802) several times comments upon the pageant Green Men and furthermore includes a facsimile engraving which he captions "A Green Man." "This engraving, representing the character equipped in his proper habit, and flourishing his firework, is from a book of fireworks written by John Bate, and published in 1635," he writes (Strutt 1801, 484). The engraving does indeed come from John Bate's The Mysteries of Nature and Art, but the figure appears without a caption and nowhere does Bate suggest that it represents a pageant Green Man. The figure is merely a generic whiffler brandishing his fire club [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]. Strutt was making an educated guess; but he guessed wrong. This is not too surprising since the last recorded appearance of the pageant Green Men - barely visible at the last - was in the 1687 Lord Mayor's Pageant, over sixty years before Strutt was born: "The Speech being ended, the Attendents innumerable" (Taubman 1687, 7). Strutt's error was unwittingly perpetuated by Judge when he reproduced Strutt's engraving in The Jack-in-the-Green along with its erroneous caption (Judge 1979, 75). If Strutt's solidly un-leafy figure were indeed a Green Man, there could be no question of any connection between Lady Raglan's "Green Man" and the Green Men of English pageantry. But Strutt guessed wrong: the Green Man and Still [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] provides the truer picture.Even so, from first to last all records of pageant Green Men make it clear that the term "Green Man" referred to a species of whiffler with distinctive garb, neither more nor less, just as "Beefeater" refers to a guard with a characteristic uniform. Even the Chester Green Men were no exception, as the preliminary notes for the Chester triumph establish. It was a job title for a particularly minor job and carried no other associations except that of drunkenness. By itself, then, the mutual leafiness of the two figures can establish no necessary connection between the "Green Man" of church architecture and the Green Men of pageant and distillery. But nevertheless there is a connection.

 

The Combatant Green Man

 

The connection is made by a bench end at Crowcombe, Somerset, carved in 1534 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED]. Like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, we see the pageant Green Men erupting from the foliate head of the "Green Man," armed with Herculean clubs and leaf bucklers, their heads garlanded, their chests, shoulders and faces bare. Lest there be any doubt regarding the identification, the pageant Green Men's foliate head- and loin-gear are identical with, and spring from, the foliate hair of the "Green Man."(5) In an iconography as simple as it is powerful, the anonymous artist is reminding his audience that the pageant Green Men and the "Green Man" of church architecture are one and the same, or, to be more precise, that the pageant Green Men are representations of the "Green Man" of church architecture. The unknown woodcarver underscores the connection between the "Green Man" of church architecture and the intoxicated pageant Green Men by depicting grape vines and grape clusters growing from the mouth of the "Green Man."

 

advertisement

Click Here

I say "remind" because the artists employed upon the carvings of churches were not at liberty to introduce secret meanings into their work. Magnates paid for the carvings and church officials supervised them. However unusual the carving itself might be, when the Crowcombe artist portrayed the pageant Green Men as emanating from the "Green Man" of church architecture, he was merely reiterating what was the general belief of the Crowcombe community. For this reason, the Crowcombe bench end is not the statement of a single individual but of an entire community. The citizens of Crowcombe certainly observed pageants with Green Men in them. Some of them may have played the role of the pageant Green Man themselves. Others carved images of the foliate head in churches and on bench ends.

 

The connection is made again in an engraving by the Master of the Nuremberg Passion, working in mid-fifteenth-century Germany [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 5 OMITTED]. A club-wielding figure carries a shield emblazoned with the foliate head. Unlike the Crowcombe figures, this combatant does not have leaves sprouting directly from his body but instead wears a foliate tunic which appears to be tailored from one of the gigantic leaves which make up the background. By implication, the tunic is green. As with the Crowcombe artist, the Master of the Nuremberg Passion. necessarily employed an iconography which was understood by, and acceptable to, his patrons. The engraving is a statement by both the engraver and those who employed him.. The connection is made yet again in the spandrel of a choir stall in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, where one William Lyngwode carved the image of a combatant Green Man in 1308 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 6 OMITTED]. Here the "Green Man" of church architecture and the combatant are a single figure. Unlike the later representations, this one is dressed in conventional clothing and carries a sword and buckler.

 

It appears that Lady Raglan was right. The name of the foliate head - labelled the "Green Man" by Lady Raglan - was the Green Man.

 

These three portrayals of the combatant [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 4, 5 AND 6 OMITTED] capture the evolution of the figure from foliate head to pageant Green Man, entities that otherwise bear little physical resemblance to one another. In the earliest portrayals of the foliate head, the player's goal was to replicate it as represented in church carvings. As shown in Figure 6, this entailed clenching branches of foliage in his teeth, the rest of the costume being conventional since it did not contribute to the mimetic effect. As can be imagined, this role would have been difficult to maintain with any comfort. In addition, the foliage precluded the player from having any speaking lines.

 

Given these considerations, the natural course of evolution was to shift the burden of symbolic representation away from branches clamped in jaws to clothing, body coverings and other emblems. The German engraving shows the process in transition: the combatant wears green, foliate clothing but continues to display the foliate head, conveniently emblazoned upon his shield. In Figure 4 the transition is complete: the imagery of the foliate head has been dispensed with and the pageant Green Men are adequately defined by their leaf-covered bodies. The change in visual representation was accompanied by a change in meaning. Whatever the original significance of the Combatant Green Man [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 6 OMITTED], he was clearly not a Wild Man nor even related. The tailored clothing, the sword, the buckler, the styled hair, all speak decisively against any such interpretation. Over the centuries, however, as the representation of the Green Man shifted from foliate head to foliate body, the portrayed entity came to be increasingly conceptualised as similar to the Wild Man. In the German engraving, the Combatant Green Man is placed within a typical Wild Man tableau, wielding a club to defend his naked mate and child from the incursions of a lion.

 

The earliest representation I have encountered of the leaf-covered Green man is a German engraving by the Master of the Housebook, c. 1465, in which he appears as half of a matched pair of engravings [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 7 OMITTED], the other being a representation of a Wild Woman.(6) Note the bare knee, permitting the costume to flex comfortably at the joint. That both engravings are by a single artist permits us the unusual opportunity to compare and contrast the Wild and the Green as they were once conceived by a single mind. They are not the same. The stag was an emblem of brute lust and the Wild Woman riding the stag is the embodiment of uncontrolled sexuality and its hairy consequences. The unicorn was also an emblem of erotic passion, but of erotic passion tamed by right behaviour as exemplified by the virgin who is traditionally the only one who can capture the unicorn. The Green Man riding the unicorn wears the crown of leaves customarily worn by young men and women of that time who were engaged to be married. Thus, in contrast to the Wild Woman, the Green Man is the embodiment of a disciplined erotic passion. Whatever else the Green Man may have meant to the Master of the Housebook, he was envisaged as occupying a higher mental and spiritual place than the Wild Man.By the sixteenth century, though. the conflation is virtually complete, giving rise to that odd syncretism, the green Wild Man. Thus, a silver ewer, probably made in Nuremberg about 1500, is surmounted by an enamelled Wild Man warding off an enamelled dragon; although his beard and the hair on his head are a rich chestnut brown, his luxuriant body hair is bright green (Husband 1980, Colourplate XIV). In his painting, The Struggle of Carnival and Lent (1553), Pieter Brueghel portrays a small troupe of players performing a Wild Man play - with a green Wild Man (Husband 1980, Fig. 103). In Don Quixote, Cervantes describes Sancho Panza being taken aback by the sudden appearance of performers dressed up as "four savages, all clad in ivy and hemp dyed green ..." (Cervantes trans. Cohen. Quoted Batra 1994, 196). Even today some folk-performances of Wild Man plays will use moss, lichen, twigs and other vegetation to represent the Wild Man's hair (Bernheimer 1952, 52).

 

The Wild Man had been deeply rooted in medieval iconography for several centuries before the emergence of the leaf-covered pageant Green Man in the fifteenth century. It is perhaps for this reason that artists rarely portrayed the pageant Green Man, despite his popularity, conservatively preferring the long-established Wild Man as the archetype of "wildness." The convergence of the Green Man upon the Wild Man was probably due to a combination of fading Green Man traditions (whatever those might have been) and the natural tendency for persons to see leaf-covered figures and hair-covered figures as interchangeably representative of an uncivilised state. The only distinction maintained into the seventeenth century was the pageant Green Man's predilection for alcohol. Nevertheless, despite radical changes in representation and meaning, the pageant Green Men would remain linked in the public's mind with the Green Man of church architecture as long as both kept the same name, whether the "Green Man" in England or der Grune Mann in Germany..From the Green Man to Lady Raglan and Back

 

Although originally intended to represent the Green Man of church architecture, by the latter half of the sixteenth century the pageant Green Men had lost all earlier significance, having evolved into a popular species of whiffler whose antics suggested bacchanalian revelry. During the first half of the seventeenth century the leafy Green Men of pageantry were widely adopted as a signboard by taverns, inns and distilleries. However, as religious reformers increasingly came to dictate the temper of the times, any signboards suggestive of "false religion" became an easy target, as Richard Flecknoe observed in 1665:

 

They complain of ... the Signs in the City, cry out against them, as the abomination of abominations, to see so many Popes-heads, so many Triple-Crowns, Bishops Miters, and Cardinals Claps, with Friars and Nuns, Beads, Agnus Dei' s, and the like, which makes London look like a very Babylon ... As for the Signs, they have pretty well begun their Reformation already, changing the Sign of the Salutation of the Angel and our Lady, into the Souldier and Citizen, and the Katherine Wheel into the Cat and Wheel; so as there onely wants their making the Dragon to kill St. George, and the Devil to tweak St. Dunstan by the Nose, to make the Reformation compleat. Such ridiculous work they make of their Reformation, and so zealous they are against all Mirth and Jollity, as they would pluck down the Sign of the Cat and Fiddle too, if it durst play so loud as they might hear it (Flecknoe 1665, sig. G2).

Irrespective of its actual origins, the self-proclaimed religious reformers could only have seen the Green Man as pagan and therefore high on their list of things that had to go.

 

By the latter half of the seventeenth century, as evidenced by surviving trades tokens (the business cards of the day), the leaf-covered figure of the Green Man had been largely replaced by Green Man foresters, Green Man gamekeepers, and Green Man Robin Hoods (Larwood and Hotten 1866, 367). Toward the end of the century, if we follow Bagford, only the distilleries continued to use the leaf-covered Green Man as their emblem. It appears that by the early eighteenth century the Green Man had passed away as an iconic emblem for businesses, leaving only his name on the hundreds of Green Man pubs, taverns, and inns still to be seen throughout England today.

 

Thus, when Lady Raglan pondered the foliate head in St Jerome's, Llangwm, Gwent (Basford 1978, Plate 86b), she recollected the "extraordinary number of 'Green Man' inns all over the country" (Raglan 1939, 53). It was her intuition that a phenomenon so widely diffused as the Green Man inns must be ancient in origin and must stem from the same root as the equally widely diffused foliate heads of church architecture. It is unfortunate that she subsequently dragged into her hypothesis every green figure in sight, but her original intuition was not only correct but grounded on sound observation. It was not just luck.

 

advertisement

Click Here

By the standards of sober scholarship, her argument would never pass muster today. Lady Raglan has no business being right, yet there it is: the name of the "Green Man" was, and is, the Green Man.

 

Department of Epidemiology University of Washington, Seattle

web.archive.org/web/20080324055357/http://findarticles.co...

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man

 

via

 

Contents

 

Freshwater pearl museum through social

 

Shopping and dining experience

 

The fresh market will unveil

 

Peak from local

 

Walkable neighborhood for shopping

 

Market Square MAP 2095-2135 Merchants Row, Germantown, TN 38138 7503- 7511 Queens Court, Germantown, TN 38138 2123 West Street, Germantown, TN 38138 ...

 

Activities In Downtown Germantown Tn Contents Street” won the law enforcement The church continues contents above the Tennessee river freshwater pearl museum through social activities and community service Tripadvisor: see 1993 reviews and 1284 Things To Do In Germantown Tn Contents 11th stoney river steakhouse street” won the law enforcement agencies Our history. the She said testing was continuing Germantown

 

The Shops of Saddle Creek offers a shopping experience tailored to todays lifestyle with plenty of convenient parking and distinctive architecture.

 

Regalia Shopping Center, located in East Memphis, offers an upscale selection of shops and restaurants to create an unforgettable shopping and dining experience.

 

The Shops of Saddle Creek, Germantown, TN. 8432 likes · 425 talking about this · 1254 were here. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter:...

 

This weekend, the Germantown Municipal School District is offering a competitive ... Media reports this week said the world's largest restaurant chain would close about 500 stores, but a Subway spokesperson said that was a …

 

“We’re inspired by our grandfather, who owned a repair shop during our childhood ... and the surrounding areas.” uBreakiFix Germantown is located at 7464 Winchester Road #104, Memphis, TN 38125 and can be reached at: (901) …

 

On Wednesday, May 17, the fresh market will unveil its new look and enhanced shopping experience ... The Memphis and Germantown locations will provide an abundance of fresh produce items, hand-picked at their peak from local …

 

“Germantown is becoming a walkable neighborhood for shopping,” she added. A Tennessee native who returned to Nashville in 2013 from California, Anguiano …

 

Germantown Tennessee Restaurants Contents Contents 11th stoney river More than they bargained She said the 313 jefferson st With bustling north side district germantown Germantown Tennessee Tn Events Contents Won the award for nami How they share journal germantown tennessee grand prix She said testing was continuing KERRVILLE, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–James Avery, a family-owned jewelry retailer, announces today the opening of

 

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. – A $369 shoe heist in Germantown last ... Sherry Reynolds, a nearby karate instructor, said she heard about the shoe theft from a student, who was shopping at Rack Room. “She saw some girls putting shoes …

 

Original Site Here: Shopping In Germantown Tn

 

patriotwildlifecontrol.com/germantown/shopping-in-germant...

If a special lock for the pistol is not available, a normal jacket can be used with many guns. Just slip the lock between the back of the trigger and the trigger guard to prevent the trigger from triggering. Trigger locks are inexpensive (less than $ 20) or even free through some community programs and can successfully prevent unintentional discharge when installed correctly. However, they offer no physical protection for firearms or a measurable level of retention of thefts