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Bratch Locks
The Bratch is an area of Wombourne in South Staffordshire, England, noted for its industrial heritage and more recently as a way station for walkers, riders and cyclists. Formerly, it was a small, separate hamlet, and became fully absorbed into Wombourne only in the 20th century. Population details for the 2011 census can be found under Wombourne. Etymology The name is derived from the Anglian dialect of Old English, in which the word ''brēc'' signifies newly broken-in land. There are a number of Bratches in Staffordshire, e.g. near Enville and Norton Canes. In each case, they are near the edges of ancient forests, so a bratch was a new clearing in the waste.W. H. Duignan, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names, Henry Frowde, London, 1902. Bratch Locks The Bratch Locks are a noted feature of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, planned by James Brindley, and opened in 1772 as a three lock staircase. They were later re-engineered as three separate locks. They are served by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Staffordshire
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements such as Codsall, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Penkridge, Brewood, Coven, Essington, Huntington, Weston-under-Lizard, Bilbrook, Wombourne, Himley, Perton and Featherstone. Codsall is the main administrative centre of South Staffordshire District. Many of the villages form both commuter and residential areas for the nearby towns of Cannock, Stafford and Telford, as well as the wider West Midlands County. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of Cannock Rural District (in the north) and Seisdon Rural District (in the south). Its council is based in Codsall, The district covers a similar geographic area to South Staffordshire parliamentary constituency, although the north of the distri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking them. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. ''Block'' is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks (also called lightweight blocks) are made from expanded clay aggregate. Fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 4000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mud-bricks, have a history older than fired bricks, and have an additi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wombourn Railway Station
Wombourn railway station was the main intermediate station on the Wombourne Branch Line, situated at the Bratch. It was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1925 and closed in 1932. It was a grandiose affair with a goods yard and many station amenities. This, however, didn't stop poor patronage which led to the station's closure a mere seven years after opening. It remained in use for freight traffic until the line passing through the station was closed on 24 June 1965. The building survives, however, and is now a tearoom, popular with walkers, and an information centre. It also is the second only station building to still be still in situ on the South Staffordshire Railway Walk. The station itself was named Wombourn, the standard spelling of the time, in preference to the spelling Wombourne. This is the result of a decision made by the Great Western Railway, who feared confusion with the similarly named Wimborne Wimborne Minster (often referred to as Wimborne, ) is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Severn Trent
Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the trading name owned by the company, applies to a group of companies operating across the United Kingdom, United States and mainland Europe, with some involvement in the Middle East. It took its name from the two predecessor River Authorities, which managed the catchment of the Severn and the Trent. History The Severn Trent Water Authority was established in 1974. In July 1989, the Severn Trent Water Authority was partially privatised under the Water Act 1989, together with the rest of the water supply and sewage disposal industry in England and Wales, to form Severn Trent Water, with a responsibility to supply freshwater and treat sewage for around 8 million people living in the Midlands of England and also a small area of Wales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunter (geology)
Bunter Pebble Beds is the name formerly given to a set of sandstone deposits within the New Red Sandstone containing rounded pebbles. They are thought to be alluvial deposits and, judging from the rounding of the mainly quartzite pebbles, to have resulted from prolonged transportation in a large and turbulent river, resulting in powerful abrasion. Etymology The name "Bunter" derives from the German term "Buntsandstein", "bunt" meaning "variegated" or "colourful", referring to the colour of the sandstone deposit, which varies from reddish to greenish. Utility The pebbles, also called cobbles, which can be used as gravel, as ballast or as cobblestones, are mainly milky-white quartzite but can vary in colour and composition, including some that are hard, reddish-coloured sandstone. The sandstone in which these pebbles are deposited can be used for building or as an aggregate for cement or concrete. The sandstone can be hard enough for building, yet easy enough to "work", result ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corliss Steam Engine
A Corliss steam engine (or Corliss engine) is a steam engine, fitted with rotary valves and with variable valve timing patented in 1849, invented by and named after the American engineer George Henry Corliss of Providence, Rhode Island. Engines fitted with Corliss valve gear offered the best thermal efficiency of any type of stationary steam engine until the refinement of the uniflow steam engine and steam turbine in the 20th century. Corliss engines were generally about 30 percent more fuel efficient than conventional steam engines with fixed cutoff. This increased efficiency made steam power more economical than water power, allowing industrial development away from millponds. Corliss engines were typically used as stationary engines to provide mechanical power to line shafting in factories and mills and to drive dynamos to generate electricity. Many were quite large, standing many metres tall and developing several hundred horsepower, albeit at low speed, turning massive fly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, synthesising these with picturesque aesthetics. The style of architecture that was thus created, though also characterised as "Neo-Renaissance", was essentially of its own time. "The backward look transforms its object," Siegfried Giedion wrote of historicist architectural styles; "every spectator at every period—at every moment, indeed—inevitably transforms the past according to his own nature." The Italianate style was first developed in Britain in about 1802 by John Nash, with the construction of Cronkhill in Shropshire. This small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly used in Gothic architecture. The pinnacle had two purposes: # Ornamental – adding to the loftiness and verticity of the structure. They sometimes ended with statues, such as in Milan Cathedral. # Structural – the pinnacles were very heavy and often rectified with lead, in order to enable the flying buttresses to contain the stress of the structure vaults and roof. This was done by adding compressive stress (a result of the pinnacle weight) to the thrust vector and thus shifting it downwards rather than sideways. History The accounts of Jesus' temptations in Matthew's and Luke's gospels both suggest that the Second Temple in Jerusalem had one or more pinnacles ( gr, το πτερυγιον του ιερου): :Then he (Satan) br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brickwork
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by size. For example, in the UK a brick is defined as a unit having dimensions less than and a block is defined as a unit having one or more dimensions greater than the largest possible brick. Brick is a popular medium for constructing buildings, and examples of brickwork are found through history as far back as the Bronze Age. The fired-brick faces of the ziggurat of ancient Dur-Kurigalzu in Iraq date from around 1400 BC, and the brick buildings of ancient Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan were built around 2600 BC. Much older examples of brickwork made with dried (but not fired) bricks may be found in such ancient locations as Jericho in Palestine, Çatal Höyük in Anatolia, and Mehrgarh in Pakistan. These structures have survived from the Stone Ag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumping Station
Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites. A pumping station is an integral part of a pumped-storage hydroelectricity installation. Canal water supply In countries with canal systems, pumping stations are also frequent. Because of the way the system of canal locks work, water is lost from the upper part of a canal each time a vessel passes through. Also, most lock gates are not watertight, so some water leaks from the higher levels of the canal to those lower down. Obviously, the water has to be replaced or eventually the upper levels of the canal would not hold enough water to be navigable. Canals are usually fed by diverting water from streams and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bilston
Bilston is a market town, ward, and civil parish located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is close to the borders of Sandwell and Walsall. The nearest towns are Darlaston, Wednesbury, and Willenhall. Historically in Staffordshire, three wards of Wolverhampton City Council now cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and Ettingshall, which comprises a part of Bilston and parts of Wolverhampton. History Bilston was first referred to in AD 985 as ''Bilsatena'' when Wolverhampton was granted to Wulfrun then in 996 as ''Bilsetnatun'' in the grant charter of St. Mary's Church (now St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton). It is later mentioned in the Domesday Book as a village called ''Billestune'', being a largely rural area until the 19th century. ''Bilsetnatun'' can be interpreted as meaning the settlement (''ton'') of the folk (''saetan'') of the ridge (''bill''). Situated tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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