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Midsomer Norton
Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, north-east of Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has a population of around 13,000. Along with Radstock and Westfield it used to be part of the conurbation and large civil parish of Norton Radstock, but is now a town council in its own right. It is also part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. Midsomer Norton is characterised by the River Somer which runs the length of the town centre, the river itself was regenerated with new plant life during the summer of 2012 in a bid to improve the aesthetics of the town centre. The Town has a long history which can be seen through a number of early churches which remain, but really started to grow and become a transport hub with the development of the Somerset coalfield. For many years the coalmines provided employment for local men until they ceased operati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radstock
Radstock is a town and civil parish on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, about south-west of Bath and north-west of Frome. It is within the area of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. The Radstock built-up area had a population of 9,419 at the 2011 Census. Radstock has been settled since the Iron Age, and its importance grew after the construction of the Fosse Way, a Roman road. The town grew after 1763, when coal was discovered in the area. Large numbers of mines opened during the 19th century, including several owned by the Waldegrave family, who had been Lords of the Manor since the Civil War. Admiral Lord Radstock, brother of George, fourth Earl Waldegrave, took the town's name as his title when created a Baron. The spoil heap of Writhlington colliery is now the Writhlington Site of Special Scientific Interest, which includes 3,000 tons of Upper Carboniferous spoil from which more than 1,400 insect fossil specim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Somer
The River Somer is a small river in Somerset, England. Course The river rises at Chilcompton and flows to Midsomer Norton where it joins the Wellow Brook, which flows through Wellow and joins the Cam Brook at Midford to form Midford Brook before joining the River Avon close to the Dundas Aqueduct and the remains of the Somerset Coal Canal. Midsomer's name, spring floods and rough roads There is some debate as to the origin of the name "Midsomer". Different schools of thought include the difficulty in travelling to the area in times of flooding as opposed to the town's position at the branch of the river Somer. Eilert Ekwall wrote that the village "is said to be so called in allusion to the festival held at midsummer on the day of St. John, the patron saint." John Wesley wrote of the appalling local road conditions which ensured it was reachable "only in midsummer." As Simon Winchester notes in his book ''The Map that Changed the World'', "...the roads on this part of Somerset ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guides
A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Explorers in the past venturing into territory unknown by their own people invariably hired guides. Military explorers Lewis and Clark were hired by the United States Congress to explore the Pacific Northwest. They in turn hired the better qualified Native American Sacagawea to help them. Wilfred Thesiger hired guides in the deserts that he ventured into, such as Kuri on his journey to the Tibesti Mountains in 1938. Tour guide Tour guides lead visitors through tourist attractions and give information about the attractions' natural and cultural significance. Often, they also act as interpreters for travelers who do not speak the local language. Automated systems like audio tours are sometimes substituted for human tour guides. Tour operators ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hundred (county Subdivision)
A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, Curonia, the Ukrainian state of the Cossack Hetmanate and in Cumberland County, New South Wales, Cumberland County in the British Colony of New South Wales. It is still used in other places, including in Australia (in South Australia and the Northern Territory). Other terms for the hundred in English and other languages include ''#wapentake, wapentake'', ''herred'' (Danish and Bokmål, Bokmål Norwegian), ''herad'' (Nynorsk, Nynorsk Norwegian), ''hérað'' (Icelandic), ''härad'' or ''hundare'' (Swedish), ''Harde'' (German), ''hiird'' (North Frisian language, North Frisian), ''satakunta'' or ''kihlakunta'' (Finnish), ''kihelkond'' (Estonian), ''kiligunda'' (Livonian), ''cantref'' (Welsh) and ''sotnia'' (Slavic). In Ireland, a similar subdi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratton-on-the-Fosse
Stratton-on-the-Fosse is a village and civil parish located on the edge of the Mendip Hills, south-west of Westfield, north-east of Shepton Mallet, and from Frome, in Somerset, England. It has a population of 1,108, and has a rural agricultural landscape, although it was part of the once-thriving Somerset coalfield. Within the boundaries of the parish are the hamlets of Benter and Nettlebridge. Stratton-on-the-Fosse straddles the Fosse Way, an ancient Roman road which linked the cities of Lincoln and Exeter. It lies between the parish of Westfield, Somerset and the village of Oakhill. St Vigor and St John Church of England Primary School is situated in nearby Chilcompton. History There is evidence of human occupation of the area since the Bronze Age with skeletons and pottery being found in local caves. Blacker's Hill is believed to be an Iron Age camp occupied by the Belgae in the later Iron Age with the Romans later occupying it. The parish of Stratton-on-the-Fosse was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fosse Way
The Fosse Way was a Roman road built in Britain during the first and second centuries AD that linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) in the southwest and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to the northeast, via Lindinis (Ilchester), Aquae Sulis ( Bath), Corinium (Cirencester), and Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester). Roman route The word ''Fosse'' is derived from the Latin , meaning 'ditch'. For the first few decades after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 CE, the Fosse Way marked the western frontier of Roman rule in Iron Age Britain. It is possible that the road began as a defensive ditch that was later filled in and converted into a road, or possibly a defensive ditch ran alongside the road for at least some of its length. The road joined Akeman Street and Ermin Way at Cirencester, crossed Watling Street at ''Venonis'' (High Cross) south of Leicester, and joined Ermine Street at Lincoln. The Antonine Itinerary (a 2nd-century Roman register of roads) includes the section between High Cross ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and Western Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in Southwest Asia (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa. The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merton Priory
Merton Priory was an English Augustinian priory founded in 1114 by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey under King Henry I (1100–1135). It was situated within the manor of Merton in the county of Surrey, in what is today the Colliers Wood area in the London Borough of Merton. Buildings and holdings The priory buildings were situated within the Diocese of Winchester (now in the Diocese of Southwark) and at the point where the River Wandle was crossed by Stane Street (the Roman road to Chichester), about outside the City of London. It held cultivated land and pastures there and at other places in Surrey and held manors and other lands elsewhere in England including ''Teign'' ( Canons' Teign) in Devon. History By 1117 the foundation had been colonised by Canons Regular from the Augustinian priory at Huntingdon and re-sited in Merton, close to the Wandle. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Map That Changed The World
''The Map that Changed the World'' is a 2001 book by Simon Winchester about English geologist William Smith and his great achievement, the first geological map of England, Wales and southern Scotland. Smith's was the first national-scale geological map, and by far the most accurate of its time. His pivotal insights were that each local sequence of rock strata was a subsequence of a single universal sequence of strata and that these rock strata could be distinguished and traced for great distances by means of embedded fossilized organisms. Winchester's book narrates the intellectual context of the time, the development of Smith's ideas and how they contributed to the theory of evolution and more generally to a dawning realisation of the true age of the earth. The book describes the social, economic or industrial context for Smith's insights and work, such as the importance of coal mining and the transport of coal by means of canals, both of which were a stimulus to the study of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester (born 28 September 1944) is a British-American author and journalist. In his career at ''The Guardian'' newspaper, Winchester covered numerous significant events, including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Winchester has written or contributed to more than a dozen nonfiction books, has written one novel, and has contributed to several travel magazines, among them '' Condé Nast Traveler'', ''Smithsonian Magazine'', and ''National Geographic''. Early life and education Born in London, Winchester attended several boarding schools in Dorset, including Hardye's School. He spent a year hitchhiking around the United States, then in 1963 went up to St Catherine's College, Oxford, to study geology. He graduated in 1966, and found work with Falconbridge of Africa, a Canadian mining company. His first assignment was to work as a field geologist searching for copper deposits in Uganda. Career While on assignment in Uganda, Winchester happened upon a copy of Jame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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