Roy Francis (naval Officer)
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Roy Francis (naval Officer)
Lieutenant-Commander Roy Wallace Francis (2 July 1922 – 27 January 2015) was a British naval officer who served on and during World War II. He was later the founder of the gauge Wells Harbour Railway and Wells & Walsingham Light Railway, both located in Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Francis died aged 92. Early life Francis was born in Chingford, Essex on 2 July 1922 the son of Colonel Aubrey Francis. Francis developed an interest in railways at an early age. He had an ambition to work on the railway, but his father signed him up for a naval school at the age of fourteen. Military service Francis joined the training ship in 1936 and joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1939. During World War II, Francis served in the Royal Navy on HMS ''Manchester'', which was in the Mediterranean in July 1941 when she was hit by the first aerial torpedo used in combat by the Germans. He then served on . Following promotion to sub-lieutenant, he served on , which was i ...
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Chingford
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the south, and Edmonton and Enfield to the west. It contains the areas of Chingford Green, Chingford Hatch, Chingford Mount, Friday Hill, Hale End, Highams Park, and South Chingford, and had a population of 70,583 at the 2021 census. Prior to becoming part of the ceremonial county of Greater London in 1965, Chingford was in the historic county of Essex, where it was a civil parish, urban district and municipal borough, and historically formed an ancient parish in the Waltham hundred. Similar to much of south-west Essex, the town expanded significantly in the late 19th century, forming part of the conurbation of London. It was included in the Metropolitan Police District in 1840 and became part of London's postal district upon its incepti ...
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ...
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Forncett St Mary
Forncett St Mary is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Forncett, in the South Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. The village is located east of Attleborough and south-west of Norwich, close to the course of the River Tas. In 1931 the parish had a population of 153. History Forncett St. Mary's name is of mixed Anglo-Saxon and Viking origin and derives from an amalgamation of the Old English and Old Norse for Forni's dwelling or camp, with the epithet of St. Mary added in dedication to Saint Jesus and to distinguish the village from Forncett St Peter. In the Domesday Book, Forncett St Mary is listed in the same entry as Forncett St Peter as a settlement of 21 households in the hundred of Depwade. In 1086, the villages formed part of the East Anglian estates of Roger Bigod, Bishop Osbern FitzOsbern and Ulfkil the freeman. Forncett St Mary and St Peter are believed to have split into separate villages in the Fifteenth Century as part of bo ...
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Forncett St Peter
Forncett is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,000 in 381 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,126 at the 2011 census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of South Norfolk. It includes the villages of Forncett St Peter's, Forncett St Mary and Forncett End. Governance An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches north to Ashwellthorpe and Fundenhall with a total population at the 2011 Census of 2,701. Forncett Industrial Steam Museum The Forncett Industrial Steam Museum houses a collection of large stationary steam engines which are occasionally demonstrated to the public. Included in the collection is a 150 hp Vickers Armstrong cross-compound pumping engine originally used to open Tower Bridge in London. It was the 'third' steam engine, installed as a wartime precaution against air-raid damage, and was removed to Forncett in 1974. The two original e ...
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Walsingham
Walsingham () is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval Christian monasticism, monastic houses.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 251 – Norfolk Coast Central''. . Walsingham is northwest of Norwich. The civil parish includes Little Walsingham and Great Walsingham, together with Egmere medieval settlement, Egmere (a depopulated medieval village at ), and has an area of 1 E7 m², 18.98 km². At the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census, it had a population of 819.Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes''. Retrieved 2 December 2005. The village's name means 'Homestead/village of Waels' people'. Walsingham is a major centre of Christian pilgrimage, pilgrimage. In 1061, according to the Walsingham legend, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, Richeldis de ...
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Wells And Walsingham Light Railway
The Wells and Walsingham Light Railway is a gauge heritage railway in Norfolk, England running between the coastal town of Wells-next-the-Sea and the inland village of Walsingham. The railway occupies a section of the trackbed of the former Wymondham to Wells branch which was closed to passengers in stages from 1964 to 1969 as part of the Beeching cuts. Other parts of this line, further south, have also been preserved by the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Despite its miniature dimensions, the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway is a "public railway", indicating that its operation is established by Act of Parliament. The original establishment of the preserved line was authorised by the Wells and Walsingham Light Railway Order 1982, the terms of which were altered under the subsequent Wells and Walsingham Light Railway (Amendment) Order 1994. Prior to 1982 the gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway had traded as "The World's smallest public railway", a phrase sometimes quoted by the ...
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Norfolk County Council
Norfolk County Council is the top-tier local government authority for Norfolk, England. Its headquarters are based in the city of Norwich. Below it there are 7 second-tier local government district councils: Breckland District, Broadland District, Great Yarmouth Borough, North Norfolk District, Norwich City, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough, and South Norfolk District. History In 1902, the council consisted solely of landowners. Chairmen of the council prior to 1974 1889-1902 Robert Gurdon, 1st Baron Cranworth 1902-1912 Sir William Browne-ffolkes 1912-1920 John Holmes 1920-1925 Ailwyn Fellowes, 1st Baron Ailwyn 1925-1941 Russell Colman 1941-1950 Sir Henry Upcher 1950-1966 Sir Bartle Edwards 1966-1969 Douglas Sanderson 1969-1974 John Hayden : From this point onwards the role of Chairman became ceremonial with the council being run by a Leader. The council, as currently constituted, was established in 1974 following the implementation of the Local Govern ...
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0-4-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement with no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. While the first locomotives of this wheel arrangement were tender engines, the configuration was later often used for tank engines, which is noted by adding letter suffixes to the configuration, such as for a conventional side-tank locomotive, for a saddle-tank locomotive, for a well-tank locomotive and for a rack-equipped tank locomotive. The arrangement is sometimes known as Olomana after a Hawaiian 0-4-2 locomotive of 1883. Overview The earliest recorded locomotives were three goods engines built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Stanhope and Tyne Railway in 1834. The first locomotive built in Germany in 1838, the '' Saxonia'', was also an . In the same year Todd, Kitson & Laird built two examples for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, one ...
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Norfolk Broads
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea, with The Wash to the north-west. The county town is the city of Norwich. With an area of and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile (155 per km2). Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000). The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, extending south into Suffolk. The area is protected by the Broads Authority and has similar status to a national park. History The area that was to become Norfolk was settled in pre-Roman times, (there were Palaeolithic settlers as early as 950,000 years ago) with camps along the higher land in th ...
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Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, and Felixstowe which has one of the largest container ports in Europe. The county is low-lying but can be quite hilly, especially towards the west. It is also known for its extensive farming and has largely arable land with the wetlands of the Broads in the north. The Suffolk Coast & Heaths and Dedham Vale are both nationally designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. History Administration The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Suffolk, and East Anglia generally, occurred on a large scale, possibly following a period of depopulation by the previous inhabitants, the Romanised descendants of the Iceni. By the fifth century, they had established control of the region. The Anglo-Saxon inhabitants later b ...
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Orford Ness
Orford Ness is a cuspate foreland shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching along the coast to Orford and down to North Weir Point, opposite Shingle Street. It is divided from the mainland by the River Alde, and was formed by longshore drift along the coast. The material of the spit comes from places further north, such as Dunwich. Near the middle point of its length, at the foreland point or 'Ness', once stood Orfordness Lighthouse, demolished in summer 2020 owing to the encroaching sea. In the name of the lighthouse (and the radio transmitting station – see below), 'Orfordness' is written as one word. Description Orford Ness is an internationally important site for nature conservation. It contains a significant portion of the European reserve of vegetated shingle habitat, which is internationally scarce, highly fragile, and very easily damaged. Together with Havergate Island the site is a designated National Nat ...
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Naval Mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any vessel or a particular vessel type, akin to anti-infantry vs. anti-vehicle mines. Naval mines can be used offensively, to hamper enemy shipping movements or lock vessels into a harbour; or defensively, to protect friendly vessels and create "safe" zones. Mines allow the minelaying force commander to concentrate warships or defensive assets in mine-free areas giving the adversary three choices: undertake an expensive and time-consuming minesweeping effort, accept the casualties of challenging the minefield, or use the unmined waters where the greatest concentration of enemy firepower will be encountered. Although international law requires signatory nations to declare mined areas, precise locations remain secret; and non-complying individ ...
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