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Silvermere Lake (England)
Silvermere is an estate in Surrey, England named after its mere (lake), mere – a shallow lake of about ten acres which has a silvery appearance when seen from the surrounding slopes. It was created in the 19th century for the rich architect, William Atkinson (architect), William Atkinson, and subsequently became the home of the Seth Smith family, who had also become wealthy from property development. An ancient British burial mound was found on the land and the Silvermere Urn was found within. During World War II, the mere was used for experiments to develop and test the bouncing bomb. The estate is now a golf course and the final green is on an island in the mere. Atkinson family It was part of the estate of the Oatlands Palace until 1830, when the architect William Atkinson (architect), William Atkinson bought 170 acres of land with the lake and erected a house there. He lived there for ten years until his death, when he was succeeded by his son Henry. The land had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. With a population of approximately 1.2 million people, Surrey is the 12th-most populous county in England. The most populated town in Surrey is Woking, followed by Guildford. The county is divided into eleven districts with borough status. Between 1893 and 2020, Surrey County Council was headquartered at County Hall, Kingston-upon-Thames (now part of Greater London) but is now based at Woodhatch Place, Reigate. In the 20th century several alterations were made to Surrey's borders, with territory ceded to Greater London upon its creation and some gained from the abolition of Middlesex. Surrey is bordered by Greater London to the north east, Kent to the east, Berkshire to the north west, West Sussex to the south, East Sussex to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earthenware
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ceramic glaze, which the great majority of modern domestic earthenware has. The main other important types of pottery are porcelain, bone china, and stoneware, all fired at high enough temperatures to vitrify. Earthenware comprises "most building bricks, nearly all European pottery up to the seventeenth century, most of the wares of Egypt, Persia and the near East; Greek, Roman and Mediterranean, and some of the Chinese; and the fine earthenware which forms the greater part of our tableware today" ("today" being 1962).Dora Billington, ''The Technique of Pottery'', London: B.T.Batsford, 1962 Pit fired earthenware dates back to as early as 29,000–25,000 BC, and for millennia, only earthenware pottery was made, with stoneware graduall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golf Club
A golf club is a club used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a club head. Wood (golf), Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; iron (golf), irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots; Hybrid (golf), hybrids that combine design elements of woods and irons are becoming increasingly popular; putter (golf), putters are used mainly on the green to roll the ball into the hole. A set of clubs is limited by the rules of golf to a maximum of 14 golf clubs, and while there are traditional combinations sold at retail as matched sets, players are free to use any combination of legal clubs. The most significant difference between clubs of the same type is ''loft'', or the angle between the club's face and the vertical plane. It is loft that is the primary determinant of the ascending trajectory of the golf ball, with the tangential angle of the club head's swing arc at impact being a secondary and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Edwards (aviation)
Sir George Robert Freeman Edwards (9 July 1908 – 2 March 2003), was a British aircraft designer and industrialist.Gardner, Robert. ''From Bouncing Bombs to Concorde: The Authorised Biography of Aviation Pioneer Sir George Edwards OM,'' Sutton Publishing. 2006. Early life Edwards was born in Highams Park, north London, England. He attended Walthamstow Technical Institute Engineering and Trade School which in 1970 became part of North East London Polytechnic (which later became the University of East London). This introduced him to engineering and he took an engineering design course at the University of London. Career Vickers Beginning as a design draughtsman in 1935, he was promoted in 1940 to Experimental Department Manager and in 1945 he became the Chief Designer of the Vickers-Armstrongs team that produced the Viking airliner, Valetta military transport, Varsity trainer, Viscount airliners and Valiant strategic bomber. He later became managing director of the company, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amy Gentry
Amy Constance Gentry OBE (26 July 1903 – 11 June 1976) was a pioneer of women's rowing in England, starting at Weybridge Rowing Club where she founded a ladies section in 1920. She competed in a variety of styles and was the undefeated champion of the women's single scull from 1932 to 1934. She then became a successful administrator of the sport. During World War II, she was the secretary of the famous Vickers engineer, Barnes Wallis, and assisted him with his experiments to develop a bouncing bomb to destroy German dams. Early life Gentry was born in Barnes, close to the River Thames, and participated in water sports when young, racing dinghies at the age of six. In 1919, Weybridge Rowing Club organised celebrations of the Allied victory in the First World War and she took part in a race of ladies' fours. This was successful and she then helped establish the club's ladies' section in 1920. In 1925, she was a member of a club team which defeated crews from France, Belgium, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barnes Wallis
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack the dams of the Ruhr Valley during World War II. The raid was the subject of the 1955 film '' The Dam Busters'', in which Wallis was played by Michael Redgrave. Among his other inventions were his version of the geodetic airframe and the earthquake bomb. Early life and education Barnes Wallis was born in Ripley, Derbyshire, to Charles William George Robinson Wallis (1859–1945) and his wife Edith Eyre Wallis née Ashby (1859–1911). He was educated at Christ's Hospital in Horsham and Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys' Grammar School in southeast London, leaving school at seventeen to start work in January 1905 at Thames Engineering Works at Blackheath, southeast London. He subsequently changed his apprenticeship to J. Samuel White's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foxwarren Park
Foxwarren Park, at Wisley in Surrey, is a Victorian country house and estate. On sandstone Ockham and Wisley Commons, it was designed in 1860 by the railway architect Frederick Barnes for brewing magnate and MP, Charles Buxton. It is a Grade II* listed building. From 1919 to 1955, it was owned by Alfred Ezra who was President of the Avicultural Society — he assembled a collection of rare birds and animals on the estate — in 1939 it housed the last known pink-headed ducks in the world. It was then owned by Hannah Weinstein and chosen for films and television series including ''The Adventures of Robin Hood''. History Charles Buxton, brewer, philanthropist and politician, was also an amateur architect. Having rented a range of properties around the growing village of Weybridge in the 1850s, he purchased the site for Foxwarren Park in 1855. He was heavily involved in the design of the new house, working with Frederick Barnes, known more for his designs for railway s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 1867, acquired more businesses, and began branching out into military hardware and shipbuilding. In 1911, the company expanded into aircraft manufacturer, aircraft manufacture and opened a flying school. They expanded even further into electrical and railway manufacturing, and in 1928 acquired an interest in the Supermarine. Beginning in the 1960s, various parts of the company were nationalised, and in 1999 the rest of the company was acquired by Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce plc, who sold the defence arm to Alvis plc. The Vickers name lived on in Alvis Vickers, until the latter was acquired by BAE Systems in 2004 to form BAE Systems Platforms & Services, BAE Systems Land Systems. History Early history Vickers was formed in Sheffield ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a Districts of London, district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' Tudor Period, during the Tudor Period, and became a dangerous place due to Highwayman, highwaymen and robberies. It was developed in the early 19th century by Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster under the direction of Thomas Cubitt, focusing on numerous grand terraces centred on Belgrave Square and Eaton Square. Much of Belgravia, known as the Grosvenor Group#The Grosvenor Estate, Grosvenor Estate, is still owned by a family property company, the Duke of Westminster's Grosvenor Group, although owing to the Leasehold Reform Act 1967, the estate has been forced to sell many Freehold (law), freeholds to its former tenants. Geography Belgravia is near the former course of the River Westbourne, a tributary of the River Thames. The area is mostly in the Cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Howard Seth-Smith III
William Howard Seth Smith (23 August 1852 – 30 August 1928) was a British architect. He is best known for his contributions to churches and schools in the Surrey area. Biography William Howard Seth-Smith was born into a noted Scottish architectural family on 23 August 1852, to William Seth-Smith of Tangley, near Wonersh which is south of Guildford. His grandfather, Seth Smith, was noted for building some of the most wealthy communities in Central London today such as Belgravia and communities such as Eaton Square and Wilton Crescent. These developments included the original pantechnicon from which the name of the van is derived. Seth-Smith attended the South Kensington Art School and became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1892 and was President of the Society of Architects and of the Architectural Association. In 1880 he designed the United Reformed Church in Wonersh, the Kingham Hill School in Oxfordshire in 1886 in the traditional Cotswold sty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pantechnicon
A pantechnicon van was originally a furniture removal van drawn by horses and used by the British company "The Pantechnicon" for delivering and collecting furniture which its customers wished to store. The name is a word largely of British English usage. Origins and building The word "Pantechnicon" is an invented one, formed from the Greek ''pan'' ("all") and ''techne'' ("art"). It was originally the name of a large establishment in Motcomb Street, Belgravia, London, opened in May 1831. It combined a picture gallery, a furniture shop, and the sale of carriages, while its southern half was a sizable warehouse for storing furniture and other items. Seth Smith, whose family were originally from Wiltshire, was a builder/property developer in the early 19th century, and constructed much of the new housing in Belgravia, then a country area. Their clients required storage facilities and this was built on an awkward left-over triangular site with a Greek style Doric column façade, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
