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Upper Greensand Formation
The Upper Greensand Formation is a Cretaceous formation of Albian to Cenomanian in age, found within the Wessex Basin and parts of the Weald Basin in southern England. It overlies the Gault Clay and underlies the Chalk Group. It varies in thickness from zero to 75 m. It is predominantly a glauconitic fine-grained sandstone, locally becoming silty. Fragmentary dinosaur remains, such as those assigned to ''Iuticosaurus'', have been recovered from this formation. It has been quarried as a building stone from Roman times, and used in London and the area of its outcrop from Devon to East Sussex. Use Sandstones from the Upper Greensand have been used as building stone since at least Roman times. Reigate Stone was mined from the Upper Greensand in north east Surrey throughout the middle ages and early modern period, forming the most important source of freestone in Medieval London. In Dorset, the Shaftesbury Sandstone was quarried between Shaftesbury and Okeford Fitzpaine and used i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isle Of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of Wight has resorts that have been popular holiday destinations since Victorian times. It is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island is historically part of Hampshire, and is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The island has been home to the poets Algernon Charles Swinburne and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Queen Victoria built her summer residence and final home, Osborne House at East Cowes, on the Isle. It has a maritime and industrial tradition of boat-building, sail-making, the manufacture of flying boats, hovercraft, and Britain's space rockets. The island hosts annual music festivals, including the Isle of Wight Festival, which in 1970 was the largest rock music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reigate Stone
Reigate Stone is a freestone that was mined from the Upper Greensand in north east Surrey. It was used in building work throughout the middle ages and early modern period. It is sometimes classified as a calcareous sandstone, although very little of the silica content is in the form of detrital sand grains. In addition to silicon dioxide, the stone also includes clay, fine-grained calcite, mica flakes and glauconite. Since exposure of Upper Greensand is rare, Reigate Stone was generally extracted from underground workings, although it may have been quarried from the surface at first. The stone was mined using the post-and-stall technique, in which adits (approximately wide and high) were cut into the beds, which dip downwards below the chalk above. Parallel grooves in the floors of these workings suggest that cut stone was brought to the surface on wooden sledges. Mines are thought to have existed along the base of the North Downs from Buckland in the west to Chaldon in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage also manages the London Blue Plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings. When originally formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government, officially titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage protection and managed a range of historic properties. It was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackdown Hills
The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1991. The plateau is dominated by hard chert bands of Upper Greensand with some remnants of chalk, and is cut through by river valleys. The hills support an extensive range of wildlife leading to the designation of 16 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). There is evidence of human occupation since the Iron Age. Fortifications include the remains of ancient hill forts, Norman architecture, Norman motte-and-bailey castles and Second World War airfields. There are also religious buildings such as Dunkeswell Abbey and village churches. The hills are crossed by a network of minor roads with major transport routes including the M5 motorway running around the periphery. Natural region The Blackdowns form a natural region that has been designated as a national character area - No. 147 - by Natural Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 1400, and has several notable features, including an early set of misericords, an astronomical clock and the longest uninterrupted medieval stone vaulted ceiling in the world. History The founding of the cathedral at Exeter, dedicated to Saint Peter, dates from 1050, when the seat of the bishop of Devon and Cornwall was transferred from Crediton because of a fear of sea-raids. A Saxon minster already existing within the town (and dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Peter) was used by Leofric as his seat, but services were often held out of doors, close to the site of the present cathedral building. In 1107 William Warelwast was appointed to the see, and this was the catalyst for the building of a new cathedral in the Norman style. Its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branscombe
Branscombe is a village in the East Devon district of the English County of Devon. The parish covers . Its permanent population in 2009 was estimated at 513 by the Family Health Services Authority, reducing to 507 at the 2011 Census. It is located within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, overlooking Lyme Bay. Branscombe has one of the South West's most scenic bus routes. AVMT Buses ruservice 899from Seaton to Sidmouth via Beer and Branscombe. History The name of the parish is probably Celtic in origin. It is made up of two words, "Bran" and "cwm". Bran is a well established Celtic personal or tribal name that may also mean "black" or "crow black". Cwm is a topographical term still in use in English as well as modern Welsh to describe a steep-sided hollow or valley. Thus the name may derive from the first Celtic family or tribe to take possession of the land, probably from the Dumnonii tribe, sometime between 2700 and 2000 BC. From the 17th to the 19th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Stour, Dorset
The River Stour is a river which flows through Wiltshire and Dorset in southern England, and drains into the English Channel. The catchment area for the river and its tributaries is listed as . Toponymy It is sometimes called the Dorset Stour to distinguish it from other rivers of the same name in Kent, Suffolk and the Midlands. According to Brewer's ''Dictionary of Britain & Ireland'', the name Stour rhymes with ''hour'' and derives from Old English meaning "violent", "fierce" or the "fierce one". History The river burst its banks at Christchurch during the 2013–14 winter floods and 100 residents were evacuated. Prehistoric archaeology The Stour valley has produced rich evidence for early human (Palaeolithic) activity. Gravel pits in the lower reaches of the river (many underlying modern day Bournemouth) produced hundreds of Lower Palaeolithic handaxes when they were quarried, particular during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Archaeologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okeford Fitzpaine
Okeford Fitzpaine is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Dorset, situated in the Blackmore Vale south of the town of Sturminster Newton. It is sited on a thin strip of greensand under the escarpment, scarp face of the Dorset Downs. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census the civil parishes in England, civil parish—which includes the village of Belchalwell to the west and most of the hamlet of Fiddleford to the north—had 404 dwellings, 380 households and a population of 913. History Prehistoric remains within the parish include three cross dykes and five round barrows on the chalk hills south of the village, and an Iron Age hill fort on Banbury Hill, towards Sturminster Newton. Banbury covers about and is of univallate (single rampart) construction, though its defences have been reduced by cultivation. In 1086 in the Domesday Book Okeford Fitzpaine was recorded as ''Adford''; it had 40 households, 16 ploughlands, of mead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a greensand hill on the edge of Cranborne Chase. The town looks over the Blackmore Vale, part of the River Stour basin. Shaftesbury is the site of the former Shaftesbury Abbey, which was founded in 888 by King Alfred and became one of the richest religious establishments in the country, before being destroyed in the dissolution in 1539. Adjacent to the abbey site is Gold Hill, a steep cobbled street used in the 1970s as the setting for Ridley Scotts television advertisement for Hovis bread. In the 2011 Census the town's civil parish had a population of 7,314. Toponymy Shaftesbury has acquired a number of names throughout its history. Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves referred to four of these names from Celtic, Latin and English tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman And Medieval London
This article covers the history of London from the Norman conquest of England in 1066 to the late 15th century. Norman invasion The Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 is usually considered to be the beginning of a new era in English history. William, Duke of Normandy, defeated English king Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. Having conquered Hampshire and Kent, William and his army turned to London. Having failed to cross London bridge at Southwark, William's army marched clockwise around London and waited to the north-west at Berkhamsted. Where, having realised that resistance was pointless, a delegation from London arrived to surrender the city, and recognise William as King. William soon granted a charter for London in 1067 which upheld previous Saxon rights, privileges and laws. Under William (now known as William the Conqueror) several royal forts were constructed along the riverfront of London (the Tower of London, Baynard's Castle and Montfichet's Castle) t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freestone (masonry)
A freestone is a type of stone used in masonry for molding, tracery and other replication work required to be worked with the chisel. Freestone, so named because it can be freely cut in any direction, must be fine-grained, uniform and soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting. Some sources, including numerous nineteenth-century dictionaries, say that the stone has no grain, but this is incorrect. Oolitic stones are generally used, although in some countries soft sandstones are used; in some churches an indurated chalk called clunch is employed for internal lining and for carving. Some have believed that the word "freemason" originally referred, from the 14th century, to a person capable of carving freestone. See also * Aquia Creek sandstone * Hummelstown brownstone Hummelstown brownstone is a medium-grain, dense sandstone quarried near Hummelstown in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a dark brownstone with reddish to purplish hues, and was o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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