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William Ball (Shropshire Giant)
William "Billy" Ball (1795–1852), the "Shropshire Giant", was a nineteenth-century iron puddler and "giant". He was born in June 1795 at Horsehay, Great Dawley, Shropshire where he would live for his whole life. His exact date of birth is unrecorded, but he was baptised on 8 July. He was the first son of five children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Ball of Horsehay. As an adult he was tall and weighed more than forty stone. It was said that his "waistcoat was so big that three men could be buttoned into it". In September 1819, aged 24, he married Mary Bailey. They had two children, Eliza (1823–1824) and Thomas (1824–1839). In 1824, both his wife and daughter died. Thomas also died young, at fifteen. Next year, 1825, he married Margaret Wood (1790-c.1850), who bore him no children. He was known locally as a cheerful man with a very pleasing disposition. Ironworker From the age of eight he was employed in the Coalbrookdale Company's Horsehay Ironworks, where he continued ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Of The Gorge, Ironbridge
The Museum of the Gorge, originally the Severn Warehouse, is one of the ten museums of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. It portrays the history of the Ironbridge Gorge and the surrounding area of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England. History The River Severn was a major transport route, especially before the building of the railway. Severn trows were used to bring raw materials to the forges of the Gorge and to take the finished goods away. At this time, before the management of the river by weirs, water levels in the Severn were highly seasonal. During the summer the river was too low to be navigable and so finished goods were held in warehouses until there was once again enough water for passage. The site is at the Wharfage, just west of the village of Ironbridge. This location is also the confluence of the main manufacturing area of Coalbrookdale, and its non-navigable river, with the valley of the Severn. Around 1840 a warehouse was constructed here for the Coalbrookdal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Darby II
Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlude)" and "Alfred (Outro)", songs by Eminem from the 2020 album ''Music to Be Murdered By'' Business and organisations * Alfred, a radio station in Shaftesbury, England *Alfred Music, an American music publisher *Alfred University, New York, U.S. *The Alfred Hospital, a hospital in Melbourne, Australia People * Alfred (name) includes a list of people and fictional characters called Alfred * Alfred the Great (848/49 – 899), or Alfred I, a king of the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons Places Antarctica * Mount Alfred (Antarctica) Australia * Alfredtown, New South Wales * County of Alfred, South Australia Canada * Alfred and Plantagenet, Ontario * Alfred Island, Nunavut * Mount Alfred, British Columbia United States * Alfred, Maine, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1852 Deaths
Year 185 ( CLXXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lascivius and Atilius (or, less frequently, year 938 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 185 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Nobles of Britain demand that Emperor Commodus rescind all power given to Tigidius Perennis, who is eventually executed. * Publius Helvius Pertinax is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers go on to attempt to assassinate the governor. * Tigidius Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus. * Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1795 Births
Events January–June * January – Central England records its coldest ever month, in the CET records dating back to 1659. * January 14 – The University of North Carolina opens to students at Chapel Hill, becoming the first state university in the United States. * January 16 – War of the First Coalition: Flanders campaign: The French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands. * January 18 – Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam: William V, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands), flees the country. * January 19 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in Amsterdam, ending the Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands). * January 20 – French troops enter Amsterdam. * January 23 – Flanders campaign: Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder: The Dutch fleet, frozen in Zuiderzee, is captured by the French 8th Hussars. * February 7 – The Eleventh Amendment to the United ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is an industrial heritage organisation which runs ten museums and manages multiple historic sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site in Shropshire, England, widely considered as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The Gorge includes a number of settlements important to industrial history and with heritage assets, including Ironbridge, Coalport and Jackfield along the River Severn, and also Coalbrookdale and Broseley. The area was among the first sites in the United Kingdom to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Museums The ten museum sites run by the Trust, collectively known as The Ironbridge Gorge Museums are: # Blists Hill Victorian Town, including the Hay Inclined Plane # Broseley Pipeworks # Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron # Coalport China Museum # Tar Tunnel # Darby Houses # Enginuity # Iron Bridge and Tollhouse # Jackfield Tile Museum # Museum of the Gorge The Trust The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Lambert
Daniel Lambert ( 1770 – 1809) was a gaol keeper and animal breeder from Leicester, England, famous for his unusually large size. After serving four years as an apprentice at an engraving and die casting works in Birmingham, he returned to Leicester around 1788 and succeeded his father as keeper of Leicester's gaol. He was a keen sportsman and extremely strong; on one occasion he fought a bear in the streets of Leicester. He was an expert in sporting animals, widely respected for his expertise with dogs, horses and fighting cocks. At the time of Lambert's return to Leicester, his weight began to increase steadily, even though he was athletically active and, by his own account, abstained from drinking alcohol and did not eat unusual amounts of food. In 1805, Lambert's gaol closed. By this time, he weighed , and had become the heaviest authenticated person up to that point in recorded history. Unemployable and sensitive about his bulk, Lambert became a recluse. In 1806, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unmarked Grave
An unmarked grave is one that lacks a marker, headstone, or nameplate indicating that a body is buried there. However, in cultures that mark burial sites, the phrase unmarked grave has taken on a metaphorical meaning. Metaphorical meaning As a figure of speech, a common meaning of the term "unmarked grave" is consignment to an ignominious end. A grave monument (or headstone) is a sign of respect or fondness, erected with the intention of commemorating and remembering a person. Criminals Conversely, a deliberately unmarked grave may signify disdain and contempt. The underlying intention of some unmarked graves may be to suggest that the person buried is not worthy of commemoration, and should therefore be completely ignored and forgotten, e.g., school shooters Seung-Hui Cho and Adam Lanza. Unmarked graves have long been used to bury executed criminals as an added degree of disgrace. Similarly, many 18th and 19th century prisons and mental asylums historically used numbered (but o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guard's Van
Brake van and guard's van are terms used mainly in the UK, Ireland, Australia and India for a railway vehicle equipped with a hand brake which can be applied by the guard. The equivalent North American term is caboose, but a British brake van and a caboose are very different in appearance, because the former usually has only four wheels, while the latter usually has bogies. German railways employed Brakeman's cabins combined into other cars. Many British freight trains formerly had no continuous brake so the only available brakes were those on the locomotive and the brake van. Because of this shortage of brake power, the speed was restricted to . The brake van was marshalled at the rear of the train so both portions of the train could be brought to a stand in the event of a coupling breaking. When freight trains were fitted with continuous braking, brake vans lost their importance, and were discontinued by many railways. However, they still continue on some important railways ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October, 1851. It was the first in a series of World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century. The event was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom. Famous people of the time attended the Great Exhibition, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Michael Faraday (who assisted with the planning and judging of exhibits), Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist Royal Family and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson and William Makepeace Thackeray. The opening music, under the superintendence of William Sterndale Bennett, was directed by Sir George Sma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Block And Tackle
A block and tackle or only tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift heavy loads. The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is fixed and one moves with the load. The rope is threaded through the pulleys to provide mechanical advantage that amplifies the force applied to the rope. Hero of Alexandria described cranes formed from assemblies of pulleys in the first century. Illustrated versions of Hero's ''Mechanica'' (a book on raising heavy weights) show early block and tackle systems. Overview A block is a set of pulleys or sheaves mounted on a single frame. An assembly of blocks with a rope threaded through the pulleys is called tackle. The process of threading ropes or cables through blocks is called "reeving", and a threaded block and tackle is said to have been "rove". A block and tackle system amplifies the tension force in the rope to lift heavy loads. They are common ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darby Family
Darby is an English locational surname and has since become a given name. Its prefix derives from the Old Norse ' ("deer"), and the suffix ' ("farm"/"settlement"). The oldest recorded surname dates to the period of 1160–1182 in Lincolnshire. Darby was a common pre-1800 alternative spelling of Derby, a city in England. Notable people with the name or its variants include: Surname Darby *Abiah Darby (1716–1794), English minister *Abraham Darby I (1678–1717), British ironmaster and pioneer of coke-fired smelting *Abraham Darby II (1711–1763), British ironmaster, son of Abraham I *Abraham Darby III (1750–1791), British ironmaster, builder of the world's first iron bridge * Adrian Darby (born 1937), British environmentalist *Al Darby (born 1954), American football player *Alden Darby (born 1992), Canadian football defensive back * Angie Darby (born 1987), Australian modern pentathlete * Anthony Darby (born 1972), Australian footballer *Arthur Darby (1876–1960), Briti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bull
John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly and matter-of-fact man. He originated in satirical works of the early 18th century and would come to stand for " English liberty" in opposition to revolutionaries. He was popular through the 18th and 19th centuries until the time of the First World War, when he generally stopped being seen as representative of the "common man". Origin John Bull originated as a satirical character created by John Arbuthnot, a friend of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Bull first appeared in 1712 in Arbuthnot's pamphlet ''Law is a Bottomless Pit''."AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion," Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006), exhibition brochure, p. 2. The same year Arbuthnot published a four-part political narrative ''The History of John Bull''. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
