Thursday 17 May 2012

Free Creswell Crags guided tour with historian guide





Creswell Crags is a picturesque gorge which was used in a designed landscape, enhanced with an artificial lake, in the Dukeries, an area of competing coal and steel magnates who were elevated to Dukes due to their wealth and patronage.
images/creswellcrags.jpgThe crags were formed in a collapsed cave system, and formed a refuge for Ice Age peoples. Pinhole Cave was being excavated whebn I was at nearby Sheffield University and Rogan Jenkinson (the excavator and director of the visitors centre) kindly showed us around. Subsequently, they've discovered Palaeolithic rock art.
The caves provide a refuge now for cave spiders (only a few) and bats.
This free guided bus tour is a great opportunity to explore this fascinating area and see see where the 1980s excavation took place

FREE guided bus tour of local sites of interest in the Magnesian Limestone area - Roche Abbey, a walk through Anston Stones to Dead Man’s Cave, and Pin Hole Cave at Creswell Crags - with Derbyshire historian John Charlesworth.

Booking is essential please contact the museum on 01909 720378
Stuff found in Pinhole Cave

Paddle steamer Waverley and the Thames

I have long held that landscape, as opposed to environment, is defined by perspectives of individuals and groups. Sometimes that applies to landmarks that may define identities. Othertimes it is to do with personal and shared cultural experiences.

One such is taking a trip down the Thames on the paddle steamer Waverley. The original Waverley was destroyed off Dunkirk in 1940. Its replacement - the present ship - is an oil-fired paddle steamer. Although paddle steamers are old technology, they can turn on a sixpence. It was ideal for river traffic and the original purpose of the boat was as a Clyde ferry, serving Craigendoran in Helensburgh and Arrochar ibn Loch Long. My parents went on their honeymoon to Dunoon and Bute on the Waverley. 

Latterly it has toured the Western Isles and the English Coast as an excursion steamer. Amongst my earliest memories of it was sailing from Weymouth on it and being very impressed with the steam pistons working the great paddle wheels, also the size of military ships we passed...
More recently, I've sailed into the Thames estuary. It makes for a great way to see the port and commercial traffic. It also allows you to experience a journey that used to be common. Steamers used to cover the routes from Tower Pier in central London, to holiday hotspots like Southend and Margate. There is something special about arriving in Southend, at the end of its enormously long pier, by boat, rather than train. It has taken you longer to get there. The journey is more memorable. It feels more of a change, and consequently puts you into more of a holiday mood. And the journeying on a paddle steamer draws your imagination back to earlier days of steam ships and the busy times of the Port of London.


Waverley in Thames Estuary
http://www.waverleyexcursions.co.uk/tdisp.htm?port1=london&port2=woolwich

Literary Landscape of Britain and Northern Ireland

Literary Landscape http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/565-brit-lit-map 
This marvellous map shows Britain and Northern Ireland as represented by their literary associations. Geoff Sawyer made it for the Literary Gift Company, but you can wander round the Britain of world English imagination for free, here
Briterary Map
Of course, the fun with such maps is in the things you dispute, as well as the things you learn.
What would the literary map of London look like?

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Rollright stones

I saw this image and loved it - it was taken by Aerial Cam, who I have worked with before. They turn up with a landrover, with a telescopic pole mounted camera and take very good oblique aerial photos (altho' they do a lot more than that, to see the full list click on http://www.aerial-cam.co.uk/). I just think that this single image tells a tale about the physical setting of the monument in rolling hills, and also the prevalence of oilseed rape and the contrast of the green grass of the monument... The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire, the English Midlands (border with Warwickshire). Archaeologist George Lambrick investigated these in the 1980s, he has subsequently advised the (Irish) Heritage Council on Historic Landscape Characterisation and multi-disciplinary professional development, which I contributed the delivering.




View Larger Map

Open Day, on Sunday, at Pendeford Mill, near Wolverhampton. A managed wood since the 13th century

People will be able to get a rare glimpse of one of Wolverhampton’s nature reserves on Sunday. An open day is being held at Pendeford Mill, a site of valuable environmental and historical significance. The 59 acres of naturally-managed countryside date back to the 13th century and provide a stable and protected habitat for wildlife on the fringe of Wolverhampton, with an ever-changing array of flora and fauna on show. More details at http://bit.ly/LcelRz.  
 For Pendeford Mill and other countryside events in and around Wolverhampton, follow link http://www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/BFF01928-D09C-4CB2-9295-75493F3A2103/0/CountrysideEventspg233mb.pdf

Pendeford Mill wood bares comparison with Lesnes Abbey Woods, near Thamesmead London http://www.panoramio.com/user/2865482/tags/Lesnes%20Abbey%20Woods.   also managed since the 13th century.  

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Friends of Medieval Dublin FREE Symposium, 19th May 09.30-17.00hrs


Modern and celebrated Georgian Dublin has accreted around a smaller slimmer Medieval skeleton. But if you want to know why Dublin is like it is today, you must first look to its medieval origins. This FREE seminar would seem an excellent way to open the door to that past landscape - no advanced booking required,
Image of coin with head of Sitriuc Silkenbeard
Admission free. All welcome.
Click here for a printable PDF version of the symposium poster.
Details of last year's: Medieval Dublin Symposium 2011
FRIENDS OF MEDIEVAL DUBLIN14th Medieval Dublin
Symposium
 2012
Robert Emmet Theatre (Room 2037),Arts BuildingTrinity College, Dublin
Saturday 19 May 2012
09.30Registration and opening remarks
Seán Duffy
09.40The archaeology of the priory of All Hallows and Trinity College Dublin: recent discoveries at Front SquareLinzi Simpson
10.30Orator/spokesman/lawspeaker? The airlabraid of Dublin in the tenth century 
Denis Casey
11.10Tea & coffee
11.30James Yonge and the writing of history in late medieval Dublin 
Caoimhe Whelan
12.10How Dublin remembered the Battle of ClontarfLenore Fischer
12.50Lunch
14.00Battle-wounds, murder and death in early medieval Swords: evidence from archaeological excavations at Mount Gamble 
Edmond O’Donovan
14.40The Dublin Vikings and the Clann Cholmáin kings of Southern Uí NéillEoin O’Flynn
15.20Tea coffee
15.40‘A screpul from every moneyer’: interpreting coin finds from early medieval Dublin 
Andy Woods
16.20
“But what about the earlier city?” – John Rocque’s Exact Survey (1756) as a source for medieval Dublin John Montague
NO ADVANCE REGISTRATION OR BOOKING REQUIRED
For further information, contact Professor Seán Duffy:
sduffy@tcd.ie or telephone (01) 896 1791.

1912 Tailors' strike commemoration, East End Shopfronts, and walks round radical and anti-fascist East End


Public Meeting
Wednesday May 23rd: UNITED AGAINST SWEATSHOP SLAVERY: THE 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT 1912 TAILORS’ STRIKE
In April 1912 a strike started among West End tailors. In May, thousands of immigrant Jewish East End tailors came out to support them and to challenge the whole sweatshop system. Dockers in the East End were on strike too for better conditions, and tailors and dockers held joint strike meetings.
Speakers: Ben Gidley, (senior researcher at Compas at Oxford University
working on East End Jewish radical history)
Donnacha DeLong (President of the National Union of Journalists)
7pm-9pm, Library, Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate EC2M 4QH
(Liverpool Street tube). Organised by the Jewish Socialists’ Group

Coming this weekend!
Saturday 19th May, 12-1.30pm, “Protest, Power, Struggle and Strife. No Pasaran!” Special walk by David Rosenberg for the Rich Mix “Snapshots” festival. £8.50. Bookings: http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/no-pasarn-guided-walk/ Box office: 020 7613 7498

Sunday May 20th at the new Goldsmiths Row Sunday Book Market, David Rosenberg will be signing copies of “Battle for the East End” between 12.30-1.30pm at the Newham Bookshop stall which will be specialising in London and radical books. The book market, which started last weekend will run every Sunday from 9am-4pm

Exhibition
“After You've Gone: East End Shopfronts, 1988”
Alan Dein's photographs of East End shopfronts were taken in 1988 when many Tower Hamlets streets were on the verge of dereliction. Alan, an oral historian and broadcaster, captured the diminishing, decaying local shops on film, most of them relics of the area's once flourishing Jewish community. The exhibition launches on Thursday 17 May at 6pm, with a talk from Alan on Saturday 9 June at 2.30pm and it runs until Thursday 12th July at tower hamlets local History Library, 277 Bancroft Road, London E1 4DQ.

Finally – David Rosenberg's regular walks:

Sunday 10th June 11am. Guided walk  “Anti-Fascist Footprints: a walk through the 1930s East End from Gardiners Corner to Cable Street. £7/£4. Book online at: www.eastendwalks.com

Sunday 24th June 2.30pm. Guided walk  “The Spark of Rebellion in Bow and Mile End”. £7/£4. Book online at: www.eastendwalks.com

Monday  2nd July, 6pm. Guided walk “The Radical Jewish East End”. £7/£4. Book online at: www.eastendwalks.com

Will Crooks, a celebration of (his) life (including Island Gardens park and the Blackwall Tunnel river crossing)

Will Crooks grave in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park http://www.panoramio.com/photo/70801819 


Will Crooks: A celebration.  Tuesday 29th May, 6:30pm - 8:30pm at St. Matthias Community Centre, Poplar High Street
This event will celebrate the 160th anniversary of the birth of Will Crooks - Trade Unionist, the fourth Labour Member of Parliament and first Labour Mayor of Poplar.
Speakers will includ Nick Raynsford, Member of Parliament for Greenwich and Woolwich and David Edgar, councillor for Limehouse.
RSVP to: ramona.losip@canarywharf.com or 020 7418 2462.

"The Labourer worth his Hire" Vanity Fair 6th April 1905
Wkkipedia say
William (Will) Crooks (6 April 1852 – 5 June 1921) was a noted trade unionist and politicianfrom Poplar, London, and a member of the Fabian Society. He is particularly remembered for his campaigning work against poverty and inequality.

[edit]Biography

Born in Shirbutt Street, Poplar, Crooks was the third son of a ship's stoker, George Crooks, who lost his arm in an accident when Crooks was three years old. His mother, Caroline Elizabeth (née Coates), then supported the family by working as a seamstress, but money was scarce and five of the children were temporarily forced to enter Poplar workhouse in 1861. This experience had a profound influence on Crooks' views on poverty.
Educated at a local Poor law school, Crooks worked initially as a grocer's errand boy, then a blacksmith's labourer and then as an apprentice cooper. A keen reader, Crooks learned about reformers such as Richard Cobden and John Bright, and was asked by his fellow workers to speak out about their working conditions. Consequently, he was sacked for being a political agitator. He remained a member of the Coopers Union from 1867 until his death in 1921.
After a short spell working in Liverpool, Crooks returned to London and found work in the docks. He also began to give political lectures, and his speaking abilities proved helpful in raising funds for 10,000 striking dockers in the 1889 London Dock Strike.
Earlier that year, Crooks, a candidate for the Progressive Party, successfully stood for election to the London County Council, and joined Sidney Webb and other labour movement leaders in the LCC. He also became the first working-class member, and later chairman, of the Poplar Board of Guardians. With support from friend and fellow member George Lansbury, Crooks set about reforming the local workhouse, creating a model for other Poor Law authorities.
A prominent local politician, he helped bring about many local improvements. On 3 August 1895, Crooks formally opened Island Gardens, a park at the south end of the Isle of Dogs, opposite Greenwich Hospital. He also campaigned for the first Blackwall Tunnel, and as Chairman of the LCC Bridges Committee in 1898, he helped provide the Greenwich and Woolwich foot tunnels (completed in 1902 and 1912 respectively).
In 1901 Crooks became the first Labour mayor of Poplar, and two years later was elected to Parliament as MP for Woolwich. This success was the result of a pact between the Labour Representation Committee and the Liberal Party, which wrested the seat away from theConservative Party). At the time, he was only the fourth Labour MP (preceded by James Keir HardieRichard Bell and David ShackletonArthur Henderson followed later in 1903).
As an MP, he retained his working-class roots and contacts, campaigned hard for workers'pensions, supported reforms to limit the powers of the House of Lords, and supported Balfour’s Unemployment Bill in 1905. Re-elected in 1906, he supported the reforming Liberal governments of Campbell-Bannerman (1906–1908) and Asquith (1908–1910).
In 1901 Crooks became the first Labour mayor of Poplar, and two years later was elected toParliament as MP for Woolwich. This success was the result of a pact between the Labour Representation Committee and the Liberal Party, which wrested the seat away from theConservative Party). At the time, he was only the fourth Labour MP (preceded by James Keir HardieRichard Bell and David ShackletonArthur Henderson followed later in 1903).
Crooks lost his seat in Parliament at the January 1910 general election, but was re-elected at the December 1910 general election, and remained an MP until ill-health forced his retirement in February 1921. He died in the London Hospital, Whitechapel four months later, and was buried in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
In 1930, one of the Woolwich Ferry paddle-steamers was named in his memory (taken out of service in 1963). A council housing estate in his native Poplar still bears his name, as does a road in Eltham, just south of Woolwich.

[edit]External links


Friday 11 May 2012

Xcavate! Dorset's Community Archaeologist: Jubilee Walks


Xcavate! Dorset's Community Archaeologist: Jubilee Walks: This coming Jubilee stride out into the Dorset countryside and see sites that have been gracing our landscape for far longer than 60 years

A great way to mooch around landscape with a knowledgeable friendly host - a London refugee gone native in the countree

Landmark of London, Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner

I've long insisted on the importance of landmarks within landscape studies, and specifically Historic Landscape Characterisation. They define and declare territory, they act as waymarks, in fact they have a host of uses, including projecting image and ideology. One such is the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. Nowadays it is more comfortably known just as "Hyde Park Corner". The arch has lost its specific association with Wellington as a result of a change of statue on the top. Nowadays it is a generic personification of Victory

However, formerly it had a statue of Wellington  (click here for English Heritage record and photograph), which shows a "general" view of the Duke of Wellington (their pun not mine) on the Wellington Arch on Hyde Park Corner. The statue was designed by Matthew Wyatt and erected on top of Decimus Burton's Triumphal Arch. It is nearly 30 feet high and in the 1880s was moved to Aldershot.

Thursday 10 May 2012

Olympic missiles and the worst civilian disaster of WW2 in the East End of London

Graves of some of the 173 victims of the Bethnal Green Tube disaster. On 3 March 1943, as the British press had reported a heavy RAF raid on Berlin on the night of 1 March. The air-raid Civil Defence siren sounded at 8:17 pm, causing an orderly flow of people down the short flight of steps into the underground booking office area. At 8:27, an anti-aircraft battery a few hundred yards away in Victoria Park launched a salvo of a new type of anti-aircraft rocket. The weapon was secret and the unexpected, unfamiliar sound of the explosion caused the crowd to surge forward towards the shelter, a woman tripped on the stairs, causing many others to fall. Within a few seconds 300 people were crushed into the tiny stairwell. 172 people died at the scene, with one more dying in hospital later; 62 of the dead were children.

Relatives visit the graves regularly, many following an annual memorial service, with a larger event every ten years

Please donate to the Stairway to Heaven memorial

An Olympic surface to air Missile battery has been proposed for the water tower on top of the Bow Quarter, the former Bryant and May match factory,  scene of the bitter industrial struggle by matchgirls led by Annie Besant  
Annie Besant Memorial - Bryant and May match factory
Former Bryan and May match factory with water tower, site of missile battery



























The locations of the WW2 ansd Olympics missile batteries are remarkably close (see map below)

View Larger Map


Wednesday 2 May 2012

Year of Air 2013 -- Air pollution particulates over central London, causing death and poor health, and clearly visible



Known health and other impacts of air pollution have risen much faster than levels of air pollution have fallen
1.      What is the ‘Year of Air’ in 2013?
The European Commission (Commission) has announced that 2013 is the ‘Year of Air’ with key European air pollution legislation up for review.  The review represents a tremendous opportunity to improve public health by tightening air quality standards.  Commissioner Potočnik made speeches about the ‘Year of Air’ on 22 March 2011 and 24 September 2012.  The Commission has a webpage with details of the EU Review of Air Policy.
Attempts are already being made by the UK authorities to weaken existing air pollution laws during the ‘Year of Air’.  For example, the UK Government has stated ‘Working in partnership with other Member States, we will also use the European Commission review of air quality legislation, expected in 2013, to seek…amendments to the Air Quality Directive which reduce the infraction risk faced by most Member States, especially in relation to nitrogen dioxide provisions’.  Similarly, the Mayor founded a group of 12 European cities and regions that signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ on 10 November 2011 that emphasised The revised [Air Quality] Directive shall include a degree of flexibility that allows the specific characteristics of our Regions to be taken into account’.  Given the Mayor promised Jenny Jones AM on 19 December 2012 that he will ‘oppose any watering down of the current European limit values for reducing air pollution…’ it seems likely that he hopes to achieve ‘flexibility’ through: delays to the legal deadlines; and/or ‘Partnership implementation agreements negotiated between the Commission and Member States in infringement, where further legal action would be suspended subject to proper implementation of agreed transparent and binding programmes to address air pollution’ (or similar) (which is being considered in the Commission’s consultation which closes on 4 March).
Clean Air in London (CAL) believes that key outcomes from the ‘Year of Air’ must include continuity and the further tightening of health and legal protections.  Increasing ‘flexibility’ in air pollution laws would weaken existing health and legal protections and is therefore unacceptable.  CAL is publishing key events planned for the ‘Year of Air’ on its Facebook events page.
Please respond by 4 March 2013 to Commission’s consultation on options for the revision of the EU Thematic Strategy on air pollution and related policies.  There is a briefing page and consultations for four groups: a shorter version for the public; and three longer versions for experts and practitioners: citizens;organisations; and public authorities.
Please write also to your elected representatives in the European and UK Parliaments.
2.      How bad is air pollution in London?
  • London has the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution of any capital city in Europe.  Concentrations of dangerous airborne particles (PM10) also breach legal limits in several parts of the city particularly near waste management sites.
  • Government estimates that some 440,439 Londoners were exposed to unlawful levels of NO2 in 2011 at background locations alone i.e. away from busy roads.
  • London’s residents are not the only ones affected by poor air quality.  Every day hundreds of thousands of people commute into the polluted heart of London.  NO2 concentrations are well over twice legal limits and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines near many London roadside monitoring sites.  NO2limits are also breached at a larger number of city centre ‘background’ sites away from busy roads.
3.      What are the health impacts of air pollution in London?
  • Air pollution comprises particles and gases.  The particles are categorised by their maximum diameter in microns e.g. PM2.5 and PM10.  In practice, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic gas, is the only molecule within the gas category with relevant WHO guidelines and legal limits.
  • Poor air quality has a significant impact on the health of London residents.  The Mayor published a study in 2010 estimating 4,267 premature deaths in London in 2008 attributable to long term exposure to fine particles (PM2.5).  These occur mostly as heart attacks and strokes.  The Department of Health estimates 6.3% to 9.0% of all deaths in London in 2010 were attributable to long-term exposure to man-made PM2.5 alone.
  • Children, the elderly and people with existing respiratory illness suffer disproportionately from the effects of air pollution.  Over 1,100 schools in London are within 150 metres of the city’s busiest and most polluted roads (i.e. those that carry over 10,000 vehicles a day).  Traffic pollution from such roads may be responsible for 15-30% of all new cases of asthma in children and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults of 65 years of age and older.
4.      Are there air pollution standards that London should be meeting?
  • Legally binding, health based limit values have been set for several air pollutants by the European Union since 1999.  London is failing to meet these for PM10 and NO2.
  • For PM10 London was required to meet limit values by 2005 but obtained unlawfully a time extension in 2011 to comply that year.  That time extension has now expired but London has continued to exceed PM10 limits known as ‘Bad Air Days’ particularly near waste management sites e.g. Neasden Lane in Brent.
  • NO2 limits were required to be met by 2010.  The Government has admitted they are not expected to be met in London before 2025 and has been caught seeking to weaken NO2 laws.
  • The Commission is expected to commence infraction action against the UK early in 2013.
5.      What are the authorities doing to reduce air pollution in London?
The Mayor of London’s Air Quality Strategy is not ‘fit for purpose’.  The Mayor has also used Pollution Suppressor vehicles to reduce air pollution near air quality monitoring stations most-used to report legal breaches and warn the public of smog episodes.  The Mayor has also been caught lobbying to weaken international air pollution laws.
Diesel engine exhaust, recently classified by the World Health Organisation as carcinogenic to humans, is a particular problem in London which has: some 8,500 diesel buses; over 20,000 diesel taxis; and a low emission zone that is two steps and two years behind the equivalent in Berlin.  A ground breaking study byPolicy Exchange found that diesel vehicles are responsible for 95% of NO2 and 91% of PM2.5 exhaust emissions respectively from road transport in London.
The Government has not published a press release warning of smog since April 2011 when it made headline news.  The Mayor also refuses to issue public warnings of smog even though Murad Qureshi AM discovered that hundreds of additional people in London have been admitted to hospital during smog episodes in the last five years alone.
6.      Supporting guides, links and contacts
Guides
Indoor:              Indoor air quality can be worse than outdoor
PollutantLegal standardWorld Health Organisation guideline
Short termAnnual meanShort termAnnual mean
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
  1. 25 ug/m3 annual mean to become limit value in 2015
  2. 20 ug/m3 exposure concentration obligation based on a 3-year average by 2015
  3. Exposure reduction target in percentage by 2020
25 ug/m324-hour mean10 ug/m3
Particulate matter (PM10)35 days over 50 ug/m3 since 201140 ug/m3since 201150 ug/m324-hour mean20 ug/m3
Ozone (O3)25 days over 120 ug/m3 maximum daily 8-hour mean target value averaged over 3 year since 2010100 ug/m8-hour mean
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)18 hours over 200 ug/m3 since 201040 ug/m3 since 2010200 ug/m340 ug/m3
Note: ug/mis micrograms per cubic metre
Examples of legal breaches in 2012
London Air Quality Network:     Marylebone Road
                                          Neasden Lane
                                          Putney High Street
Smog episodes
London Air Quality Network:     Latest hourly bulletin
London Air Quality Network:     Health advice
London Air Quality Network:     Reports on smog episodes
Defra website:                          UK-Air: Air Information Resource (selective monitoring)
Article from The Independent newspaper on the effects of air pollution on athletes, quoting air pollution and health expert Professor Frank Kelly (Kings College, London)




22nd June 2010

29th June 2010
The role of particulates in city-centre air pollution is well known - they are tiny pieces of diesal/petroleum smuts that can stick in your lungs like tar, increasing risk of respiratory diseases. They also trigger the release of stress hormones that release more cholestorol into the blood stream increasing the likelihood of heart attacks. And yet we blithely attribute many of these factors to other "lifestyle choices", shifting the blame onto the individual for their ill-health, whilst "fit" middle-classes live in suburbs with fewer particles and healthier air. Take a look at the two photographs above and below. Both are taken from the far east of London, looking towards the centre. The top one of each set was taken , on a sunny day, after a week of sunny days. The bottom is taken a few days later,  after some decent rainfall. In the second picture, the Canary Wharf office tower blocks are clearly visible, whilst they are obscured in the first. This visible pollution is

23rd June 2010 looking west

29th June 2010 - note Canary Wharf Tower blocks in centre


The photos were taken from the track across Crossness Nature Reserve in east London, on the floodplain on the south side of the Thames. It was drained by monks of Lesnes Abbey in the 13th / 14th century to provide grazing for commercial beef production for the City of London, and/or wool (London was a great exporter of wool in the middle ages). The reserve is a refuge for water voles, who face predation by American mink, amongst other things, elsewhere in south-east England.