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seeselfblack · 4 years ago

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Ten black history events that should be taught to every pupil

Black History Month is a chance to introduce forgotten historical episodes into the curriculum, from the British black panthers to the Bristol bus boycott...

Here are 10 examples of black history I was not taught in school:

1. West Indian soldiers in the First World War — The contributions of the 15,204 men who served in the British West Indies Regiment have largely been forgotten in the UK’s remembrance of the great war.

From the Bahamas to British Guiana, men across the West Indian colonies heeded the call for volunteers from the “mother country” in 1915 at their own expense and peril.

They weren’t allowed to fight alongside white soldiers and faced racism from their comrades and enemy soldiers alike...

2. The Bristol bus boycott — A watershed moment in the UK’s civil rights struggle was a boycott of the Bristol bus network after 18-year-old Guy Bailey was turned away from a job interview at the state-owned Bristol Omnibus Company because he was black. The policy was an open secret at the company and was legal at the time.

Members of the black community, organised by Paul Stephenson, Roy Hackett and Bailey and supported by many of their white neighbours, led a boycott of the buses in protest in 1963...

3. The Notting Hill carnival — the Notting Hill carnival is the largest street party in Europe...

It started with human rights activist Claudia Jones, who was born in Trinidad in 1915 and spent much of her life in New York until she was deported from the US for being a member of the Communist party. Given asylum in England, she threw herself into the anti-racist struggle.

In response to the Notting Hill riots of 1958 – Jones launched an indoor Caribbean carnival in St Pancras in 1959 to bring people together... taking to the streets in 1965. Five decades later, it is second only in size to Brazil’s Rio carnival.

4. John Blanke, the black trumpeter — The Tudor period was significant for black settlement in Britain.

Among the settlers was trumpeter John Blanke, a regular musician at the courts of both King Henry VII and Henry VIII, and the first black Briton for whom we have both their name and picture. He appears on horseback in the royal procession in a 60ft-long scroll commissioned by Henry VIII depicting the extravagant Westminster Tournament of 1511, which was held to celebrate the birth of a son.

He was paid 8d a day in wages, until he successfully petitioned the king to double this to 16d.

5. ‘Beachy Head woman’ — The remains of one of the earliest black Britons were uncovered in a village in East Sussex, where she is thought to have lived nearly 1,800 years ago in 245AD, the middle of the Roman period in Britain.

...the “Beachy Head woman”, is believed to be the first known person in Britain from sub-Saharan Africa - which was beyond the domain of the Roman empire.

6. ‘Ivory bangle lady’ — One of the wealthiest inhabitants of fourth century Roman York was a middle-class woman of black African ancestry. The “ivory bangle lady” was discovered in 1901 inside a stone sarcophagus with grave goods including jewellery made of Yorkshire jet and African elephant ivory, a glass mirror and a blue glass jug.

Experts hailed her discovery as challenge to the assumption that Africans in Britain at the time were not wealthy and likely to have been slaves.

7. Britain’s black miners — The contributions of the many non-white workers who toiled in the UK’s coalmining industry have largely been forgotten.

Amid severe labour shortages in industry in the aftermath of the second world war, they came to Britain at the government’s invitation and filled vacancies in vital industries, including in coalmines, where they worked as coalface workers, chargehands, deputies and union representatives...

8. The sacking of Benin — Benin City, originally called Edo, was once the capital of a pre-encounter African empire in what is now southern Nigeria. It was one of the oldest states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.

At the height of the scramble for Africa, the “Benin expedition” of 1897 led to British troops punitively sacking the ancient city after it defied the British empire by imposing customs duties. The city’s walls – at the time the world’s largest earthworks created in the pre-mechanised era and four times the length of the Great Wall of China – were razed. The city was burned to the ground and its treasures looted.

Much of Benin’s artworks and artefacts were taken to Britain where many were auctioned as war booty or gifted to museums across Europe.

Hundreds of the stolen artefacts still reside in museums, galleries, universities and private collections across the UK. The Benin bronzes, in particular, remain the subject of demands for repatriation.

9. The Haitian Revolution — The Haitian Revolution was one of the largest and most successful slave rebellions in history. Over 12 years of uprisings formerly enslaved Africans overcame colonial rule, ending slavery in France’s most profitable colony and establishing the first independent black republic in the Americas.

In the 18th century, the white population made up 40,000 of Saint-Domingue’s residents, while the slave population was close to half a million – outnumbering them 10 to one.

The enslaved began a violent rebellion against the white landowners in 1791, led by the Haitian-born former slave Toussaint L’Ouverture. In 1794, the French government officially freed all slaves in the colonies and made them full citizens.

When Napoleon came to power, he sent French troops to regain control of Saint-Domingue. L’Ouverture’s successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, eventually defeated the French and forced them out, establishing the independent nation of Haiti in 1804.

10. The British Black Panthers — The story of the British Black Panthers has also largely been forgotten.

Inspired by the American Black Power movement, the BBP was founded by Obi Egbuna in Notting Hill, London, in 1968. Though not an official branch of the American organisation, the BBP adopted the symbols of military jackets, berets and raised fists... read full article HERE

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littalks-blog · 6 years ago

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Agatha Christie, a woman whose life was filled to the brim with mystery and a woman I truly look up to. She was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890, to a wealthy family in Torquay, Devon. Agatha was the youngest of three children. Agatha has described her childhood as “very happy.” She was always surrounded by strong and independent women. Also, she spent a lot of time between Devon, her grandmother and aunt’s house in Ealing, and parts of Southern Europe where her family spent holiday. Christie was raised with esoteric beliefs and she believed that her mother was a psychic that had the ability of second sight. Agatha’s mother insisted that she received home education. In her education, she learned reading, writing, basic math, and she learned to play the piano and mandolin. Agatha was a lover of reading from a very young age and in April 1901, she wrote her first poem “The Cowslip” at age ten. Agatha’s father was often sick and suffered from a series of heart attacks. In November of 1901, he passed at age 55. His death left the family in a very uncertain economic situation. In 1902, Agatha was sent to get a formal education at Miss Guyer’s Girls School in Torquay. However, she found it difficult to adjust. In 1905, she was sent to Paris where she was educated in three pensions - Mademoiselle Cabernet's, Les Marroniers, and then Miss Dryden's.

In 1910, Agatha returned to England to find that her mother was ill. They decided to spend three months at the Gezirah Palace Hotel in Cairo. While in Cairo, Christie attended many social functions in search of a husband. When she returned to England she continued her social outings as well as writing and performing amateur theatricals. It was during this time that she wrote some poetry and music, however, even though some pieces were published, she decided against focusing on writing for future professions. Christie wrote her first short story, “The House of Beauty”, (later published as “The House of Dreams”) while recovering in bed from an undisclosed illness. “The Call of Wings” and “The Little Lonely God” followed. Magazines rejected all of her early submissions, made under pseudonyms, however, some were revised and published later.

Christie then set her first novel, “Snow Upon the Desert,” in Cairo and drew upon her experiences in that city. She wrote this under the pseudonym Monosyllaba. All the publishers that Agatha contacted declined her novel. Her mother suggested inquiring with a family friend, Eden Philpotts, who obliged and encouraged Christie’s writing. He even sent an introduction to his personal literary agent, Hughes Massie, who also rejected “Snow Upon the Desert,” but suggested a second novel.

It was also during this time that Agatha entered into several short-lived relationships and got engaged to another. Then she met Archibald Christie at a dance that was given by Lord and Lady Clifford at Ugbrooke. Archie was born in India, he was an army officer who was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps in April 1913. The two fell in love quickly, but when he learned he would be stationed in Farnborough, Archie proposed and Agatha accepted. With the outbreak of World War One, Archie was sent to France to fight the Germans. The couple married on Christmas Eve in 1914 at Emmanuel Church in Clifton, Bristol. In 1918, Archie was placed back in Britain as a colonel in the Air Ministry. During his time in the military, Agatha involved herself in the war effort. In 1914, she joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment where she tended to wounded soldiers at a hospital in Torquay as an unpaid nurse. She completed 3,400 hours of unpaid work between October 1914 and December 1916. She worked as an apothecaries assistant in 1917 as a dispenser where she earned 16 euros a year until the end of her service in 1918. After the war, the Christie couple settled into an apartment in northwest London.

Christie had been a fan of detective novels for a while and wrote her own titled “The Mysterious Affair at Styles.” The inspiration for some characters in this novel came from real Belgian refugees who lived in Torquay as well as Belgian soldiers she had helped during her time as a volunteer nurse. She began work on the novel in 1916, writing most of it in Dartmoor. The original manuscript was rejected by publishing companies, but after keeping the manuscript for several months, John Lane at The Bodley Head offered to accept it, only if Christie changed the ending. She did so and signed a contract. The novel was published in 1920.

Meanwhile, Agatha had fallen into married life. She gave birth to her only child, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, in 1919. Archie left the Air Force at the end of the war and started working in the city financial sector. Agatha’s second novel was published in 1922 by The Bodley Head, was titled “The Secret Adversary.” “Murder on the Links” was her third novel and was published in 1923. She also wrote a few short stories that were commissioned by Bruce Ingram, editor of The Sketch magazine. Archie and Agatha left their daughter with Agatha’s mother and sister while they toured the world promoting the British Empire Exhibition. They toured in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. The couple learned to surf in South Africa, and then in Waikiki, they were some of the first Britons to surf standing up.

Late in 1926, Archie asked Agatha for a divorce since he had fallen in love with Nancy Neele, a friend of Major Belcher. Major Belcher was the director of the British Empire Mission. Archie had fallen for Nancy on the promotional tour. In December 1926, the couple got into an argument that ended with Archie leaving the home to spend the weekend with his mistress in Godalming, Surrey. The same evening Agatha left a note for her secretary saying she was going to Yorkshire. At 9:45, she left their home and later her car was found at Newlands Corner, parked above a chalk quarry with expired driving license and clothes.

The public was in an outcry. Over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers, and several airplanes searched the landscape for her. Her disappearance was featured on the front page of The New York Times. Agatha was not found for ten days, even though there was an ongoing search. On December 14, 1926, she was found at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire where she was registered as Mrs. Teresa Neele from Cape Town.

In 1928, Archie and Agatha divorced and Archie married Nancy Neele. Agatha retained custody of their daughter and the name Christie for her writing. Later that year, Agatha left England for Istanbul and then Baghdad on the Orient Express. It was during this trip in which she met a young archaeologist named Max Mallowan. Max was thirteen years younger than her, but they married in September 1930. This marriage was a happy one and lasted until Agatha’s death in 1976. Agatha often joined Max on his archaeological expeditions in which she gained a lot of inspiration for several of her novels that are set in the Middle East. For example, her 1934 novel, “Murder on the Orient Express,” was written in the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey.

During the Second World War, Christie work in the pharmacy at University College Hospital in London where she gained knowledge of poisons. This knowledge came in handy when she wrote her post-war crime novel. In 1934, she and Max purchased a home in Winterbrook. This was the couples main residence for the rest of their lives and where Christie did most of her writing.

Around 1941-1942, the British intelligence agency investigated Christie after a character called Major Bletchley appeared in her novel “N or M?” The government was afraid that Christie had a spy in the top-secret code-breaking center.

To honor her many works, Agatha was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, then the following year she became the President of the Detection Club. In 1971, she was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, three years after her husband had been knighted for his archeological work in 1968.

Beginning in 1971 until 1974, Her health began to fail, although she continued to write. She died on January 12, 1976, at age 85 from natural causes in her home at Winterbrook. While her life was full of excitement and mystery, so were her novels. Agatha Christie, to this day, holds the title as one of the most influential mystery writers of all time.

#agatha christie #murder on the orient express #and then there were none

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southsidemolly · 7 years ago

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By God’s Bones, There Has Been Unnatural Fornication in the Palace

This is a rather fascinating story about my 19th Great Grandfather, Edward II, who died a most horrible death due to his love for another man.

Edward II and Piers Gaveston ‘Fair of body and great of strength’, Edward of Caernarfon, England’s first Prince of Wales, was widely welcomed when he came into his inheritance as King Edward II at the age of twenty-three. But as he made his way down the aisle of Westminster Abbey at the end of February 1308 with his young queen Isabella, daughter of the French king Philip IV, all eyes turned to the individual behind him – Piers Gaveston, a young knight from Gascony. The new king had awarded Gaveston pride of place in his coronation procession, bestowing on him the honour of carrying the crown and sword of Edward the Confessor, and Gaveston, in royal purple splashed with pearls, was certainly dressed for the occasion. His finery was such, wrote one chronicler, that ‘he more resembled the god Mars, than an ordinary mortal’. According to the gossips, King Edward was so fond of Gaveston that he had given him the pick of the presents that he had received at his recent wedding to Isabella. The Queen’s relatives went back to France complaining that Edward loved Gaveston more than he loved his wife. Edward’s father, Edward I, the pugnacious ‘Hammer of the Scots’, had been infuriated by his son’s closeness to the flamboyant young Gascon. The old king had made Gaveston, the son of a trusted knight, a ward in the prince’s household, but there were complaints that the two men got up to mischief together, frequenting taverns and running up debts. On Edward I’s last unsuccessful campaign against the Scots in Carlisle in the winter of 1306–7, the prince had suggested giving Gaveston some of the royal estates in France. His father exploded, seizing Edward by the hair and tearing it out in tufts. He ordered Gaveston into exile. On coming to the throne, Edward II’s first concern had been to expedite the return of his friend Piers. When he went off to France to marry Isabella in January 1308, a few weeks before the coronation, he placed Gaveston in charge of England, and, to the fury of just about every baron in the land, he also bestowed on him the rich earldom of Cornwall. The reckless passion of Edward II for Piers Gaveston ranks as the first of the momentous love affairs that have shaken England’s monarchy over the centuries. Homosexuality was deeply disapproved of in medieval England. It was considered by many a form of heresy – a ticket to hell – though there is enough evidence to make it clear that many a monk and priest might have been seen at the ticket barrier. ‘The sin against nature’ was usually referred to indirectly, with comparisons to the Old Testament love of King David for Jonathan – ‘a love beyond the love of women’. When writing specifically of Edward’s love for Gaveston, the chroniclers of the time would call it ‘excessive’, ‘immoderate’, ‘beyond measure and reason’. But one source referred directly to a rumour going around England that ‘the King loved an evil male sorcerer more than he did his wife, a most handsome lady and a very beautiful woman’. It should be stressed that the details of Edward’s physical relationship with Gaveston are as unknowable as those of any other royal bedchamber, and we should not forget that the King had four children by Isabella. It has even been argued that the two men were totally chaste, cultivating their relationship as devoted ‘brothers’. Certainly, none of this would have been an issue if Edward had not allowed his private affections to intrude so fiercely into his public role. Other kings had no problems with same-sex relationships. It is generally assumed that William Rufus (who ruled from 1087 to 1100) was gay – he produced no children and kept no mistresses – and the same has been said of Richard Coeur de Lion, though this is hotly denied by recent biographers. Whatever their predilections, these monarchs did not allow their private passions to impinge on their royal style or, more important, to influence their decisions when it came to handing out land and other largesse. Edward II, however, displayed an assortment of characteristics that were viewed as unkingly. For a start, he dressed like his friend Piers, a little too extravagantly. He enjoyed the unusual sport of swimming and also rowing, which was considered demeaning – kings traditionally showed their power by getting others to row them. He kept a camel in his stables. He pursued a whole range of ‘common’ pursuits such as digging, thatching, building walls and hedges, and he enjoyed hammering away at the anvil like a blacksmith. Nowadays England might welcome a DIY king, but in the fourteenth century such activities, not to mention the pleasure Edward took in hobnobbing with grooms and ploughmen, were considered abnormal. The major grievance, however, was the disproportionate favour that Edward showed Piers Gaveston. When the barons in Parliament called for the exile of the favourite, Edward’s response was to endow him with still more castles and manors. He did agree, reluctantly, that Gaveston should go over to Ireland for a while as his representative, but he was clearly unhinged by his departure. The King took his entire household to Bristol to wave Gaveston off and pined for him in his absence, getting personally involved in such petty problems as the punishment of trespassers on Gaveston’s property on the Isle of Wight. When, in an attempt to curb the King’s aberrations, Parliament presented him with a set of ‘Ordinances’ in 1311, along the lines of Simon de Montfort’s Provisions of Oxford, Edward took the extraordinary step of offering to agree to any restriction on his own powers provided that his favourite was in no way affected. The muscular Gaveston did not make things any easier. He took delight in defeating the barons in jousts and tournaments, and then rubbed salt in their wounds by mimicking his critics and giving them derisive nicknames. The Earl of Gloucester was ‘*****son’, Leicester was ‘the fiddler’, and Warwick the ‘black hound of Arden’. ‘Let him call me“hound”,’ the earl exclaimed. ‘One day the hound will bite him.’ As approved by Parliament and reluctantly agreed by the King, the Ordinances of 1311 imposed stringent controls on royal power. Building on Magna Carta and the Provisions of Oxford, championed by Simon de Montfort, it was now laid down that the King could not leave the kingdom without the consent of the barons, and that parliaments must be held at least once or twice a year and in a convenient place. Clearly, the immediate purpose of the Ordinances was to deal with Gaveston, who was promptly sent out of the country for a second time. But he sneaked quietly back, and by the end of November there were reports of the favourite ‘hiding and wandering from place to place in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset’. That Christmas he appeared openly at Edward’s side at Windsor. For the indignant barons, this act of defiance was the last straw. Using the authority of the Ordinances, they summoned troops, while Edward and Gaveston headed north to rally forces of their own. Cornered at Newcastle, they managed to escape, Edward to York and Gaveston to Scarborough, where the barons besieged him. Lacking supplies, Gaveston surrendered, and under promise of safe conduct he was escorted south. But just beyond Banbury the party was ambushed by the Earl of Warwick, who whisked the favourite back to his castle and delivered the promised ‘bite’. On 19 June 1312, Piers Gaveston was beheaded at Blacklow Hill on the road between Warwick and Kenilworth. The killing of Edward II’s beloved ‘brother’ devastated the King and prompted a backlash of sympathy in his favour. But two years later, finally doing what a king was supposed to do and leading his army north against Scotland, Edward was heavily defeated between Edinburgh and Sterling in June 1314. Robert the Bruce’s brave and cunning victory at Bannockburn is one of the great tales of Scottish history, but in England its consequence was a massive further blow to Edward’s authority. Early in 1316 at the Parliament of Lincoln, the King humbly agreed to hand over the running of the country to the barons. The trouble was that Edward had found himself another Gaveston. Hugh Despenser was an ambitious young courtier whose father, also named Hugh, had been an adviser and official to Edward I and still wielded considerable power. The Despensers came from the Welsh borders or Marches, and they used their influence shamelessly to extend their lands. Once again the barons found themselves rallying together to restrict the power of a royal familiaris – a favourite – and this time a new element came into play. In 1325 Edward’s long-suffering wife Isabella seized the chance of a journey to France to take a stand against the husband who had humiliated her, first with Gaveston and now with the younger Despenser. She took a lover, Roger Mortimer, another powerful Welsh Marcher lord, who had taken up arms against the King and the Despensers in 1322, and who, after being imprisoned in the Tower of London, had been lucky to escape to France with his life. When Mortimer and Isabella landed in England in 1326, they had only a few hundred men, but they held a trump card – Isabella’s elder son by Edward, the thirteen-year-old Prince Edward. As heir to the throne, the boy represented some sort of hope for the future, and London welcomed the Queen, whose cause, according to one chronicler, was supported by ‘the whole community of the realm’. In a widespread uprising, the hated Despensers were tracked down and executed – in the case of Edward’s favourite, at the top of a ladder in Hereford, where his genitals were hacked off and burned in front of his eyes. England now set about doing something it had never attempted before – the deposition of a king by legal process. Prelates prepared the way. Early in January, the Bishop of Hereford preached to a clamorous London congregation on the text ‘a foolish king shall ruin his people’, and a parliament of bishops, barons, judges, knights and burgesses was convened in Westminster. Preaching to them on 15 January 1327, the Archbishop of Canterbury took as his text ‘Vox populi, Vox dei’ – ‘The voice of the people is the voice of God.’ By the unanimous consent of all the lords, clergy and people, h e announced, King Edward II was deposed from his royal dignity, ‘never more to govern the people of England’, and he would be succeeded by his first-born son, the Lord Edward. So Edward III would be the first English monarch appointed by a popular decision in Parliament. It remained to break the news to the King himself, then imprisoned at Kenilworth Castle, and a deputation of lords, churchmen, knights and townsfolk set off forthwith for the Midlands. Dramatically clad in black, Edward half fainted as he heard William Trussell, a Lancastrian knight, read out the verdict of the whole Parliament. It grieved him, he said in response, that his people should be so exasperated with him as to wish to reject his rule, but he would bow to their will, since his son was being accepted in his place. Next day Trussell, on behalf of the whole kingdom, renounced all homage and allegiance to Edward of Caernarfon, and the steward of the royal household broke his staff of office, as if the King had died. The deputation returned to Parliament and the new reign was declared on 25 January 1327. Now formally a non-king, Edward was imprisoned in the forlorn and ponderous Berkeley Castle overlooking the River Severn just north of Bristol. It is possible that, with time, his imprisonment might have been eased so as to allow him to potter around the grounds, digging his beloved ditches and hammering out a horseshoe or two. But in the space of just a few months there were two attempts to rescue him, and the Queen’s lover, Mortimer, decided that he was too dangerous to be left alive. In September 1327 a messenger took instructions down to Berkeley, and two weeks later it was announced that Edward of Caernarfon, only forty-three and of previously robust health, was dead. Abbots, knights and burgesses were brought from Bristol and Gloucester to view the body, and they reported seeing no visible marks of violence. Edward had had ‘internal trouble’ during the night, they were informed. But in the village of Berkeley, tales were told of hideous screams ringing out from the castle on the night of 21 September, and some years later one John Trevisa, who had been a boy at the time, revealed what had actually happened. Trevisa had grown up to take holy orders and become chaplain and confessor to the King’s jailer, Thomas, Lord Berkeley, so he was well placed to solve the mystery. There were no marks of illness or violence to the King’s body, he wrote, because Edward was killed ‘with a hoote brooche [meat-roasting spit] putte thro the secret place posterialle’. ****************************** From "Great Tales of English History", by Robert Lacey Robert Lacey

#english history #monarchy #king #king edward II #gay king #piers gaveston #gay love #hugh despenser

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whatsoninplymouth-blog · 7 years ago

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What's On In Plymouth

The Geography Latest Information on Plymouth of Plymouth

Evidence of settlements around the Plymouth space will be traced back to Saxon instances, the first record of a settlement is within the Doomsday again which data a Sudtone, or South farm, at the mouth of the River Plym in 1086.The first recorded use of the identify Plymouth is 1383, prior to that Plymouth was simply often known as Sutton, the place Sutton simply means South City, describing its place in the south west of Devon. Sutton had two components to it; the town of Sutton Prior and a hamlet referred to as Sutton Valletort. A petition to parliament dated 1411 nonetheless refers to "Sutton, otherwise generally known as Plymouth", however in 1439 the Sutton settlements became amalgamated into the borough of Plymouth.

The first market was established in 1253. At that time it was being described as "a mene factor as an inhabitation for fischars". Within the 14th century the French made a number of makes an attempt at invading the area around 'Sutton' and frequently had its neighbouring farms plundered and houses burned down. Ultimately in the 1440s the town's petition to parliament was accepted and the townsfolk had been able to fortify the city with partitions and towers. By this time Plymouth with a low water depth in Plymouth Sound of 25m alongside its 6km size, was establishing a status as being an important port and harbour for the even the most important of vessels.

By the sixteenth century Plymouth had grow to be probably the most essential ports to England when it comes to trade routes as well as the army. It was the gateway to the newly opening transatlantic crossings and held a strategic place at the mouth of the English Channel. Plymouth will, of course, at all times be related to Sir Francis Drake, who in 1588 famously, and allegedly, delayed setting off to engage with the Spanish Armada until he'd completed his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe. It was also from Plymouth that in 1577 the then plain Francis Drake set sail in the Golden Hind, on an expedition to find a route westward to the Spice Islands of the East Indies. His famous voyage ended up being the first circumnavigation of the earth and took him three years to complete.

Sadly, Plymouth additionally has its 'darker' past as a port. It was from here in 1562 that Sir John Hawkins set sail for West Africa and took England into the slave commerce with the Spanish American colonies. In the 17th century, to escape religious persecution, the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America within the Mayflower from Plymouth in 1620. The 17th century was also the time of the English Civil Warfare when, despite being blockaded and laid to siege by the Royalists, Plymouth was always in the palms of the Parliamentarians, even when the whole of the rest of western England belonged to the Royalists.

At the finish of the civil war with the monarchy restored, the Royal Citadel was constructed. Simply to remind the individuals of Plymouth, ought to they think of rising towards the monarchy once more, canon had been skilled into the town in addition to out to sea! In the 1690s, the Royal Dockyard was built, sealing Plymouth's significance to the nation's naval defences.

Different historic comings and goings at the port embrace; Catherine of Aragon, who arrived on the port in 1501 to marry Henry VIII, which ultimately led to the Reformation. Pocahontas arrived in 1616; the native American Christian convert arrived on the 'Treasurer' with her husband tobacco planter John Rolfe. Captain James Cook dinner, who set sail on his voyages of discovery from Plymouth in his ships HMS Endeavour (1769) and HMS Decision (1772). In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was in Plymouth for 2 weeks previous to his exile in St Helena. In 1831, the HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin on board left Plymouth on its five 12 months voyage of discovery. In 1946, aboard a converted HMS Victorious, 655 Australian struggle brides arrived from 'down-under', having married British servicemen throughout the warfare. Lastly, in additional modern instances Sir Francis Chichester chose Plymouth to set sail from to develop into the first solo particular person to circumnavigate the earth.

Throughout the 19th century the inhabitants of Plymouth elevated as did that of many different towns in the country. By 1914 the three towns of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse were united into the borough of Plymouth. Later, in 1928, Plymouth was given metropolis status by Royal Charter. During the First World Battle the strategic significance of Plymouth once more made it the focus of naval activity. During the Second World Warfare the port retained that strategic importance. Nevertheless, this time it was subjected to heavy aerial bombardment suffering vast harm and casualties. This resulted in a lot of 'old' Plymouth being destroyed. Therefore, once you visit it at the moment, there are so few outdated buildings to be seen.

Plymouth has a number of famous folks in its historical past together with: Jimmy Peters, he played Rugby union for Plymouth Albion between 1902 and 1913. Unremarkable in itself however, what makes it remarkable is that he was the primary black player in the country. He was so good that in 1906, he turned the first black participant to be selected to tour with the England staff and, famously, caused the Springboks to 'depart the sphere' after refusing to play towards a black participant.

Michael Foot was born in Plymouth in 1913. He went on to lead the labour get together through some of its darkest days whilst Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. Nancy Astor, the first woman MP in Britain is an honouree Plymothian. Initially born within the USA she defeated Michael Foots' father, Isaac Foot, to win the Plymouth Sutton seat for the Tories. Presumably the most effective known 'son of Plymouth' is Captain Robert Falcon Scott, more commonly referred to as 'Scott of the Antarctic'. He was born right here in 1868 and famously died in the Antarctic in 1912, having failed to succeed in the South Pole.

Regardless of not having a motorway linking to Plymouth immediately, all the transport links to and from Plymouth are excellent. This is because of several historical elements not least the significance of Plymouth as a strategic military location for the Royal Navy.

Attending to and from Plymouth:

The primary road into Plymouth is the A38 which, in the easterly direction, connects Plymouth to the national motorway system, the M5, at Exeter. Carrying on northward on the M5 at Bristol you'll be able to then either continue northwards on the M5 to Birmingham or use the M4 going west into Wales or head east on the M4 in the direction of London. Heading west out of Plymouth on the A38 you rapidly cross the border into Cornwall and would ultimately attain Bodmin Moor the place the A38 terminates. From here you can join the A30 all the way all the way down to Penzance and Lands Finish past it. The A386, which runs throughout Devon from Plymouth to Bideford, will also be used to succeed in the A30 at Launceston.

Plymouth has several railway stations in and round it. The main station for Plymouth is positioned very near town centre. Plymouth railway station is on North Road on the northern end of Armada Means. From right here you can get direct trains into the midlands and the north so far as Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow, taking about 9 hours) on Virgin trains or using First Great Western trains into London, Paddington station, which takes about 3 hours.

Devonport railway station is close to the Devonport naval base in the west of Plymouth and there's a Dockyard station close by for the civilian docks. About 1 mile additional on westwards is a suburban station at Keyham. St Budeaux Victoria Road is the place the railway line splits heading west throughout the River Tamar to Saltash and Penzance or north, on a branch line, to Gunnislake. The department line is named the Tamar Valley Line.

Plymouth has a small airport that operates every day companies to different UK airports specifically; Bristol, Jersey, Cardiff, Leeds-Bradford and London Gatwick. The flight working company is Air Southwest, which offer costs which can be highly aggressive. The Plymouth to London service takes about 1 hour and its well value contemplating as a way of transport to or from Plymouth. The airport is also utilized by cargo planes.

National Express coach providers function out of the main Plymouth bus station on Exeter Street. Journey time from Plymouth to London Victoria is about 5 ? hours on a direct journey. Nonetheless, the coach service is significantly cheaper than even the most aggressive train or air fares. There are direct providers to Scotland however be warned! The service linking with Edinburgh takes 15 hours!

You could arrive in Plymouth from continental Europe on a Brittany Ferry, who run providers to and from Plymouth. Their 'Ro-Ro' ferries operate to Roscoff in France and Santander in Spain from the 200m West Wharf at Plymouth harbour.

There has been a passenger ferry across the River Tamar for the reason that thirteenth century.

So, you might arrive in Plymouth by boat having used the Cremyll Ferry, which journeys between Admirals hard at Stonehouse in Plymouth and Cremyll, or the Torpoint Ferry, which is a sequence ferry able to carrying motor autos between Torpoint and Devonpoint on the lower River Tamar. There are a number of different seasonal ferries that operate to cater for the tourist trade, crossing Plymouth Sound at numerous points. eg between Plymouth and Kingsand, Cawsand, Saltash and at last Calstock. There is additionally a water taxi service between the Barbican and Mountbatten.

Journey in and around Plymouth:

Several rivers meet at the estuary the place Plymouth is situated and over time the estuary has grow to be each long and vast. There are two most important methods of crossing the estuary, one by the Tamar Toll Bridge at the north end of the estuary or to the south finish there are two ferries. There was passenger ferry services across the River Tamar for the reason that thirteenth century.

The 2 main ferries are the Cremyll Ferry, which journeys between Admirals Laborious at Stonehouse and Cremyll, or the Torpoint Ferry, which is a series ferry capable of carrying motor vehicles between Torpoint and Devonpoint on the decrease River Tamar. There are several other 'seasonal' ferries that operate to cater for the tourist trade, crossing Plymouth Sound at various factors. eg between Plymouth and Kingsand, Cawsand, Saltash and finally Calstock.

There is additionally a water taxi service between the Barbican and Mountbatten. The Tamar Toll Bridge is operated by the same company that runs the Torpoint ferry. So if you're driving and wish to keep away from an extended detour across the estuary, you will must pay them some cash. Fares on the ferry and bridge are often kept in step with each other. ie ?1 for normal automotive or ?2 with a trailer. If you happen to're on a motorbike you can cross the bridge at no cost or pay ?zero.20p on the ferry.

Plymouth CityBus is the main native route bus operator in Plymouth. Though it's run as an organization, it's wholly owned by Plymouth city council. Its companies meet both resident commuter wants and people of vacationers visiting town. One other part of the corporate is Plymouth CityCoach which organises coach trips to native, national and European locations. The bus station in Plymouth city centre is at Bretonside opposite the Drake Circus purchasing centre.

The world map reference for Plymouth is latitude 50o22'49" north and longtitude 4o08'forty three" west. Plymouth has a deep water harbour and sits on the east financial institution of a large estuary opening onto the English Channel. To the east and operating by way of Plymouth is the River Plym, to the north of it are the rivers Tavy and Tamar, with the rivers Lidhey and Tiddy to the west throughout the estuary.

Plymouth is by far the most important urban space in the South West and is the third largest metropolis in the whole of Southern England. Masking an space of 8000 hectares it has a population of 250,000, giving a inhabitants density of about 31 folks per hectare. So, as one of the major cities in England it is not densely populated. Plymouth is in the county of Devon and has been a city since 1928. In 1998 it grew to become a unitary authority below a national re-organisation of native government. Regardless of being the biggest metropolis in the space Plymouth is just not the county town for Devon, the honour of which falls to Exeter.

The floor rock present in Plymouth is Sandstone (to the east) and Mudstone (to the west) which lies above the Devonian bedrock, courting back some 417 million years. Hence there are a lot of limestone, sandstones, mudstones and shales. The most vital of those rocks in all probability being the Devonian Old Purple Sandstone. Volcanic activity in the Devonian interval has also given rise to igneous and metamorphic outcrops within the Plymouth area. Off the coast of Plymouth the bedrock is Limestone from the very early Cainozoic. Many older buildings in Plymouth were constructed from the local sandstone, within the space around Plymouth the native igneous and metamorphosed rocks had been usually used for constructing material. The normal roofing material in Plymouth was slate from the quarries in Cornwall to the west of Launceston.

Also nearby are deposits of sand and gravel that are extracted commercially and contribute to the economic growth of the city. In the past Tin, Lead and Copper mining/extraction had been necessary to the local financial system. Nevertheless, workings for these minerals are not economically viable. Plymouth might in the future profit from the potential of geothermal power arising from its proximity to the igneous and metamorphic rocks of Cornwall. Being on the south coast of England, the floor geology of Plymouth was not affected by glacial movements within the final ice ages.

Plymouth is just not a hilly metropolis; the elevation across the city centre not often rises above 10m. However, the north of the town does start to turn out to be hilly and the elevation at the airport is about 10om above sea degree. To the south of the town Plymouth Hoe, where Sir Francis Drake played his historic sport of bowls, is barely 5m above sea degree. Travel east some 10 miles (15km) out of Plymouth on the A38 and you will arrive at Ivybridge on the southern edge of Dartmoor. Dartmoor is among the authentic 10 Nationwide Parks created in 1951 and is famed for its pre-historic associations, numerous Tors and it is highly changeable weather.

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