#george wensley

[nosku]

HARRY POTTER AND CAST MASTERLIST

《key:♡-fluff ♤-angst ♧-smut ●-dark filthy smut》

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note:the smuts and dark smuts are very very VERY unholy so plz be warned

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*btw some of these don't have summary bc I'm lazy lmao*

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harry potter:

together《♡》

smile《♡》

daniel Radcliffe:

wedding day《♡》

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fred:

punishment 《♧●》

kitchen sex《♧》

James phelps:

wish I were Heather《♤》

your jealous of his wife

my girl《♡》

your only his

you《♧》

whith you《♡》

we dated in 2004《♡》

why I love you?《♡》

James ver.

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George:

bunny《♧》

forever《♡》

oliver phelps:

my world《♡》

yea《♧》

why I love you?《♡》

(oliver ver.)

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weasley twins:

our whore《♧●》

cockslut《♧》

car sex《♧》

(car sex with the twins *muggle AU*)

shameless《♧》

treat me like a toy《♧●》

hostage《♧●》

(the twins helds u hostage as there fucktoy *muggle AU*)

hostage pt.2 《♧●●》

(you try to runaway but.. *muggle AU*)

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draco:

run rabbit 《♤》

draco humiliates you infront of everyone

run rabbit pt.2 《♤》

your tired of draco torturing you

Tom Felton:

don't let it bother u《♤♡》

never gonna let go《♤》

Tom Is scared your gonna leave him

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cho chang:

I love you《♡》

you and me 《♡♧》

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Angelina jhonson:

mommy 《♧●》

bad 《♧》

dancing in the moonlight《♡》

you belong to me 《♧●》

Tiana Benjamin:

Friday night《♡》

my baby《♡♧》

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MORE COMING SOON......

[the-thursday]

George angst Saturday

@redrose-arrow in case you might appreciate this

-

George knew that it was natural life cycle when people left and moved on with their lives. Will became a ranger, going on missions that took him all over the world. Jenny set up a restaurant in Wensley. Horace? Horace now lived at castle Araluen. It made George sad, thinking about how much their paths diverted, after all, they used to be inseparable, all five of them. Even despite all that had gone between Horace and Will back then, and even though George never spoke much, those other four kids were only people he had. And he knew, that he was also one other four people they only had. It was comforting, to remember their bond, because he knew that as war orphans, they probably wouldn't get far in life. But now look at them, Will and Horace heroes of the nation, Jenny cooking legend of Redmont and Alyss-

Alyss. His friend. With everyone else gone, only two of them remained at Redmont castle. It was always nice and refreshing to go for a walk with Alyss. Sometimes they would end up in the Ward yard, sitting under the old tree. And that's where George's feet took him now too. He looked around and in his head he saw five little kids running around, carefree of all worries what future years would bring. No Choosing day, no war.

"I miss us." He said. "I miss the five of us, being together."

Days ago, Alyss would maybe agree, maybe tell him that it's not all lost. But today, that was a lie. Because only thing that resounded in the air were bells of Courier's funeral and with cruel hand gripping his heart was the certainty that it was now indeed all gone.

-

Also I would like to remind y'all that there's theory that RA books are extraction from chronicles that George wrote. Imagine the dude, being last alive out of five of them. Writing the chronicles because that's the only way they can stay with him for little longer. He wrote them until his death, so he would never be alone.

[georgefairbrother]

A little over 40 years after the Abdication Crisis that had peaked in December of 1936, Thames Television, holder of the weekday independent TV franchise for London and the Home Counties, commissioned a dramatisation based on the exhaustive Wolfson History Prize winning biography of Edward VIII by Frances Donaldson.

There was great care taken in terms of casting, production design, and location filming that included Fort Belvedere where many of the real events unfolded. Edward and Mrs Simpson seemed to be as close as you could possibly get to 1930s culture, fashion and upper-class society without a time machine. Written for television by Simon Raven and directed by pioneering British-Asian director Waris Hussein, the series was rewarded with an Emmy and multiple BAFTAs.

In retrospect, it appears to be as faithful to real events as a drama could be, including verbatim conversations and parliamentary statements. Edward VIII, formerly the Prince of Wales known as David, then finally the Duke of Windsor, was played by Edward Fox, and Wallis Simpson by Cynthia Harris. Other key castings included Nigel Hawthorne, yet to find stardom as Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister / Prime Minister, as the King’s friend and advisor Walter Monckton, David Waller as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (He reprised this role in 1988 for another adaptation, The Woman He Loved, starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Olivia de Havilland), Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Mary, Marius Goring as King George V, and Wensley Pithey as a totally convincing Winston Churchill. Versatile British-Australian actor Ed Deveraux played Tory press baron Lord Beaverbrook, a role he later reprised in The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (BBC 1981).

Other notable players included Andrew Ray (Duke of York / George VI), Charles Keating (Ernest Simpson), Patrick Troughton (Clement Attlee), Patricia Hodge (Lady Diana Cooper), Maurice Denham (Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury), Cherie Lunghi (Thelma Furness) and Hugh Fraser (Anthony Eden).

The Duke of Windsor died in 1972, but the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Mrs Simpson, was still alive when the programme was conceived and broadcast. (She died in 1986). She was not best pleased, citing invasion of privacy, and lobbied to have the production stopped. Her opposition was reported in The Sun, and perhaps might have been more newsworthy if not for another significant event in August 1977.

The series ended with the marriage of the Duke and now Duchess of Windsor, some months after the Abdication.

The BFI Screen-Online review stated;

"…The series also carefully juxtaposes Edward’s frequent, and popular, visits to depressed areas with his opulent and carefree private life, and doesn’t shy from showing his admiration for Mussolini in a pair of brief but pointed exchanges with Anthony Eden…Edward Fox gives a fine and charismatic performance as the King, ably suggesting the contradictory impulses that ruled the man. Wallis Simpson, however, is presented rather less sympathetically. In an occasionally heavy-handed performance, Cynthia Harris plays her as a cool and conniving gold-digger, albeit a sometimes naïve and even disarmingly foolish one…"

The portrayal of Edward VIII was a little more sympathetic than in some later productions, including Bertie and Elizabeth (2002). Edward and Mrs Simpson did tend to gloss over the King’s fascist sympathies, although it was at least alluded to as mentioned in the BFI review. Perhaps, in fairness, these along with some alleged shady financial dealings, meddling in Britain’s foreign policy and the cosy relationship with Hitler, didn’t really become apparent until the period after the series ended. Wensley Pithey’s Winston Churchill was accurately shown as a strong and sincere personal friend and advocate for the King and Wallis Simpson, in public and private, to the annoyance of the Baldwin government, but this relationship later soured when Churchill was wartime Prime Minister, over the Duke of Windsor’s behaviour.

[kwebtv]

Special Branch  -  ITV  -  September 17, 1969   -  May 9, 1974

 Police Drama (53 episodes)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Derren Nesbitt as Detective Chief Inspector Elliot Jordan (1969–1970)

George Sewell as Detective Chief Inspector Alan Craven (1973–1974)

Morris Perry as Charles Moxon (1969–1970)

Fulton Mackay as Detective Chief Superintendent Alec Inman (1969–1970)

Patrick Mower as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty (1973–1974)

Roger Rowland as Detective Sergeant Bill North (1969–1974)

Keith Washington as Detective Constable John Morrissey (1969–1970)

Paul Eddington as Strand (1974)

Frederick Jaeger as Commander Fletcher (1970–1974)

Wensley Pithey as Detective Superintendent Eden (1969)

Jennifer Wilson as Detective Sergeant Helen Webb (1969)

[ozu-teapot]

Hell Drivers | Cy Endfield | 1957

Stanley Baker, Jill Ireland, Sean Connery, Ronald Clarke, Alfie Bass, Wensley Pithey, Patrick McGoohan, George Murcell, Sidney James, Peggy Cummins, et al.

[mariocki]

Special Branch: Smokescreen (1.2, Thames, 1969)

"Sir, I am entirely in your hands. I would only draw your attention to the fact that this officer went on what appears to have been a completely irregular visit to the dead man, without any form of verbal or written authority from any of his superiors; that he saw him in private, having first ordered one of his colleagues to stay outside the room; and that he now refuses to state what was said."

[rangertessadarling]

random headcanons i came up with in english class:

Will can curse in like a million different languages

Gilan hates lemon flavored anything but sucks it up and chokes down everything that Jenny makes because he loves her

Will cannot sleep without a little light on and Alyss can’t sleep unless it’s pitch dark so they compromise and have it on one night, and off the next.

Crowley is a surprisingly good dancer

Will cooks a lot as a coping mechanism

Baron Arald tries to have dinner with his five ward kids as often as possible

He also has a picture/portrait thing of them in his office because THEY ARE HIS CHILDREN

Halt is allergic to bees

George owns a popular gossip column in Wensley but no one knows it’s him

Will gets poison ivy a lot

Horace used to be insecure about his big physique, but eventually came to be at peace with it because his friends were so encouraging of him

Cassandra has 2 cats

Alyss has an aunt that she’s never met and never really wants to meet, because she initially refused to take Alyss in after her mother died. (I actually have a whole fic about this that I’m too nervous to post)

Alyss has a fertility problem that gives her a VERY low chance of getting pregnant, and an even lower chance of carrying it to full term

She did get pregnant twice but lost both before she even hit 2nd trimester

Only Halt and Pauline were told about the miscarriages

Will and Alyss’s wedding bands were custom made with laurel branches intertwining with oak leaves circling the whole thing

Horace has a bear tattoo on his chest

Halt secretly drinks milk in his coffee occasionally but NO ONE knows except Pauline

Will has an obsession with fruit

Jenny has been trying to hire Will to sing at her restaurant but Will always says it’s not “good for his image” Jenny thinks that’s stupid

Will hates cheese

Halt actually loves Ebony way more than he lets on and when Will’s not home he’ll go to the cabin just to play with her

Will and Alyss have each other’s initials tattooed somewhere

Cassandra and Maddie are very open about their ✨womanly✨ things so Horace is very knowledgeable about it and is super comfortable discussing it with them

Will likes doing Alyss’s hair and is actually really good at it

Gilan’s eaten bugs

Crowley loves kids and actually really wanted some of his own at one point

Will and Gilan pooled their money to buy Crowley a “World’s best boss uncle.” mug and Crowley nearly cried

ok i did not expect this to get so long but surprisingly i still have more.

i haven’t really posted ra content in a while cuz my brain has been refusing to cooperate lately, and i’ve been very very stressed.

but here ya go anyways

​

[stevebattle]

"Herbert" Televox by Roy James Wensley (1927), Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh. Televox is not actually a mobile robot, as you may have already guessed from the photos, but a sophisticated smarthome automation system. You phone home in the usual way and then use tuned pitch pipes or electric tuning forks to sound different tones down the line. Televox uses different tone sequences to switch different items of equipment on and off. Televox can also provide audio responses to tell you the status of home sensors, so it can tell you if your heating is up to temperature. Televox was housed in a large upright box, with a small box on top, which looks a little bit like a body with a head; so on 23 Oct 1927, the New York Times ran an article with a robot-like cartoon of these boxes, as a way to explain the capabilities of Televox, because the Internet of Things hadn't been invented yet. The version we see with the cut-out human form (with Wensley to the left) was made for George Washington's birthday, on 22nd Feb 1928, and Westinghouse marketing loved it so much that a number of 'humanoid' Televox units were demoed across the country. If you look closely, you can almost see Wensley dying inside.

[rosaliepostsstuff]

💫Questions💫

11) What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

18) Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?

25) Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

Hope you're well x

thank you for sending these!

11) It's hard for me to pick one but I think it would be punctuation and structuring sentences. English is not my first language and I haven't read much literature in English which makes a huge difference, so with practice I improved a lot but I still have a long way to go 😅

18) I don't know if it means just fanfic, but I read Bonheur des dames (Ladies' Paradise in english I think?) for uni before writing the sun and the moon and it made me reflect a lot on pacing which worked out well in the end I think

25) "You stared up at the Moon and it seemed to be staring back. You just couldn’t decide if it was taunting you – pointing out your silly overthinking, or rather comforting you in a motherly way, feeling partially responsible for binding your fate with the one of the man next to you. Why was it the Moon? The Sun – it fit George. Blinding you, only allowing to be admired from afar, yet never to be looked at directly." (Sol et Luna - The Sun and the Moon; George Wensley x reader)

Get to know your author!

[uncanny-accuracy]

Did someone say Pagan God AU??

I'm currently way too obsessed with Pagan gods so here we go

Gods

• Pauline

Goddess of Justice and Balance

• Crowley

God of Fertility, Romantic Love, and the Hunt, Patron of LGBT People

Accidentally had a child with Halt. Was unaware he could carry children until then

• Horace

God of Warriors, the Sea, and the Harvest

• Alyss

Goddess of the Sun, Sexual Love, and Beauty, Patron of Intersex People

Alyss herself is intersex and uses strictly female pronouns 

• Cassandra

Goddess of War and Sacrifice 

Previously the Princess of Araluen. She was sacrificed to Pauline in an attempt to stop what appeared to be an oncoming war. Pauline restored her life and welcomed her to godhood 

• Madelyn

Goddess of Secret Knowledge

Demi-Gods

• Gilan

God of Mischief, Disorder, and Death

Humans

• Halt

A Hunter who provides for the poor and elderly in Wensley Village 

Current relations with Crowley

• Will

An orphan taken in by Halt, currently training to become a Hunter

Current relations with Alyss

• George

One of Will's best friends

In school studying theology, wants to become a Missionary of Pauline

• Jenny

One of Will's best friends

Works as a chef in a small restaurant

[nicnacsnonsense]

So. The Aristocats AU. I may have been a bit of an overachiever and came up with two different versions. The thing is, the plot to The Aristocats is very simple and straight-forward. As such, you don’t need to really do anything to fix the plot to fit better; the scene-by-scene character interactions will probably shift a bit to suit the new characters better, but the impact on the trajectory of the plot will be minimal to non-existent. So it all comes down to the character mapping. And that’s where I ran into a problem. Do we want to choose characters with an eye to the overall symbolism, or do we want to just pick characters on an individual basis focusing on personalities and relationships and not worry about any weird juxtapositions that might arise? Obviously Aziraphale and Crowley are Duchess and Thomas O’Malley respectively, but beyond that? And as suggested earlier I decided both was good. Y’all can pick whichever you like better.

Starting with the symbolism version. In this version we have Madame as God and her household, representing the wealthy elite is a stand-in for Heaven. Scat Cat and his gang represent the working class and would be portrayed by Lucifer and the various demons. The other unassociated characters met along the way would be the human. This does mean the ending where Madame takes in Scat Cat and his gang in is representative of God forgiving Satan and the denizens of Hell, which is perhaps more religious imagery than I needed in my cute story about talking animals, but here we are.

As for how the individual characters would go in this version, Georges is Metatron (voice of God, writing up her will), Frou-Frou (the horse) is Uriel, Roquefort is Michael, and Edgar is Gabriel. Napoleon and Layfette (dogs) are Shadwell and Newt, and the geese would be Brian, Wensley, and Pepper going to meet their Aunt Tracy. As mentioned before Scat Cat is Lucifer, and which of the rest of the cats is which demon doesn’t really matter, just that collectively it’s Beelzebub, Dagon, Hastur, and Ligur. Finally Crowley and Aziraphale as Thomas and Duchess and the three kittens are all boys in this version, Adam, Warlock, and Greasy Johnson.

Now for the other character-centric version. Madame is Madame Tracy, Georges is Shadwell, Edgar is Sandalphon, Frou-Frou is Anathema, and Roquefort is Newt. Napoleon and Layfette are Hastur and Ligur and the geese are Micheal and Uriel going to meet their brother Gabriel. Scat Cat is Beelzebub and to fill out our other four cats in the gang we’ve got Dagon and the triplets, all Eric the disposable demon. Again Crowley and Aziraphale as Thomas and Duchess, but this time we can keep the girl kitten, so we have Adam, Warlock, and Pepper.

And there you have it. @stars-sky-see @summerofspock @poetic----nonsense

[thekillerblogofkillers]

Bruce George Peter Lee (1960-?)

Bruce George Peter Lee, born Peter George Dinsdale, is a British serial killer who confessed to 11 arson attacks and was convicted of 26 counts of manslaughter, 11 of which were overturned on appeal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1981. Lee was born in Manchester to a mother who was a prostitute. He was brought up in care homes and suffered from epilepsy and congenital spastic hemiplegia in his right side, leaving him with a limp and the compulsion to hold his right arm across his body. As an adult, he worked construction jobs, where he was known as “Daft Peter”. When his mother remarried, he changed his surname to that of his stepfather - Lee - and changed his name in homage to Bruce Lee. 

On December 4, 1979, a fire occurred at a house on Selby Street, Hull. Inside the house were Edith Hastie and her sons Thomas, 15, Charles, 15, Paul 12, and Peter, 8. The family were asleep at the time the fire broke out. Charles saved his mum by pushing her out of an upstairs window but couldn’t help his brothers, Paul and Peter - the draft caused by opening the window fed the fire. All three were trapped and severely burned. Charles died overnight, Peter died 2 days later and Paul died after a further 12 days in hospital. Thomas, who also had muscular dystrophy, survived by escaping from a window in a back bedroom. Edith Hastie had 3 daughters who, luckily, were staying elsewhere that night. Her husband, Tommy, was in prison at the time. Police investigating the arson attack discovered that the Hasties were a “problem” family, responsible for petty crime and vendettas; this led them to look for an arsonist who may have been out for revenge. Lee was one of many teenagers who volunteered to be questioned about the fire. 6 months after the inquiry began, he confessed to pouring paraffin through the letterbox and lighting it in an attempt to get revenge against Charles Hastie, whom he had been sexually active with. Lee said Charles Hastie threatened to go to the police, since he was a minor, unless Lee paid him off. Lee had also been repeatedly rejected by Angeleena Hastie, Charles’ sister.

When Lee confessed to the Selby Street fire, he said “I didn’t mean to kill them,”, telling police how Charles had demanded money for his silence over their illegal sexual activities. More questioning led to Lee confessing to starting 9 more fatal fires in Hull over the previous 7 years. None of the fires were treated as suspicious at the time. 26 people had died in these fires, ranging from a 6-month-old baby, a young mother and her 3 small sons and 11 elderly men in a care home, Wensley Lodge. Dozens more suffered smoke inhalation or burns as a result of escaping. Lee claimed that most of the fires were random, he just loved fire, and rarely thought about people’s lives when he started them. Only three fires, including the Hasties’, were at houses owned by people he knew and had a grudge against. Officers drove Lee around Hull to the locations he had mentioned, so Lee could point out the buildings in question. Later research showed that fires had been set at each of the properties Lee identified. Lee said that hearing of the killings he had caused led him to seek solace in the Bible, although he did not stop or confess. He later offered apologies while awaiting trial.

In January 1981, Lee pleaded not guilty at Leeds Crown Court to 26 counts of murder, but guilty to 26 counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and guilty to 11 counts of arson. In 1983 a public inquiry concluded that the fire at Wensley Lodge was accidental and Lee was not responsible for it or for the deaths of the 11 elderly residents. The convictions related to this fire were later quashed on appeal. Lee remains at Rampton Secure Hospital today.

[aseikh]

Hey! For the prompt list, can I request 71 (“…you wanna build a blanket fort?”) with the Ward kids? I love your blog! Thanks!

(hiya! i’m currently in a writing slump so i’m going through some old requests that i never got to and attempting to write something small (100-500ish words) for them! i hope you enjoy this!)

71. “…you wanna build a blanket fort?”

--

All five of the wards in their year clustered by the window, their small noses peeking right over the sill at what they hoped might be their ticket out of there. A man and a woman, younger, holding hands and talking to one of the caretakers. They both wore simple rings on their left middle fingers, and, if Alyss had remembered correctly, there had just been a wedding of a young couple in Wensley, Anna and John Williams.

None of them knew what the young couple looked like, but to their young minds, there was only one reason why a newly wed young couple would be visiting the ward and talking to a caretaker--someone was getting adopted.

It didn’t happen often, but it happened. Normally it was the younger kids, the babies, but technically, technically, their year was still young. Six wasn’t too old, some couples might want a kid that was older but still young enough to raise. But at the same time, none of their year had been adopted since they were babies. There used to have been thirteen in their group, and now there was only five, but none of the remainders remembered the others, and even if they did, they doubted those who had gotten adopted knew of it.

As they watched, Horace nudged his way closer to the window, his elbow digging into Will’s ribs, knocking the smaller boy from his spot. He fell onto the couch, missing whatever happened next. George groaned, pushing away from the window himself and walking away towards their bedroom. Alyss simply shook her head and looked away, tears barely hidden. Jenny openly burst into tears, and Horace yelled “Noo!!” and punched the wood of the window sill. 

Will, who hadn’t seen anything but could easily figure out what happened (they’d gone towards the nursery or at least the younger dormitories) just looked between the kids he’d grown up with. He didn’t want them to be sad.

“...wanna build a pillow fort before dinner?” he asked, slowly getting to his feet. “We’ve still got an hour.”

[georgefairbrother]

A little over 40 years after the Abdication Crisis that had peaked in December of 1936, Thames Television, holder of the weekday independent TV franchise for London and the Home Counties, commissioned a dramatisation based on the exhaustive, Wolfson History Prize winning biography of Edward VIII by Frances Donaldson.

Read a little bit more about the real abdication here;

https://georgefairbrother.tumblr.com/post/669685662223613952/the-abdication-crisis-december-1936

In terms of casting, production design, location filming that included Fort Belvedere where many of the real events unfolded, soundtrack, costume and performance, Edward and Mrs Simpson seemed to be as close as you could possibly get to 1930s culture, fashion and upper-class society without a time machine. Written for television by Simon Raven and directed by pioneering British-Asian director Waris Hussein, the series was justly rewarded with an Emmy and multiple BAFTAs.

In retrospect, it appears to be as historically accurate as a drama can be, including verbatim conversations. Edward VIII, formerly the Prince of Wales known as David, then finally the Duke of Windsor, was played about perfectly by Edward Fox, and Wallis Simpson by Cynthia Harris. Other key castings included Nigel Hawthorne, yet to find stardom as Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister / Prime Minister, as the King's friend and advisor Walter Monckton, David Waller as a totally convincing Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (He reprised this role in 1988 for another adaptation, The Woman He Loved, starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Olivia de Havilland), Peggy Ashcroft as Queen Mary, Marius Goring as King George V, and Wensley Pithey as Winston Churchill.

Other notable parts, amongst many, were Jessie Matthews (Aunt Bessie), former silent film star Bessie Love (Lady Cunard), Patricia Hodge as Lady Diana Cooper, and British-Australian actor Ed Deveraux as Lord Beaverbrook.

The Duke of Windsor died in 1972, but the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Mrs Simpson, was still alive when the programme was conceived and broadcast. (She died in 1986). She was not best pleased, citing invasion of privacy, and lobbied to have the production stopped. Her opposition was reported in The Sun, and perhaps might have been more newsworthy if not for another significant event in August 1977.

The series ended with the marriage of the Duke and now Duchess of Windsor, some months after the Abdication.

The BFI Screen-Online review stated;

"...The series also carefully juxtaposes Edward's frequent, and popular, visits to depressed areas with his opulent and carefree private life, and doesn't shy from showing his admiration for Mussolini in a pair of brief but pointed exchanges with Anthony Eden...Edward Fox gives a fine and charismatic performance as the King, ably suggesting the contradictory impulses that ruled the man. Wallis Simpson, however, is presented rather less sympathetically. In an occasionally heavy-handed performance, Cynthia Harris plays her as a cool and conniving gold-digger, albeit a sometimes naïve and even disarmingly foolish one..."

The portrayal of Edward VIII was a little more sympathetic than in some later productions, including Bertie and Elizabeth (2002). Edward and Mrs Simpson did tend to gloss over the King's fascist sympathies, although it was at least alluded to as mentioned in the BFI review. Perhaps, in fairness, these along with some alleged international shady financial dealings, meddling in Britain's foreign policy and the cosy relationship with Hitler didn't really become apparent until the period after the series ended. Wensley Pithey's Winston Churchill was accurately shown as a strong and sincere personal friend and advocate for the King and Wallis Simpson, in public and private, to the annoyance of the Baldwin government, but this relationship later soured when Churchill was wartime Prime Minister, over the Duke of Windsor's behaviour.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor (top) - Edward Fox and Cynthia Harris (bottom)

[dry-valleys]

“ But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day: That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there“

At the Grade II listed St Giles Church, Calke.

A church has stood here since an Augustinian priory was installed here in the 12th century, founded by Harold de Leke, which was seized by Chester in 1129 but returned, and became the parish church of Calke in 1160.

A restoration took place in the 16th century overseen by the then-owner, Richard Wensley, who ordered a new church built in 1573. While some Elizabethan features remain, this building is largely disintegrated; the Harpur family who had owned Calke (and built the present house, which I’ll show you later) since 1622 showed little interest, and  in 1789 traveller John Bynge reported that “the small steeple is a dove-cot whence cooings instead of bells must invite to prayer”.

Help was on the way, though; in 1827 the famously austere, charitable and pious George Harpur-Crewe, 8th Baronet, decided the building was undignified and unfit for worship, so, inspired by Solomon, commissioned a new building, finished in 1829 in the newly fashioned Gothic Revival style.

Calke has that rich, memory-laden air of other aristocratic chaples like Edensor and Cholmondeley and there are monuments to (7) George’s ancestors Sir John (4th Baronet) and Lady Catherine, to (8) George’s son John, 9th Baronet, and to (9)John’s son Vauncey (10th Baronet and George’s grandson; I’d recommend a visit to the Humankind exhibition to find out about his life and times).

The public service the 8th Baronet lived for found a new expression in 1981 when the last of the family owners, Henry Harpur-Crewe, gave the site to the National Trust, which I think was not only a great boon to the nation but a fitting tribute to George Harpur-Crewe’s values, which are being preserved today.

“That thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place”

[mariocki]

Special Branch: The Promised Land (1.3, Thames, 1969)

"You know, Eden, people like you frighten me. Y'actually think you're doing right."

"While people like you, Mr. Rushmer, feed on lost causes."