Favourite websites: Britain From Above

Dec11

My heart is in the past, and that is why I love this website: Britain From Above. In 2007 English Heritage, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) acquired the historic oblique aerial photography archive of Aerofilms, a company set up in 1919 for commercial photography from the air. Usually the photos were taken for clients, maybe to establish the location of a building plot within the landscape, or to show the progress of a large construction site or the condition of a property, or as views to be sold to postcard manufacturers, but they have other significances too: the most important part of the collection spans the years from 1919—1953, and document a now-lost England, Wales and Scotland (sadly Northern Ireland is not part of the project). Currently there are over 96,000 digitised images in the collection.

Padstow, Cornwall. July 1930.

I can—and do—lose hours on the Aerofilms website. If you register as a member (it’s very easy to do so, and free), you are able to zoom in on the photographs. The negatives have been scanned at such a high resolution that the tiniest details become clearly visible. They show snapshots of a long-lost Britain: stooks of wheat in a field after harvest; horse-drawn ploughs; airmeets for the dashing 1920s and 1930s aviators where planes are simply landed in a suitable flat field; steam engines puffing along pre-Beecham railway lines; film sets from the 1930s; even the R-101 on its first test flight. You can search by date, by co-ordinate, or by placename.

Salisbury Cathedral, May 1933.

The project encourages users to contribute information on places by tagging the images or adding data, photos, videos or links in a free text area. There are galleries which include all the images taken on a single flight, and even a gallery for so-far unidentified images, where the information accompanying them is lost or incorrect, and members have helped successfully re-attribute many of the photos in the collection. Some of the photos are on glass plate negatives which have been damaged—yet another reminder of a lost time.

Many of the photos are of cities and built-up areas, but as my heart is in the countryside as well as in the past, I tend to stick to looking at the photos of rural areas.

An unlocated country house and countryside. July 1938.

Not a real castle - an unlocated film set for a so-far unidentified film.

Not a real castle—an unlocated film set for a so-far unidentified movie. November 1928.

I have used Britain From Above for my archaeological research work: sometimes I undertake projects where I have to find out as much as I can about a particular area or site, and how it has developed over time. For this I will use documentary sources (books and articles, plus written documents such as letters, wills, diaries, estate accounts etc), maps and plans, drawings, paintings and sketches, and where available, photographs. The Aerofilm vertical photos at 1:10,000 scale are an amazing resource for identifying landscape features such as earthworks, and the oblique photos on Britain From Above are also very useful as they are often taken from a much lower altitude and so have much more detail. Earlier this year I worked on a project for the history of a house and plot near to Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames, London: the Aerofilm photos provided great details about its development from the 1920s onwards.

Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court Park and environs, Hampton Court Park, 1948.

Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court Park and environs, April 1948.

Britain From Above is a fantastic resource (especially for schools) and a complete time-sink. Once I log on, that’s it for a couple of hours …

A November sunset

Dec4

I caught this gorgeous sunset sequence on 23 November. I love the way the shadows in the high cirrus clouds—the mackerel sky—lengthen with the setting sun.

Our friend Jules, who is a very talented artist, loves mackerel skies and puts them in his paintings whenever he can. It’s a shame he wasn’t around to see this one!

Filming locations: Wilton House

Nov28

I’ve been meaning to write about Wilton House for a while, but was spurred on today when I sold a little brooch in my Etsy shop. I sent a thank-you notecard with the order, one from a set I’d bought many years ago from the Wiltshire Records Office (as was: now the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre), and the one I chose featured a late 18th century engraving of Wilton House:

Wilton House. Late 18th century engraving, showing the south front of the house on the left and the Palladian Bridge on the right.

(Or perhaps more accurately, an engraving of a couple of lovely trees and a party of people, with a section of Wilton House and the Palladian Bridge lurking in the background.)

I regularly drive past the impressive gates of Wilton House—so regularly that I’ve almost stopped noticing them. Not an easy feat: just look at them! Isn’t it terrible to take something so spectacular so for granted?

The impressive gates to Wilton House. Photo by MrsCommons.

Unlike many of the other grand houses I’ve written about, Wilton House is still a family home, the seat of the Earls of Pembroke for the last 400 years. The first building on the site was a priory founded in c. 871 AD; the first Earl of Pembroke took possession of the site in 1542. Relatively little of the first, Tudor house survives: what is visible today is mostly the Palladian building of the 1630s and 1640s, designed with the involvement of Inigo Jones, and later alterations by James Wyatt in the early 19th century.

The south front of Wilton House. Photo by John Chapman.

Wilton House, south and east fronts. Photo by Henry Kellner.

Wilton House, east front. Photo by Mike Searle.

Wilton House, east front, with the Tudor tower in the centre. Photo by Mike Searle.

The interiors of Wilton House are sumptuous, and among the state rooms designed by Inigo Jones are the Single Cube Room (measuring 30 feet (9.14 m) long, wide and high, and the Double Cube Room, which is 60 feet (18.29 m) long and 30 feet (9.14 m) wide and high.

Wilton House, the Double Cube Room.

The grounds and gardens are beautiful, with one of only a handful of Palladian bridges in the country, built over the River Nadder.

Wilton House, the Palladian Birdge. Photo by Mike Searle.

Wilton House, the Palladian Bridge. Photo by Mike Searle.

Such stunning locations have not surprisingly been used a lot in movie and television filming.

The Music Lovers, directed by Ken Russell (1970), including scenes filmed in the Double Cube Room.
Lady Caroline Lamb (1973), partly filmed at Wilton House.
Romance with a Double Bass (1974), a John Cleese short feature, has scenes filmed in the Double Cube Room.
Barry Lyndon, directed by Stanley Kubrick (1975), includes scenes set at Castle Hackton, and filmed in the Double Cube Room.
The Bounty (1984) uses the Double Cube Room to represent the Admiralty building for the court martial of Captain Bligh for the loss of the Bounty.
The Blackadder II (1986) episode “Bells” features the Palladian bridge and gardens, and the end titles of all episodes from the second series were filmed in the parterre.
The Madness of King George (1994) features scenes shot in the Double Cube Room: the concert with the bell-ringers, and two later scenes with the Prince of Wales.
The 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility has a London ballroom scene, filmed at Wilton House.
Mrs Brown (1997) has scenes filmed in the Double Cube Room, again portraying the interior of Windsor Castle.
The 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice has interior scenes set at Pemberley that were filmed at Wilton House (Chatsworth House was used for external shots).
Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, a 2006 television drama, contained scenes filmed at Wilton House.
The Young Victoria, a 2009 film about the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, has scenes filmed at Wilton House.

There is a much more comprehensive list on the Wilton House website location filming page.

A scene from Pride and Prejudice filmed at Wilton House in the Double Cube Room.

Update 10 August 2015: I’ve just learned that the television series Outlander has just finished two weeks’ filming at Wilton House, which is standing in for the Palace of Versailles. Apparently the British furniture and furnishings were moved out, and appropriate French ones were moved in for the duration of the filming. Plus the candle budget was £1000 a day! Simon Callow was one of the actors.

Vikings ahoy!

Nov26

December 2016 update: I always seem to have Viking ship jewellery in my shop. Click here to see the current selection.

More by accident than design—and a very happy accident at that—I have three Viking ship brooches in my Etsy shop at the moment. I think they show longships, as opposed to the other kinds of Viking sea-going vessels.

Fabulous David-Andersen Viking ship brooch, dated to between 1924 and 1939, for sale in my Etsy shop. Click on photo for details.

Fabulous David-Andersen Viking ship brooch, dated to between 1924 and 1939. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

The jewel in the crown is an exquisite silver and enamel brooch by the renowned Norwegian firm of David-Andersen. The craftsmanship in this piece is stunning, and shows why David-Andersen enamelwork is so highly thought of.

The brooch can be dated quite closely to between 1924 and 1939, as the combination of 925 (sterling) silver and a particular form of the maker’s mark for the company was only used in this period. This brooch design is rarely seen and so is highly collectable.

The second Viking ship brooch dates from 1946 and was made by the Birmingham firm of Shipton and Co. It is solid sterling silver and was hallmarked in Chester (I wonder why a Birmingham firm didn’t send their silver to the Birmingham Assay Office to be hallmarked, rather than the Chester one?). It is very reminiscent of the popular Iona silver Celtic-style jewellery, made famous by designer Alexander Ritchie:

For sale in my Etsy shop. Click photo for details.

Sold sterling silver Viking ship brooch, made by Shipton & Co of Birmingham and hallmarked 1946 in Chester. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

The third brooch is also the youngest one: it was made by famous silversmith Malcolm Gray of the Ortak silversmithing firm on the Orkney Islands, and hallmarked at the Edinburgh Assay Office in 1981:

Sterling silver Viking longship brooch by Malcolm Gray of Ortak, hallmarked Edinburgh 1981. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD). September 2015 update: I have another of these for sale, also from 1981. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

This brooch is also solid sterling silver. The hallmarks and Gray’s maker’s mark are tiny, and barely visible among the textured dimples on the back of the brooch. The choice of subject matter is a fitting one, for the Vikings were an integral part of the history of these islands. The people of the Shetland Islands, north of the Orkneys, remember their Viking heritage every year with the Up Helly Aa festivals, and one day Chap and I are going to make it up there to see the festivities.

Update 22 June 2015: I have a new Viking ship brooch, by Aksel Holmsen of Norway, and dating from the 1930s:

Viking ship brooch in 830 silver, by Aksel Holmsen of Norway. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Malcolm Gray Ortak sterling silver Viking ship brooch, 1975. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

September 2015 update. A couple more Viking ship brooches:

A Shetland Silvercraft brooch from 1968:

Sterling silver Viking ship brooch by Shetland Silvercraft, 1968. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

and a tiny mystery:

Tiny enamel and sterling silver Viking brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photos for details. (NOW SOLD).

And finally, I just had to end with a clip from a great Saturday tea-time favourite film of mine when I was a kid: The Vikings (1958), starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine.

Holuhraun and Bárðarbunga

Nov22

The eruption at Holuhraun, just to the north-east of and part of the Bárðarbunga volcanic system in Iceland, has been ongoing since 29 August this year. I wrote a couple of posts about it, here (its start) and here (its early days), but I haven’t written an update for a while.

The fissure eruption has continued unabated now for 85 days. The most recent figures I can find are for 17 November (four days ago), and then the lavafield covered an area of 73 km² and had a volume of more than 1 km³. This makes it the largest eruption in Iceland since the Laki eruption of 1783, when an estimated 14 km³ of basalt lava was erupted.

The Holuhraun lavafield (outlined) with the ongoing eruption. Source: University of Iceland Twitter account.

There is no sign in decrease in activity, and the subsidence at the Bárðarbunga caldera is continuing as well.

This beautiful video was taken a week or so ago:

The eruption is demonstrating to us nicely the early stages in the life of a new shield volcano. So exciting!

The wonderful website VolcanoCafé has great updates on the eruption, as well as a page dedicated to all the useful web links to data, webcams etc.

Song thrushes

Nov19

The song thrush (Turdus philomelos) is one of my favourite songbirds. The song of the male is so beautiful. Song thrushes live in the UK year-round, and one of the special seasonal markers for us is that first day in early spring when the male starts singing from the top of one of the tall trees near our cottage. He is always the first to start the dawn chorus each morning—the blackbirds follow, but for a time his is the only voice in the pre-dawn gloom. It’s a lovely way to wake up.

Song thrush. Photo by Tony Wills.

The males stop singing later in the summer—maybe it’s to do with having established their territory and bred successfully. I miss their song when it stops, and so it’s always such a delight when, in the cold grey days of November, for some reason they start up again. A male has been singing his heart out around us for the last fortnight or so. His favourite perch is an ash tree in next door’s garden. It’s wonderful to hear. His song isn’t as full as in the spring, but it is still a thing of beauty.

I love the way thrushes repeat phrases as they sing. The ones around us seem to prefer three repetitions per phrase: I wonder if this is a regional thing? Elsewhere I have read of twice-repetitions being the norm.

(Even though we have two native thrush species, the song thrush and the mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus) here in the UK, the song thrush is just the ‘thrush’ to me and many others, as mistle thrushes are so rarely seen. I have seen one once in the 22 years I have been living in our village.)

When Chap and I were on holiday in New Zealand we were fascinated to learn that many British birds had been introduced to the country in the Victorian period—the settlers were homesick, I guess. Even though thrushes are now struggling in the UK and are a Red List endangered species here, they are thriving in New Zealand. We were delighted at several camp sites to find the thrushes so tame that they would hop around our feet and feed on the chopped dried fruit (apricots and mangoes) we put down for them. We were also saddened to hear at one vineyard that the thrushes are such a threat to the grape harvest that the vineyard owner shot them as pests.

Sleep tight, Philae

Nov18

Almost a week on from the excitement of Philae’s landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov—Gerasimenko, and the dust has settled, just about (damn low gravity on that there comet). What a rollercoaster ride. My live feed to ESA decided to cut out right at the very moment that the landing was confirmed, so I missed the punch-the-air happy moment, but it was still such a wow-wow-wow moment, learning of the touchdown via ESA’s twitter feed rather than seeing and hearing about it. So fantastic. And then came the delay in getting the photos of the comet’s surface that we had been promised not long after Philae had touched down. Something was up, but ESA wasn’t telling, for a while at least. Then came the news that the scientists thought the harpoons hadn’t secured Philae to the surface—we already knew that the booster that would help force the probe on to the surface wasn’t going to work—and it might have bounced.

Photo taken by Philae from about 40m above the surface of the comet, just prior to Phiale's landing.

Photo taken by Philae from about 40 metres above the surface of the comet, just prior to Philae’s landing.

ESA_Rosetta_OSIRIS-NAC_Landing_site_50km

X marks the spot: Philae’s initial landing place on the comet.

Philae's initial landing place on the comet, before the first of its tow bounces. She was right on target.

Philae’s initial landing place on the comet, before the first of its two bounces. In the right hand shot, Philae and its shadow can be seen on the surface.

The next morning came the news that it had indeed bounced – twice. The gravity is so low on the comet’s surface that the first bounce is thought to have been in the region of 1 km high.

Philae landing on the comet, taken from Rosetta.

Philae’s first bounce, taken from Rosetta.

Then came pictures of the surface. Staggering shots, the first ever showing a close up of the surface of a comet. But the scientists still didn’t know where exactly on the comet Philae was.

The fiorst image sent back by Philae from the surface of the comet. The lander's leg is in the bottom right corner.

The first image sent back by Philae from the surface of the comet. Part of the lander can be seen in the foreground.

Then came the news that Philae had landed with one of its legs up in the air, and in shadow for much of the time. Not good news for either its stability (needed for the scientific tests) or more importantly for its life – if it didn’t get sun, the solar panels would not be able to recharge the batteries and the probe would shut down.

Panoramic image series taken by Philae, with a sketch of the lander itself superimposed indicating its probable orientation.

Then Philae’s location was established. Time was running out, and the scientists decided to run the tests and hope that Philae would have enough power to get the results back to Rosetta, for it to send the data back to us. Success!

And then Philae ran out of power, and shut down.

In its journey around the sun, there may come a time when the sun falls on Philae and it awakens and can talk to us and hopefully perform more science tasks. Rosetta will be accompanying the comet on its travels, and so will be able to send messages to and from earth. There is a plan to land Rosetta on the comet when its useful life is done: a fitting grave, close to little Philae. Together they will wander through the solar system, on their long orbit around the sun. I love this thought. It reminds me a little of the ending of one of my favourite films, Dark Star.

So much amazing science, such a tremendous achievement, such a heart-stopping few days full of highs and lows. Wow, what a great, great week for science.

Update: organic molecules have been detected by Philae on the surface of the comet!

Philae has landed!

Nov12

So, so happy right now. Philae is safely down on the surface of the comet, “Its landing gear has been drawn back into the lander and it is sitting on the surface!” “It’s talking to us”.

Just waiting now for the first photos from the surface …

Such a massive, extraordinary achievement. I can’t say how proud I am of all the ESA scientists and engineers and others involved.

Shortly after parting from Rosetta, the lander Philae took a shot of its mothership, Rosetta, here seen above the sun flare.

Philae soon after separation, photographed from Rosetta.

Philae on its way, photographed from Rosetta.

Last shot of Philae from Rosetta.

Before today, humankind had landed spacecraft on only six other celestial bodies: the moon, Mars, Venus, Titan (one of Saturn’s moons) and two asteroids.* This is the seventh. An amazing, stunning, superb achievement. Congratulations.

* (in 2005 NASA’s Deep Impact mission intentionally crashed an impactor into comet Tempel 1 in order to study the resulting debris cloud; it doesn’t quite count as a ‘soft landing’, and no data was sent back from the surface of the comet).

Philae countdown begins

Nov11

The countdown for the release of the Philae probe from the Rosetta spacecraft, and its 7 hour journey down to the surface of comet Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has begun. This is a historic and quite mind-boggling mission. Rosetta, the European Space Agency’s robotic spacecraft, spent the last 10 years travelling from earth to to rendezvous with the comet. It then spent a few months in orbit around the c. 6 km long comet, mapping its terrain to establish the likely safest landing place for Philae, the probe it is carrying.

But not for much longer! If all goes to plan, at around 8.35 am GMT/UTC tomorrow, Philae will separate from Rosetta and head off down to the surface of the comet. The descent will take some seven hours. Once it makes touchdown, it will secure itself to the icy surface of the comet using harpoons and screws. The signal that the mission has succeeded should be received back on earth at about 4.00 pm GMT/UTC the same day.

The targeted landing place on . Photo by ESA.

The targeted landing place for the Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Photo by ESA, taken from Rosetta.

The risks are great—Philae may not even touch down on the comet. It may make a bad landing and fall over, and it has no means of righting itself should this happen.

If it does succeed, it will then commence the varied scientific analyses it is equipped for. First and foremost, it will photograph its landing spot. This will be the first ever photograph taken on the surface of a comet. Amazing!

Jagged terrain on the comet. Not the landing spot!

More rough terrain on the comet. Also not the landing spot!

Much smoother terrain on the comet. Not the landing spot, but the sort of place that has been chosen, with fewer obstacles.

Much smoother terrain on the comet. Not the landing spot, but similar to the sort of place that has been chosen, with fewer obstacles.

The BBC has provided a schedule of tomorrow’s activities (all times in GMT/UTC):

Rosetta delivery manoeuvre – shortly after 06:00
Latest Go/No-go decision – before 07:35
Philae separates from Rosetta – 08:35
Confirmation signal at Earth of separation – 09:03
Rosetta’s post-delivery manoeuvre – 09:15
Radio connection established – 10:30
First data from descending Philae after 12:00
Landing of Philae on 67P – after 15:30
Confirmation signal at Earth – around 16:00

There is a much more detailed one at ESA’s website.

I will be watching and waiting with bated breath. The landing is being broadcast live by ESA: it can be viewed here, right now!

Remembrance Day

Nov11

Today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we remember all those members of our armed services who fell in war. Today’s remembrance is even more poignant, marking as it does the centenary of the year the First World War started.

Chap and I went for a walk on Sunday around Dinton Park, in Dinton in south Wiltshire, and we also visited the church next door. There in the churchyard, alone against the stone boundary wall, was a military grave. It is the final resting place of Private Edgar Walter Cuff.

The headstone of Private E W Cuff, who died on 11 May 1917.

Private Cuff was in the Dorsetshire Regiment. I don’t know anything else about him, but he gave his life in World War I. As he is buried in the churchyard rather than in a military cemetery in France or Belgium, close to the battlefields, I assume he was injured or became ill and was brought back to England, where he succumbed. Rest in Peace, Private Cuff. Thank you for your sacrifice.

There is a war memorial in the churchyard—as there is in most churchyards throughout the country—and it lists the names of the men of Dinton who died in both World Wars. For such a small village, the toll is great: eight men in World War I and three in World War II. It shows the scale of the loss: this picture is repeated in every village around the country.

The war memorial in Dinton churchyard, Dinton, Wiltshire.

The plaque on the war memorial at Dinton listing those who died in the two World Wars.

A poppy, the symbol of remembrance. Photo by Gary Houston.

Lest We Forget.

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