Legends, tall stories and old myths are in demand for a special project aimed at entertaining visitors to the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Whether it’s a different version of the mystery of Bartle, who’s effigy gets burnt every year as part of the West Witton Feast, or the terrifying Barguest, the saucer-eyed wolf creature that lived in Trollers Gill, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) would like to hear from anyone who has a tale to tell – something that makes their village or dale different from the others.

The project will make a collection of the stories, myths and legends available to businesses in and around the National Park

The stories will be used by local artist Ian Scott Massie as part of an exhibition of paintings, prints, poetry and stories about places in the Dales.

The exhibition will be staged in July next year (2013) in a disused church in Wensleydale.

Distinctly Dales

The Distinctly Dales project is working with local people and businesses in the National Park and in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Beauty (AONB)) to identify and develop the special qualities of their communities and show how they can attract visitors and tempt them to stay longer – so boosting the local economies.

Stuart Parsons, the YDNPA’s Member Champion for Promoting Understanding, said: “The project hopes to use local stories to bring the Dales to life in the minds of visitors with the ultimate aim of encouraging them to explore the tales and the immediate locality of their bed and breakfast, campsite or hotel further – keeping them in the National Park for longer.

“The project will make a collection of the stories, myths and legends available to businesses in and around the National Park and the AONB so communities can really get involved in drawing in a sustainable group of visitors to explore their local village or surrounding dale.”

Local marketing consultant Susan Briggs from the Tourism Network has been commissioned to help with the Distinctly Dales Project.

Anyone who would like to feed into the growing collection of myths, legends and anecdotes we have found can visit the YDNPA website’s sustainable tourism pages and look up Distinctly Dales, where you will be able to send us your tales.

More details of Ian Scott Massie’s exhibition are available at http://www.ianscottmassie.com/blog.html.

A community archaeology project run by the North Pennines AONB Partnership has been so successful that it has had the go-ahead to come up with new ideas for digging into the past – and organisers are looking to the public to suggest ancient mysteries they would like to solve.

North Pennines AONB Partnership archaeological dig at Westgate, Weardale © NPAP/Paul Frodsham

During 2011 the North Pennines AONB Partnership ran a pilot phase of its Altogether Archaeology project, which attracted more than 400 volunteers from all over the region.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has now awarded the AONB Partnership a grant to develop a programme of archaeological fieldwork and other events so that the volunteers can undertake more exciting work over the next three years.

Highlights of the pilot phase included excavations at Westgate Castle in Weardale, a survey of the splendid archaeological landscape of Holwick in Upper Teesdale, the survey and excavation at Muggleswick Grange near Castleside in County Durham, the investigation of a prehistoric burial site on Appleby golf course and the excavation of the Maiden Way Roman road near Alston, both in Cumbria.

The AONB Partnership’s Historic Environment Officer Paul Frodsham said: “Key to the success of the pilot project has been the fantastic commitment and enthusiasm of our community volunteers. Our recent day conference which was the culmination of the pilot project was one of the most enjoyable archaeological events I have ever attended.

Paul continued: “This work has been fascinating, but has also demonstrated the potential, and in some cases the need, for more work to further our understanding while also informing future landscape management.”

Working with the volunteers and numerous partners including English Heritage, Natural England, the Northumberland National Park Authority, and the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne, Paul is devising a series of exciting ideas for the new project and looking at ways to bring the newly uncovered history of the North Pennines to new audiences. These will then go forward to the Heritage Lottery Fund for consideration.

Current fieldwork proposals include surveys and excavations to investigate:

• the first people who lived in the North Pennines after the end of the Ice Age 10,000 years ago
• the first farmers of about 6,000 years ago
• relations between Romans and native communities from the 1st to the early 5th centuries AD
• the mysterious centuries after the end of Roman rule and before the Norman Conquest of 1066
• The great hunting forests and deer parks of medieval times
• The origins and history of the North Pennines lead industry.

Paul said: “We’d really like to hear from people who have always been curious about a place near their village or town, which perhaps has a legend attached to it or has mysterious lumps and bumps in the ground which might have been an ancient settlement of some kind. Wherever possible, suggestions from the public will be worked into the project programme.

“We’re also planning events specifically for children, so that they can also get involved in exploring the North Pennines’ past.”

The project is open to everyone with an interest in the archaeology of the North Pennines, and attracts volunteers from Tyneside, Teesside and further afield as well as residents of the AONB’s towns and villages. New volunteers are always welcome, though the new project, if it secures the necessary funding, will not actually get underway until autumn this year.

Anyone who has any ideas for work they would like to see included within the project should contact Paul Frodsham during February at the AONB Partnership office in Stanhope on 01388 528801 or email pfrodsham@northpenninesaonb.org.uk

Carlisle Cathedral boasts a peal of 12 bells, but it hasn’t always been this way.

When the diocese of Carlisle was founded in 1133, the Augustinian Priory Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity became a Cathedral.

The bell tower of Carlisle Cathedral

Mentions in the “Lanercost Chronicler” state that there were bells in the Cathedral in 1292 but in the late 1300′s it seems the central spire blew down following a storm, damaging the tower and north transept.  It is thought that the original bells would have been destroyed at this time.

A new tower was built when William de Strickland was Bishop, between 1400 – 1419 and in it, placed ‘four great bells’.  One of these was cast around 1401 to the tune of ‘g’ and still exists as the ‘Passing Bell’.  It bears the inscription;

+IHC+IN:VOCE:SUM:MUNDA:MARIA:SONANDO:SECUNDA which translates as;  ‘I, Maria, with pure accents ring, second in the chiming ring’.

These four bells are considered to have survived the English Reformation as they are mentioned in the 1552 inventory.

In 1608 a fifth ‘b’ was, cast by George Lees and Edmund Wright, with the inscription; ‘ Jesus be our speed George Lees Edmund Wright Bel Founders Will Orbel LM 1608′.

Improvements

During the Commonwealth period of 1649 – 1660, improvements were made to the belfry, bell wheels repaired and the ring augmented.  It is thought that the other three bells from the early 1400′s may have been used in the casting of four new bells and writings in Architectural Illustrations, History and Description of Carlisle Cathedral By Robert William Billings in 1830 describe the bells as follows;

Carlisle Cathedral's 1658 bell awaiting tower repairs in 1803

• The first bell note f shewn in the longitudinal section is inscribed in capitals as follows ‘I warne you how your time doth pass away serve God therefore whil life doth last and sayglorie inaxcelsis Deo anno Domini 1657 John and William Langshaw workmen’.   The hammer of the clock strikes on the rim of this bell
• The second ‘g’ Bishop Strickland’s bell has the following in richly ornamented Lombardic capitals In voce sum munda maria sonando secunda NPC and underneath the initials J B
• The third, a sharp, was cracked while ringing during the rejoicings for peace after the battle of Waterloo and was removed to the back of the altar when the belfry was re timbered.  It has the following passage on its rim ‘This ringe was made six tuneable bells at the charge of the Lord Howard and other gentree of the county and citie and officers of the garrisson by the advice of Majer Jeremiah Tolhurst governor of the garrisson 1658′.
• The fourth ‘b’ is inscribed as follows ‘Jesus be our speed George Lees Edmund Wright Bel Founders Will Orbel LM 1608′.
• The fifth ‘c’ has on it ‘Geor Fleming DD Decanus Gloria in Altissi mis Deo 1728′.
• The sixth bell ‘d’ has not any sentence on it but is simply inscribed with the initials WJL and the date 1659

Bonnie Prince Charlie

By the time of the Restoration, Carlisle Cathedral had ‘six tuneable bells’ and a system of chiming was also installed.

One of the features of ringing at this time was the Sermon Bell, rung to call Dissenters to listen to the sermon.

The second bell was found to be cracked in 1728 and this was recast by Edward Sellar of York.

This ring of six bells would have sounded to welcome Bonnie Prince Charlie when he entered Carlisle in 1745, following the capture of the city by the Jacobites.

The  Duke of Cumberland’s forces took the Castle and Carlisle city only three weeks later in December, demanding surrender of the Cathedral bells.  However, his demands were not met and as a result, it is said that he banned the ringing of the bells as a complete peal for 100 years.

In 1747 a new chiming apparatus was installed and played the tune ‘St. David’s’ each day at 8.00am, noon and 4pm.

Neglected

Some of the bells were ‘clocked’ for services, but the tower became unsafe and the bells and belfry were left neglected for almost 100 years, until the mid 19th century.  A note in Architectural Illustrations, History and Description of Carlisle Cathedral by Robert William Billings, states;

‘…from the supposition that the ringing of the bells shook the tower it was resolved not to ring them any more.  Small cords were then attached to the tongues over pulleys and conveyed through the groining to the floor of the tower and one person can now comfortably make the whole give a faint sound’.

In 1845, the 4th bell, which dated from 1659 was found to be cracked and was recast by C & G Mears. Several years later in the 1850′s, Dean Tait appealed for money to restore the bells, but nothing further was done.

It appears that the bells remained in this condition until the early 1900′s, as records indicate that Queen Victoria wrote to ask if the Duke of Cumberland’s ban has been the reason why the bells had not been rung for her Diamond Jubliee in 1897, and a later report in 1915 describes three of the bells with no wheels or ropes and the other three being ‘clocked’ only.

Restoration

Writings by The Rev. H Whitehead in the 1880′s relates the history of the bells and suggests that there should be a ring of eight in the tower, adding that ‘there is ample room for a dozen or more’.

The Very Rev. Hastings Rashdall, Dean of Carlisle from 1917 to 1924 showed a keen interest in restoring the bells and when he died his widow offered to have them rehung and two new trebles added in his memory.

In 1925, Whitechapel foundry refitted and tuned the existing bells and added two new bells to complete the octave.  New chiming apparatus was put in place, programmed to sound the opening changes of Grandsire Triples.

Since 1925, the bells have been rung regularly on the anniversary of Dean Rashdall’s birth, the 24th June.

Millennium

Eight bells being cast by five different founders and dating between the 15th and 20th century, resulted in poor tonal quality, so much so that they earned the doubtful reputation of being the ‘worst Cathedral bells in England’.

Plans to improve the situation came to fruition with a Millennium grant, which combined with a legacy and other funds, allowed the bells to be taken to Taylor’s Bell foundry in Loughborough in the spring of 1999.

The five oldest bells, now being ‘listed’, returned to the tower to be hung dead for use as chiming and clock bells;

• Clock bell (ex Tenor) 1657
• Passing bell (Maria) 1401
• Chiming bells (ex 3, 4 & 5) 1659, 1728 & 1608

Ten new bells were named after northern saints, baptised on the 1st August 1999 by the Very Reverend Graeme Knowles, Dean of Carlisle.

The following week, the bells were raised to the belfry and on the 3rd October 1999, the new ring was dedicated by the Right Reverend Ian Harland, Bishop of Carlisle.

Two treble bells were added in November 2000 and a sharp second bell joined this ring in July 2005.

Carlisle Cathedral now has a ring of twelve bells (thirteen including the sharp second), with a peal tuned to the key of E flat. The dedicated band of ringers now believe that Carlisle Cathedral has the best bells in the country!

Further information

Carlisle Cathedral – Official website
Ailred’s first song - BBC feature with pictures of Carlisle Cathedral’s latest bell installed in 2005
Carlisle Diocesan Guild of Church bell Ringers
CCCBR - Central Council for Church bell Ringers
John Taylor & Co – Bellfounders, bellhangers and carillion builders of Loughborough

Photographs taken by Captain Scott on his final expedition to the South Pole have been saved for the nation thanks to £704,000 lottery grant.

Foundering in soft snow: Bowers' sledge team; Wilson pushing; Oates and PO Evans repairing, Beardmore Glacier, 13 December 1911. Pic SPRI

Thought to be lost for more than 70 years, the 109 photographs give a view of the Antarctic as seen through Captain Scott’s eyes as he documented the first part of his epic journey to the South Pole.

Subjects include his companions, the ponies and sledges, the scientific work they were undertaking and the breathtaking Antarctic landscape.

The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge University purchased the images with support of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: “Scott’s photographs bring to life, in vivid detail, his party’s sledging journey into the interior of Antarctica.

“From men and ponies struggling through deep snow, to panoramas of the Transantarctic Mountains, the images are very powerful.

“They are a superb complement to the Antarctic photographs of Herbert Ponting, which the Heritage Lottery Fund also helped us to acquire”.

It is 100 years this year since his expedition reached the South Pole.

Reunited with camera

Captain Scott was taught photography by the official expedition photographer, Herbert Ponting, and the collection charts his first attempts through to the remarkable images he captured on the first part of the Polar journey to the head of the Beardmore Glacier.

The photographs were printed in the Antarctic by members of the expedition team as they waited for his return from the Pole, and Captain Scott never saw them.

Thanks to a previous HLF award, the original 1,700 glass-plate negatives of Herbert Ponting’s photographs were bought by SPRI in 2004.

The acquisition of Scott’s own photographs brings the two collections together for the first time, making this the largest photographic record of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 – 1912.

The purchase of the photographs by SPRI will allow the images to be reunited with Scott’s camera, which was given to the Institute by the late Lady Philippa Scott in 2008.

Once they have been fully conserved, the photographs will be digitised and made available online.

The Antarctic expedition

The British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition was led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott RN with the twin objectives of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole and to undertake scientific research on the Antarctic environment.

Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen had preceded them by 34 days.

Scott’s entire party died on the return journey from the pole.

Some of their bodies, journals, and personal effects were discovered by a search party eight months later.

Captain Scott’s photographs were developed in the Antarctic by the geologist, Frank Debenham, who later became the founding Director of SPRI.

The images were returned to the UK by members of the expedition in 1913 and it was intended that they be used to illustrate books, reports and lectures; however, difficulties with establishing copyright meant that only a handful were ever used.

The First World War intervened and confusion over ownership was never resolved, any remaining negatives were lost and the prints passed to Herbert Ponting.

On Ponting’s death in 1935 the prints were sold to the photographic agency Popperfoto, who in turn sold them at auction in New York in 2001 and they have remained in private hands ever since.

The images were recently published in a book entitled ‘The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott’ by David Wilson, great-nephew of Edward Wilson who died with Scott.

HSL102, one of two historic World War II rescue boats owned by Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust (PNBPT), is to be given a new lease of life with the installation of new engines.

HSL102, a former air-sea rescue launch is to get new engines Pic - PNBPT

The former air-sea rescue launch, which saved the lives of many downed pilots during the Battle of Britain, was acquired in 2009 with the aid of a £580,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

She had been used for target towing and latterly as a houseboat.

It was built by the British Power Boat Company at Hythe in 1936.

HSL 102 was designed by Fred Cooper, who also designed Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebirds.

It is one of only twenty two 100-Class High Speed Launches which were used by the RAF to rescue World War II airmen from the seas.

HSL 102 is known to have operated from Blyth in the north-east and also from Newhaven on the south coast.

Improved fuel consumption

With support from Gunwharf Quays Marina, PNBPT has carried out extensive work to enable her to be used for public use, but she now needs new engines.

The work will be carried out by Mermaid Marine of Poole. They will supply and fit the engines, refit the boat’s drive train, and other associated works.

According to PNBPT this should improve HSL102’s reliability, fuel consumption and emissions.

Peter Goodship, Chief Executive of PNBPT, said: ‘In these challenging times it is never easy to commit large sums of money, especially when they are un-budgeted. However, HSL102 is a truly unique boat which we hold in trust for the nation.

“The Trustees wished to see her remain afloat and operational for the benefit, enjoyment and use of future generations”.

It is anticipated that HSL102 will re-enter service in the spring of 2012.

More information

BBC News – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8505534.stm

HSL 102 history  - http://www.bmpt.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=749

Coastal Motorboat Heritage Trust – HSL 102

National Heritage Memorial Fund- HSL 102

National Historic Ships – HSL 102

Update – 22 January 2012

Thanks to John Cook from the Coastal Motorboat Heritage Trust ,we have corrected what appears to be an error on this page.

This indicated that the boats were purchased with the help of a £1.8m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

This £1.8m figure was used in good faith and was from a National Heritage Memorial Fund - HSL 102 webpage that said:

Project Title: Purchase of Motor Gunboat 81 and High Speed Launch 102
Applicant: Portsmouth Naval Base property Trust
Location: Temple Newsam House, Temple Newsam House, Temple Newsam House, LEEDS, West Yorkshire, LS15 0AE
Region:
Grant awarded: £1,832,000

Further research appears to indicate that the grant awarded figure shown above  maybe wrong in this context.  The NHMF’s own accounts say on page eight -

Motor Gunboat 81 (MGB 81) and High-Speed Launch 102 (HSL 102)
Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust
£580,000

We will be approaching the National Heritage Memorial Fund over the next few days and ask for clarification as to the grant awarded figure of £1,832,000 as shown on their website.

From great works of art by Gainsborough to the ordinary cotton underpants of a Midlands grocer, details of over 700,000 objects in the care of the National Trust go online.

Laudanum bottle at Castle Ward, County Down . Pic NT

The website includes details of collections in storage, items that are too fragile to display, or on loan to other museums, making it one of the largest online resources for historic collections in the world.

The National Trust cares for some of the UK’s greatest works of art as well as the personal collections of many famous former owners such as Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling, Beatrix Potter and George Bernard Shaw.

There are artistic treasures from stately houses but also thousands of everyday items from modest homes, mills, cottages and workplaces. All the paraphernalia of life – with many quirky, unusual, retro and bizarre objects – come together to form ‘time capsules’ of life across the centuries.

Some of the fascinating objects now viewable online are:

• Laudanum bottle at Castle Ward
• Costume decorated with beetle wings for actress Ellen Terry at Smallhythe Place
• Sewing machine used at the tailor’s shop from the 1970s at the Back to Backs
• Brueghel the Younger’s masterpiece ‘The Procession to Calvary’ at Nostell Priory
• Early anti-ageing ‘Rejuvenating’ machine at Overbeck’s
• Lavishly furnished Georgian dolls’ house at Uppark
• Photograph from 1912 of the family’s servants at Erddig
• Bible reputed to have been used at the execution of King Charles I at Chastleton House
• Pair of Aertex underpants at Mr Straw’s House
• French 18th century painted sedan chair at Snowshill

The National Trust Collections website is drawn from the Trust’s national inventory – it has taken nearly fifteen years and the work of hundreds of Trust staff, volunteers and contractors to research, catalogue and photograph the collections and develop the database – and work is on-going.

Sarah Staniforth, National Trust Museums and Collections Director, said: “This is such an exciting moment and yet another step forward in bringing our places to life.

“We are now able to share our collections with everyone online –- and offer a fantastic resource for learning more about them.”

National Trust Collections online homepage - Pic NT

Philip Claris, National Trust Head of Collections Management, said: “This has been an incredible project for everyone involved but whilst the majority of the Trust’s collections are now online, work is on-going.

“For instance we are still adding books from the many thousands in our libraries, items from more recently-acquired properties and objects on loan to us.

“People will be able to see changes to the website daily as more is added.

“We estimate that by the time it has all been included we will have around one million objects online.”

The Lloyd’s building in central London has been given Grade I listed status for its architectural innovation, historic interest and celebrated design.

LLoyds Building, London. Pic English Heritage

On the advice of English Heritage, Heritage Minister John Penrose made the announcement earlier to protect the building in the City of London.

Opened in 1986 it is a high tech office building and insurance market for the major insurance firm Lloyd’s.

Designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership (RRP) from 1978, work began in 1981.

The Queen Mother poured concrete for one of the main columns in a ceremony in November 1981, and returned in May 1984 for the topping-out.

Lloyd’s takes its name from Edward Lloyd, a Welshman who opened a coffee house in Tower Street in 1688 and became a meeting place for seafarers, ship-owners, and the first underwriters who insured the ships and their cargoes.

Escalators in atrium. Pic English Heritage

The main interior space of the building is organised around a central, soaring atrium with a columnar structure and expressed ductwork.

The building integrates the traditions and fabric of earlier Lloyd’s buildings, including the Adam Room moved originally from Bowood House, the 1925 Cooper façade and other fixtures such as the Lutine Bell.

From the outside the building is identified by the six different towers that engulf the core of the site.

It is one of the best known and admired modern commercial buildings in the country.

English Heritage’s designation director Roger Bowdler said: “We are delighted that the Minister has endorsed our advice to list the landmark Lloyds building at Grade l.

“Its listing at the highest grade is fitting recognition of the sheer splendour of Richard Rogers’s heroic design.

“Its dramatic scale and visual dazzle, housing a hyper-efficient commercial complex, is universally recognised as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch.’

Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979), one of Britain’s most successful and best loved performers, is honoured with a blue plaque at 72a Upper Street, Islington, where she lived during the years 1926 to 1929.

It was while living here – in a maisonette above a sweet shop – with her parents, Fred and Jenny Stansfield, and her first husband Archie Pitt that she performed almost continuously in London and consolidated her reputation as one of the country’s most popular music hall stars.

Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979) - is honoured with a blue plaque at 72a Upper Street, Islington,

These years also saw her record for the first time and appear before King George V and Queen Mary at the Royal Variety Performance.

Lancashire born

Grace Stansfield was born and brought up in Rochdale and never lost her distinctive Lancashire accent. She started singing in public at an early age, encouraged and coached by her stage-struck mother, and by the time of her first professional performance she was billed as “Young Grace Stansfield, Rochdale’s own girl vocalist”.

At the age of 14 she joined a Blackpool troupe of young performers and used the name Gracie Fields for the first time.

In 1915, Fields met the comedian and theatrical agent Archie Pitt while performing in a revue called Yes, I Think So and joined his company the following year.

Between 1916 and 1918 she appeared in more than 4,000 performances of It’s a Bargain, a revue written by Pitt that showed off her talents as a comedian as well as a singer.

It was Pitt’s next show, however, that proved the turning point in Fields’ career, for the six years from 1918 to 1924 she spent touring in Mr Tower of London made her into a music hall star.

 London debut

In April 1923, she married Archie and a few months later made her West End debut alongside her sisters and brother when Mr Tower was booked for a week at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square; her performances were greeted with rapturous reviews when the show returned in February 1924.

Over the next few years Fields took on a phenomenal workload, appearing in stage plays, music hall performances and late night cabaret bookings at the Café Royal.

She became very wealthy and together she and Pitt built a 28-room mansion in The Bishop’s Avenue, Hampstead named ’Tower‘, in honour of the show that had made her famous.

In 1928 Fields – by now affectionately known as ‘our Gracie’ – made her first of ten appearances at the Royal Variety Performance.

Capitalising on her stage success, she became a regular performer on the BBC and recorded many of her popular songs including ‘Sally’, ‘The Biggest Aspidistra in the World’ and ‘Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye’; by 1933, she had cut four million discs.

Fields also started her film career; her starring role in Sally in our Alley (1931) proved a great hit and won her lucrative contracts to make ten further films over the next eight years, including Sing as We Go (1934), The Show Goes On (1937) and Shipyard Sally (1939).

She became the biggest box office star in British cinema and in 1937 signed a £200,000 contract with Twentieth Century Fox that was billed “as the highest salary ever paid to a human being”.

Cancer diagnosis

The following year Fields became the first female variety artist to receive the CBE, and was also awarded the freedom of Rochdale.

Gracie Fields was at the pinnacle of her career, but her private life was far from straightforward; having separated from Pitt, she had an affair with the artist John Flanagan for several years and in 1935 she met the Italian-born film director Monty Banks, who directed her in four movies and became her second husband in 1940.

In 1939 her career was unexpectedly halted as she was diagnosed with cervical cancer; hundreds of thousands of fans sent her letters and telegrams and she was overwhelmed by their support.

Told by her doctors to take two years off, Fields returned to work after only a few months, determined to contribute to the war effort.

She performed to troops around the world but in Britain she was accused of betraying her country as she moved to United States in 1940, fearing Italian-born Monty would be interned as an alien.

Living in Capri

After the war, Fields settled on the Italian island of Capri, but she retuned to Britain to record and give concerts, including her triumphant return to the London Palladium in 1947. In the same year her radio show, Gracie’s Working Party, was broadcast from factories across Britain.

After Monty’s death in 1950, she married Boris Alperovici in 1952, whom she had met in Capri. She spent most of her time at her villa Canzone del Mare and was feted by many fans who had chosen to holiday in Capri to catch a glimpse of her.

Fields made her final appearance on the London stage in 1978 when she ended the Royal Variety Performance with a rousing rendition of ‘Sally’.

She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1979, only a few months before she died in Capri aged 81.

Lancelot ‘Capability‘ Brown, is to be commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at Wilderness House, Hampton Court Palace, his home from 1764 – when he was appointed Chief Gardener at the palace – until his death in 1783.

Blue plaque remembers Capability Brown

Capability Brown was the leading landscape gardener of his age and his legacy can be seen today in many parks and gardens across the country.

He is credited with designing over 120 landscapes and demonstrated a flair for creating idyllic, pastoral scenes that complemented some of England’s grandest country houses.

Although Brown’s work was criticised after his death, both for laying waste to the formal gardens of his predecessors and for suppressing nature’s wildness, his designs have come to epitomise the well-ordered English landscape. As one obituarist wrote of him, ‘so closely did he copy nature that his works will be mistaken’.

Landscape architect

Born in 1716 in the small Northumbrian village of Kirkharle, Brown began working for the local landowner Sir William Lorraine.

In 1741 he was employed by Lord Cobham at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, then one of the most famous gardens in England, where he worked under William Kent, who had started the trend away from formal garden design to a more natural approach.

Brown’s own taste led him to develop his trademark style of sweeping, open landscapes of sloping lawns and ornamental stretches of water, with trees and livestock as decoration.

On Lord Cobham’s death in 1751, Brown moved from Stowe to Hammersmith in London, where he established himself as an independent landscape architect and worked tirelessly on a vast number of commissions, which included Petworth House, West Sussex; Alnwick Castle, Northumberland; and Chatsworth House, Derbyshire.

He became the most fashionable designer in the country and by the 1760s was known as ’Capability‘, because when surveying a property he spoke often of its “capabilities”.

World’s largest vine

In 1764 Brown was appointed by George III as Chief Gardener at Hampton Court Palace and moved to Wilderness House.

The house – which dates from about 1700 and is listed Grade II – lies within the walls of Hampton Court Palace and was the official home of the Palace’s head gardeners until 1881; other occupants include Charles Bridgeman. It is said Brown refused to sweep away William III’s formal layout “out of respect to himself and his profession” but he stopped cutting the topiary and was accused of neglecting the gardens.

Perhaps his most lasting achievement during his time at Hampton Court Palace was planting a Black Hamburg vine in 1768, which continues to flourish as the Great Vine and is the world’s largest and most famous grape vine.

Brown’s work at Hampton Court did not stop him taking on other commissions, which included remodelling the gardens at Richmond Palace for the King, assisting Garrick with his temple to Shakespeare at his villa nearby and working on a ten-year project at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, where he created his most celebrated landscape.

In 1772 he took into partnership the architect Henry Holland, who became his son-in-law the following year. In 1783 at the age of 67, Brown collapsed outside Holland’s home in Mayfair after returning from dinner with a former client Lord Coventry, and died.

One of our readers from Australia is looking for some assistance with information on thatched fruit houses.

He believes that West Dean has a thatched Fruit House and is a volunteer gardener at Camden Park, NSW, Australia, the gardens dating to 1820.

Camden Park Estate once had a thatched fruit house, demolished probably during or soon after WWII and he is trying to find information on the structure of such buildings, including photographs, plans, whatever is available.

Can anyone help him?