Traitor’s (or Traitors’) Gate was a watergate – originally simply called the Water Gate – beneath St Thomas’s Tower at the Tower of London.
The gate was built in the late 1270s on the orders of Edward I to provide a convenient means by which he could arrive by barge. It acquired its present name as the Tower evolved into a place of imprisonment – and sometimes torture – for those accused of treason, notably in the 16th century during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
The archway was bricked up in the mid-19th century because the embankment works caused the river to run deeper, making the gate of little practical use for would-be visitors – traitorous or not – at most phases of the tide.
Tags: #TowerPoppies, London, Poppies, The Tower of London, Traitor's Gate
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
Joseph Addison
Tags: Cherie's Place Thought, Dunham Massey, Garden, Life, National Trust, Pathway, Smile, Sunshine
Filed under Art
Between April 1917 and January 1919, the Stamford Military Hospital provided a Sanctuary from the Trenches for soldiers injured during the First World War. As a reflection upon the 282 soldiers that passed through the hospital during this period, the structure comprises 282 individually cast concrete cubes.
Save for one nameless soldier, each cube features a soldier admission number. These records were sourced from a log book kept by the sister in charge of the hospital, Sister Catherine Bennett. The unknown soldier’s cube has been included nonetheless, but remains blank.
Tags: Danielle Foster, Defence Matters, Dunham Massey, Manchester School of Architecture, National Trust, Stamford Military Hospital, WW1, WWI
This sundial is in the style of one commissioned by William III. It represents Africa, one of the four continents known at the time. The figure depicts a Moor, not a slave, and he has knelt here since before 1750.*
*Information from a signboard next to the statue.
Tags: Dunham Massey, Moor, National Trust, Statue
The present Hall was initially built in 1616 by Sir George Booth, who received one of the first baronetcies to be created by James I in 1611; it was later remodelled by John Norris for his descendant, George, 2nd Earl of Warrington between 1732 and 1740; it was further altered by John Hope towards the end of the 18th century and by Joseph Compton Hall between 1905 and 1908. The Hall itself, the stables, and the carriage house of Dunham Massey are all Grade I listed buildings, three of six such buildings in Trafford.[7]
The site is moated and lies immediately west of the village of Dunham, with the deer park to the south. The Hall was donated to the National Trust by Roger Grey, 10th and last Earl of Stamford, in 1976. The Hall was used as a military hospital during the First World War. Inside is a significant collection of Huguenot silver, the carving The Crucifixion by 17th-century wood carver Grinling Gibbons, and a white marble bust of the Emperor Hadrian; the head is antique, but the neck and shoulders are 18th-century; it was probably acquired by the George, Earl of Stamford and Warrington. The collection of paintings in the Hall include Allegory with Venus, Mars, Cupid and Time by Guercino; The Cascade at Terni by Louis Ducros; and portraits by William Beechey, Francis Cotes, Michael Dahl, A. R. Mengs, Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Enoch Seeman, and Zoffany. George Harry, Earl of Stamford and Warrington removed a selection of paintings to Enville Hall[8] in the late 1850s, and it was not until Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford succeeded as Earl, that some were rebought by the family after sales in 1929 and 1931.[9] The deer park at Dunham Massey is the only medieval park in Trafford or the surrounding area still surviving.[6] *
*From Wikipedia
Tags: Dunham Massey, National Trust
Built by Thomas Telford, 1795 – 1805 there are 18 piers of local stone, the central ones over the Dee being 126′ high up to the ironwork.
The canal runs through the iron trough, 1007′ long, 11′ 10” wide and 5′ 3” deep, the largest in Britain. The iron was supplied by William Hazeldine form his foundaries at Shrewsbury and nearby Cefn Mawr.
Total cost £47,000
Water is fed from the Dee at the Horseshoe Falls at Llantysilio near Llangollen.
Tags: Aqueduct, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, There's Always One, Wales
