Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Community
Wider community events, and significant anniversaries of historical interest.
- It was: 400 years ago, on 6th September 1620, that 102 English Puritans (now known as the Pilgrims) set sail aboard the Mayflower from Plymouth, for a new life in America. After a perilous journey they landed in what is now Provincetown Harbour, Cape Cod, Massachusetts on 11th November. They had intended landing in Virginia,...All in the month of September
- If we find it difficult to cross the Atlantic just now, it was even worse 400 years this month. On 6th September 1620, 102 determined Puritans climbed on board the Mayflower and set sail from Plymouth. They had 30 crew to steer them across 3000 miles of open, perilous ocean. Those Puritans, or ‘Pilgrim fathers’,...Celebrating 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower
- A tiny invisible thing that brings disease and death …. where have we heard that before?! But Louis Pasteur, who died 125 years ago this month, on 28th September 1895, was not interested in a virus from China, but in tiny living organisms that brought disease and death in other ways. Pasteur made some outstanding...Louis Pasteur – ‘father’ of microbiology
- We need our hedgerows back – urgently. They are part of ‘nature’s toolbox’ to help us reduce our carbon emissions. That was the recent message from the CPRE countryside charity which points out that there were twice as many hedges in England before the Second World War. Since then thousands of kilometres of hedges have...Bring back hedgerows
- The old saying ‘Kissing is out of season when the gorse is not in bloom’ is based on the fact that it is a rare time of year when a flower or two cannot be found. The bush itself, growing on heaths and moors is well-known for its vicious spikes. This is its answer to...Gorse – cheerful and perfumed, but prickly!
- Glastonbury Festival. The name conjures up images of world-famous bands and singers making loud music before enthusiastic crowds who are up to their knees in mud. The statistics for the famous Pyramid stage are impressive: standing 25 metres tall, it has 292 audio speakers and 8.5 km of cables for video and audio. It has 354...Happy Birthday, Glastonbury Festival
- There is growing concern in the Government, among campaigners, and among scientists over how coronavirus has sparked an increase in single-use plastics. Not only are millions of disposable masks and gloves now ‘out there’, but there has been also a huge increase in disposable cutlery, sachets and containers. One study by UCL estimates that in...Now even more plastic
- All in the month of August Atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Whatever happened to Christopher Robin? 125 years of the Proms in London The stately Rosebay Willowherb Support your local charity shops Good news about potholes Watch out for this predator Concern for the children Please, please, stop buying compost with peat in it ...Looking at Your Community (all articles) for August 2020
- It was: 250 years ago, on 22nd August 1770 that British explorer Captain James Cook discovered eastern Australia, named it New South Wales, and claimed it for Britain. 150 years ago, on 4th August 1870 that the British Red Cross Society was founded. 125 years ago, on 10th August 1895 that the Proms (Promenade Concerts)...All in the month of August
- Atomic bombs were dropped over two Japanese cities 75 years ago. This first was at Hiroshima, on 6th August 1945, when the centre of the city was totally destroyed, and 80,000 people were killed immediately. A further 60,000 died by the end of the year. It was the first city in history to be hit...Atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- One hundred years ago this month, on 21st August 1920, Christopher Robin Milne was born. He was the only son of the author A. A. Milne and appeared as a character in his father’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories and verses – a role he enjoyed at first but later found difficult to handle. The characters in Winnie...Whatever happened to Christopher Robin?
- It was 125 years ago this month, on 10th August 1895, that the Proms (Promenade Concerts) began in London. In fact, the idea of promenade concerts went back to 1838, referring to outside concerts during which the audience could walk about – but in the form introduced by Robert Newman at Queen’s Hall in Langham...125 years of the Proms in London