title: Blood sausage

text: A dish similar to the British black pudding is also made by making batter out of pig's blood and baking it like pancakes. Traditionally, rye flour or oatmeal is used and minced onion is added to the mix. This dish is called "veriohukainen" or "verilettu" (blood pancake). "Rössypottu" is a traditional soup in northern Finland with blood pudding as a main ingredient.


title: Blood sausage

text: In Iceland, "blóðmör" is one of two types of "slátur". It is made from lamb's blood and suet, rye flour and oats, traditionally stuffed into pouches sewn from the lamb's stomach. It is usually boiled in its skin, eaten hot or cold, sometimes sliced and fried. After cooking, it is often preserved in fermented whey and acquires a distinct sour taste.


title: Blood sausage

text: In Latvia, blood sausage is either called "asinsdesa" (blood sausage) or "putraimu desa" (groat sausage) because of the added barley groats. It usually served with lingonberry jam and sour cream.


title: Blood sausage

text: "Blodpudding" is a traditional medieval dish still popular in Sweden. The exact proportions and ingredients vary, partly according to regional preference, but generally it is made from pig's blood, milk, rye or barley flour, diced lard, either beer or "svagdricka", treacle and onion, flavoured with allspice and marjoram. It is then poured into forms and oven-baked in a waterbath. Most of the "blodpudding" consumed today is made on industrial basis.


title: Blood sausage

text: When prepared for serving, it is sliced and fried. The style of serving and accompaniments vary across the country, and it is not uncommon to have the "blodpudding" act as the meat in a meal. Nationally, the common way is to serve it with lingonberry jam, grated carrots and ice cold milk to drink. Fried bacon or pork side is also common. In Scania, the lingonberry jam is often replaced by finely sliced apples, fried along with the pork.


title: Blood sausage

text: Other blood-based foods include "blodkorv" (blood sausage) which differs from "blodpudding" by having raisins, pork tallow and apple sauce in it, "blodplättar" (blood pancakes, similar to the original Finnish dish "veriohukainen" above) and "blodpalt". There is also a soup made from blood, called "svartsoppa" (black soup).


title: Blood sausage

text: A similar blood sausage to "karvavitsa", called "krvavica" (крвавица), made out of similar ingredients, is eaten in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia in wintertime, usually with sauerkraut and potatoes.


title: Blood sausage

text: In Italy, regional varieties of blood sausage are known as "sanguinaccio". In Tuscany, is a sausage made with pig's blood and fat cooked in a pig's stomach. It is not reheated and is often spread on bread. It is found only in the south of Tuscany in the winter months and even there it can be difficult to come by. "Biroldo" is another type of black pudding which can be found in Tuscany, while the version made in southern Lombardy is called "marsapan".


title: Blood sausage

text: "Migliaccio" is a black pudding that is traditionally prepared in winter in Romagna. It is a sweet pudding with a thick black filling made with pig's blood, sugar, breadcrumbs, almonds, chocolate, butter and spices contained in a thin pastry crust. A similar pudding is made throughout southern Italy, generally called "sanguinaccio".


title: Blood sausage

text: In Portuguese cuisine, there are many varieties of blood sausage. Sausages made of blood are usually called "morcela" or "negrinha" (a slang term from Portuguese "negro" meaning dark or black). There are many varieties around the Portuguese world. There are varieties local to mainland Portugal, the Azores, Hawaii, China, US and India, etc.


title: Blood sausage

text: Spanish "morcilla" has many variants. The most well-known and widespread is "morcilla de Burgos" which contains mainly pork blood and fat, rice, onions, and salt, and is produced in two varieties: cylindrical and gut-shaped. In Albacete and La Mancha, the "morcilla" is filled with onions instead of rice, which completely changes the texture. In Extremadura the creamy "morcilla patatera" includes roughly mashed potatoes. In the northern regions and the Canary Islands there is a sweet variety known as "morcilla dulce". Other varieties introduce breadcrumbs, pine nuts, and almonds, and vary the proportions of the other ingredients or flavourings, some of them considered delicacies.


title: Blood sausage

text: There are other similarly famous kinds being made at Asturias (slightly darker and smaller, used for bean and chickpea stews) and León (without rice, grilled & spread on toasted bread). Other less popular varieties may add cumin to the pudding mixture, but this is not a standard practice. The cooking method for consumption is typically frying, stewing, grilling or roasting, and usually sliced in one-finger-thick wheelettes ("rodajas"). There are many derivative foods made from morcilla, such as omelettes, stuffed red pepper, puff pastry, pizza, flavoured nachos, croquettes, and a range of fillings for different dishes.


title: Blood sausage

text: In Belgium and the Netherlands, "bloedworst" or "beuling" is sold in slices. It is generally pan fried; sometimes apples are cooked alongside or on top of the pieces. It is also eaten with apple sauce, brown sugar, syrup or red cabbage. As a cold cut, thin slices are eaten as a sandwich topping. "Zwarte pens" are individual blood sausages the size of a banana.


title: Blood sausage

text: The Luxembourg träipen includes green cabbage, and is served pan fried with apple sauce. It was eaten in church in the Middle Ages during Carnival and is still consumed for breakfast, baked with apples and topped with apple syrup, during Carnival in the Dutch province of Limburg.


title: Blood sausage

text: In France and Wallonia (south Belgium) "boudin noir" is traditionally prepared in "charcuteries", shops that prepare mainly pork products (and sometimes duck and game), but also sell smoked and dried sausages, pâtés, and terrines, along with prepared salads. It is usually called "boudin noir" and is often made with cream with apples or onions as a filler. It is generally served with either cooked apples, mashed potatoes or both, and is appreciated by combining either the apples or mashed potatoes with each bite of "boudin", which has been gently heated and browned in butter. In France also, there are many different regional "Boudins Noirs" such as the large "Boudin du Béarn" with pork meat pieces usually eaten cold. The French "Confrérie des Chevaliers du Goûte-Boudin" (Brotherhood of the Knights of Blood Sausage Tasting) in Mortagne-au-Perche in southern Normandy holds an annual contest of international blood sausage specialities. Boudin is considered the emblematic staple of the French Foreign Legion, and gives its name to the Legion's anthem.


title: Blood sausage

text: The most common variant of German "Blutwurst" is made from pork rind, pork blood and regionally different fillers such as barley. Though already cooked and "ready to eat" it is sometimes served warm, similar to the style in France. In the Rhineland, where it is also traditionally made from horse meat, fried "Blutwurst" is a constituent of various dishes. In particular in Cologne, the traditional "Himmel und Erde" (Heaven and Earth) combines apple sauce, mashed potatoes and "Blutwurst" served hot on one plate. In Berlin, hot "Blutwurst" mixed together with liverwurst and potatoes is called """" ("Dead Grandma").


title: Blood sausage

text: Other German variants are "Zungenwurst", which is "Blutwurst" mixed with pieces of pickled ox tongue, and "Beutelwurst," which is pressed in a linen or paper bag ("Beutel"). A variety of "Blutwurst", the "Rotwurst" from Thuringia ("Thüringer Rotwurst"), has geographical indication protection under EU law, with PGI status. "Kartoffelwurst" (potato sausage) is a post-World War II variety popular in the Palatinate, a reduced fat version of "Blutwurst" using potato cubes instead of bacon.


title: Blood sausage

text: In Austria it is often prepared in a dish known as "Blunzngröstl", which consists of pan-fried potatoes and blood sausage. This is usually served with freshly grated horseradish.


title: Blood sausage

text: Black pudding is the native British version of blood sausage. It is generally made from pork blood and a relatively high proportion of oatmeal. In the past it was occasionally flavoured with pennyroyal, differing from continental European versions in its relatively limited range of ingredients and reliance on oatmeal and barley instead of onions to absorb the blood. It can be eaten cold, as it is cooked in production, grilled, fried or boiled in its skin. It is often served sliced and fried or grilled as part of a traditional full breakfast, a tradition that followed British and Irish emigrants around the world. Black pudding is now part of the local cuisine of New Zealand and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.


title: Blood sausage

text: Stornoway black pudding produced on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, is one of the most renowned varieties and has been granted Protected Geographical Indicator of Origin (PGI) status. Ireland also has two distinctive varieties of black pudding: Sneem Black Pudding from County Kerry, and drisheen, which is distinguished by its gelatinous texture.


title: Blood sausage

text: The similar white pudding (mealie pudding) is a further important feature of the traditional Northumbrian, Scottish, Irish and Newfoundland breakfast. Black and white pudding, as well as a third variant, red pudding, is served battered in some chip shops in England, Scotland and Ireland as an alternative to fish and chips.


title: Blood sausage

text: While "blood sausage" in English is understood in Britain, the term is applied only to foreign usage (e.g., in the story "The Name-Day" by Saki), or to similar blood-based sausages elsewhere in the world.


title: Blood sausage

text: Many Roman Catholics celebrate Mardi Gras, the last day of carnival, (Literally meaning Carne Vale, farewell to Meat in Italian) with rituals involving the blood sausage. For example, in Spain, they celebrate carnival with "judías con morcilla" (morcilla is a variation of Blood sausage) followed by the funeral of the sardina.


title: Blood sausage

text: Likewise, in Belgium and the Netherlands, the Bloodsausage is a symbol for Carnival (most likely following the invasion of Spain during the Eighty Years' War).


title: Blood sausage

text: François Rabelais in France mentions in his "fourth book" (1552) carnavalesque figures called "forest-dwelling Blood-puddings" (Saulcis- sons montigènes, Boudins sylvatiques) as a farce representing the Swiss and German Protestants.


title: Blood sausage

text: Other varieties of blood sausage include "blodpølse" (Norway and Denmark), "tongenworst" (with added pigs tongues) (Netherlands), "mazzit" (Malta), "krvavica" (Balkans), "krovianka" (Russia and Ukraine), and "vėdarai" (Lithuania).


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until 1974, when county boundary change meant the city became part of Cambridgeshire instead. The city is north of London, on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea to the north-east. In 2020 the built-up area subdivision had an estimated population of 179,349. In 2021 the Unitary Authority area had a population of 215,671.


title: Peterborough

text: The local topography is flat, and in some places, the land lies below sea level, for example in parts of the Fens to the east and to the south of Peterborough. Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the current city centre, also with evidence of Roman occupation. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshamstede, which later became Peterborough Cathedral.


title: Peterborough

text: The population grew rapidly after the railways arrived in the 19th century, and Peterborough became an industrial centre, particularly known for its brick manufacture. After the Second World War, growth was limited until designation as a New Town in the 1960s. Housing and population are expanding and a £1-billion regeneration of the city centre and immediately surrounding area is under way. Industrial employment has fallen since then, a significant proportion of new jobs being in financial services and distribution.


title: Peterborough

text: The original name of the town was Medeshamstede. The town's name changed to "Burgh" from the late tenth century, possibly after Abbot Kenulf had built a defensive wall around the abbey which was dedicated to Saint Peter; eventually this developed into the form Peterborough. In the 12th century, the town was also known as "Gildenburgh", which is found in the Peterborough version of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (see Peterborough Chronicle below) and a history of the abbey by the monk Hugh Candidus. The town does not appear to have been a borough until at least the 12th century.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough and its surrounding areas around have been inhabited for thousands of years because it is where permanently drained land in The Fens is created by the River Nene. Remains of Iron Age settlement and what is thought to be religious activity can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the city centre. The Romans established a fortified garrison town at Durobrivae on Ermine Street, five miles (8 km) to the west in Water Newton, around the middle of the 1st century AD. Durobrivae's earliest appearance among surviving records is in the Antonine Itinerary of the late 2nd century. There was also a large 1st century Roman fort at Longthorpe, designed to house half a legion, or about 3,000 soldiers; it may have been established as early as around AD 44–48. Peterborough was an important area of ceramic production in the Roman period, providing Nene Valley Ware that was traded as far away as Cornwall and the Antonine Wall, Caledonia.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough is shown by its original name Medeshamstede to have possibly been an Anglian settlement before AD 655, when Sexwulf founded a monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by Peada of Mercia, who converted to Christianity and was briefly ruler of the smaller Middle Angles sub-group. His brother Wulfhere murdered his own sons, similarly converted and then finished the monastery by way of atonement.


title: Peterborough

text: Hereward the Wake rampaged through the town in 1069 or 1070. Outraged, Abbot Turold erected a fort or castle, which, from his name, was called Mont Turold: this mound, or hill, is on the outside of the deanery garden, now called Tout Hill, although in 1848 Tot-hill or Toot Hill. The abbey church was rebuilt and greatly enlarged in the 12th century. The Peterborough Chronicle, a version of the Anglo-Saxon one, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman conquest, written here by monks in the 12th century. This is the only known prose history in English between the conquest and the later 14th century. The burgesses received their first charter from "Abbot Robert" – probably Robert of Sutton (1262–1273). The place suffered materially in the war between King John and the confederate barons, many of whom took refuge in the monastery here and in Crowland Abbey, from which sanctuaries they were forced by the king's soldiers, who plundered the religious houses and carried off great treasures. The abbey church became one of Henry VIII's retained, more secular, cathedrals in 1541, having been assessed at the Dissolution (in the King's Books) as having revenue of £1,972.7s.0¾d per annum.


title: Peterborough

text: When civil war broke out, Peterborough was divided between supporters of King Charles I and the Long Parliament. The city lay on the border of the Eastern Association of counties which sided with Parliament, and the war reached Peterborough in 1643 when soldiers arrived in the city to attack Royalist strongholds at Stamford and Crowland. The Royalist forces were defeated within a few weeks and retreated to Burghley House, where they were captured and sent to Cambridge. While the Parliamentary soldiers were in Peterborough, however, they ransacked the cathedral, destroying the Lady Chapel, chapter house, cloister, high altar and choir stalls, as well as mediaeval decoration and records.


title: Peterborough

text: Housing and sanitary improvements were effected under the provisions of an Act of Parliament passed in 1790; and an Act was passed in 1839 to build a gaol to replace the two that previously stood. After the dissolution the dean and chapter, who succeeded the abbot as lords of the manor, appointed a high bailiff and the constables and other borough officers were elected at their court leet; but this ended when the municipal borough was incorporated in 1874 under the government of a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the Soke of Peterborough. In 1576 Bishop Edmund Scambler sold the lordship of the hundred of "Nassaburgh", which was coextensive with the Soke, to Queen Elizabeth I, who gave it to Lord Burghley, and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, the Earls and Marquesses of Exeter, had a separate gaol for prisoners arrested in the Soke. The abbot formerly held four fairs, of which two, St. Peter's Fair, granted in 1189 and later held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday in July, and the Brigge Fair, granted in 1439 and later held on the first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in October, were purchased by the corporation from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1876. The Bridge Fair, as it is now known, granted to the abbey by King Henry VI, survives. Prayers for the opening of the fair were once said at the morning service in the cathedral, followed by a civic proclamation and a sausage lunch at the town hall which still takes place. The mayor traditionally leads a procession from the town hall to the fair where the proclamation is read, asking all persons to "behave soberly and civilly, and to pay their just dues and demands according to the laws of the realm and the rights of the City of Peterborough".


title: Peterborough

text: Railway lines began operating locally during the 1840s, but it was the 1850 opening of the Great Northern Railway's line from London to York that transformed Peterborough from a market town to an industrial centre. Lord Exeter had opposed the railway passing through Stamford, so Peterborough, situated between two main terminals at London and Doncaster, increasingly developed as a regional hub.


title: Peterborough

text: Coupled with vast local clay deposits, the railway enabled large-scale brick-making and distribution to take place. The area was the UK's leading producer of bricks for much of the twentieth century. Brick-making had been a small seasonal craft since the early nineteenth century, but during the 1890s successful experiments at Fletton using the harder clays from a lower level had resulted in a much more efficient process. The market dominance during this period of the London Brick Company, founded by the prolific Scottish builder and architect John Cathles Hill, gave rise to some of the country's most well-known landmarks, all built using the ubiquitous Fletton Brick. Perkins Engines was established in Peterborough in 1932 by Frank Perkins, creator of the Perkins diesel engine. Thirty years later it employed more than a tenth of the population of Peterborough, mainly at Eastfield. Baker Perkins had relocated from London to Westwood, now the site of HM Prison Peterborough, in 1903, followed by Peter Brotherhood to Walton in 1906; both manufacturers of industrial machinery, they too became major employers in the city. British Sugar has moved its headquarters to Hampton from Woodston, the beet sugar factory, which opened there in 1926, was closed in 1991.


title: Peterborough

text: The Norwich and Peterborough (N&P) was formed by the merger of the Norwich Building Society and the Peterborough Building Society in 1986. It was the ninth largest building society at the time of its merger into the Yorkshire Group in 2011. N&P continued to operate under its own brand administered at Lynch Wood until 2018. Prior to merger with the Midlands Co-op in 2013, Anglia Regional, the UK's fifth largest co-operative society, was also based in Peterborough, where it was established in 1876. The combined society began trading as Central England Co-operative in 2014.


title: Peterborough

text: Designated a New Town in 1967, Peterborough Development Corporation was formed in partnership with the city and county councils to house London's overspill population in new townships sited around the existing urban area. There were to be four townships, one each at Bretton (originally to be called Milton, a hamlet in the Middle Ages), Orton, Paston/ Werrington and Castor. The last of these was never built, but a fourth, called Hampton, is now taking shape south of the city. It was decided that the city should have a major indoor shopping centre at its heart. Planning permission was received in late summer 1976 and Queensgate, containing over 90 stores and including parking for 2,300 cars, was opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1982. 34 miles (55 km) of urban roads were planned and a network of high-speed landscaped thoroughfares, known as parkways, was constructed.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough's population grew by 45.4% between 1971 and 1991. New service-sector companies like Thomas Cook and Pearl Assurance were attracted to the city, ending the dominance of the manufacturing industry as employers. An urban regeneration company named Opportunity Peterborough, under the chairmanship of Lord Mawhinney, was set up by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2005 to oversee Peterborough's future development. Between 2006 and 2012 a £1 billion redevelopment of the city centre and surrounding areas was planned. The master plan provided guidelines on the physical shaping of the city centre over the next 15–20 years. Proposals are still progressing for the north of Westgate, the south bank and the station quarter, where Network Rail is preparing a major mixed use development. Whilst recognising that the reconfiguration of the relationship between the city and station was critical, English Heritage found the current plans for Westgate unconvincing and felt more thought should be given to the vitality of the historic core.


title: Peterborough

text: With the city expanding, in July 2005 the council adopted a new statutory development plan. Its aim is to accommodate an additional 22,000 homes, 18,000 jobs and over 40,000 people living in Peterborough by 2020. The newly developing Hampton township will be completed, there will be a 1,500-home development at Stanground and a further 1,200-home development at Paston.


title: Peterborough

text: In recent years Peterborough has undergone significant changes with numerous developments underway, most notably are Fletton Quays, a project to construct 350 apartments, various office spaces as well as a new home for Peterborough City Council with other projects within the development to include a Hilton Garden Inn hotel with a sky bar, a new passport office and various leisure, restaurant and retail opportunities. Other projects within the city include the extension to Queensgate Shopping Centre, The Great Northern Hotel and more recently plans to extend the Peterborough Railway Station and long stay car park to facilitate more office space in the city centre and further parking.


title: Peterborough

text: In 2020 planning permission was granted for a new university, ARU Peterborough, which will be based on Bishops Road, a five-minute walk from the City Centre. It will be an employment focused university run by Anglia Ruskin University with four faculties: Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Creative and Digital Arts and Sciences; Agriculture, Environment and Sustainability; Health and Education. The new university is expected to take its first cohort of approximately 2,000 students by 2022, rising to 12,500 by 2028. ARU Peterborough is not expected to receive its degree awarding powers before 2030 when a review will take place to determine its future as part of Anglia Ruskin University or whether it should become its own entity.


title: Peterborough

text: According to the City Council, Peterborough has a history of successful economic growth and continues to act as an attractor for investment and an engine of growth. Its ambition is to achieve sustainable growth that can be maintained without creating significant economic problems.


title: Peterborough

text: Figures plotting growth from 1995 to 2004, revealed that Peterborough had become the most successful economy among unitary authorities in the East of England. They also revealed that the city's economy had grown faster than the regional average and any other economy in the region. It has a strong economy in the environmental goods and services sector and has the largest cluster of environmental businesses in the UK.


title: Peterborough

text: In 1994, Peterborough designated itself one of four environment cities in the UK and began working to become the country's acknowledged environment capital. Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT), an independent charity, was set up at the same time to work towards this goal, delivering projects promoting healthier and sustainable living in the city. Until 2017, PECT organised a yearly 'Green Festival' centered around Cathedral Square, Peterborough, which also benefited local artists and arts organisations through attracting Arts Council funding grants aided by arts facilitator organisation Metal. During the summer of 2018 the last Green Festival was held at Nene Park, in 2019 Peterborough's community environmental projects attracted ministerial attention from the environment secretary Michael Gove. During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 Peterborough's culture and leisure umbrella charity, "Vivacity" ceased operating. This led to a restructuring of many of the arts organisations; they are now found under the heading City Culture Peterborough.


title: Peterborough

text: The council and regional development agency have taken advice on regeneration issues from a number of internationally recognised experts, including Benjamin Barber (formerly an adviser to President Bill Clinton), Jan Gustav Strandenaes (United Nations adviser on environmental issues) and Patama Roorakwit (a Thai "community architect").


title: Peterborough

text: According to the 2001 census, the workplace population of 90,656 is divided into 60,118 people who live in Peterborough and 30,358 people who commute in. A further 13,161 residents commute out of the city to work. Earnings in Peterborough are lower than average. Median earnings for full-time workers were £11.93 per hour in 2014, less than the regional median for the East of England of £13.62 and the median hourly rate of £13.15 for Great Britain as a whole. As part of the government's M11 corridor, Peterborough is committed to creating 17,500 jobs with the population growing to 200,000 by 2020.


title: Peterborough

text: Future employment will also be created through the plan for the city centre launched by the council in 2003. Predictions of the levels and types of employment created were published in 2005. These include 1,421 jobs created in retail; 1,067 created in a variety of leisure and cultural developments; 338 in three hotels; and a further 4,847 jobs created in offices and other workspaces. Recent relocations of large employers include both Tesco (1,070 employees) and Debenhams (850 employees) distribution centres. A further 2,500 jobs were to be created in the £140 million Gateway warehouse and distribution park. This was expected to compensate for the 6,000 job losses as a result of the decline in manufacturing, anticipated in a report cited by the cabinet member for economic growth and regeneration in 2006.


title: Peterborough

text: With traditionally low levels of unemployment, Peterborough is a popular destination for workers and has seen significant growth through migration since the post-war period. The leader of the council said in August 2006 that he believed that 80% of the 65,000 people who had arrived in East Anglia from the states that joined the European Union in 2004 were living in Peterborough. To help cope with this influx, the council put forward plans to construct an average of 1,300 homes each year until 2021. Demand for short term employees remains high and the market supports up to 20 high street recruitment agencies at any given time. Peterborough Trades Council, formed in 1898, is affiliated to the Trades Union Congress.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough railway station is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line, 45–50 minutes' journey time from central London, with high-speed intercity services from King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley operated by the London North Eastern Railway at around a 20-minute frequency. It is the northern terminus of slower commuter services from Horsham via Gatwick Airport and central London operated by Govia Thameslink Railway.


title: Peterborough

text: • East Midlands Railway operates through services between Norwich, Nottingham and Liverpool Lime Street that call at Peterborough, as well as trains on the line to Lincoln.


title: Peterborough

text: • CrossCountry provides connections west to Leicester and Birmingham, and east to Ely, Cambridge and Stansted Airport.


title: Peterborough

text: The River Nene, made navigable from the port at Wisbech to Northampton by 1761, passes through the city centre. The Nene Viaduct carries the railway over the river. It was built in 1847 by Sir William and Joseph Cubitt. William Cubitt was the chief engineer of Crystal Palace erected at Hyde Park in 1851. Apart from some minor repairs in 1910 and 1914 (the steel bands and cross braces around the fluted legs) the bridge remains as Cubitts built it. Now a Grade II* listed structure, it is the oldest surviving cast iron railway bridge in the UK. By the Town Bridge, the Customs House, built in the early eighteenth century, is a visible reminder of the city's past function as an inland port. The Environment Agency navigation starts at the junction with the Northampton arm of the Grand Union Canal and extends for 91 miles (147 km) ending at Bevis Hall just upstream of Wisbech. The tidal limit used to be Woodston Wharf until the Dog-in-a-Doublet lock was built five miles (8 km) downstream in 1937.


title: Peterborough

text: The A1/A1(M) primary route (part of European route E15) broadly follows the path of the historic Great North Road from St Paul's Cathedral in the heart of London, passing Peterborough (Junction 17), and continuing north a further 335 miles (539 km) to central Edinburgh. In 1899 the British Electric Traction Company sought permission for a tramway joining the northern suburbs with the city centre. The system, which operated under the name Peterborough Electric Traction Company, opened in 1903 and was abandoned in favour of motor buses in 1930, when it was merged into the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company. Today, bus services in the city are operated by several companies including Stagecoach (formerly Cambus and Viscount) and Delaine Buses. Despite its large-scale growth, Peterborough has the fastest peak and off-peak travel times for a city of its size in the UK, due to the construction of the parkways. The Local Transport Plan anticipated expenditure totalling around £180 million for the period up to 2010 on major road schemes to accommodate development.


title: Peterborough

text: The combination of rail connections to the Port of Felixstowe and to the East Coast Main Line as well as a road connection via the A1(M) has led to Peterborough being proposed as the site of a rail-road logistics and distribution centre to be known as "Magna Park".


title: Peterborough

text: The Peterborough Millennium Green Wheel is a 50-mile (80 km) network of cycleways, footpaths and bridleways which provide safe, continuous routes around the city with radiating spokes connecting to the city centre. The project has also created a sculpture trail, which provides functional, landscape artworks along the Green Wheel route and a Living Landmarks project involving the local community in the creation of local landscape features such as mini woodlands, ponds and hedgerows. Another long-distance footpath, the Hereward Way, runs from Oakham in Rutland, through Peterborough, to East Harling in Norfolk. While cycling within the city received a boost during the COVID-19 pandemic with the introduction of new cycle lanes in busy streets, plans to connect the villages to the west of Peterborough with a new cycle track have been refused permission and some cycle lane decisions have been reversed in the city centre during easing of the corona virus lockdowns.


title: Peterborough

text: The City of Peterborough local authority area has a population of (). It is forecast to reach 230,000 in 2031 and 240,000 by around 2041.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough's population growth was reportedly the second fastest of any British city over the ten years from 2004 to 2013, driven partly by immigration.


title: Peterborough

text: According to the 2011 Census, 82.5% of Peterborough's residents categorised themselves as white, 2.8% of mixed ethnic groups, 11.7% Asian, 2.3 per cent black and 0.8% other. Amongst the white population, the largest categories were indigenous groups, those being English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British (70.9%), and other white (10.6%). Those of Pakistani ethnicity accounted for 6.6% of the population and those of Indian ethnicity 2.5.%. The largest black group were those of African ethnicity (1.4%).


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough is home to one of the largest concentrations of Italian immigrants in the UK. This is mainly as a result of labour recruitment in the 1950s by the London Brick Company in the southern Italian regions of Apulia and Campania. By 1960, approximately 3,000 Italian men were employed by London Brick, mostly at the Fletton works. In 1962, the Scalabrini Fathers, who first arrived in 1956, purchased an old school and converted it into a mission church named after the patron saint of workers Saint Joseph (San Giuseppe). By 1991, over 3,000 christenings of second-generation Italians had been carried out there. In 1996, it was estimated that the Italian community of Peterborough numbered 7,000, making it the third largest in the UK after London and Bedford. The 2011 Census recorded 1,179 residents born in Italy.


title: Peterborough

text: In the late twentieth century the main source of immigration was from new Commonwealth countries. The 2011 Census showed that a total of 24,166 migrants moved to Peterborough between 2001 and 2011. The city has experienced significant immigration from the A8 countries that joined the European Union in 2004, and in 2011, 14,134 residents of the city were people born in Central and Eastern Europe.


title: Peterborough

text: According to a report published by the police in 2007, recent migration had resulted in increased translation costs and a change in the nature of crime in the county, with an increase in drink-driving offences, knife crime and an international dimension added to activities such as running cannabis factories and human trafficking. The number of foreign nationals arrested in the north of the county rose from 894 in 2003, to 2,435 in 2006, but the report also said that "inappropriately negative" community perceptions about migrant workers often complicate routine incidents, raising tensions and turning them "critical". It also noted there was "little evidence that the increased numbers of migrant workers have caused significant or systematic problems in respect of community safety or cohesion". In 2007, Julie Spence, the then Chief Constable emphasised that the fact that the demographic profile of Cambridgeshire had changed dramatically from one where 95% of teenagers were white four years previously to one of the country's fastest growing diverse populations, had had a positive impact on jobs and economic development. In 2008, the BBC broadcast "The Poles are Coming!", a controversial documentary on the impact of Polish migration to Peterborough by Tim Samuels, as part of its "White Season".


title: Peterborough

text: The number of languages in use is growing where previously few languages other than English were spoken. , Peterborough offered classes in Italian, Urdu and Punjabi in its primary schools.


title: Peterborough

text: Christianity has the largest following in Peterborough, in particular the Church of England, with a significant number of parish churches and a cathedral. 56.7% of Peterborough's residents classified themselves as Christian in the 2011 Census. Recent immigration to the city has also seen the Roman Catholic population increase substantially. Other denominations are also in evidence; the latest church to be constructed is a £7 million "superchurch," KingsGate, formerly Peterborough Community Church, which can seat up to 1,800 worshippers. In comparison with the rest of England, Peterborough has a lower proportion of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Sikhs. The city has a higher percentage of Muslims than England as a whole (9.4% compared to 5% nationally). The majority of Muslims reside in the Millfield, West Town and New England areas of the city, where two large mosques (including the Faidhan-e-Madina Mosque and Husaini Islamic Center-Peterborough) are based. Peterborough also has both Hindu (Bharat Hindu Samaj) and Sikh (Singh Sabha Gurdwara) temples in these areas.


title: Peterborough

text: The Anglican Diocese of Peterborough covers roughly 1,200 square miles (3,100 km), including the whole of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough. The parts of the city that lie south of the river, which were historically in Huntingdonshire, fall within the Diocese of Ely, which covers the remainder of Cambridgeshire and western Norfolk. The current Bishop of Peterborough has been appointed Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Ely, with pastoral care for these parishes delegated to him by the Bishop of Ely. The city falls wholly within the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (which has its seat at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Baptist, Norwich) and is served by Saint Peter and All Souls Church, built in 1896 and decorated in the Gothic style. The Greek Orthodox Community of Saint Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem was established in 1991 under the Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough has one independent boarding school: The Peterborough School at Westwood House, founded in 1895. The school caters for girls and now boys up to the age of 18. Peterborough's state schools have recently undergone immense change. Five of the city's 15 secondary schools were closed in July 2007, to be demolished over the coming years. John Mansfield (now an adult learning centre), Hereward (formerly Eastholm, now City of Peterborough Academy, sponsored by the Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust) and Deacon's were replaced with the flagship Thomas Deacon Academy, designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank which opened in September 2007.


title: Peterborough

text: Queen Katharine Academy (previously The Voyager School), which has specialist media arts status, replaced Bretton Woods and Walton Community School. It is part of the Thomas Deacon Education Trust. The schools that remain have been extended and enlarged. Over £200 million was spent and the changes on-going to 2010. The King's School is one of seven schools established, or in some cases re-endowed and renamed, by King Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries to pray for his soul. In 2006, 39.4% of Peterborough local education authority pupils attained five grades A* to C, including English and Mathematics, in the General Certificate of Secondary Education, lower than the national average of 45.8%.


title: Peterborough

text: The city has two colleges of further and higher education, Peterborough College (established in 1946 as Peterborough Technical College) and City College Peterborough (known as Peterborough College of Adult Education until 2010). By 2004, Peterborough College attracted over 15,000 students each year from the UK and abroad and was ranked in the top five per cent of colleges in the UK. Greater Peterborough University Technical College is a new education facility set to open in September 2015.


title: Peterborough

text: The city is currently without a university, after Loughborough University closed its Peterborough campus in 2003. Consequently, it became the second largest centre of population in the UK (after Swindon) without its own higher education institution. In 2006, however, Peterborough Regional College began talks with Anglia Ruskin University to develop a new university campus for the city. The college and the university completed the legal contracts for the creation of a new joint venture company in 2007, marking the culmination of legal negotiations and securing of funds required in order to build the new higher education centre. University Centre Peterborough opened to the first 850 students in 2009.


title: Peterborough

text: The former public library on Broadway was funded by Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and opened in 1906; Carnegie was made first freeman of the city on the day of the opening ceremony.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough enjoys a wide range of events including the annual East of England Show, Peterborough Festival and CAMRA beer festival, which takes place on the river embankment in late August. The yearly festivals have attracted arts funding and enabled further community projects within the city. Nationally published cartoonist John Elson, from Peterborough, has provided imagery for many of the events. The city acts as the central hub for the regions visual arts community, with the Peterborough Artists Open Studio organisation (PAOS), celebrating its 21st anniversary year as of 2021. A number of statues by the British sculptor Antony Gormley were re-installed in the city in 2018. Removed for repair works from their original setting on concrete pillars next to the rowing lake in Nene Park, they can now be seen on top of buildings surrounding Cathedral Square in the town centre.


title: Peterborough

text: The Key Theatre, built in 1973, is situated on the embankment, next to the River Nene. The theatre aims to provide entertainment, enlightenment and education by reflecting the rich culture Peterborough has to offer. The programme is made up of home-grown productions, national touring shows, local community productions and one-off concerts. There is disabled access, an infrared hearing system for the deaf and hard of hearing and there are also regular signed performances.


title: Peterborough

text: In 1937, the Odeon Cinema opened on Broadway, where it operated successfully for more than half a century. In 1991, the Odeon showed its last film to the public and was left to fall into a state of disrepair, until 1997, when a local entrepreneur purchased the building as part of a larger project, including a restaurant and art gallery. The Broadway, designed by Tim Foster Architects, was one of the largest theatres in the region and offered a selection of live entertainment, including music, comedy and films. In 2009, it was severely damaged by arsonists, resulting in closure when its insurers refused to pay the claim due to faulty fire detection systems. The Embassy Theatre, a large Art Deco building designed by David Evelyn Nye, also opened on Broadway in 1937. Nye was usually a cinema architect, and this was his only theatre. The Embassy was converted into a cinema in 1953, becoming the ABC and later the Cannon Cinema, before it was closed in 1989. Since 1996, the premises have been occupied by the Edwards bar chain.


title: Peterborough

text: The John Clare Theatre within the new central library, again on Broadway, is home to the Peterborough Film Society. One of the region's leading venues, the Cresset in Bretton, provides a wide range of events for the residents of the city and beyond, including theatre, comedy, music and dance. Peterborough has a 13-screen Showcase Cinema, an ice rink and two indoor swimming pools open to the general public. A diverse range of restaurants can be found throughout the city, including Chinese & Cantonese, Indian & Nepalese, Thai and many Italian restaurants. Peterborough has recently been used as the setting in popular literature: "A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian" by Marina Lewycka, "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon and, the first in a projected series, "Long Way Home", a debut novel by Eva Doran.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough United Football Club, known as "The Posh", has been the local football team since 1934. The ground is situated at London Road on the south bank of the River Nene. Peterborough United have a history of cup giant-killings. They set the record for the highest number of league goals (134, Terry Bly alone scoring 52) in the 1960-61 season, which was their first season in the Football League, in which they won the Fourth Division title. The club's highest finish position to date was tenth place in Division One, then the second tier of English football, in the 1992-93 season. Irish property developer Darragh MacAnthony was appointed chairman in 2006 and is now owner, having undertaken a lengthy purchase from Barry Fry who remains director of football, having also been manager of the club from 1996 to 2005. Peterborough also has a non-league club: Peterborough Sports who play in the National League North.


title: Peterborough

text: As well as football, Peterborough has teams competing in rugby, cricket, hockey, ice hockey, rowing, athletics, American and Australian rules football. Although Cambridgeshire is not a first-class cricket county, Northamptonshire staged some home matches in the city between 1906 and 1974. Peterborough Town Cricket Club and the City of Peterborough Hockey Club compete at their shared ground in Westwood.


title: Peterborough

text: After reforming in 2005, rugby union club Peterborough Lions RFC now compete in National League 3 Midlands. Meanwhile, the city's oldest rugby team, Peterborough RUFC, play at Second Drove (otherwise known as "Fortress Fengate"), and have struggled in recent seasons. Relegation in 2013–14 season, from Midlands 1 East, has been followed by a season in the lower-mid table of the Midlands 2 East (South).


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough City Rowing Club moved from its riverside setting to the current Thorpe Meadows location in 1983. The spring and summer regattas held there attract rowers and scullers from competing clubs all over the country. Every February the adjacent River Nene is host to the head of the river race, which again attracts hundreds of entries. Peterborough Athletic Club train and compete at the embankment athletics arena. In 2006, after 10 years, the Great Eastern Run returned to the racing calendar. Around 3,000 runners raced through the flat streets of Peterborough for the half-marathon, supported by thousands of spectators along the course.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough Phantoms are the city's ice hockey team, playing in the NIHL at Planet Ice Peterborough, located on Mallard Way in Bretton. Motorcycle speedway is also a popular sport in Peterborough, with race meetings held at the East of England Showground. The team, known as the Peterborough Panthers, have operated regularly in the Elite League. The Showground hosts the annual British Motorcycle Federation Rally each May. In 2009, Peterborough hosted one of the first rounds of the Tour Series, a new series of televised town and city centre cycling races. , the city has hosted a round of the Tour Series each year since, with the exception of 2013.


title: Peterborough

text: In March 2017 the first bandy session in England for over a century was held in Peterborough, in the form of rink bandy.


title: Peterborough

text: In 2018 Peterborough Bandy Club was founded. At the 2022 Women's Bandy World Championship Great Britain made its debut in the tournament, represented by a Peterborough team.


title: Peterborough

text: There is a major radio transmitter at Morborne, approximately eight miles (13 km) west of Peterborough, for national FM radio (BBC Radios 1–4 and Classic FM) and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. This facility includes a 154-metre (505 ft) high guyed radio mast which collapsed in 2004 after a fire and has since been re-built. Another transmission site at Gunthorpe in the north east of the city transmits AM/MW and local FM radio. The site is only 3 metres (10 ft) above sea level and has an 83-metre (270 ft) high active insulated guyed mast situated on it.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough is covered by six local radio stations and one regional station, though only two community stations broadcast from the city. These are Salaam FM, catering for the local Muslim population, which started broadcasting on 106.2 MHz in 2016 and Peterborough Community Radio (PCR FM), a station formed as a result of a merger between former Internet stations Peterborough FM and Radio Peterborough, which started broadcasting on 103.2 MHz in 2017.


title: Peterborough

text: Heart Cambridgeshire, the original independent local radio station launched as Hereward Radio in 1980 and becoming Heart Peterborough in 2009, still holds a large section of the market on 102.7 MHz but relocated to Cambridge in 2012, where it began sharing the localised programming (of mainly national output) with Heart Cambridge. Hereward's sister station, WGMS, was launched on the old 1332 kHz (225 meters) frequency in 1992; known as Classic Gold from 1994 to 2007, it is now part of Heart's sister Gold Radio network, but has no programming made in Peterborough. Connect Radio (from 1999 to 2010, known as Lite FM), was the city's second commercial station on 106.8;MHz, but is now broadcast partly from Kettering and partly from Southend. Connect Radio was again sold and rebranded as Smooth East Midlands on 1 October 2019.


title: Peterborough

text: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, the BBC local radio station, began broadcasting on 1 May 1982 on 95.7 MHz (and, originally, 1449 kHz) in the north of the county; it maintains a studio in Priestgate, having moved from Broadway in 2012. Kiss 105-108 is the regional station for the East of England, broadcasting, since 2006, on 107.7 MHz in Peterborough. NOW Peterborough is the local DAB multiplex; BBC National DAB and the national commercial multiplex, Digital One, are also available in the city. Peterborough is in the Anglia Television transmission area for Independent Television, with a small studio in the city (although it borders ITV Central). This is broadcast with BBC One and Two (East), Channel 4 and Channel 5 from Sandy Heath. The digital switchover in the East of England took place in 2011. Shopping channel Ideal World is broadcast nationwide on Freeview from studios in Newark Road, Fengate.


title: Peterborough

text: The "Peterborough Telegraph" (established 1948) is the city's newspaper, published on Thursdays and, until 2012, six days a week as the Evening Telegraph, with jobs, property, motors and entertainment supplements. The Telegraph is now owned by East Midlands Newspapers, part of Johnston Press of Edinburgh. Its website, Peterborough Today, is updated six days a week. The "PT's" sister paper, the "Peterborough Citizen" (1898), was a weekly paper delivered free to many homes in the city. The "Peterborough Herald and Post" (1989, a replacement for the "Peterborough Standard", established 1872) ceased publication in 2008. The publisher Emap, which specialises in the production of magazines and the organisation of business events and conferences, traces its origins back to Peterborough in 1854. The 33rd Mayor of Peterborough, Sir Richard Winfrey , founder of what would become the East Midland Allied Press, was perhaps the last person to read the Riot Act in 1914.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough has been used as a location for various television programmes and films. The 1982 BBC production of "The Barchester Chronicles" was filmed largely in and around Peterborough. In 1983 opening scenes for the 13th James Bond film, "Octopussy", starring Sir Roger Moore, were filmed at Orton Mere. A music video for the song "BreakThru" by the band Queen was also shot on the preserved Nene Valley Railway in 1989. In 1995 Pierce Brosnan filmed train crash sequences for the 17th Bond film, "GoldenEye", at the former sugar beet factory. A scene for the film "The Da Vinci Code" was filmed at Burghley House during five weeks' secret filming in 2006; and actor, Lee Marvin, found himself camping in Ferry Meadows during the filming of "" in 1985. In October 2008 Hollywood returned to Wansford for the filming of the musical "Nine", starring Penélope Cruz and Daniel Day-Lewis.


title: Peterborough

text: The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, whose statues look down from the three high gables of the West Front, was founded as a monastery in AD 655 and re-built in its present form between 1118 and 1238. It has been the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough since the diocese was created in 1541, when the last abbot was made the first bishop and the abbot's house was converted into the episcopal palace. Peterborough Cathedral is one of the most intact large Norman buildings in England and is renowned for its imposing early English Gothic West Front which, with its three enormous arches, is without architectural precedent and with no direct successor. The cathedral has the distinction of having had two queens buried beneath its paving: Catherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots. The remains of Queen Mary were removed to Westminster Abbey by her son James I when he became King of England.


title: Peterborough

text: The general layout of Peterborough is attributed to Martin de Vecti who, as abbot from 1133 to 1155, rebuilt the settlement on dry limestone to the west of the monastery, rather than the often-flooded marshlands to the east. Abbot Martin was responsible for laying out the market place and the wharf beside the river. Peterborough's 17th-century Guildhall was built in 1671 by John Lovin, who also restored the bishop's palace shortly after the restoration of King Charles II. It stands on columns, providing an open ground floor for the butter and poultry markets which used to be held there. The Market Place was renamed Cathedral Square and the adjacent Gates Memorial Fountain moved to Bishop's Road Gardens in 1963, when the (then weekly) market was transferred to the site of the old cattle market.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterscourt on City Road was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864, housing St. Peter's Teacher Training College for men until 1938. The building is mainly listed for the 18th century doorway, brought from the London Guildhall following war damage. Nearby Tout Hill, the site of a castle bailey, is a scheduled monument. The city has a large Victorian park containing formal gardens, children's play areas, an aviary, bowling green, tennis courts, pitch and putt course and tea rooms. The Park has been awarded the Green Flag Award, the national standard for parks and green spaces, by the Civic Trust. A Cross of Sacrifice was erected in Broadway cemetery by the Imperial War Graves Commission in the early 1920s. The Lido, a striking building with elements of art deco design, was opened in 1936 and is one of the few survivors of its type still in use.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, built in 1816, housed the city's first infirmary from 1857 to 1928. The museum has a collection of some 227,000 objects, including local archaeology and social history, from the products of the Roman pottery industry to Britain's oldest known murder victim; a collection of marine fossil remains from the Jurassic period of international importance; the manuscripts of John Clare, the "Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" as he was commonly known in his own time; and the Norman Cross collection of items made by French prisoners of war. These prisoners were kept at Norman Cross on the outskirts of Peterborough from 1797 to 1814, in what is believed to be the world's first purpose built prisoner of war camp. The art collection contains an impressive variety of paintings, prints and drawings dating from the 1600s to the present day. Peterborough Museum also holds regular temporary exhibitions, weekend events and guided tours.


title: Peterborough

text: Burghley House to the north of Peterborough, near Stamford, was built and mostly designed by Sir William Cecil, later 1st Baron Burghley, who was Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign. The country house, with a park laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown in the 18th century, is one of the principal examples of 16th-century English architecture. The estate, still home to his descendants, hosts the Burghley Horse Trials, an annual three-day event. Another Grade I listed building, Milton Hall near Castor, ancestral home of the Barons and later Earls Fitzwilliam, also dates from the same period. For two centuries following the restoration the city was a pocket borough of this family.


title: Peterborough

text: The John Clare Cottage in the village of Helpston was purchased by the John Clare Trust in 2005. The cottage, home of John Clare from his birth in 1793 until 1832, has been restored using traditional building methods to create a resource where visitors can learn about the poet, his works and how rural people lived in the early 19th century. The John Clare Cottage and Thorney Heritage Museum form part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership, along with Peterborough Museum and Flag Fen.


title: Peterborough

text: Longthorpe Tower, a 14th-century three-storey tower and fortified manor house in the care of English Heritage, is situated about west of the city centre. It is a scheduled monument, and contains the finest and most complete set of domestic paintings of their period in northern Europe. Nearby Thorpe Hall is one of the few mansions built in the Commonwealth period. A maternity hospital from 1943 to 1970, it was acquired by the Sue Ryder Foundation in 1986 and is currently in use as a hospice.


title: Peterborough

text: Flag Fen, the Bronze Age archaeological site, was discovered in 1982, when a team led by Dr Francis Pryor carried out a survey of dykes in the area. Probably religious, it comprises a large number of poles arranged in five long rows, connecting Whittlesey with Peterborough across the wet fenland. The museum exhibits many of the artefacts found, including what is believed to be the oldest wheel in Britain. An exposed section of the Roman road known as the Fen Causeway also crosses the site.


title: Peterborough

text: The Nene Valley Railway, which is now a 7.5-mile (12 km) heritage railway, was one of the last passenger lines to fall under the Beeching Axe in 1966, although it remained open for freight traffic until 1972. In 1974, the former development corporation bought the line, which runs from the city centre to Yarwell Junction just west of Wansford via Orton Mere and the 500 acre (202 ha) Ferry Meadows country park, and leased it to the Peterborough Railway Society. Railworld is a railway museum located beside Peterborough Nene Valley railway station.


title: Peterborough

text: The Nene Park, which opened in 1978, covers a site long, from slightly west of Castor to the centre of Peterborough. The park has three lakes, one of which houses a watersports centre. Ferry Meadows, one of the major destinations and attractions signposted on the Green Wheel, occupies a large portion of Nene Park. Orton Mere provides access to the east of the park.


title: Peterborough

text: Southey Wood, once included in the Royal Forest of Rockingham, is a mixed woodland maintained by the Forestry Commission between the villages of Upton and Ufford. Nearby, Castor Hanglands, Barnack Hills and Holes and Bedford Purlieus national nature reserves are each sites of special scientific interest. In 2002, the Hills and Holes, one of Natural England's 35 spotlight reserves, was designated a special area of conservation as part of the Natura 2000 network of sites throughout the European Union.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough is the birthplace of many notable people, the astronomer George Alcock, one of the most successful visual discoverers of novas and comets; John Clare, from Helpston, the nineteenth century poet; artist, Christopher Perkins – brother of Frank; and Sir Henry Royce, 1st Baronet of Seaton, engineer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce. Physician, actor and author, "Sir" John Hill, credited with 76 separate works in the "Dictionary of National Biography", the most valuable of which dealing with botany, is also said to have been born here. The socialist writer and illustrator, Frank Horrabin, who was born in the city, and was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament in 1929.


title: Peterborough

text: The utilitarian philosopher, Dr Richard Cumberland, was 14th Lord Bishop of Peterborough from 1691 until his death in 1718; and Norfolk-born nurse and humanitarian, Edith Cavell, who received part of her education at Laurel Court in the Minster Precinct, is commemorated by a plaque in the cathedral and by the name of the hospital. A gravedigger called Old Scarlett, who's portrait can be seen above the west door of Peterborough Cathedral, is considered a folk hero. He died in 1594 at the age of 98, having spent much of his life as the sexton at Peterborough Cathedral; having buried two monarchs, he has also been suggested as the inspiration for the gravedigger in Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Two prominent historical figures were born locally, Hereward the Wake, an outlaw who led resistance to the Norman Conquest and now lends his name to several places and businesses in the city; and St. John Payne, one of the group of prominent Catholics martyred between 1535 and 1679 and later designated the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, who was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised with the other 39 by Pope Paul VI in 1970.


title: Peterborough

text: Musicians include Sir Thomas Armstrong, organist, conductor and former principal of the Royal Academy of Music; Andy Bell, lead vocalist of the electronic pop duo Erasure; Barrie Forgie, leader of the BBC Big Band; Don Lusher, trombonist and former professor of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Marines School of Music; Paul Nicholas, actor and singer; Maxim Reality and Gizz Butt of The Prodigy and Aston Merrygold of Brit Award-winning pop group JLS. Comedian Ernie Wise lived on Thorpe Avenue for many years, next door to Canadian baritone and actor Edmund Hockridge. Jimmy Savile also lived in the city in the early 1990s.


title: Peterborough

text: Other media personalities include actors Simon Bamford, known for the 'Hellraiser' franchise, Adrian Lyne, director of "Fatal Attraction", Oscar Jacques, known for playing Tom Tupper in the CBBC Series "M.I. High", Luke Pasqualino, known for his roles in "Skins" and "The Musketeers"; television presenter, Sarah Cawood, who grew up in Maxey; BBC Formula One presenter, Jake Humphrey; football journalist and Talksport radio presenter, Adrian Durham; and the biologist, author and broadcaster, Prof. Brian J. Ford, who attended the King's School and still lives in Eastrea near Whittlesey. PJ Ligouri, a YouTuber with over a million subscribers spent his childhood in Peterborough. Local businessman, Peter Boizot, founder of the Pizza Express restaurant chain and Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, has supported the cultural and sporting life of Peterborough and received its highest accolade, the freedom of the city. The thalidomide victim Terry Wiles, subject of the 1979 film "On Giant's Shoulders", was born in the city.


title: Peterborough

text: In the sporting world, former Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer, David Bentley, was born in the city, as was Louis Smith, who at the 2008 games became Great Britain's first gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal in a century. Chelsea Football player, currently on loan at Luton Town footballer Isaiah Brown, was born in Peterborough, before joining Leicester City and later West Bromwich Albion, becoming the second youngest player to play in the Premier League. Harry Wells a rugby union player for Leicester Tigers in Premiership Rugby was born in Peterborough and attended The King's (The Cathedral) School, made his debut in 2021.


title: Peterborough

text: According to the Köppen classification the British Isles experience a maritime climate characterised by relatively cool summers and mild winters. Compared with other parts of the country, East Anglia is slightly warmer and sunnier in the summer and colder and frostier in the winter. Owing to its inland position, furthest from the landfall of most Atlantic depressions, Cambridgeshire is one of the driest counties in the UK, receiving, on average, around 600 mm (2 ft) of rain per year. The Met Office weather station at Wittering, within the unitary authority of Peterborough, recorded a maximum temperature of on 25 July 2019. The lowest temperature in recent years was during February 2012.


title: Peterborough

text: East Anglia is most notable for being almost flat (it is mainly on a floodplain). During the Ice Age much of the region was covered by ice sheets and this has influenced the topography and nature of the soils. Much of Cambridgeshire is low-lying, in some places below present-day mean sea level. The lowest point on land is supposedly just to the south of the city at Holme Fen, which is 2.75 metres (9 ft) below sea level. The largest of the many settlements along the Fen edge, Peterborough has been called the "Gateway to the Fens". Before they were drained the Fens were liable to periodic flooding so arable farming was limited to the higher areas of the Fen edge, with the rest of the Fenland dedicated to pastoral farming. In this way, the mediaeval and early modern Fens stood in contrast to the rest of southern England, which was primarily arable. Since the advent of modern drainage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Fens have been radically transformed such that arable farming has almost entirely replaced pastoral. The unitary authority extends north west to the settlements of Wothorpe and Wittering and east beyond Thorney into the historic Isle of Ely and includes the Ortons, south of the River Nene. It borders Northamptonshire to the west, Lincolnshire to the north, and the Cambridgeshire districts of Fenland and Huntingdonshire to the south and east. The city centre is located at 52°35'N latitude 0°15'W longitude or Ordnance Survey national grid reference TL 185 998.


title: Peterborough

text: "Townships are in bold type. In addition to the surrounding villages, Bretton, Orton Longueville and Orton Waterville are parished. The city council also works closely with Werrington neighbourhood association which operates on a similar basis to a parish council."


title: Peterborough

text: Bretton – Dogsthorpe – Eastfield – Eastgate – Fengate – Fletton – Gunthorpe – The Hamptons – Longthorpe – Millfield – Netherton – Newark – New England – The Ortons – Parnwell – Paston – Ravensthorpe – Stanground – Walton – Werrington – West Town – Westwood – Woodston


title: Peterborough

text: "Civil parishes do not cover the whole of England and mostly exist in rural hinterland. They are usually administered by parish councils which have various local responsibilities."


title: Peterborough

text: Ailsworth – Bainton – Barnack – Borough Fen – Castor – Deeping Gate – Etton – Eye – Eye Green – Glinton – Helpston – Marholm – Maxey – Newborough – Northborough – Peakirk – Southorpe – St. Martin's Without – Sutton – Thorney – Thornhaugh – Ufford – Upton – Wansford – Wittering – Wothorpe


title: Peterborough

text: These are further arranged into 24 electoral wards for the purposes of local government. 15 wards comprise the Peterborough constituency for elections to the House of Commons, while the remaining nine fall within the North West Cambridgeshire constituency.


title: Peterborough

text: Peterborough lies in the middle of several distinct regional accent groups and as such has a hybrid of Fenland East Anglian, East Midland and London Estuary English features. The city falls just north of the A vowel isogloss and as such most native speakers will use the flat A, as found in "cat", in words such as "last". "Yod"-dropping is often heard from Peterborians, as in the rest of East Anglia, for example "new" as . However, the large number of newcomers has impacted greatly on the English spoken by the younger generation. Common so-called Estuary English features such as "L"-vocalisation, T glottalisation and "Th"-fronting give today's Peterborough accent a definite south-eastern sound.


title: Peterborough

text: Town twinning started in Europe after the Second World War. Its purpose was to promote friendship and greater understanding between the people of different European cities. A twinning link is a formal, long-term friendship agreement involving co-operation between two communities in different countries and endorsed by both local authorities. The two communities organise projects and activities addressing a range of issues and develop an understanding of historical, cultural, lifestyle similarities and differences. Peterborough is twinned with the following municipalities:


title: Peterborough

text: Bourges and Forlì are also twinned with each other. The city also has more informal friendship links with Foggia, Italy; Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe; Pécs, Hungary; and all Peterboroughs around the world. The county of Cambridgeshire has been twinned with Kreis Viersen, Germany since 1983.


title: Peterborough

text: The following People, Military Units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the City of Peterborough.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist. She was the host of BBC game show "The Weakest Link" (2000–2017). She presented the Channel 4 game show "Countdown" from June 2021 to July 2022, taking over from Nick Hewer. She left the programme on 13 July 2022 after recording 265 episodes.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson was born in Crosby, Lancashire, on 26 September 1944 and is of Irish descent. Her father was a schoolteacher. Her mother, Anne Josephine ("née" Wilson), was an agricultural businesswoman from Northern Ireland, where she was the manager of a market stall. When she came to England, she married into her husband's family of wholesale chicken dealers, and sold rationed rabbit following the Second World War. She inherited the family market stall in Liverpool and transformed it into one of the largest wholesale poultry dealing businesses in the north of England.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Brought up initially at the family home in Crosby, Robinson attended a private Roman Catholic convent boarding school in Hampshire, Farnborough Hill Convent, now known as Farnborough Hill. She was hired as a chicken gutter and saleswoman during the holidays in the family business, before taking office jobs at a law firm. The family spent their summers on holiday in France, often at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes.


title: Anne Robinson

text: On leaving school, Robinson chose journalism over training for the theatre. After working in a news agency, she arrived in London in 1967 as the first young female trainee on the "Daily Mail". Robinson's mother's going-away present to her daughter was an MG sports car and a fur coat. Robinson secured a permanent position as a result of scooping the details of the story of Brian Epstein's death from being a family friend of the Liverpool solicitor handling the legalities, offering him a ride to Euston railway station when he could not find an available taxi.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Her work became more uncomfortable for her when she met and fell in love with the deputy news editor, Charles Wilson; the couple married in 1968, but he subsequently had to terminate her employment because of the marriage. Robinson joined "The Sunday Times". In 1977, her inability to hand in her copy due to an alcohol-related incident led to her contract being terminated by "The Sunday Times". She then began working for the "Liverpool Echo".


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson returned to Fleet Street in 1980, working as columnist and assistant editor of the "Daily Mirror". She also wrote a column under the pseudonym of the "Wednesday Witch", in which she developed her vitriolic style. During her career as a newspaper journalist, she developed a flair for writing tabloid headlines.


title: Anne Robinson

text: In discussing a raise with "Mirror" boss Robert Maxwell, she asked for a doubling of her salary and a brand-new Mercedes to be written in her contract. Following the departure of her husband, Robinson demanded that Maxwell make up the difference in their joint income, which he did. Robinson wrote obituaries to Maxwell following his death in 1991, saying: "He left me reeling from his charm, his amazing panache and the sheer speed at which his brain worked. He was my inspiration and my hero". Her closeness to Maxwell was mocked by Ian Hislop in 1999 as a panellist on "Have I Got News for You", as well when she became the first guest presenter of the show in 2002. In "Memoirs of an Unfit Mother" in 2001, Robinson criticised Maxwell's fraudulent misappropriation of the "Mirror" pension fund (which fully came to light after his death), in which she said: "we failed to monitor what was happening on our doorstep", adding: "cowards had made his behaviour possible. Bankers, accountants, lawyers, who should have known better ... said yes when they should have said no."


title: Anne Robinson

text: On 14 November 1982, Robinson attended a formal dinner attended by Queen Elizabeth II, at which she noted that Diana, Princess of Wales, arrived late. Robinson asked the "Mirror"s Royal editor James Whitaker to investigate and, after conversations with various sources including Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale, confirmed that Diana was suffering from an eating disorder, named as anorexia in a scoop article on 19 November 1982. As a result, Buckingham Palace Press Secretary Michael Shea rang then "Mirror" editor Mike Molloy, asking him to remove Robinson. She was subsequently removed from the editorial rota, and was advised by Molloy to "do more television, blossom, that's what you're good at". Robinson has written weekly columns for a succession of other British newspapers, such as "Today", "The Sun", "The Express", "The Times", and "The Daily Telegraph".


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson began appearing on BBC television in 1982, initially as an occasional panellist on "Question Time" and presenting her 'TV Choice' on "Breakfast Time". From 1986, she began sitting in on television viewers' show "Points of View" for regular presenter Barry Took, taking over from Took permanently in 1988 and remaining for 11 years. In 1993, she took over the presentation and writing of the consumer affairs television programme "Watchdog."


title: Anne Robinson

text: In the UK, Robinson is best known for hosting the game show "The Weakest Link", and in the United States its NBC primetime counterpart, "Weakest Link". She originally started with an icy, mysterious appearance and persona, maintaining her deadpan delivery to funny and friendly moments throughout; however, she toned down her icy, deadpan approach over the years, with her often smiling, engaging, and on occasion, even laughing, especially on the celebrity editions. Her use of insults, caustic remarks and personal questions fiercely directed at contestants became famous. Her trenchant and curt utterance "You "are" the weakest link – goodbye!" became a catchphrase soon after the show started in 2000. Asked by the Duke of Edinburgh to present some Duke of Edinburgh's Awards, she agreed subject to his taking part in the "Weakest Link". The Duke declined.


title: Anne Robinson

text: In 2001, she was accused of hatred towards the Welsh, after describing them as "irritating and annoying" while appearing as a guest on "Room 101".


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson is a vocal supporter of fox hunting and, before it was banned in 2004, was a key supporter of the pro-hunt cause. "The Guardian" claims she has ridden with the White Horse Hunt. In an interview with "Radio Times" in September 2000, Robinson was asked what her first act as world leader would be, replying: "I'd lock up all the hunt saboteurs because they are destructive. They are campaigning about something of which they know nothing." In February 2002, she hosted a spin-off version of "The Weakest Link" in Cirencester to raise funds for the local White Horse Hunt. The event was picketed by around 100 protesters from the League Against Cruel Sports, around 70 animal rights activists returning from another demonstration joined the picket, culminating in a near riot. The event eventually went ahead after Robinson was escorted into the venue by local police.


title: Anne Robinson

text: In 2005, she made an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", admitting she had been an unfit mother. Also in 2005, she appeared on an episode of the revived "Doctor Who", entitled "Bad Wolf", voicing a futuristic android version of herself named the "Anne Droid" on a lethal version of "The Weakest Link" in the year 200,100. When contestants lose as the "weakest link", the android blasts them with a disintegrator in its mouth, which really teleports them away to a Dalek fleet. Robinson hosted the BBC's outtakes programme "Outtake TV" until 2009. She hosted a satirical news-based chat show on BBC One called "What's the Problem? With Anne Robinson", and the BBC's interactive quiz "Test the Nation".


title: Anne Robinson

text: A report published in 2006, which concluded that the BBC is "endemically homophobic", highlighted as one example of anti-gay bigotry in the network Robinson's treatment of a male contestant at "The Weakest Link – Celebrity Chefs", to whom she made questions such as "What do you do in your restaurant – just mince around?", and "Before you go, and bear in mind that this is a family show, what's the strangest thing you've ever put in your mouth?" The previous year she was also accused of bigotry when she told a female prison officer that she must be a lesbian.


title: Anne Robinson

text: The BBC received 16 complaints after Robinson asked wine connoisseur Olly Smith, who was competing on the celebrity version of "The Weakest Link", to feel her breasts, after he described her as a "full-bodied, expensive red". The programme was broadcast on Saturday 5 April 2008 on BBC One.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson caused controversy on "The Weakest Link" when she made former "Blue Peter" presenter John Noakes cry after asking "What was the end for Shep?" Shep had been Noakes's pet dog both on and off "Blue Peter".


title: Anne Robinson

text: In 2009, Robinson returned to presenting BBC One's long-running consumer show "Watchdog". She finished presenting "The Weakest Link" in 2012 after twelve years as the host of 1,693 shows. On 10 September 2015, it was announced that Robinson would step down from "Watchdog" once again, this time in order to film a new series of "Britain's Spending Secrets" for the channel. She had presented "Watchdog" for a total of 15 years.


title: Anne Robinson

text: In 2016, Robinson presented "Anne Robinson's Britain" for BBC One. The series consisted of three episodes, each focusing on different aspects of British life. Episode one was centred on parenting, episode two on the nation's love of pets and particularly cats and dogs, and the final episode focused on the nation's fixation with how they look.


title: Anne Robinson

text: At the end of October 2017 on BBC Radio's "Today" programme, Robinson responded to the accusations of sexual abuse made against multiple men which had followed Harvey Weinstein allegations published earlier in the month. She accused women of not complaining until now. According to Robinson, "40 years ago, there were very few of us women in power and, I have to say, we had a much more robust attitude to men behaving badly". At the present time, she claimed, there "is a sort of fragility amongst women who aren't able to cope with the treachery of the workplace". Referring to an allegation made against the trade minister Mark Garnier about him asking a female assistant to buy sex toys: "It shouldn't be happening but, on the other hand, why have women lost confidence". She said this incident led her to be "in despair". Robinson outlined her method of dealing with the problem: "In my day we gave them a slap, and told them to grow up!" Robinson was accused of victim blaming on social media.


title: Anne Robinson

text: In February 2021, Robinson was announced as the next host of the game show "Countdown" following the resignation of Nick Hewer. Her premiere as host aired on 28 June 2021, marking her return to the show when she first appeared as a guest in the Dictionary Corner in 1987. In May 2022, it was announced that she will be leaving the show after just one year with immediate effect. Her last episode aired on 13 July 2022. In total, she recorded 265 episodes.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson married the journalist Charles Wilson in 1968. In 1970 the couple had a daughter, Emma Wilson, who became a British radio disc jockey and has also hosted "Scaredy Camp", a game show in the United States on the Nickelodeon network. In 1973, Robinson lost a custody battle for Emma, her only child, then aged two. Charles Wilson was granted sole custody, care and control of Emma, who subsequently lived with her father until she left home at 16 for boarding school. An admitted alcoholic, Robinson stopped drinking on 12 December 1978 after picking her daughter up from school and driving to a petrol station to buy a bottle of vodka and joined Alcoholics Anonymous that year.


title: Anne Robinson

text: Robinson married journalist John Penrose in 1980. On 30 September 2007, the couple announced that they were planning to divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences". In 2001, she published her autobiography, "Memoirs of an Unfit Mother", in which she describes her former drinking problem. In 2001, Robinson was diagnosed with skin cancer and had surgery to treat it. She has two grandchildren.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Lucy Ann Beaumont is a British actress, writer, and stand-up comedian from Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire. Her performance is based largely on anecdotes about Hull and the wider Northern England region. She won the BBC Radio New Comedy Award in 2012 and was a finalist on "So You Think You're Funny" in 2011. Her 2014 debut show at the Edinburgh Festival, "We Can Twerk it Out", was nominated for that year's Best Newcomer Award.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Born prematurely while her parents were on holiday in Truro, Cornwall, Beaumont grew up, with a single mother, in the Spring Bank area of Hull and later lived in the town of Hessle, near Hull. Her mother is the playwright Gill Adams, who won the Fringe First Award for best new play in 1997 at the Edinburgh Festival. She attended Hessle High School, before going on to Wyke Sixth Form College. Beaumont worked at the meat counter of Asda on Hessle Road, West Hull, and later went on to the University of Hull, graduating with a degree in drama studies. After university, she briefly worked as a teaching assistant. When one of her first acting jobs after university fell through, Beaumont took on a job as a cleaner at the university to make a living, leading her to joke later that she was probably the only person with both a BA and an NVQ from the University of Hull.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Beaumont had a brief acting career, touring with Hull Truck Theatre, York Theatre Royal and West Yorkshire Playhouse. She switched to comedy after she had initially tried it in an attempt to conquer stage fright and was inspired by her sitcom-like life in Hull. In 2009, she took part in the BBC's "Northern Laughs" programme, where she was mentored by Jeremy Dyson.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Beaumont is known for her observational comedy about her home city of Hull including the local dialect and food like patties and chip spice. Her on-stage persona delivers deadpan anecdotes and has been described as "ditzily naïve".


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Her first gig was for the 2011 "So You Think You're Funny" competition, for which she would later become a finalist.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: She co-wrote and starred in the radio sitcom "To Hull and Back", starring fellow Hull actor Maureen Lipman. The sitcom started with a pilot on BBC Radio 2 in 2014, and a full series was ordered. Three series of the show were broadcast between 2015 and 2018. She wrote an article in "The Guardian" about Hull in 2015 as it prepared to be UK City of Culture. In 2017, Beaumont presented the BBC Two documentary "Welcome to Hull – City of Culture 2017". Beaumont is also the narrator in the 2018 BBC documentary "Hull's Headscarf Heroes" about Lillian Bilocca and the 1968 Triple Trawler Disaster. Beaumont said that the story moved her especially because her grandparents and their families were "born and bred in the fishing community on [Hull's] Hessle Road."


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: In 2013, Beaumont won the Chortle Award for Best Newcomer and appeared on BBC Three's "Live at the Electric". She presented her show "We Can Twerk it Out" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014 nominated for that year's Best Newcomer Award.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: She was a guest on Dave's "" in 2015 and on the BBC Two panel quiz show "QI" in 2016. She has been a regular guest on Dave panel show "", hosted by her husband Jon Richardson, in 2018 and 2019.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: In 2019, Beaumont returned to the Edinburgh Festival with her show "Space Mam", which she also took on tour in the UK.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Beaumont was team captain for the University of Hull team on BBC Two's 2019 "Christmas University Challenge". Although they won their first round, the score was insufficient to advance to the semi-finals. Beaumont also made her first appearance on "8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown" alongside her husband Jon Richardson, Sean Lock, and Bob Mortimer for the 2019 Christmas special.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: A comedy series, "Meet the Richardsons", written by Beaumont and Tim Reid was broadcast on Dave from February 2020; it is a documentary-style sitcom with Beaumont and Richardson playing exaggerated versions of themselves. A two-part Christmas Special aired from the 9th December 2020 and a second series followed in April 2021. The third series began broadcasting in March 2022.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: In 2021, Channel 4 commissioned a comedy series called "Hullraisers" from Beaumont, which is to be a six-part series co-written with Anne-Marie O'Connor. Beaumont also released her first book "Drinking Custard: Diary Of A Confused Mum", which details her struggles with her pregnancy and motherhood.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: In 2022, Beaumont appeared in an episode of the revival series of "The Weakest Link", hosted by Romesh Ranganathan. She was voted out in round 3.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: In 2019, Beaumont set up the project "Backpack Buddies" in Hull to help children in need of meals during the school holidays. To raise funds for the project, Beaumont staged the "HULLarity" comedy gala in June 2019.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Beaumont actively supports several UK charities, including Hull Children's University, Mothershare and the Great Laugh campaign.


title: Lucy Beaumont (comedian)

text: Beaumont married comedian Jon Richardson in April 2015 after being match-made together by fellow comedian Roisin Conaty. They have a daughter, Elsie Josephine, born via an emergency C-section, in September 2016. They live in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.


title: Sukkot

text: Sukkot is a Torah-commanded holiday celebrated for seven days, beginning on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (, "") on which those Israelites who could were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to its harvest roots, the holiday also holds spiritual importance with regard to its abandonment of materialism to focus on nationhood, spirituality, and hospitality, this principle underlying the construction of a temporary, almost nomadic, structure of a sukkah.


title: Sukkot

text: The names used in the Torah are "Chag HaAsif", translating to "Festival of Ingathering" or "Harvest Festival," and "Chag HaSukkot", translating to "Festival of Booths." This corresponds to the double significance of Sukkot. The one mentioned in the Book of Exodus is agricultural in nature—"Festival of Ingathering at the year's end" ()—and marks the end of the harvest time and thus of the agricultural year in the Land of Israel. The more elaborate religious significance from the Book of Leviticus is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the People of Israel on the will of God (). It is also sometimes called the "Feast of Tabernacles" or Feast of Booths.


title: Sukkot

text: The holiday lasts seven days in the Land of Israel and eight in the diaspora. The first day (and second day in the diaspora) is a Shabbat-like holiday when work is forbidden. This is followed by intermediate days called Chol Hamoed, when certain work is permitted. The festival is closed with another Shabbat-like holiday called Shemini Atzeret (one day in the Land of Israel, two days in the diaspora, where the second day is called Simchat Torah). Shemini Atzeret coincides with the eighth day of Sukkot outside the Land of Israel.


title: Sukkot

text: The Hebrew word "" is the plural of "sukkah", "booth" or "tabernacle", which is a walled structure covered with "s'chach" (plant material, such as overgrowth or palm leaves). A sukkah is the name of the temporary dwelling in which farmers would live during harvesting, reinforcing agricultural significance of the holiday introduced in the Book of Exodus. As stated in Leviticus, it is also reminiscent of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelled during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people sleep there as well.


title: Sukkot

text: On each day of the holiday it is a mitzvah, or commandment, to perform a waving ceremony with the Four Species, as well as to sit in the sukkah during the holiday.


title: Sukkot

text: Sukkot shares similarities with older Canaanite new-year/harvest festivals, which included a seven-day celebration with sacrifices reminiscent of those in and "dwellings of branches," as well as processions with branches. The earliest references in the Bible ( & ) make no mention of Sukkot, instead referring to it as "the festival of ingathering (hag ha'asaf) at the end of the year, when you gather in the results of your work from the field," suggesting an agricultural origins. (The Hebrew term "asaf" is also mentioned in the Gezer calendar as a two-month period in the autumn.)


title: Sukkot

text: The booths aspect of the festival may come from the shelters that were built in the fields by those involved in the harvesting process. Alternatively, it may come from the booths which pilgrims would stay in when they came in for the festivities at the cultic sanctuaries. Finally, talks about the taking of various branches (and a fruit), this too is characteristic of ancient agricultural festivals, which frequently included processions with branches.


title: Sukkot

text: Over time, the festival was historicized by symbolic connection with the desert sojourn of exodus (). However, it has been noted by both ancient and modern scholars that the narratives of the exodus trek never place the Israelites in booths.


title: Sukkot

text: Sukkot is a seven-day festival. Inside the Land of Israel, the first day is celebrated as a full festival with special prayer services and holiday meals. Outside the Land of Israel, the first two days are celebrated as full festivals. The seventh day of Sukkot is called "" ("Great Hoshana", referring to the tradition that worshippers in the synagogue walk around the perimeter of the sanctuary during morning services) and has a special observance of its own. The intermediate days are known as "Chol HaMoed" ("festival weekdays"). According to Halakha, some types of work are forbidden during "Chol HaMoed". In Israel many businesses are closed during this time.


title: Sukkot

text: Throughout the week of Sukkot, meals are eaten in the sukkah. If a brit milah (circumcision ceremony) or Bar Mitzvah rises during Sukkot, the seudat mitzvah (obligatory festive meal) is served in the sukkah. Similarly, the father of a newborn boy greets guests to his Friday-night Shalom Zachar in the sukkah. Males awaken there, although the requirement is waived in case of drought. Every day, a blessing is recited over the Lulav and the Etrog.


title: Sukkot

text: Keeping of Sukkot is detailed in the Hebrew Bible (, and ); the Mishnah (Sukkah 1:1–5:8); the Tosefta (Sukkah 1:1–4:28); and the Jerusalem Talmud (Sukkah 1a–) and Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 2a–56b).


title: Sukkot

text: The sukkah walls can be constructed of any material that blocks wind (wood, canvas, aluminum siding, sheets). The walls can be free-standing or include the sides of a building or porch. There must be at least two and a partial wall. The roof must be of organic material, known as s'chach, such as leafy tree overgrowth, schach mats or palm fronds – plant material that is no longer connected with the earth. It is customary to decorate the interior of the sukkah with hanging decorations of the four species as well as with attractive artwork.


title: Sukkot

text: Prayers during Sukkot include the reading of the Torah every day, reciting the Mussaf (additional) service after morning prayers, reciting Hallel, and adding special additions to the Amidah and Grace after Meals. In addition, the service includes rituals involving the Four Species. The lulav and etrog are not used on the Sabbath.


title: Sukkot

text: On each day of the festival, worshippers walk around the synagogue carrying the Four Species while reciting special prayers known as "Hoshanot". This takes place either after the morning's Torah reading or at the end of Mussaf. This ceremony commemorates the willow ceremony at the Temple in Jerusalem, in which willow branches were piled beside the altar with worshippers parading around the altar reciting prayers.


title: Sukkot

text: A custom originating with Lurianic Kabbalah is to recite the "ushpizin" prayer to "invite" one of seven "exalted guests" into the sukkah. These "ushpizin" (Aramaic 'guests'), represent the "seven shepherds of Israel": Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David, each of whom correlate with one of the seven lower Sephirot (this is why Joseph, associated with Yesod, follows Moses and Aaron, associated with Netzach and Hod respectively, even though he precedes them in the narrative). According to tradition, each night a different guest enters the sukkah followed by the other six. Each of the "ushpizin" has a unique lesson to teach that parallels the spiritual focus of the day on which they visit, based on the Sephirah associated with that character.


title: Sukkot

text: Some streams of Reconstructionist Judaism also recognize a set of seven female shepherds of Israel, called variously (using modern Hebrew feminine pluralization), or (in reconstructed Aramaic). Several lists of seven have been proposed. The Ushpizata are sometimes coidentified with the seven prophetesses of Judaism: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda, and Esther. Some lists seek to relate each female leader to one of the Sephirot, to parallel their male counterparts of the evening. One such list (in the order they would be invoked, each evening) is: Ruth, Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Deborah, Tamar, and Rachel.


title: Sukkot

text: The second through seventh days of Sukkot (third through seventh days outside the Land of Israel) are called Chol HaMoed ( – "festival weekdays"). These days are considered by halakha to be more than regular weekdays but less than festival days. In practice, this means that all activities that are needed for the holiday—such as buying and preparing food, cleaning the house in honor of the holiday, or traveling to visit other people's sukkot or on family outings—are permitted by Jewish law. Activities that will interfere with relaxation and enjoyment of the holiday—such as laundering, mending clothes, engaging in labor-intensive activities—are not permitted.


title: Sukkot

text: Religious Jews often treat Chol HaMoed as a vacation period, eating nicer than usual meals in their sukkah, entertaining guests, visiting other families in their sukkot, and taking family outings. Many synagogues and Jewish centers also offer events and meals in their sukkot during this time to foster community and goodwill.


title: Sukkot

text: On the Shabbat which falls during the week of Sukkot (or in the event when the first day of Sukkot is on Shabbat), the Book of Ecclesiastes is read during morning synagogue services in the Land of Israel. (Diaspora communities read it the second Shabbat {eighth day} when the first day of sukkot is on Shabbat.) This Book's emphasis on the ephemeralness of life ("Vanity of vanities, all is vanity...") echoes the theme of the sukkah, while its emphasis on death reflects the time of year in which Sukkot occurs (the "autumn" of life). The penultimate verse reinforces the message that adherence to God and His Torah is the only worthwhile pursuit. (Cf. Ecclesiastes 12:13,14.)