title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The eponymous hero is born as a male nobleman in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. He undergoes a mysterious change of sex at the age of about 30 and lives on for more than 300 years into modern times without ageing perceptibly.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: As a teenage boy, the handsome Orlando serves as a page at the Elizabethan court and becomes the "favourite" of the elderly queen. After her death, he falls deeply in love with Sasha, an elusive and somewhat feral princess in the entourage of the Russian embassy. This episode, of love and ice skating against the background of the celebrated Frost Fair held on the frozen Thames River during the Great Frost of 1608, when "birds froze in mid air and fell like stones to the ground", inspired some of Virginia Woolf's most bravura writing:Great statesmen, in their beards and ruffs, despatched affairs of state under the crimson awning of the Royal Pagoda ... Frozen roses fell in showers when the Queen and her ladies walked abroad ... Near London Bridge, where the river had frozen to a depth of some twenty fathoms, a wrecked wherry boat was plainly visible, lying on the bed of the river where it had sunk last autumn, overladen with apples. The old bumboat woman, who was carrying her fruit to market on the Surrey side, sat there in her plaids and farthingales with her lap full of apples, for all the world as if she were about to serve a customer, though a certain blueness about the lips hinted the truth.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The melting of the ice coincides with Sasha's unfaithfulness and sudden departure for Russia. The desolate Orlando returns to writing "The Oak Tree," a long poem started and abandoned in his youth. He meets and hospitably entertains an invidious poetaster, Nicholas Greene, who proceeds to find fault with Orlando's writing. Later Orlando feels betrayed on learning that he has been lampooned in one of Greene's subsequent works. A period of contemplating love and life leads Orlando to appreciate the value of his ancestral stately home, which he proceeds to furnish lavishly. There he plays host to the populace.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Ennui sets in and Orlando feels harassed by a persistent suitor, the tall and somewhat androgynous Archduchess Harriet, leading Orlando to look for a way to leave the country. He is appointed by King Charles II as ambassador to Constantinople. Orlando performs his duties well, until a night of civil unrest and murderous riots. He falls asleep for a period of days, and others cannot rouse him. Orlando awakens to find that he has metamorphosed into a woman – the same person, with the same personality and intellect, but in a woman's body. Although the narrator of the novel professes to be disturbed and befuddled by Orlando's change, the fictional Orlando complacently accepts the change. From here on, Orlando's amorous inclinations change frequently, although she stays biologically female.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The now "Lady" Orlando covertly escapes Constantinople in the company of a Romani clan. She adopts their way of life until its essential conflict with her upbringing leads her to head home. Only on the ship back to England, with her constraining female clothes and an incident in which a flash of her ankle nearly results in a sailor's falling to his death, does she realise the magnitude of becoming a woman. She concludes it has an overall advantage, declaring "Praise God I'm a woman!" Back in England, Orlando is hounded again by the archduchess, who now reveals herself to be a man, the Archduke Harry. Orlando evades his marriage proposals. She goes on to switch gender roles, dressing alternately as a man and woman.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Orlando engages energetically with life in the 18th and 19th centuries, holding court with great poets, notably Alexander Pope. Critic Nick Greene, apparently also timeless, reappears and promotes Orlando's writing, promising to help her publish "The Oak Tree".


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Orlando wins a lawsuit over her property and marries a sea captain, Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine. Like Orlando, he is gender non-conforming, and Orlando attributes the success of their marriage to this similarity. In 1928, she publishes "The Oak Tree," centuries after starting it, and wins a prize. In the novel's ending, Orlando's husband flies over the mansion in an aeroplane, which hovers above Orlando until Shelmerdine leaps to the ground. A stray bird flies over his head and Orlando exults, "It's the goose! The wild goose!" The novel ends on the final stroke of midnight on Thursday, Oct. 11, 1928 (the day the novel would be published).


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Woolf and Vita Sackville-West were both members of the Bloomsbury Group, which was known for its liberal views on sexuality. The two began a sexual and romantic relationship that lasted for a decade, and continued as a friendship long after that. Notably, this inspiration is confirmed by Woolf herself, who noted in her diary the idea of "Orlando" on 5 October 1927: "And instantly the usual exciting devices enter my mind: a biography beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day, called Orlando: Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other".


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Nigel Nicolson, Sackville-West's son, wrote, "The effect of Vita on Virginia is all contained in "Orlando", the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in which she explores Vita, weaves her in and out of the centuries, tosses her from one sex to the other, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her, drops a veil of mist around her."


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: In the novel, Woolf satirizes Sackville-West's fascination with the Romany people, as it is the Romany caravan in the Balkans that first accepts Orlando as a woman. It is also hinted that it was a spell cast by the Romany witch whom Orlando married that caused Orlando's transformation. The Romany witch, Rosita Pepita, shares the name of Sackville-West's grandmother, a Spanish dancer.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Orlando remains an English aristocrat regardless of her sex, and cannot really adjust to the nomadic lifestyle of the Romany caravan as it wanders across the Balkans and Anatolia. In real life, Sackville-West fantasized about joining a Romany caravan, but she did not really wish to give up the settled life of the aristocracy for living in poverty, or to be subject to the same discrimination that the Romany were.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Woolf also satirizes British culture in the sense that "inversion" (as lesbianism was then called) was allowed as long as it was presented as a fantastical allegory that was only real in the sense that the book was about Sackville-West, but could not be realistic. Woolf also intended the novel as compensation for the sense of loss often felt by Sackville-West who lost her beloved childhood home Knole which went to a cousin and which she would have inherited if she had been a man; about her need to hide her sexuality and about the unhappy end of her relationship with Violet Trefusis in 1920. Sackville-West in a letter praised Woolf for compensation for her sense of loss, saying: "I am in no fit state to write to you...I only tell you that I am really shaken, which may seem to you silly and useless, but which is really a greater tribute than pages of calm appreciation...Darling, I don't know and scarcely even like to write how overwhelmed am I, how could you hung so splendid a garment on so poor a peg...Also, you have invented a new form of narcissism-I confess-I am in love with Orlando-this is a complication I had not foreseen". In the book, Orlando as a woman wins control of her family estate, which bears a close resemblance to Knole, which addressed Sackville-West's sense of loss about losing the estate that she had grown up in and deeply loved only because she was a woman. Likewise, Trefusis appears in the novel as the Russian princess Sasha, whom Orlando sincerely loves, but the responsibility for the failure of the relationship rests entirely with her, whereas in real life Sackville-West knew that the story she used as a reason for terminating her relationship with Trefusis, namely she had slept with her husband Major Dennys Trefusis was almost certainly false. The picture of Sackville-West that Woolf presented as her alter-ego Orlando was not completely positive, as Woolf felt only contempt for Sackville-West's literary abilities, regarding her as a mediocre writer as she wrote to her husband Leonard Woolf "she writes with a pen of brass". The recurring image of the grey goose that Orlando chases after, but never captures over the centuries is an allegory for the ability to write a truly great novel that Sackville-West longed to do, but never managed. Perhaps fortunately for herself, a bewildered Sackville-West never understood what the goose was a symbol of, writing to her husband Harold Nicolson: "What does the goose stand for? Fame? Love? Death? Marriage?". For Woolf herself, the book was compensation for a sense of loss. Woolf was often hurt by Sackville-West's promiscuity and unfaithfulness, and "Orlando" allowed her to have a more idealised version of Sackville-West that would belong to her forever.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The American scholar Victoria Smith argued the book is about the impossibility of representing the female experience in its entirety as a recurring theme of the book is Orlando's inability to properly describe emotions, people and even such banal occurrences as a sunset. Throughout the book, Orlando cannot describe Sasha or nature, the biographer cannot properly write up a description of Orlando, and the love which Orlando feels for Shelmerdine is referred to as undefinable. When Orlando attempts to define love, he says to himself: "Every single thing, once he tried to dislodge it from his place in his mind, he thus cumbered with other matter like a lump of grass, which after a year at the bottom of the sea, is grown about with bones and dragon-flies, and the tresses of women's hair". Likewise, when Orlando attempts to simply say the grass is green and the sky is blue, he instead finds himself thinking "...the sky is like the veils over which a thousand Madonnas have their hair fall; and the grass fleets and darkens like a flight of girls fleeing hairy satyrs for the woods". Smith maintained whenever Orlando's attempt to say that the sky is blue and the grass is green, instead brings images of women, nature, classical mythology and religion into his mind, thus highlighting Woolf's viewpoint "...that the "natural"-the grass, the sky-already are encumbered with myths of and representations of women and their sexuality. Finally, the passage ends with precisely the conundrum of language that Woolf highlights: that even through the images used to convey the objects are "false", the object are nonetheless conveyed." Smith argued that this rhetorical ambiguity that Woolf used was a commentary on "the love that dared not speak its name" as the book was meant to celebrate her love for Sackville-West while at the same time disguising it even though the two women were immune from being prosecuted by the authorities (male homosexuality, but not lesbianism, was illegal in Britain until 1967). Woolf intended the book to be therapeutic, to address the sense of loss felt by Sackville-West as well as herself, to provide a "spark" of hope to keep herself from drowning in what she called in her diary "a great sea of melancholy".


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Woolf was often critical of British historiography, which at the time was largely concerned with political-military history, which she accused of neglecting the lives of women, which with the exceptions of leaders like Elizabeth I, Anne, and Victoria, were almost totally ignored. The novel takes place over several ages of British history, namely the Renaissance, the Restoration, the Enlightenment, the Romantic, the Victorian and the present, and Woolf uses the various ages to mock theories of history. Orlando's biographer says that her style of poetry becomes less florid as the 17th century went on, which he suggests was because the streets were cleaner and the dishes less showy. Woolf's father, the historian Sir Leslie Stephen, whom she both loved and hated at the same time, had proposed in his book "English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century", a theory that what writers choose to write about reflects contemporary tastes, a "return to nature" as "literature must be produced by the class which embodies the really vital and powerful currents of thought which molds society". That Orlando's biographer believes that it was changes in British cuisine and the condition of the countryside that had changed Orlando's style of writing is a "reductio ad absurdum" of Stephen's theories. Stephen identified various writers, all of them men, as the "key" figures of an age, whereas his daughter wanted historians to pay attention to women writers that they usually ignored, and the unflattering picture of Pope that Woolf presents is a caricature of her father's theories (Stephen had identified Pope as the "key" writer of early Georgian England). Likewise, when Orlando was a man, he had no hesitations about showing off his manuscript for "The Oak Tree", but as a woman, she constantly hides it when visitors come, as Jane Austen was alleged to do with the manuscripts for her books, which was Woolf's way of satirizing the different behaviour expected of male and female writers. Stephen believed that great writers must work in "the spirit of the age", which led him in his book "Hours in the Library" to praise Sir Walter Scott as representing the "spirit" of the Romantic age while Charlotte Brontë was dismissed as a writer because she was out of touch with the "spirit" of the Victorian age. Woolf satirizes her father's theories as in during the Victorian Age that Orlando marries, changes drastically the quality of her writings, and the very idea of being pregnant makes her ashamed, which so sharply differs from the way that the character had been portrayed before as to imply these changes in her personality are forced as she struggles to conform to the "spirit" of the Victorian era.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: At the same time, Woolf, though she was critical of many aspects of British life, felt a deep sense of affinity in her country, where the past seemed to live on in so many ways. Woolf was inspired to write "Orlando" when Sackville-West took her to Knole, to show her the place where she had grown up, that had belonged to the Sackville family for centuries, and as Sackville-West bitterly noted she would have inherited if only she had been born male. During the course of their visit, a farmer came in with a wagon full of wood to be chopped up to heat Knole, which Sackville-West said had been done for hundreds of years, which gave Woolf the idea of the English past was not dead, but still alive, a theme that is expressed in "Orlando" by the ageless, timeless nature of the eponymous character. That the 19th century begins with a heavy thunderstorm, and throughout the scenes set in the Victorian age it always seems to be raining, reflected Woolf's view of the Victorian era has a dark one in British history, as it was only with the Edwardian era that sunshine returns to "Orlando". As part of her attack on Victorian values, Woolf satirized the theories of the influential critic John Ruskin who saw the Renaissance as a period of moral and cultural decline, which he called a "frost". On the contrary, Woolf depicted the parts of the book set in the Elizabethan-Jacobean era as one of rebirth and vitality, of a time when "the moon and stars blazed with the hard fixity of diamonds". It is during this period that Orlando first falls in love with the Russian princess Sasha, which leads to "the ice turned to wine in his veins, he heard the water flowing and the birds singing". As a criticism of Ruskin, it was during the Great Frost of 1608 that Orlando first discovers his sexuality with Sasha, turning Ruskin's frost metaphor for the Renaissance on its head.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: That it was in Constantinople that Orlando become a woman reflects the city's status in the 17th century as a melting pot of cultures with a mixed population of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Sephardic Jews, Circassians, Sudanese, and other peoples from all over the Ottoman Empire, in short a place with no fixed identity that existed half in Europe and half in Asia, making the city the perfect backdrop for Orlando's transformation. Furthermore, Constantinople had been founded by the Greeks as Byzantium in 7th century BC; had become the capital of the Roman empire in 324 AD when the Emperor Constantine the Great renamed the city after himself; for centuries had been seen as a bastion of Christianity against Islam; was taken by the Ottomans in a siege in 1453, becoming the capital of the world's most powerful Muslim empire; and was renamed Istanbul in 1924, making the city itself into a metaphor for shifting identities, whatever they be national, cultural, religious, gender, ethnic or sexual. In the 17th century, Constantinople was Europe's largest city as well as one of the wealthiest. The American scholar Urmila Seshagiri wrote that the "fixed British hegemonies" of the early chapters set in London and in the English countryside seem "fragile" when Orlando is confronted with the vast, teeming, wealthy city of Constantinople with its multi-ethnic, multi-religious population that appears as a far more powerful and greater city than London, which was Woolf's way of undermining the assumption widely held in 1928 Britain that the British Empire was the world's greatest empire. Sackville-West had lived in Constantinople in 1912-14 when Nicolson had been the Third Secretary at the British embassy and loved that city, which she viewed as a beautiful city full of diverse cultures and peoples. That Orlando's transformation occurs during the course of anti-Christian riots by the Muslim population of Constantinople is Woolf's attack on British imperialism. By the second half of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was in decline while the British empire was on the ascent, which is the precise time that Orlando changes sex. Woolf believed that the "Eastern Question" as imperial rivalry for control of Constantinople, "the city of all the world's desire" as it sits at a strategic location where Europe and Asia meet to have been one of the main causes of the First World War, and by dating Orlando's transformation at the moment that the Ottoman Empire began to decline was a political point. One of the main justifications for the British empire was the alleged need to protect white women from being raped by non-white men, and by having Lady Orlando escape from Constantinople without a man to protect her was an attack upon this theory.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: "Orlando" was a contemporary success, both critically and financially, and guaranteed the Woolfs' financial stability. It was generally viewed not just as high literature, but as a gossipy novel about Sackville-West. However, the "New York Times" review of the book acknowledged the importance of the work as an experiment into new forms of literature.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The work has been the subject of numerous scholarly writings, including detailed treatment in multiple works on Virginia Woolf. An "annotated" edition has been published to facilitate critical reading of the text.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The novel's title has also come to stand in some senses for women's writing generally, as one of the most famous works by a woman author that directly treats the subject of gender. For example, a project at the University of Cambridge on the history of women's writing in the British Isles was named after the book.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: A literary critique of "Orlando" on an onomastic and psychological basis was conducted by the historian and Italianist Alessio Bologna in his book:


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: Alessio Bologna, "L'Orlando ariostesco in Virginia Woolf, in Id., Studi di letteratura "popolare" e onomastica tra Quattro e Cinquecento", Pisa, ETS 2007, pp. 75-85 ("Nominatio. Collana di Studi Onomastici").


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The skating party on the Thames was featured in "Simple Gifts", a Christmas collection of six animated shorts shown on PBS in 1977.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The 1981 film "Freak Orlando," by German artist, writer, and director Ulrike Ottinger, is an adaptation of the story, blending it with aspects of Tod Browning's 1931 seminal scifi/ horror film, "Freaks."


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: The novel has been adapted for theatre and film. In 1989 the American director Robert Wilson, and writer Darryl Pinckney collaborated on a theatrical production. A British film adaptation was released in 1992, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: A second theatre adaptation of "Orlando", by Sarah Ruhl, was first presented by the Piven Theatre Workshop in Evanston, Illinois in 1998. It was presented by The Actors' Gang Theater in Los Angeles in 2003. The play premiered Off-Broadway in New York in 2010. It subsequently premiered for the Sydney Theatre Company in Australia at the Sydney Opera House starring Jacqueline McKenzie in the title role.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: In 2016, composer Peter Aderhold and librettist Sharon L. Joyce premiered an opera based on the work at the Braunschweig State Theater, as well as an opera by Olga Neuwirth, premiered in the Vienna State Opera in December 2019.


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comics feature Orlando, starting with a mention in "The New Traveller's Almanac" and short story and cameo in "". Orlando is then featured as a main character in "" and "".


title: Orlando: A Biography

text: A new theatre adaptation by Neil Bartlett, directed by Michael Grandage, and starring Emma Corrin is set to open in London's West End in autumn 2022.


title: Pony Express

text: The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company.


title: Pony Express

text: During its 18 months of operation, the Pony Express reduced the time for messages to travel between the east and west US coast to about 10 days. It became the west's most direct means of eastwest communication before the first transcontinental telegraph was established (October 24, 1861), and was vital for tying the new U.S. state of California with the rest of the United States.


title: Pony Express

text: Despite a heavy subsidy, the Pony Express was not a financial success and went bankrupt in 18 months, when a faster telegraph service was established. Nevertheless, it demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system of communications could be established and operated year-round. When replaced by the telegraph, the Pony Express quickly became romanticized and became part of the lore of the American West. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of hardy riders and fast horses was seen as evidence of rugged American individualism of the frontier times.


title: Pony Express

text: The idea of having a fast mail route to the Pacific Coast was prompted largely by California's newfound prominence and its rapidly growing population. After gold was discovered there in 1848, thousands of prospectors, investors, and businessmen made their way to California, at that time a new territory of the U.S. By 1850, California entered the Union as a free state. By 1860, the population had grown to 380,000. The prospect of California and its national role became the source of bitter partisan debate in Congress. The demand for a faster way to get the mail and other communications to and from this westernmost state became even greater as the American Civil War approached.


title: Pony Express

text: William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell were the three founders of the Pony Express. They were already in the freighting and drayage business. At the peak of the operations, they employed 6,000 men, owned 75,000 oxen, thousands of wagons, and warehouses, plus a sawmill, a meatpacking plant, a bank, and an insurance company.


title: Pony Express

text: Russell was a prominent businessman, well respected among his peers and the community. Waddell was co-owner of the firm Morehead, Waddell & Co. In 1859, C.R. Morehead took the proposal for the Pony Express to President Buchanan. After Morehead was bought out and moved to Leavenworth to enter the mercantile business, Waddell merged his company with Russell's, changing the name to Waddell & Russell. In 1855, they took on a new partner, Alexander Majors, and founded the company of Russell, Majors & Waddell. They held government contracts for delivering army supplies to the western frontier, and Russell had a similar idea for contracts with the U.S. government for fast mail delivery.


title: Pony Express

text: By using a short route and mounted riders rather than traditional stagecoaches, they proposed to establish a fast mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, with letters delivered in 10 days, which many said was impossible. The initial price was set at $5 per , then $2.50, and by July 1861 to $1. The initial price was 25000% higher than the price of mail through the normal mail service, which was $0.02. The founders of the Pony Express hoped to win an exclusive government mail contract, but that did not come about.


title: Pony Express

text: Russell, Majors, and Waddell organized and put together the Pony Express in two months in the winter of 1860. The undertaking assembled 80 riders, 184 stations, 400 horses, and several hundred personnel during January and February 1861.


title: Pony Express

text: Majors was a religious man and resolved "by the help of God" to overcome all difficulties. He presented each rider with a special-edition Bible and required this oath, which they were also required to sign.


title: Pony Express

text: In 1860, the roughly 186 Pony Express stations were about apart along the Pony Express route. At each station, the express rider would change to a fresh horse, taking only the mail pouch called a "mochila" (from the Spanish for pouch or backpack) with him.


title: Pony Express

text: The employers stressed the importance of the pouch. They often said that, if it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the "mochila" did. The "mochila" was thrown over the saddle and held in place by the weight of the rider sitting on it. Each corner had a "cantina," or pocket. Bundles of mail were placed in these "cantinas", which were padlocked for safety. The" mochila" could hold of mail along with the of material carried on the horse. Eventually, everything except one revolver and a water sack was removed, allowing for a total of on the horse's back. Riders, who could not weigh over , changed about every , and rode day and night. In emergencies, a given rider might ride two stages back to back, over 20 hours on a quickly moving horse.


title: Pony Express

text: Whether riders tried crossing the Sierra Nevada in winter is unknown, but they certainly crossed central Nevada. By 1860, a telegraph station was in Carson City, Nevada Territory. The riders received $125 a month as pay. As a comparison, the wage for unskilled labor at the time was about $0.43–$1 per day, and for semi-skilled laborers like bricklayers and carpenters was usually less than $2 per day.


title: Pony Express

text: Alexander Majors, one of the founders of the Pony Express, had acquired more than 400 horses for the project. He selected horses from around the west, paying an average of $200. These averaged about high and each; thus, the name pony was appropriate, even if not strictly correct in all cases.


title: Pony Express

text: Beginning at St. Joseph, Missouri, the approximately route roughly followed the Oregon and California Trails to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, and then the Mormon Trail (known as the Hastings Cutoff) to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there, it followed the Central Nevada Route to Carson City, Nevada Territory, before passing over the Sierra and reaching to Sacramento, California. From there mail was transferred to boats to go downriver to San Francisco.


title: Pony Express

text: The route started at St. Joseph, Missouri, on the Missouri River, and then followed what is modern-day U.S. Highway 36 (the Pony Express Highway) to Marysville, Kansas, where it turned northwest following Little Blue River to Fort Kearny in Nebraska. Through Nebraska, it followed the Great Platte River Road, cutting through Gothenburg, Nebraska, clipping the edge of Colorado at Julesburg; and passing Courthouse Rock, Chimney Rock, and Scotts Bluff, before arriving first at Fort Laramie and then Fort Caspar (Platte Bridge Station) in Wyoming. From there, it followed the Sweetwater River, passing Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, and Split Rock, through South Pass to Fort Bridger and then south to Salt Lake City, Utah. From Salt Lake City, it generally followed the Central Nevada Route blazed in 1859 by Captain James H. Simpson of the Corps of Topographical Engineers. This route roughly follows today's US 50 across Nevada and Utah. It crossed the Great Basin, the Utah-Nevada Desert, and the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe before arriving in Sacramento. Mail was transferred and sent by steamer down the Sacramento River to San Francisco. On a few instances when the steamer was missed, riders took the mail by horseback to Oakland, California.


title: Pony Express

text: Along the long and arduous route used by the Pony Express, 190 stations were used. The stations and station keepers were essential to the successful, timely, and smooth operation of the Pony Express mail system. The stations were often fashioned out of existing structures, several of them located in military forts, while others were built anew in remote areas where living conditions were very basic. The route was divided into five divisions. To maintain the rigid schedule, 157 relay stations were located from apart, as the terrain would allow. At each "swing station", riders would exchange their tired mounts for fresh ones, while "home stations" provided room and board for the riders between runs. This technique allowed the mail to be moved across the continent in record time. Each rider rode about per day.


title: Pony Express

text: The first westbound Pony Express trip left St. Joseph on April 3, 1860, and arrived 10 days later in Sacramento, California, on April 14. These letters were sent under cover from the east to St. Joseph, and never directly entered the U.S. mail system. Today, only a single letter is known to exist from the inaugural westbound trip from St. Joseph to Sacramento. It was delivered in an envelope embossed with postage (depicted below) that was first issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1855.


title: Pony Express

text: The messenger delivering the "mochila" from New York and Washington, DC, missed a connection in Detroit and arrived in Hannibal, Missouri, two hours late. The railroad cleared the track and dispatched a special locomotive called "Missouri" with a one-car train to make the trek across Missouri in a record 4 hours and 51 minutes, an average of . It arrived at Olive and 8th Street, a few blocks from the company's new headquarters in a hotel at Patee House at 12th and Penn Street, St. Joseph, and the company's nearby stables on Penn Street. The first pouch contained 49 letters, five private telegrams, and some papers for San Francisco and intermediate points.


title: Pony Express

text: St. Joseph Mayor M. Jeff Thompson, William H. Russell, and Alexander Majors gave speeches before the "mochila" was handed off. The ride began at about 7:15 pm. The "St. Joseph Gazette" was the only newspaper included in the bag.


title: Pony Express

text: The identity of the first rider has long been in dispute. The St. Joseph "Weekly West" (April 4, 1860) reported Johnson William Richardson was the first rider.


title: Pony Express

text: Johnny Fry is credited in some sources as the rider. Nonetheless, the first westbound rider carried the pouch across the Missouri River ferry to Elwood, Kansas. The first horse-ridden leg of the Express was only about from the Express stables/railroad area to the Missouri River ferry at the foot of Jules Street. Reports indicated that horse and rider crossed the river. In later rides, the courier crossed the river without a horse and picked up his mount at a stable on the other side.


title: Pony Express

text: The first eastbound Pony Express trip left Sacramento on April 3, 1860, and arrived at its destination 10 days later in St. Joseph, Missouri. From St. Joseph, letters were placed in the U.S. mails for delivery to eastern destinations. Only two letters are known to exist from the inaugural eastbound trip.


title: Pony Express

text: As the Pony Express mail service existed only briefly in 1860 and 1861, few examples of Pony Express mail survive. Contributing to the scarcity of Pony Express mail is that the cost to send a letter was $5.00 at the beginning (, or 2 days of semi-skilled labor). By the end of the Pony Express, the price had dropped to $1.00 per ounce but even that was considered expensive to mail one letter. Only 250 known examples of Pony Express mail remain.


title: Pony Express

text: Various postmarks were added to the mail to be carried by the Pony Express at the point of departure.


title: Pony Express

text: William Russell, senior partner of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, and one of the biggest investors in the Pony Express, used the 1860 presidential election, of Abraham Lincoln, as a way to promote the Pony Express and how fast it could deliver the U.S. Mail. This was an important event because just four years earlier, in the prior election, it took months to get news of James Buchanan’s win.  The election of Lincoln was important because the newly-named president would have to take the country into the Civil War. Prior to the election, Russell hired extra riders to ensure that fresh riders and relay horses were available along the route. On November 7, 1860, a Pony Express rider departed Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory (the end of the eastern telegraph line) with the election results. Riders briskly traversed the route, over snow-covered trails to Fort Churchill, Nevada Territory (the end of the western telegraph line). California's newspapers received word of Lincoln's election only 7 days and 17 hours after the East Coast papers, an "unrivaled feat at the time".


title: Pony Express

text: The Paiute War was a minor series of raids and ambushes initiated by American expansion into the territory of the Paiute Indian tribe in Nevada, which resulted in the disruption of mail services of the Pony Express. It took place from May through June 1860, though sporadic violence continued for a period afterward.


title: Pony Express

text: In the brief history of the Pony Express, only once did the mail not go through. After completing eight weekly trips from both Sacramento and Saint Joseph, the Pony Express was forced to suspend mail services because of the outbreak of the Paiute Indian War in May 1860.


title: Pony Express

text: About 6,000 Paiutes in Nevada had suffered during a winter of fierce blizzards that year. By spring, the whole tribe was ready to embark on a war, except for the Paiute chief named Numaga. For three days, Numaga fasted and argued for peace.


title: Pony Express

text: Meanwhile, a raiding party attacked Williams Station, a Pony Express station located on the then Carson River under present-day Lake Lahontan (reservoir), not to be confused with the large endorheic Pleistocene lake of the same name (Lake Lahontan). One account says the raid was a deliberate attempt to provoke war. Another says the raiders had heard that men at the station had kidnapped two Paiute women, and fighting broke out when they went to investigate and free the women. Either way, the war party killed five men and the station was burned.


title: Pony Express

text: During the following weeks, other isolated incidents occurred when Whites in the Paiute country were ambushed and killed. The Pony Express was a special target. Seven other express stations were also attacked; 16 employees were killed, and around 150 express horses were either stolen or driven off. Those who worked at the stations had no one around, possibly for miles, to help defend against the attacks, making working at the stations one of the deadliest jobs in the whole operation. The Paiute War cost the Pony Express company about $75,000 in livestock and station equipment, not to mention the loss of life. In June of that year, the Paiute uprising had been ended through the intervention of U.S. government troops, after which four delayed mail shipments from the East were finally brought to San Francisco on June 25, 1860.


title: Pony Express

text: During this brief war, one Pony Express mailing, which left San Francisco on July 21, 1860, did not immediately reach its destination. That mail pouch ("mochila") did not reach St. Joseph and subsequently New York until almost two years later.


title: Pony Express

text: In 1860, riding for the Pony Express was difficult work – riders had to be tough and lightweight. An advertisement allegedly read, "Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred", but one historian, Joseph Nardone, claims that it is a hoax (dating no earlier than 1902), as no one has found the ad in contemporary newspaper archives.


title: Pony Express

text: The Pony Express had an estimated 80 riders traveling east or west along the route at any given time. In addition, about 400 other employees were used, including station keepers, stock tenders, and route superintendents. Many young men applied; Waddell and Majors could have easily hired riders at low rates, but instead offered $100 a montha handsome sum for that time. Author Mark Twain described the riders in his travel memoir "Roughing It" as: "... usually a little bit of a man". Though the riders were small, lightweight, generally teenaged boys, they came to be seen as heroes of the American West. There was no systematic list of riders kept by the company, but a partial list has been compiled by Raymond and Nancy Settle in their "Saddles & Spurs" (1972).


title: Pony Express

text: James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok never worked as a rider and only worked as a stocktender for the Pony Express.


title: Pony Express

text: The identity of the first westbound rider to depart St. Joseph has been disputed, but currently most historians have narrowed it down to either Johnny Fry or Billy Richardson. Both Expressmen were hired at St. Joseph for A. E. Lewis' Division, which ran from St. Joseph to Seneca, Kansas, a distance of . They covered at an average speed of , including all stops. Before the mail pouch was delivered to the first rider on April 3, 1860, time was taken out for ceremonies and several speeches. First, Mayor M. Jeff Thompson gave a brief speech on the significance of the event for St. Joseph. Then William H. Russell and Alexander Majors addressed the gala crowd about how the Pony Express was just a "precursor" to the construction of a transcontinental railroad. At the conclusion of all the speeches, around 7:15 pm, Russell turned the mail pouch over to the first rider. A cannon fired, the large assembled crowd cheered, and the rider dashed to the landing at the foot of Jules Street, where the ferry boat "Denver", under a full head of steam, alerted by the signal cannon, waited to carry the horse and rider across the Missouri River to Elwood, Kansas Territory. On April 9 at 6:45 pm, the first rider from the east reached Salt Lake City, Utah. Then, on April 12, the mail pouch reached Carson City, Nevada Territory, at 2:30 pm. The riders raced over the Sierra Nevada, through Placerville, California, and on to Sacramento. Around midnight on April 14, 1860, the first mail pouch was delivered by the Pony Express to San Francisco. With it was a letter of congratulations from President Buchanan to California Governor Downey along with other official government communications, newspapers from New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, and other important mail to banks and commercial houses in San Francisco. In all, 85 pieces of mail were delivered on this first trip.


title: Pony Express

text: James Randall is credited as "the first eastbound rider" from the San Francisco Alta telegraph office, since he was on the steamship "" to go to Sacramento. Mail for the Pony Express left San Francisco at 4:00 pm, carried by horse and rider to the waterfront, and then on by steamboat to Sacramento, where it was picked up by the Pony Express rider. At 2:45 am, William (Sam) Hamilton was the first Pony Express rider to begin the journey from Sacramento. He rode all the way to Sportsman Hall Station, where he gave his "mochila "filled with mail to Warren Upson. A California Registered Historical Landmark plaque at the site reads:


title: Pony Express

text: Probably more than any other rider in the Pony Express, William Cody (better known as Buffalo Bill) epitomizes the legend and the folklore, be it fact or fiction, of the Pony Express. Numerous stories have been told of young Cody's adventures as a Pony Express rider, though his accounts may have been fabricated or exaggerated. At age 15, Cody was on his way west to California when he met Pony Express agents along the way and signed on with the company. Cody helped in the construction of several way-stations. Thereafter, he was employed as a rider and was given a short delivery run from the township of Julesburg, which lay to the west. After some months, he was transferred to Slade's Division in Wyoming, where he is said to have made the longest nonstop ride from Red Buttes Station to Rocky Ridge Station and back when he found that his relief rider had been killed. This trail of was completed in 21 hours and 40 minutes, and 21 horses were required. On one occasion when he is said to have carried mail, he unintentionally ran into an Indian war party, but managed to escape. Cody was present for many significant chapters in early western history, including the gold rush, the building of the railroads, and cattle herding on the Great Plains. A career as a scout for the Army under General Phillip Sheridan following the Civil War earned him his nickname and established his notoriety as a frontiersman.


title: Pony Express

text: "Pony Bob" Haslam was among the most brave, resourceful, and best-known riders of the Pony Express. He was born in January 1840 in London, United Kingdom, and came to the United States as a teenager. Haslam was hired by Bolivar Roberts, helped build the stations, and was given the mail run from Friday's Station at Lake Tahoe to Buckland's Station near Fort Churchill, to the east.


title: Pony Express

text: His greatest ride, in 8 hours and 20 minutes while wounded, was an important contribution to the fastest trip ever made by the Pony Express. The mail carried Lincoln's inaugural address. Indian problems in 1860 led to Haslam's record-breaking ride. He had received the eastbound mail (probably the May 10 mail from San Francisco) at Friday's Station. When he reached Buckland's Station, his relief rider was so badly frightened over the Indian threat that he refused to take the mail. Haslam agreed to take the mail all the way to Smith's Creek for a total distance of without a rest. After a rest of 9 hours, he retraced his route with the westbound mail, where at Cold Springs, he found that Indians had raided the place, killing the station keeper and running off all of the stock. On the ride, he was shot through the jaw with an Indian arrow, losing three teeth.


title: Pony Express

text: Pony Bob continued to work as a rider for Wells Fargo and Company after the Civil War, scouted for the U.S. Army well into his 50s, and later accompanied his good friend "Buffalo Bill" Cody on a diplomatic mission to negotiate the surrender of Chief Sitting Bull in December 1890. He drifted in and out of public mention, but died in Chicago during the winter of 1912 (age 72) in deep poverty after suffering a stroke. Buffalo Bill paid for his friend's headstone at Mount Greenwood Cemetery (111 Street and Sacramento) on Chicago's far south side.


title: Pony Express

text: Jack Keetley was hired by A. E. Lewis for his division at the age of 19 and put on the run from Marysville to Big Sandy. He was one of those who rode for the Pony Express during the entire 19 months of its existence.


title: Pony Express

text: Jack Keetley's longest ride, upon which he doubled back for another rider, ended at Seneca, where he was taken from the saddle sound asleep. He had ridden in 31 hours without stopping to rest or eat. After the Pony Express was disbanded, Keetley went to Salt Lake City, where he engaged in mining. He died there on October 12, 1912, where he was also buried.


title: Pony Express

text: Billy Tate was a 14-year-old Pony Express rider who rode the express trail in Nevada near Ruby Valley. During the Paiute uprising of 1860, he was chased by a band of Paiute Indians on horseback and was forced to retreat into the hills behind some big rocks, where he killed seven of his assailants in a shoot-out before being killed himself. His body was found riddled with arrows, but was not scalped, a sign that the Paiutes honored their enemy.


title: Pony Express

text: Egan emigrated to the United States from Ireland with his parents in the early 1830’s. While living in Massachusetts, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as "Mormons"). He was with the Pioneer Party of 1847 that journeyed to the west to modern day Salt Lake City, Utah. At the start of the Pony Express, he was appointed Superintendent of the Division from Salt Lake City to Robert’s Creek which is in present day Nevada. Egan filled in when others couldn’t ride. After the Pony Express, he ranched and became involved with the court system in Utah.


title: Pony Express

text: At the west end of the Pony Express route in California, W.W. Finney purchased 100 head of short-coupled stock called "California horses", while A.B. Miller purchased another 200 native ponies in and around the Great Salt Lake Valley. The horses were ridden quickly between stations, an average distance of , and then were relieved and a fresh horse was exchanged for the one that just arrived from its strenuous run.


title: Pony Express

text: During his route of , a Pony Express rider would change horses 8 to 10 times. The horses were ridden at a fast trot, canter, or gallop, around and at times they were driven to full gallop at speeds up to . Horses of the Pony Express were purchased in Missouri, Iowa, California, and some western U.S. territories.


title: Pony Express

text: The various types of horses ridden by riders of the Pony Express included Morgans and thoroughbreds, which were often used on the eastern end of the trail. Mustangs were often used on the western (more rugged) end of the mail route.


title: Pony Express

text: In 1844, years before the Pony Express came to St. Joseph, Israel Landis opened a small saddle and harness shop there. His business expanded as the town grew, and when the Pony Express came to town, Landis was the ideal candidate to produce saddles for the newly founded Pony Express. Because Pony Express riders rode their horses at a quick pace over a distance of or more between stations, every consideration was made to reduce the overall weight the horse had to carry. To help reduce this load, special lightweight saddles were designed and crafted. Using less leather and fewer metallic and wood components, they fashioned a saddle that was similar in design to the regular stock saddle generally in use in the West at that time.


title: Pony Express

text: The mail pouch was a separate component to the saddle that made the Pony Express unique. Standard mail pouches for horses were never used because of their size and shape, as detaching and attaching it from one saddle to the other was time-consuming, causing undue delay in changing mounts. With many stops to make, the delayed time at each station would accumulate to appreciable proportions. To get around this difficulty, a "mochila" (a covering of leather) was thrown over the saddle. The saddle horn and cantle projected through holes that were specially cut to size in the "mochila". Attached to the broad leather skirt of the "mochila" were four "cantinas", or box-shaped hard leather compartments, where letters were carried on the journey.


title: Pony Express

text: During its brief time in operation, the Pony Express delivered about 35,000 letters between St. Joseph and Sacramento. Although the Pony Express proved that the central/northern mail route was viable, Russell, Majors, and Waddell did not get the contract to deliver mail over the route. The contract was instead awarded to Jeremy Dehut in March 1861, who had taken over the southern, congressionally favored Butterfield Overland Mail Stage Line. The so-called "Stagecoach King", Ben Holladay, acquired the Russell, Majors, and Waddell stations for his stagecoaches.


title: Pony Express

text: Shortly after the contract was awarded, the start of the American Civil War caused the stage line to cease operation. From March 1861, the Pony Express ran mail only between Salt Lake City and Sacramento. The Pony Express announced its closure on October 26, 1861, two days after the transcontinental telegraph reached Salt Lake City and connected Omaha, Nebraska, and Sacramento. Other telegraph lines connected points along the line and other cities on the east and west coasts.


title: Pony Express

text: In 1866, after the Civil War was over, Holladay sold the Pony Express assets along with the remnants of the Butterfield Stage to Wells Fargo for $1.5 million.


title: Pony Express

text: In 1869, the United States Post Office issued the first U.S. postage stamp to depict an actual historic event, and the subject chosen was the Pony Express. Until then, only the faces of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson were found on the face of U.S. postage. Sometimes mistaken for an actual stamp used by the Pony Express, the "Pony Express Stamp" issue was released in 1869 (8 years after the Pony Express service had ended) to honor the men who rode the long and sometimes dangerous journeys and to commemorate the service they provided for the nation. In 1940 and 1960, commemorative stamps were issued for the 80th and 100th anniversaries of the Pony Express, respectively.


title: Pony Express

text: The foundation of accountable Pony Express history rests in the few tangible areas where records, papers, letters, and mailings have yielded the most historical evidence. Until the 1950s, most of what was known about the short-lived Pony Express was the product of a few accounts, hearsay, and folklore, generally true in their overall aspects, but lacking in verification in many areas for those who wanted to explore the history surrounding the founders, the various riders, and station keepers, or who were interested in stations or forts along the Pony Express route.


title: Pony Express

text: The most complete books on the Pony Express are "The Story of the Pony Express" by Raymond and Mary Settle and "Saddles and Spurs" by Roy Bloss. Settle's account is unique, as he was the first writer and historical researcher to make use of Pony Express founder William B. Waddell's papers, now in a collection at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Mr. Settle wrote in the mid-1950s. Mr. Bloss was a writer for the Pony Express Centennial. While Settle's work was published generally without his annotations and notes, the writer's background here is unique and Settle does have an excellent bibliography. When Settle prepared to publish his well-researched account, he had a good volume of footnotes, citations prepared, but the editors chose not to use most of them. Instead, they opted for a less expensive approach to print and publish and released an accurate, but simplified account. Settle was not pleased with this new and sudden development, as he put much time and effort into the annotations. Yet, the account Settle wrote was and is a definitive one and is considered the best account on the history of the Pony Express among many historians.


title: Pony Express

text: The Pony Express route was designated the Pony Express National Historic Trail August 3, 1992, by an act of Congress. Its route goes through eight states and includes substantial sections of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management in California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.


title: Pony Express

text: The public can auto-tour the route, visit interpretive sites and museums, and hike, bike, or horseback ride various trail segments. Sites open to public visitation along the trail include the Sand Mountain Recreation Area in Nevada; automobile access to a backcountry byway (the Pony Express Trail National Back Country Byway) along the route itself, Boyd Station and Simpson Springs Campground in Utah; and the Little Sandy Crossing in Wyoming. In total, approximately 120 historic sites along the trail may eventually be open to the public, including 50 stations or station ruins.


title: Pony Express

text: The National Pony Express Association is a nonprofit, volunteer-led historical organization. Its purpose is to preserve the original Pony Express trail and to continue the memory and importance of Pony Express in American history in partnership with the National Park Service, Pony Express Trail Association, and Oregon-California Trails Association.


title: Pony Express

text: From 1866 until 1889, the Pony Express logo was used by stagecoach and freight company Wells Fargo, which provided secure mail service. Wells Fargo used the Pony Express logo for its guard and armored-car services. The logo continued to be used when other companies took over the security business into the 1990s. Since 2001, the Pony Express logo is no longer used for security businesses, since the business has been sold.


title: Pony Express

text: In June 2006, the United States Postal Service announced it had trademarked "Pony Express" along with "Air Mail".


title: Pony Express

text: April 3, 2010 was the Pony Express's 150th anniversary. Located in St. Joseph, Missouri, the Patee House Museum, which was the Pony Express's headquarters, hosted events celebrating the anniversary.


title: Pony Express

text: The continued remembrance and popularity of the Pony Express can be linked to Buffalo Bill Cody, his autobiographies, and his Wild West Show. The first book dedicated solely to the Pony Express was not published until 1900. However, in his first autobiography, published in 1879, Cody claims to have been an Express rider. While this claim has recently come under dispute, his show became the "primary keeper of the pony legend" when it premiered as a scene in the Wild West Show.


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: The Dragon, also known as Loong, () is the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 辰, pronounced "chen".


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: It has been proposed by one academic researcher that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares. In the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, the Dragon is replaced by the nāga. In the Gurung zodiac, the Dragon is replaced by the eagle. In Old Turkic calendar it is replaced by the fish or crocodile. Early Persian translations of the medieval period change to dragon to a sea serpent although in current times is generally refer to as whale.


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: During the Cultural Revolution, giant panda was situated in the place of the dragon although this didn't last long.


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Dragon", while bearing the following elemental sign:


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: There are typically marked spikes in the birth rates of countries that use the Chinese zodiac or places with substantial Overseas Chinese populations during the year of the Dragon, because such "Dragon babies" are considered to be lucky and have desirable characteristics that supposedly lead to better life outcomes. The relatively recent phenomenon of planning a child's birth in the Dragon year has led to hospital undercapacity issues and even an uptick in infant mortality rates toward the end of these years due to strained neonatal resources.


title: Dragon (zodiac)

text: Cycle: (Trine Group) Dragon needs Monkey, Monkey needs Rat, Rat needs Dragon, (Opposite Sign) his rivalry needs to oppose the Dog.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport County in 1890 after the County Borough of Stockport. The team have played in blue and white kits since 1914; their original colours were red and white. The club are nicknamed "The Hatters" after the town's former hat-making industry. Stockport have played at Edgeley Park since 1902.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport first joined the Football League in 1900 but had to seek re-election in 1904. The club were not re-elected and spent one season outside the competition before they returned for the 1905–06 season. County then played in the Football League continuously for 106 years until 2011, mostly in the lower divisions. The team won their first league championship in 1922, the newly created Third Division North. Two league championships followed in 1937 (Third Division North) and 1967 (Fourth Division). The 1990s was the team's most successful period, when Stockport competed in the First Division for five seasons and reached the League Cup semi-finals in 1996–97. County also made four appearances at Wembley Stadium during this period, two in the Football League Trophy and two in the Football League play-offs, but lost on each occasion.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: After financial difficulties in the early 2000s, the club fell back down the divisions, and were relegated out of the Football League at the end of the 2010–11 season, followed by relegation to the sixth tier in 2012–13. Stockport stabilised on and off the pitch in the following seasons, and won promotion to the fifth tier in 2018–19. County topped the fifth tier - the National League - in 2021–22, securing promotion back to the EFL after an 11-year absence.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport County was formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers at McLaughlin's Cafe in Heaton Norris, by a group of pupils from Stockport Sunday School. After playing home matches in different parks in the Stockport area for several years, Rovers moved to Green Lane in 1889. This is recognised as their first official ground. The club changed its name to Stockport County in 1890 after the County Borough of Stockport. The team played in the Lancashire League and local cup competitions until 1900, when they gained admission to the Football League Second Division.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport left Green Lane in 1902 and moved to Edgeley Park, which was also home to rugby league club Stockport RFC. County finished in the bottom three for their first four seasons, and failed to gain re-election at the end of the 1903–04 season.<ref name="Division 2 1903/04"></ref> After spending one season in the Lancashire Combination, the club was readmitted to the Football League. In October 1908, it was confirmed that Stockport County would become a 'limited liability company'. The team remained in the Second Division for seven years until the 1912–13 season, when they again had to seek re-election. Stockport gained 22 votes and retained their Football League status.<ref name="Division 2 1912/13"></ref>


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: David Ashworth was appointed as the team's first manager in 1914. After the outbreak of the First World War, competitive football was suspended. Stockport did, however, complete in the Lancashire section of the Wartime Football League, which was played from 1915–16 to 1918–19. Ashworth managed County throughout the war until the end of 1919, when he joined Liverpool.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The 1920–21 campaign saw Stockport finish bottom of the Second Division; however, instead of facing re-election, they were placed in the new Third Division North.<ref name="Division 2 1920/21"></ref> The team won their first Football League title in 1921–22, when they defeated Darlington in front of 18,500 fans at Edgeley Park. The manager Albert Williams was presented with the trophy seven days later, before the final home game against Lincoln City.<ref name="Division 3 (North) 1921/22"></ref> The club's goalkeeper Harry Hardy was called up for the England national team in 1924, and kept a clean sheet in a 4–0 win against Belgium. Stockport remained in the Third Division North during the 1920s, with two consecutive second-place finishes but failed to gain promotion.<ref name="DIVISION 3 (North) 1928/29"></ref><ref name="DIVISION 3 (North) 1929/30"></ref>


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: In the early 1930s, Stockport County played in a black and white home kit, and were briefly nicknamed the 'Lilywhites'. On 23 July 1935, Edgeley Park's wooden main stand burned down, which caused damage to neighbouring houses. The fire also destroyed the club's records until 1935. A new main stand was built in 1936 and officially opened by Charles Sutcliffe, then president of the Football League. In 1936–37, the team won the Third Division North title and promotion to the Second Division following a last-day title decider against Lincoln City which was attended by more than 27,000 fans. They finished in bottom place the following season and were relegated back to the Third Division North, remaining there until the divisions were reorganised in 1958.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: During the 1939–40 season, Stockport played only two matches before the Second World War started; the Football League was suspended and did not resume until 1946.<ref name="Division 3 (North) 1939/40"></ref> Regional league competitions were set up; the FA Cup was also suspended and was replaced with the Football League War Cup. In March 1946, Stockport hosted Doncaster Rovers in a League Three North Cup match which lasted 203 minutes, and is considered the longest professional football game.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The regional Third Divisions were combined into the national Third and Fourth Divisions after the 1957–58 campaign. County were founder member of the new Third Division, but were relegated after one season.<ref name="Division 3 1958/59"></ref> During the 1964–65 season, Stockport chairman Vic Bernard re-introduced the royal blue strip, and hired former Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann as the club's general manager to improve its image. Bernard and Trautmann decided to move matches to Friday evenings in an attempt to increase revenue. Trautmann resigned from his position in 1966. County returned to the Third Division by winning the Fourth Division in 1966–67.<ref name="Division 4 1966/67"></ref>


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The club was relegated back to the Fourth Division at the end of the 1969–70 campaign, and remained in the fourth tier until 1991. Eric Webster managed Stockport on five separate occasions, four of which were as caretaker manager during the 1980s, having first joined the club in 1974 as youth coach. Following the introduction of automatic promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Football Conference at the start of the 1986–87 season, Stockport faced the prospect of non-League football, with just six points from 13 games. However, Colin Murphy was brought in for his second spell as manager, and Stockport gained 45 points from their final 31 games to remain in the division, although Murphy left shortly after the season.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: With Stockport bottom of the First Division in October 2001, a home defeat against Millwall saw manager Andy Kilner sacked. Former England international Carlton Palmer was appointed in November 2001, but he failed to save the club from relegation to the third tier that season. Palmer was unable to build a team capable of returning to the First Division the next season. The summer of 2003 saw an ownership change. Elwood sold the club to Sale Sharks owner Brian Kennedy in a move that would see Sale play their home games at Edgeley Park. A new company, Cheshire Sport, was established, which combined ownership of Stockport County, Sale Sharks and the Edgeley Park stadium.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: In 2005, after reportedly losing £4 million in operating costs, Kennedy handed ownership of the club to the Stockport County Supporters' Co-operative. Former County player Jim Gannon was appointed manager, initially as caretaker manager. He led the club to safety in 2005–06, and sustained a promotion challenge the next season but eventually missed out on the League Two play-offs on goal difference. The team continued their success during the 2007–08 season and reached the play-offs in which they faced Rochdale in the Final at Wembley. Stockport came from behind to win the game and earn promotion to League One.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: In April 2009, Stockport County was placed into administration due to a loan to a creditor of around £300,000, and a tax debt of £250,000 to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. Two months later, County's administrator, Leonard Curtis, announced terms had been agreed with the Melrose Consortium—headed by ex-Manchester City player Jim Melrose—for the sale of the club. In July, administrators agreed to a company voluntary arrangement with the previous shareholders and creditors. The Melrose Consortium bid was rejected by the Football League, however, in March 2010. A new consortium, the 2015 Group, was given exclusivity to work towards a takeover of the club.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The purchase of Stockport County by the 2015 Group was approved by the Football League in May 2010, with the takeover announced in June. Before the start of the 2010–11 season, the new owners pledged to "rebuild the club from top to bottom", and appointed Paul Simpson as manager. He was sacked after only six months in charge, and Ray Mathias was brought in as interim manager. Despite an upturn in results, County were relegated to the Football Conference for the first time in their history.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: After relegation, a Liverpool-based businessman tried—and ultimately failed—to buy the club. Dietmar Hamann, who had no prior managerial experience, was named manager in July 2011. He won only three of nineteen matches before resigning, after his position had been undermined by a fans' meeting in November. The fans called for Gannon to be re-appointed as manager. He was reinstated, steered Stockport away from the relegation zone and finished 16th.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The club regained sole tenancy of their Edgeley Park stadium for the first time in nine years in 2012, after Sale Sharks relocated to Salford City Reds' new ground. In January 2013, former "fcbusiness" magazine editor, 30-year-old Ryan McKnight was named as the chief executive officer at County. Gannon was subsequently dismissed for a second time. Stockport employed two further managers in three months, and were relegated to the Conference North on the final day of the 2012–13 season. The club announced it was to lose its full-time status, and proceeded with a part-time model. McKnight announced his resignation in April 2014.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Neil Young was named as Stockport's new manager in 2015, after he had previous successes in the division with Chester, but departed in January 2016. County once again turned to Gannon, who returned for a third stint. He stabilised the club on the pitch and finished around the play-offs places for the next two seasons.<ref name="National League North Table 2016/17"></ref><ref name="National League North Table 2017/18"></ref> In 2017, a local search was carried out to locate descendants of the club's founders. In 2018–19, Stockport reached the semi-finals of the FA Trophy and won the Conference North, their first league title in 52 years.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Local businessman Mark Stott purchased County for an undisclosed fee in January 2020, and cleared its debts; Stott pledged to return the club to full-time football, to reach the Football League and to find a new training ground. County topped the fifth tier - the National League - in 2021–22, securing promotion back to the EFL after an 11-year absence.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport County's traditional kit colours are blue and white, although they have played in other colours throughout their history. Stockport's original colours were possibly red and white, although other sources suggest they wore blue and white during their early years. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, County played in white jerseys and black shorts. No set pattern has been established for the use of blue and white as the team's main colours. They have played at various times in a white jersey with a blue band and blue shorts, and a blue jersey with white pin stripes and white shorts. The club experimented for a short time with an Argentina-style kit, light blue and white stripes with black shorts, after the 1978 World Cup. This was abandoned after the outbreak of the Falklands War, and it returned to blue and white striped tops with blue shorts in the early 1980s. Stockport marked their 125th anniversary during 2008 by bringing in a third kit—a gold colour with black trim. It retired 'undefeated' at the end of the year, having been worn for 13 victories and four draws.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The club former crest, which was used from 1991 until 2010 when the club exited administration, was based on the arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. It was altered in 2006 to resemble the town's arms more closely, including the Latin motto "Animo et Fide", which loosely translated means "With Courage and Faith". The blue shield is taken from the coat of arms of the de Stokeport family, from whom Stockport derives its name. The twin-towered castle above the shield is Stockport Castle, which stood until 1775.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: After takeover of the club by the 2015 Group in 2010, a new crest was adopted. It was still based on the Stockport coat of arms, though the Latin motto was removed, along with a patch of green at the base of the badge; the flag of Cheshire, featuring a sword and three wheatsheaves, replaced the golden lozenges and crosslets in the shield. The medals hanging from the lion's rampant (which represented Cheshire and Lancashire, owing to Stockport's location astride the River Mersey which forms the historic border between the two counties) were removed. It also saw the return of a football on the shield. This change was made in part because as of the 2010–11 season, Stockport County was sponsored by the town's Metropolitan Borough Council. The crest was further altered in 2011 to re-include the town's motto. The new version added two white ribbons—one at the top, with "Animo et Fide", and one at the bottom with "Stockport County F.C.". In addition, the football was again removed from the shield. Stockport County Supporters' Co-operative used the blue on white cross from the 1978 badge as the main identifier in their company logo.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The club's kit was manufactured by local company Umbro, who supplied all three kits for the 2013–14 season. Stockport was Umbro's flagship partner for their relaunch in the UK. From the start of the 2014–15 season, Stockport again changed their kit manufacturer, from Umbro to Spanish-based company Joma.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Heaton Norris Rovers originally played home matches at the Heaton Norris Recreation Ground, then at various locations in Stockport until settling at a park on Green Lane, Heaton Norris, in 1889. The nearby Nursery Inn served as the team's home, with players using a barn as changing rooms. The club played at Green Lane for its first two seasons in the Football League.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The stadium had one main stand that ran the length of the pitch, and a raised bank behind one of the goals. The remainder of the ground was uncovered terracing, with turnstiles located at the back of the Nursery Inn.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: By 1902, County required a larger ground and moved to Edgeley Park, then home of the rugby league club Stockport RFC. Green Lane was retained for use by the club's reserve team, although one further first team game was played at the ground in April 1903, when Edgeley Park was used by the rugby club. The Green Lane site was later used for housing.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: In 1995, a new 5,000 all-seated Cheadle End stand was built to replace the terrace. In late 2000, chairman Brendan Elwood considered moving Stockport to Maine Road, the home of rivals Manchester City. The potential move was unpopular with supporters, and protests were staged after it was suggested that the club would change its name to Man-Stock County. The Manchester City Council ultimately decreed that rugby union club Sale Sharks would make better tenants. Maine Road was demolished in 2004 to make way for a housing estate, and Edgeley Park was then shared with Sale whose parent company, Cheshire Sports, owned the ground. In 2001, The Railway End, opposite the Cheadle End, was the last part of Edgeley Park to be converted to seating, and took the stadium's total capacity to 10,852.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: There was another rumour that Stockport would leave its home ground in 2012. This was dismissed by chairman Peter Snape, before Sale Sharks confirmed that they would be moving to Salford City Reds' new stadium. It left Stockport County as the only tenants at Edgeley Park. In May 2012, County renamed the Main Stand "The Danny Bergara Stand" in honour of the club's former manager.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council purchased the stadium in 2015, to prevent it from being demolished and redeveloped. After a plea from fans to safeguard the ground, an emergency council meeting was held, and the stadium was purchased for £2 million. It is currently leased back to the club. In February 2022, the club agreed a 250-year lease of Edgeley Park from Stockport council.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: With both Manchester United and Manchester City F.C. located around from Edgeley Park, Stockport County has always vied with top level clubs for local support. During the mid-1960s, the Football League introduced a minimum admission price for all clubs in the four professional tiers, attempting to boost revenue for smaller clubs. It had the opposite effect in places like Stockport, where many other league clubs were in relatively close proximity. As a result, County moved all their home games to Friday evening, which generated larger crowds and extra business in surrounding pubs and restaurants.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: In 2004, the club attracted a crowd of more than 20,000 for one of its tour matches in China. Stockport were watched by 22,000 in Yingkou against their then sister side Stockport Tiger Star. It is possible this attendance was a result of County's association with their affiliate team, and Tiger Stars' name change to include 'Stockport' two years before.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The 2006–07 season saw the club average the fourth highest average attendance in League Two. There was a further increase the following season with Stockport's away support outnumbering home supporters on a number of occasions. Stockport County had an average away attendance of over 900, the highest in the division. The club set a National League North record attendance, when 4,797 people attended a home fixture with F.C. United in December 2015. This attendance was broken again three times in the following three seasons.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: The support from County fans has often been cited by managers and players, with the fans influence likened to having a twelfth player on the field. Between the 2006–07 and 2009–10 seasons, the squad number 12 was allocated to the 'Blue & White Army', in reference to the fans being the team's 12th man. However, for the 2010–11 season, the number reverted to one of the players. It was given back to the fans upon the club's return to the National League in 2019.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Some famous Stockport County fans have included darts player Tony O'Shea and singer-songwriter Daz Sampson. O'Shea has written articles in the club's matchday programme and has also worn County's colours in all of his televised darts matches. Sampson became a lifelong member of the Stockport County Supporters' Trust after he released "The Tinpot County Song", which paid tribute to the team's Football League record of nine consecutive wins without conceding a goal.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: 'Help the Hatters' is a group of volunteers who raise money for the club and help with the maintenance of Edgeley Park. They also organised the 'Players Fund', which paid the wages of young players, and gave the Stockport County Supporters' Co-operative shares in the club. The group transformed the club's Legends Lounge into the Stockport County Museum, which was opened by former player George Haigh on his 102nd birthday.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport County Supporters' Co-operative is the other active supporters' group. It runs the Stockport County Appearance Number Scheme (SCAN), where every player who has played a first-team game is recognised with a framed certificate and a number which shows their position on the list of players who made their debut for the club.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: As the two nearby Manchester clubs have rarely been in the same division as Stockport, historically there has been little rivalry with either club until the 1990s, when the rivalry between County and Manchester City took form between 1997 and 2002. The two clubs spent three out of five seasons in the same division and during the 1998–99 season, Stockport were a division above City. The rivalry is made more complex by the large number of Manchester City supporters who reside in Stockport.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: During their days in the Football League, the club also had significant local rivalries with Oldham Athletic, Rochdale, Bury, Crewe Alexandra, and now-defunct Macclesfield Town. According to a survey in 2003, County supporters include more distant clubs Burnley and Stoke City among their main rivals for more historical reasons.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: This list contains the names of all past players/club staff who have been inducted into the Stockport County Hall of Fame.


title: Stockport County F.C.

text: Stockport County won nine league matches in succession without conceding a goal from January to March 2007 under manager Jim Gannon, a Football League record. Wayne Hennessey, then on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, kept a clean sheet in his first nine games in professional football. Hennessey received the League Two Player of the Month award in March. The other players involved were: Robert Clare, Michael Rose, Ashley Williams, Gareth Owen, Stephen Gleeson, Jason Taylor, Adam Griffin, David Poole, Damien Allen, Anthony Pilkington, Tony Dinning, Dominic Blizzard, Liam Dickinson, Adam Proudlock, Tes Bramble and Anthony Elding.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colchester therefore claims to be Britain's first city. It has been an important military base since the Roman era, with Colchester Garrison currently housing the 16th Air Assault Brigade.


title: Colchester

text: Situated on the River Colne, Colchester is northeast of London. The city is connected to London by the A12 road and the Great Eastern Main Line railway. Colchester is less than from London Stansted Airport and from the port of Harwich.


title: Colchester

text: Attractions in and around the city include Colchester United Football Club, Colchester Zoo, and several art galleries. Colchester Castle was constructed in the eleventh century on earlier Roman foundations; it now contains a museum. The main campus of the University of Essex is located just outside the city. Local government is the responsibility of the City of Colchester and Essex County Council.


title: Colchester

text: There are several theories about the origin of the name "Colchester". Some contend that is derived from the Latin words "colonia" (referring to a type of Roman settlement with rights equivalent to those of Roman citizens, one of which was believed to have been founded in the vicinity of Colchester) and "castra", meaning "fortifications" (referring to the city's walls, the oldest in Britain). The earliest forms of the name Colchester are "Colenceaster" and "Colneceastre" from the 10th century, with the modern spelling of "Colchester" being found in the 15th century. In this way of interpreting the name, the River Colne which runs through the city takes its name from "Colonia" as well. Cologne (German "Köln") also gained its name from a similar etymology (from its Roman name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium).


title: Colchester

text: Other etymologists are confident that the Colne's name is of Celtic (pre-Roman) origin, sharing its origin with several other rivers Colne or Clun around Britain, and that Colchester is derived from "Colne" and "Castra". Ekwall went as far as to say "it has often been held that Colchester contains as first element [Latin] "colonia" ... this derivation is ruled out of court by the fact that Colne is the name of several old villages situated a good many miles from Colchester and on the Colne. The identification of Colonia with Colchester is doubtful."


title: Colchester

text: The gravel hill upon which Colchester is built was formed in the Middle Pleistocene period, and was shaped into a terrace between the Anglian glaciation and the Ipswichian glaciation by an ancient precursor to the River Colne. From these deposits beneath the city have been found Palaeolithic flint tools, including at least six Acheulian handaxes. Further flint tools made by hunter gatherers living in the Colne Valley during the Mesolithic have been discovered, including a tranchet axe from Middlewick. In the 1980s an archaeological inventory showed that over 800 shards of pottery from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and early Iron Age have been found within Colchester, along with many examples of worked flint. This included a pit found at Culver Street containing a ritually placed Neolithic grooved ware pot, as well as find spots containing later Deverel-Rimbury bucket urns. Colchester is surrounded by Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments that pre-date the town, including a Neolithic henge at Tendring, large Bronze Age barrow cemeteries at Dedham and Langham, and a larger example at Brightlingsea consisting of a cluster of 22 barrows.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester is said to be the oldest recorded town in Britain on the grounds that it was mentioned by Pliny the Elder, who died in AD 79, although the Celtic name of the town, "Camulodunon" appears on coins minted by tribal chieftain Tasciovanus in the period 2010 BC. Before the Roman conquest of Britain it was already a centre of power for Cunobelin known to Shakespeare as Cymbeline king of the Catuvellauni (c. 5 BCAD 40), who minted coins there. Its Celtic name, Camulodunon, variously represented as CA, CAM, CAMV, CAMVL and CAMVLODVNO on the coins of Cunobelinus, means 'the fortress of [the war god] Camulos'. During the 30s AD Camulodunon controlled a large swathe of Southern and Eastern Britain, with Cunobelin called ""King of the Britons"" by Roman writers. Camulodunon is sometimes popularly considered one of many possible sites around Britain for the legendary (perhaps mythical) Camelot of King Arthur, though the name "Camelot" (first mentioned by the 12th century French Arthurian storyteller Chrétien de Troyes) is most likely a corruption of "Camlann", a now unknown location first mentioned in the 10th century Welsh annalistic text Annales Cambriae, identified as the place where Arthur was slain in battle.


title: Colchester

text: Soon after the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, a Roman legionary fortress was established, the first in Britain. Later, when the Roman frontier moved outwards and the twentieth legion had moved to the west (c. AD 49), Camulodunum became a colonia named in a second-century inscription as "Colonia Victricensis". This contained a large and elaborate Temple to the Divine Claudius, the largest classical-style temple in Britain, as well as at least seven other Romano-British temples. Colchester is home to two of the five Roman theatres found in Britain; the example at Gosbecks (site of the Iron Age royal farmstead) is the largest in Britain, able to seat 5,000.


title: Colchester

text: Camulodunum served as a provincial Roman capital of Britain, but was attacked and destroyed during Boudica's rebellion in AD 61. Sometime after the destruction, London became the capital of the province of Britannia. Colchester's city walls c. 3,000 yd. long were built c.65–80 A.D. when the Roman town was rebuilt after the Boudicca rebellion. In 2004, Colchester Archaeological Trust discovered the remains of a Roman Circus (chariot race track) underneath the Garrison in Colchester, a unique find in Britain. The city reached its peak in the second and third centuries AD. It may have reached a population of 30,000 in that period.


title: Colchester

text: In 2014 a hoard of jewellery, known as The Fenwick Hoard, named for the shop it was found beneath, was discovered in the town centre. The director of Colchester Archaeological Trust, Philip Crummy, described the hoard as being of "national importance and one of the finest ever uncovered in Britain".


title: Colchester

text: There is evidence of hasty re-organisation of Colchester's defences around 268–82 AD, followed later, during the fourth century, by the blocking of the Balkerne Gate. John Morris suggested that the name Camelot of Arthurian legend was probably a reference to Camulodunum, the capital of Britannia in Roman times.


title: Colchester

text: The archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler was the first to propose that the lack of early Anglo-Saxon finds in a triangle between London, Colchester and St Albans could indicate a 'sub-Roman triangle' where British rule continued after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. Since then excavations have revealed some early Saxon occupation, including a fifth-century wooden hut built on the ruins of a Roman house in present-day Lion Walk. Archaeological excavations have shown that public buildings were abandoned, and is very doubtful whether Colchester survived as a settlement with any urban characteristics after the sixth century.


title: Colchester

text: The chronology of its revival is obscure. But the ninth-century "Historia Brittonum", attributed to Nennius, mentions the town, which it calls "Cair Colun", in a list of the thirty most important cities in Britain. Colchester was in the area assigned to the Danelaw in c.880, and remained in Danish hands until 917 when it was besieged and recaptured by the army of Edward the Elder. The tenth-century Saxons called the town "Colneceastre", which is directly equivalent to the "Cair Colun" of 'Nennius'. The tower of Holy Trinity Church is late Saxon work.


title: Colchester

text: Medieval Colchester's main landmark is Colchester Castle, which is an 11th-century Norman keep, and built on top of the vaults of the old Roman temple. There are notable medieval ruins in Colchester, including the surviving gateway of the Benedictine abbey of St John the Baptist (known locally as "St John's Abbey"), and the ruins of the Augustinian priory of St Botolph (known locally as "St Botolph's Priory"). Many of Colchester's parish churches date from this period.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester's medieval town seal incorporated the biblical text "Intravit ihc: in quoddam castellum et mulier quedam excepit illum"


title: Colchester

text: `Jesus entered a certain castle and a woman there welcomed him' (Luke 10.38). This is a commonplace allegory in which a castle is likened to Mary's womb, and explains the name of Maidenburgh St, neighbouring the castle.


title: Colchester

text: In 1189, Colchester was granted its first known royal charter by King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart), although the wording suggests that it was based on an earlier one. It granted Colchester's burgesses the right to elect bailiffs and a justice. The borough celebrated the 800th anniversary of its charter in 1989.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester developed rapidly during the later 14th century as a centre of the woollen cloth industry, and became famous in many parts of Europe for its russets (fabrics of a grey-brown colour). This allowed the population to recover exceptionally rapidly from the effects of the Black Death, particularly by immigration into the town.


title: Colchester

text: By the 'New Constitutions' of 1372, a borough council was instituted; the two bailiffs who represented the borough to the king were now expected to consult sixteen ordinary councillors and eight auditors (later called aldermen). Even though Colchester's fortunes were more mixed during the 15th century, it was still a more important place by the 16th century than it had been in the 13th. In 1334 it would not have ranked among England's wealthiest fifty towns, to judge from the taxation levied that year. By 1524, however, it ranked twelfth, as measured by its assessment to a lay subsidy.


title: Colchester

text: Between 1550 and 1600, a large number of weavers and clothmakers from Flanders emigrated to Colchester and the surrounding areas. They were famed for the production of "Bays and Says" cloths which were woven from wool and are normally associated with Baize and Serge although surviving examples show that they were rather different from their modern equivalents. An area in Colchester town centre is still known as the Dutch Quarter and many buildings there date from the Tudor period. During this period Colchester was one of the most prosperous wool towns in England, and was also famed for its oysters. Flemish refugees in the 1560s brought innovations that revived the local cloth trade, establishing the Dutch Bay Hall for quality control of the textiles for which Colchester became famous. The old Roman wall runs along Northgate Street in the Dutch Quarter.


title: Colchester

text: In the reign of "Bloody Mary" (1553–1558) Colchester became a centre of Protestant "heresy" and in consequence at least 19 local people were burned at the stake at the Castle, at first in front, later within the walls. They are commemorated on a tablet near the altar of St Peter's Church.


title: Colchester

text: The town saw the start of the Stour Valley riots of 1642, when the town house of John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas of Shenfield was attacked by a large crowd. In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, a Royalist army led by Lord Goring entered the town. A pursuing Parliamentary army led by Thomas Fairfax and Henry Ireton surrounded the town for eleven and a half weeks, a period known as the Siege of Colchester. It started on 13 June. The Royalists surrendered in the late summer (on 27 August Lord Goring signed the surrender document in the Kings Head Inn) and Charles Lucas and George Lisle were executed in the grounds of Colchester Castle. A small obelisk marks the spot where they fell.


title: Colchester

text: Daniel Defoe mentions in "A tour through England and Wales" that the town lost 5259 people to the plague in 1665, ""more in proportion than any of its neighbours, or than the city of London"". By the time he wrote this in 1722, however, he estimated its population to be around 40,000 (including "out-villages").


title: Colchester

text: Between 1797 and 1815 Colchester was the HQ of the Army's Eastern District, had a garrison of up to 6,000, and played a main role in defence against a threatened French or Dutch invasion, At various times it was the base of such celebrated officers as Lord Cornwallis, Generals Sir James Craig and David Baird, and Captain William Napier. It was in a state of alarm during the invasion threat of 1803/4, a period well chronicled by the contemporary local author Jane Taylor.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester is noted for its Victorian architecture. Significant landmarks include the Colchester Town Hall and the Jumbo Water Tower.


title: Colchester

text: In 1884, the city was struck by the Colchester earthquake, estimated to have been 4.7 on the Richter Scale causing extensive regional damage.


title: Colchester

text: The Paxman diesels business has been associated with Colchester since 1865 when James Noah Paxman founded a partnership with the brothers Henry and Charles Davey ('Davey, Paxman, and Davey') and opened the Standard Ironworks. In 1925, Paxman produced its first spring injection oil engine and joined the English Electric Diesel Group in 1966later becoming part of the GEC Group. Since the 1930s the Paxman company's main business has been the production of diesel engines.


title: Colchester

text: In the early 20th century Colchester lobbied to be the seat for a new Church of England diocese for Essex, to be split off from the existing Diocese of Rochester. The bid was unsuccessful, with county town Chelmsford forming the seat of the new diocese.


title: Colchester

text: In the 2nd World War Colchester's main significance lay in its infantry and light-anti-aircraft training units, and in the Paxman factory, which supplied a large proportion of the engines for British submarines and landing craft. Occasionally bombed by stray single German aircraft in 1940 and 1941, in 1942 more serious attempts to hit its industries were made by the Luftwaffe. None of these attacks hit its target, but in the 11 August raid bombs exploded on Severall's psychiatric hospital, killing 38 elderly patients. In February 1944 a single raider caused a huge fire in the St Botolph's area which gutted warehouses, shops and part of Paxman's Britannia Works. The total wartime bombing death toll in the borough was 55.


title: Colchester

text: (Sources:--Eastern Command, 11 Corps, various divisional, brigade and battalion, and Colchester Garrison war diaries in WO 166 series at National Archives, Kew; 4 Civil Defence Region reports in HO 192/193 series at National Archives; CW 1 Police Incident records at Essex County Record Office).


title: Colchester

text: The University of Essex was established just outside the city boundaries at Wivenhoe Park in 1961. The £22.7M A120 Colchester Eastern Bypass opened in June 1982.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester and the surrounding area is currently undergoing significant regeneration, including controversial greenfield residential development in Mile End and Braiswick. At the time of the 2011 UK Census, Colchester and its surrounding built up area had a population of 121,859, marking a considerable rise from the previous census and with considerable development since 2001 and ongoing building plans; it has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. The local football team, Colchester United, moved into a brand new stadium at Cuckoo Farm in 2008.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester, Camulodunum and Colonia Victricensis forms one of 38 sites seeking World Heritage Site status, with a shortlist to be submitted to UNESCO for consideration in 2011.


title: Colchester

text: On 20 May 2022, it was announced that as part of the Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours, Colchester would receive city status. It was slated to receive the status formally by letters patent on 12 September 2022, however following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the ceremony was postponed. On 29 September 2022, the letters patent was made public, with Colchester receiving city status dated 5 September 2022 by the late Queen.


title: Colchester

text: Colchester is in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom with average annual precipitation at , although among the wetter places in Essex. Colchester is generally regarded as having an Oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification "Cfb") like the rest of the United Kingdom. Its easterly position within the British Isles makes Colchester less prone to Atlantic depressions and weather fronts but more prone to droughts. This is because, like most areas in southeast England, Colchester's weather is influenced more by Continental weather patterns than by Atlantic weather systems. This leads to a dry climate compared to the rest of the UK all year round and occasional (relative) extremes of temperatures during the year (occasional high 20°Cs/low 30°Cs during the summer) and quite a few nights below freezing during the winter months (daytime high temperatures are seldom below freezing). Any rainfall that does come from Atlantic weather systems is usually light, but a few heavy showers and thunderstorms can take place during the summer. Snow falls on average 13 days a year during winter and early spring.


title: Colchester

text: The highest temperature recorded in Colchester was in August 2003 (during the 2003 European heat wave), and the lowest was in December 2010.