title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The base is named for Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1822–1893), an American Navy Lieutenant and a Brigadier General in the California Militia who was an explorer and frontiersman in California. Beale Air Force Base covers nearly of rolling hills in northern California. It is a large base in terms of land and has five gates providing access on all sides of the base. Visitors enter the base through a main gate that local merchants, individuals and the Beale Military Liaison Committee donated $100,000 to construct. The base is home for approximately 4,000 military personnel.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The base's natural resources are as rich as its significant culture and history. Native Americans lived on this land; the mortar bowls they carved into the bedrock lie embedded in a shallow stream. German prisoners of war (POWs) were held captive on the base during World War II; a block of barred prison cells still stands at the base, and the drawings of the POWs remain vivid on the walls of the prison cells. To preserve these and other historic areas, the base proudly maintains 38 Native American sites, 45 homestead sites, and 41 World War II sites.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1940, the "Camp Beale" area consisted of grassland and rolling hills and the 19th century mining town of Spenceville. Marysville city officials encouraged the Department of War to establish a military facility in the area. The U.S. government purchased in 1942 for a training post for the 13th Armored Division, the only unit of its kind to be entirely trained in California. Camp Beale also held training facilities for the 81st and 96th Infantry Division, and a 1,000-bed hospital. Dredge tailings from the area's abandoned gold mines were used to build streets at the Camp.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: As a complete training environment, Camp Beale had tank maneuvers, mortar and rifle ranges, a bombardier-navigator training, and chemical warfare classes. At its peak during World War II, Camp Beale had 60,000 personnel.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Camp Beale also housed a German POW camp, and served as the main camp for a series of satellite POW camps around northern California. Branch camps were established at Arbuckle, in Colusa County (200 Germans); Chico, in Butte County (475 Germans); Davis, in Yolo County (250 Germans); Napa, in Napa County (250 Germans); and Windsor, in Sonoma County (250 Germans). All of the camps provided agriculture manpower to local farms and ranchers. German POWs at Beale also provided manpower for base support operations.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1948, Camp Beale became Beale AFB, its mission being to train bombardier navigators in radar techniques. Beale AFB established six bombing ranges of each and the U.S. Navy also used Beale for training. From 1951 on, Beale trained Aviation Engineers and ran an Air Base Defense School. These additional activities led to rehabilitation of existing base facilities and construction of rifle, mortar, demolition, and machine gun ranges.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1952 Beale AFB was placed in inactive status for conversion to an operational airbase. Headquarters, Aviation Engineer Force administered the base for the next six years while a runway was laid down, and appropriate support facilities (hangars, maintenance shops, warehouses, barracks, and other infrastructure) was laid out and constructed. The 2275th Air Base Squadron was the coordinating organization during the construction period. Also in 1952, Beale stopped being used as a bombing range and the U.S. Government declared portions of Camp Beale/Beale AFB as excess, eventually transferring out .


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Eventually excess land from the former Army Camp was sold off to the public. On 21 December 1959, on the eastern side of the Base were sold at auction. An additional was transferred to the State of California between 1962 and 1964, and now comprise the Spenceville Wildlife and Recreation Area. In 1964–1965, another were sold at auction. In deeds for the former Camp Beale property, the Federal Government recommended that the property have surface use only.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1959 Air Defense Command (ADC) established a Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Data Center (DC-18) was established at Beale AFB. The SAGE system was a network linking Air Force (and later FAA) General Surveillance Radar stations into a centralized center for Air Defense, intended to provide early warning and response for a Soviet nuclear attack. The Ground Air Transmitting Receiving (GATR) Site (R-18) for communications was located at , approximately 1.1 miles south-southwest from the SAGE building. Normally the GATR site was connected by a pair of buried telephone cables, with a backup connection of dual telephone cables overhead.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: DC-18 was initially under the San Francisco Air Defense Sector (SFADS), established on 15 February 1959. DC-18 and the SFADS was inactivated on 1 August 1963 as part of an ADC consolidation and reorganization, with its assigned units assigned to other ADC Sectors. The GATR was reassigned to Mill Valley AFS (Z-38) as an annex designated OL-A, 666th Radar Squadron. Today the large SAGE building is now building 2145, housing the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron; the GATR was inactivated in 1980 and the building is now part of a Skeet-shooting range.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 8 February 1959, Strategic Air Command established Beale as an operational USAF base. It activated the 4126th Strategic Wing to disperse its B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to destroy the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In May 1959, Colonel (later General) Paul K. Carlton assumed command of the recently activated 4126th Strategic Wing. The first two KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft arrived two months later on 7 July 1959 as part of the 903d Air Refueling Squadron. On 18 January 1960, the 31st Bombardment Squadron with its B-52G Stratofortresses arrived at Beale to become part of the wing. The 14th Air Division (14 AD) moved to Beale from Travis Air Force Base one week later.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: One third of the aircraft were maintained on 15-minute alert, fully fueled, armed, and ready for combat. SAC Strategic Wings were considered a provisional unit by HQ, USAF and could not carry a permanent history or lineage.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 30 January 1959, the Air Force announced plans to conduct surveys in the vicinity of Beale to determine the feasibility for missile bases. On 17 September, Col. Paul Calton, Commander of Beale's 4126th Strategic Wing, announced that the base would be the fifth HGM-25A Titan I missile installation. Three complexes with three weapons each (3 x 3) were located 25 miles southwest, 37 miles west, and 71 miles northwest of Beale near the respective communities of Lincoln, Live Oak, and Chico.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The Air Force activated the 851st Strategic Missile Squadron (Titan I) on 1 April 1961. The first missile was moved to the 4A complex at Lincoln on 28 February 1962, where workers had difficulty placing the missile in the silo. Follow-on missile installations went smoothly and the last missile was lowered into Chico complex 4C on 20 April 1962.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 24 May 1962, during a contractor checkout, a blast rocked launcher 1 at complex 4C at Chico, destroying a Titan I and causing heavy damage to the silo. After the investigation, the Air Force concluded that the two separate explosions occurred because of a blocked vent and blocked valve. On 6 June, a flash fire at another silo killed a worker.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In September 1962, the 851st SMS became the last Titan I Squadron to achieve alert status. After damages were repaired, the Chico complex became operational on 9 March 1963. Two months after the squadron became fully operational, SAC subjected the unit to an Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI). The 851st SMS became the first Titan I unit to pass.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 16 May 1964, Defense Secretary McNamara directed the accelerated phaseout of the Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. On 4 January 1965, the first Beale Titan I was taken off alert status. Within three months, the 851st Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1962, in order to retain the lineage of its MAJCOM 4-digit combat units and to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, Headquarters SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its MAJCOM strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate AFCON units, most of which were inactive at the time which could carry a lineage and history.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 4126th SW was redesignated as the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing (456th SAW) on 1 February 1963 in a name-only redesignation and was assigned to SAC's Fifteenth Air Force, 14th Strategic Aerospace Division. The 456th SAW was placed on operational status upon activation with the 31st BS being redesignated as the 744th Bombardment Squadron, the wing's former World War II bomb squadron. The 903d ARS and 851st SMS designations were unchanged, however component support units were redesignated to the 456th numerical designation of the newly established wing. As under the Tri-Deputate organization, all operational components were directly assigned to the wing, no operational group element was activated.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 456th SAW continued the mission of strategic bombardment and missile readiness training. The wing's bombardment and air refueling squadrons frequently deployed aircraft and crews to meet USAF requirements, often having nearly all of the resources of the wing scattered around the world at various operating locations. In 1963 the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing was featured as the fictional 904th Strategic Aerospace Wing in the Hollywood film production "A Gathering of Eagles", with the Air Force, SAC and the wing providing maximum support to the Universal Studios film crews.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In July 1965 the wing was redesignated the 456th Bombardment Wing, Heavy with the inactivation of the Titan I Missile squadron but continued to fly the B-52 and KC-135. During the 1960s and 1970s, SAC used various Air Force bases for dispersal. As part of this effort, the 456th Bombardment Wing at Beale deployed its Detachment 1 to Hill AFB, Utah. A$2 million alert facility large enough to accommodate seven B-52 and KC-135 aircraft was constructed and the first of four B-52s assigned there arrived on 28 December 1973. Det 1 was activated 1 January 1973 and discontinued on 1 July 1975.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 456th BW was inactivated on 30 September 1975, and its equipment and personnel were redesignated as the 17th Bombardment Wing, Heavy when the senior unit was inactivated at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. This was part of a consolidation of resources after the Vietnam War due to budget cuts, and the desire by HQ SAC to keep the senior unit on active duty.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: At Beale, the 17th continued global strategic bombardment alert to 30 June 1976 when it was inactivated as part of the phaseout of the B-52 at Beale. The wing's KC-135 tanker aircraft were subsequently reassigned to the 100th Air Refueling Wing, which SAC moved to Beale from Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, as part of SAC's phaseout from Davis-Monthan. The mission of the 100th ARW was primarily to refuel SR-71s of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. Concurrent with this action the 100th's U-2 aircraft at Davis-Monthan would merge with the 9 SRW and its SR-71 operations at Beale. The first U-2 arrived from Davis-Monthan on 12 July 1976, and until 26 January 1990, when budget restrictions forced the retirement of the SR-71, Beale was the home of two of the world's most unusual aircraft.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 1 October 1971, the 1883d Communications Squadron, reassigned from Kincheloe Air Force Base in Michigan, arrived at Beale AFB, remaining under the command of the Strategic Communications Area.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 100 ARW remained at Beale until 15 March 1983 when its assets were absorbed by the senior 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, which became a composite wing under the one-base, one-wing concept.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 1 July 1979, the 7th Missile Warning Squadron brought a PAVE Phased Array Warning System (PAVE PAWS) radar site to Beale, a Protection Level 1, 10-story structure that can detect possible attack by land-based and sea-launched ballistic missiles. A large three-sided structure, the PAVE PAWS hosted two large AN/FPS-115 phased-array radar antennas.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Located in a cantonment area on the outskirts of Beale, the renamed 7th Space Warning Squadron is now an Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) unit and it primarily uses its PAVE PAWS radar to detect submarine-launched ballistic missiles and disintegrating spacecraft and space debris. Mock missile attacks, site emergencies and simulated equipment failures also keep the Canadian and American crew busy. The 9th Security Forces Squadron provide security for the PAVE PAWS restricted area.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In the early 1970s SAC began to consolidate its B-52 assets as the age of the manned bomber was reduced with the advent of Intercontinental Strategic Ballistic Missiles. In addition, by 1966 the cost of the Vietnam War was forcing a review of the Defense Budget and by consolidating the strategic bomber force, also retiring older Stratofortresses, a significant cost reduction could be achieved.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 15 October 1964, the Department of Defense announced that Beale would be the home of the new, supersonic reconnaissance aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird. The provisional 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (4200 SRW) activated on 1 January 1965 in preparation for the realignment, and the new wing received its first aircraft, a T-38 Talon, on 8 July 1965. The first SR-71 did not arrive until 7 January 1966. The SR-71 was developed from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s for the Central Intelligence Agency by the Lockheed Skunk Works as a black project. During reconnaissance missions the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats; if a surface-to-air missile launch was detected, standard evasive action was simply to accelerate.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: With the arrival of the SR-71, the strategic bombardment mission at Beale was phased down, being replaced by the Strategic Reconnaissance mission. The 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was moved from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho and reassigned to Beale on 25 June 1966. The 9th RW has been the host unit at Beale to the current day.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: With the activation of the 9th SRW at Beale, the wing absorbed the assets of the provisional 4200th SW. This allowed it to stay with the 14th Strategic Aerospace Division. The wing performed strategic reconnaissance in Southeast Asia beginning in 1968, frequently deploying the SR-71 to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa where it operated over areas of the Pacific and Asia. The wing provided photographic intelligence for the Son Tay prison camp raid named Operation Ivory Coast, in North Vietnam, November 1970. After the Vietnam War, the SR-71 established a level-flight-at-altitude record at 85,131 feet and a straight-course speed record of 2,194 mph.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 1 July 1976, the U-2 joined the SR-71 in the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing giving the unit two of the most unusual aircraft in the world. The "Dragon Lady" had gained national and international recognition with flights over the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and Southeast Asia. The U-2 was the perfect complement to the SR-71. The Blackbird was designed to capture time-sensitive intelligence especially in denied airspace. Whereas the SR-71 was designed for rapid infiltration and exfiltration, the Dragon Lady was designed to loiter in its area of responsibility and continuously collect while in the air.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The SR-71 mission was closed on 1 January 1990. Although it made a brief revival in the mid-1990s, today the aircraft remains retired.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 1990–91, the wing deployed the largest contingent of U-2s ever to Saudi Arabia to support Operation DESERT SHIELD/STORM. The Dragon Lady tracked Iraqi troop and armor buildups, assessed bomb damage, and monitored a massive oil spill in the Persian Gulf. U-2 pilots alerted ground stations of Scud missile launches and guided fighter aircraft to destroy Scud launchers. After the Gulf War, the U-2 stayed in Saudi Arabia to monitor Iraqi compliance with the peace agreement. In 1998, the Dragon Lady set a weight-to-altitude record and in 1999 won the Collier Trophy, aviation's most coveted award.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In November 2019, command of the wing moved from the Twenty-Fifth Air Force to the newly re-activated Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber).


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: On 1 September 1991, the 14th Air Division inactivated and the Second Air Force, with a lineage stretching back to the Second World War, activated at Beale. Following the disestablishment of Strategic Air Command, 2 AF inactivated on 1 July 1993 and reactivated at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi as part of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) the same day.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 1883d Communications Squadron was inactivated in 1991. With the transfer of Air Force Communications Command units to host wings, the 9th Communications Squadron was activated and assigned to the 9th Support Group, 9th SRW, on 1 September 1991.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 9 SRW was transferred to the newly established Air Combat Command (ACC) and was redesignated as the 9th Reconnaissance Wing (9 RQW), operating the U-2 and T-38 Talon, while its KC-135Q aircraft and 350th Air Refueling Squadron (350 ARS) were transferred to the newly established Air Mobility Command (AMC).


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 2001, the historic 12th Reconnaissance Squadron joined the wing as the parent unit for the RQ-4 Global Hawk. An unmanned, remotely piloted high-altitude reconnaissance platform, the Global Hawk can linger over a target for 24 hours. In 2008, Beale received the Block 20 model and 2010 received the Block 30 model.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 2010, the MC-12W Liberty was moved to Beale Air Force Base and for a time there were two squadrons operating the aircraft. The 427th Reconnaissance Squadron was primarily the operational squadron, while the 489th conducted training. With its role taken over by the growing MQ-9 Reaper fleet, the Air Force decided to remove the Liberty aircraft from service, turning them over to the U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command, which was completed by October 2015. The Air Force's final MC-12W deployment for Afghanistan/OEF ended on 13 October 2015.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In July 1994, the 350 ARS transferred from Beale to McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, taking the last of the KC-135Q tankers with it. Tanker aircraft returned to Beale in 1998 when the 940th Air Refueling Wing (940 ARW), an Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) unit operationally gained by AMC, transferred to Beale with its KC-135R aircraft following the closure of its former home stations of Mather AFB, California in 1993 due to a 1988 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision and its subsequent home station of McClellan AFB, California in 1998 due to a 1993 BRAC decision.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Under the subsequent BRAC 2005, the 940 ARW's KC-135R aircraft were realigned and the last aircraft departed Beale by the end of 2008. The 940 ARW was redesignated as the 940th Wing (940 WG) and converted to an associate reconnaissance wing mission in partnership with the 9 RW, operating the RQ-4 Global Hawk. In this capacity, the wing was responsible for stand up and total force integration as an Air Force Reserve Command's multi-mission wing, including command & control, intelligence and RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance forces in support of Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces and the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In 2016, a decision was made to restore the AFRC KC-135 mission at Beale AFB and the 940 WG was again redesignated as the 940th Air Refueling Wing (940 ARW), taking custody of its first KC-135R aircraft in July 2016. Seven additional KC-135R aircraft followed and the wing again achieved a fully operational capability with the KC-135R in October 2016.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: In June 2016, the 940 WG was redesignated back to its previous title of the 940th Air Refueling Wing (940 ARW), reversing the earlier BRAC 2005 decision. The 940 ARW was again an Air Mobility Command (AMC)-gained unit of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) under Tenth Air Force (10 AF), with the first KC-135R aircraft arriving at Beale AFB on 10 July 2016. The remaining seven KC-135 aircraft incrementally followed, with the wing achieving full operating strength at Beale by October 2016.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: With the redesignation of the 940 ARW to its previous incarnation and its shift in operational claimancy to AMC, the 13th Reconnaissance Squadron (13 RS), which was previously assigned to the former 940 WG, was realigned as a geographically separated unit (GSU) of the 926th Wing (926 WG) at Nellis AFB, Nevada, and further assigned to the wing's 726th Operations Group (726 OG) at Creech AFB, Nevada. In this capacity, the 13 RS continues to concurrently operate RQ-4 Global Hawk at Beale AFB as a concurrent associate element to the 9 RW and remaining an Air Combat Command (ACC)-gained unit of AFRC.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 851st Strategic Missile Squadron operated three HGM-25A Titan I ICBM sites (1 February 1961 – 25 March 1965):


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Today, all three sites remain in various states of abandonment. Site "A" is being encroached by newly built single-family homes as the suburbs of Lincoln; the underground structures (approximately 30 acres) of the facility is currently owned by Placer County who uses the site to store and maintain road maintenance equipment. Since the site was deactivated, groundwater has inundated the facility, flooding the underground spaces. Site B, located in a rural area, is remarkably well preserved with all three launch silos still capped.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Site "C" was the location of two 1962 accidents. On 24 May during a contractor checkout, a terrific blast rocked launcher 1 at the complex, destroying a Titan I and causing heavy damage to the silo. On 6 June trouble again struck as a flash fire at another silo killed a worker. After the investigation, the Air Force concluded that the two separate explosions occurred because of a blocked vent and blocked valve. The silo was repaired and put back into operational service. Today, the site has all three launch silos capped, but some development has taken place on the launch area with a retention pond, some trees, and some single-story buildings being erected. It appears to be in use for some type of quarrying/grading material which is transported to construction sites in the Chico area.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: Beale Air Force Base spans of rolling hills in northern California. The base's natural resources are quite rich. Native Americans lived on this land, and the mortar bowls they carved into bedrock lie embedded in a shallow stream. German prisoners of war were held on the base during World War II. A block of prison cells still stands at the base, and the drawings of the POWs remain on the cell walls. The surprisingly detailed images were said to have been drawn with the heels of the prisoners' boots which probably helped protect them. To preserve these and other historic areas, the base maintains 38 Native American sites, 45 homestead sites, and 41 World War II sites.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The United States Census Bureau has designated Beale Air Force Base as a separate census-designated place (CDP) for statistical purposes, covering the base's residential population. Per the 2020 census, the population was 1,303.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Beale AFB had a population of 1,319. The population density was . The racial makeup of Beale AFB was 949 (71.9%) White, 117 (8.9%) African American, 32 (2.4%) Native American, 45 (3.4%) Asian, 8 (0.6%) Pacific Islander, 50 (3.8%) from other races, and 118 (8.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 191 persons (14.5%).


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The Census reported that 1,319 people (100% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: There were 382 households, out of which 289 (75.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 330 (87.4%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 26 (6.8%) had a female householder with no husband present, 10 (2.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 0 (0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 4 (3.78%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 12 households (3.1%) were made up of individuals, and 0 (0%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.45. There were 370 families (96.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.53.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: The population was spread out, with 577 people (43.7%) under the age of 18, 151 people (11.4%) aged 18 to 24, 538 people (40.8%) aged 25 to 44, 51 people (3.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 2 people (0.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 23.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.


title: Beale Air Force Base

text: There were 843 housing units at an average density of , of which 2 (0.5%) were owner-occupied, and 380 (99.5%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0%; the rental vacancy rate was 44.8%. 8 people (0.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,311 people (99.4%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Transaction processing is a way of computing that divides work into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. A transaction processing system (TPS) is a software system, or software/hardware combination, that supports transaction processing.


title: Transaction processing system

text: The first transaction processing system was SABRE, made by IBM for American Airlines, which became operational in 1964. Designed to process up to 83,000 transactions a day, the system ran on two IBM 7090 computers. SABRE was migrated to IBM System/360 computers in 1972, and became an IBM product first as "Airline control Program (ACP)" and later as "Transaction Processing Facility (TPF)". In addition to airlines TPF is used by large banks, credit card companies, and hotel chains.


title: Transaction processing system

text: The Hewlett-Packard NonStop system (formerly Tandem NonStop) was a hardware and software system designed for "Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)" introduced in 1976. The systems were designed for transaction processing and provided an extreme level of availability and data integrity.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Transaction processing is distinct from and can be contrasted with other computer processing models, such as batch processing, time-sharing, and real-time processing.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Batch processing is execution of a series of programs ("jobs") on a computer without manual intervention. Several transactions, called a "batch" are collected and processed at the same time. The results of each transaction are not immediately available when the transaction is being entered; there is a time delay.


title: Transaction processing system

text: "Real time systems attempt to guarantee an appropriate response to a stimulus or request quickly enough to affect the conditions that caused the stimulus."


title: Transaction processing system

text: A Transaction Processing System (TPS) is a type of information system that collects, stores, modifies and retrieves the data transactions of an enterprise.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Transaction processing systems also attempt to provide predictable response times to requests, although this is not as critical as for real-time systems. Rather than allowing the user to run arbitrary programs as time-sharing, transaction processing allows only predefined, structured transactions. Each transaction is usually short duration and the processing activity for each transaction is programmed in advance.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Fast performance with a rapid response time is critical. Transaction processing systems are usually measured by the number of transactions they can process in a given period of time.


title: Transaction processing system

text: The system must be available during the time period when the users are entering transactions. Many organizations rely heavily on their TPS; a breakdown will disrupt operations or even stop the business.


title: Transaction processing system

text: The system must be able to handle hardware or software problems without corrupting data. Multiple users must be protected from attempting to change the same piece of data at the same time, for example two operators cannot sell the same seat on an airplane.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Often users of transaction processing systems are casual users. The system should be simple for them to understand, protect them from data-entry errors as much as possible, and allow them to easily correct their errors.


title: Transaction processing system

text: The system should be capable of growth at incremental costs, rather than requiring a complete replacement. It should be possible to add, replace, or update hardware and software components without shutting down the system.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Transactions may be collected and processed as in batch processing. Transactions will be collected and later updated as a batch when it's convenient or economical to process them. Historically, this was the most common method as the information technology did not exist to allow real-time processing.


title: Transaction processing system

text: This is the immediate processing of data. It provides instant confirmation of a transaction. It may involve a large number of users who are simultaneously performing transactions which change data. Because of advances in technology (such as the increase in the speed of data transmission and larger bandwidth), real-time updating is possible.


title: Transaction processing system

text: A database is an organized collection of data. Databases offer fast retrieval times for non-structured requests as in a typical transaction processing application.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Databases for transaction processing may be constructed using hierarchical, network, or relational structures.


title: Transaction processing system

text: Since business organizations have become very dependent on transaction processing, a breakdown may disrupt the business' regular routine and stop its operation for a certain amount of time. In order to prevent data loss and minimize disruptions there have to be well-designed backup and recovery procedures. The recovery process can rebuild the system when it goes down.


title: Transaction processing system

text: This procedure involves taking complete backups of all data at regular intervals daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever is appropriate. Multiple generations of backup are retained, often three which gives rise to the name. The most recent backup is the son, the previous the father, and the oldest backup is the grandfather. This method is commonly used for a "batch transaction processing system" with a magnetic tape. If the system fails during a batch run, the master file is recreated by restoring the son backup and then restarting the batch. However, if the son backup fails, is corrupted or destroyed, then the previous generation of backup (the father) is used. Likewise, if that fails, then the generation of backup previous to the father (i.e. the grandfather) is required. Of course the older the generation, the more the data may be out of date. Organize only of records that have changed. For example, a full backup could be performed weekly, and partial backups taken nightly. Recovery using this scheme involves restoring the last full backup and then restoring all partial backups in order to produce an up-to-date database. This process is quicker than taking only complete backups, at the expense of longer recovery time.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is a 2016 American animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Based on the 1960s "Batman" TV series, the film stars the voices of Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar reprising their roles of Batman, Robin, and Catwoman from the series. In the film, Batman and Robin set out to defeat the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman, who have teamed up. Matters are further complicated when Batman gradually becomes more hostile.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Originally intended to be released directly on home media, the film premiered at the New York Comic Con on October 6, 2016, and had a simultaneous release in theaters on October 10, a digital release on October 11, and a physical home media release on DVD and Blu-ray on November 1.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: A sequel entitled "Batman vs. Two-Face" was released on October 10, 2017, four months after Adam West's death.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: At Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson watch their favorite show, "Gotham Palace". During the programming, a band that was supposed to play on the show is revealed to be hidden and replaced by the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, and Catwoman. Bruce and Dick suit up as Batman and Robin and head towards the Gotham City Police Department, where they receive a riddle from Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: They discover that the villains are robbing the Acme Atomic Energy Laboratory of the Replication Ray, which can duplicate anything. After a brief fight, the criminals manage to escape Batman, but leave behind a clue that leads the Caped Crusaders to their lair in an abandoned TV dinner factory. While discussing what to do with the Replication Ray, Catwoman reveals her plan to make Batman join their side with a scratch from a substance called "Batnip". After Batman and Robin break in, they are defeated by the criminals and trapped on a frozen food tray heading towards a large oven. Catwoman uses her Batnip on Batman, but he is supposedly unaffected by it. The two escape the trap after the villains leave the factory.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce starts showing signs of aggression after Aunt Harriet nearly discovers the Batcave. He blames Alfred Pennyworth for the incident and fires him, leaving the butler to wander on the streets homeless. After days of not finding Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman, Batman deduces that the four crooks are no longer on Earth and have hijacked a space station. He and Robin go into space with the help of their Bat-Rocket. At the space station, Joker, Penguin, and Riddler betray Catwoman, distrusting her due to her feelings for Batman. They try to throw her out into space, but she is rescued by the Dynamic Duo and aids them in defeating her former allies for revenge. Batman savagely beats the three men and recovers the Replication Ray, but Catwoman escapes in an escape pod in the process.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: After the mission, Dick expresses concern towards Bruce's increasingly hostile behavior. Bruce ejects Dick from the house and takes a break from being Batman, resulting in a crime spree in Gotham City. A few weeks later, Batman returns to the Gotham City Police Department and blames the police for the increase in crime. He uses the Replication Ray on himself to replace most of the government, jobs, and citizens in Gotham with his replicas, planning to take over the world. Dick, realizing that the Batnip had a delayed effect on Batman, goes to Catwoman's lair as Robin to request her help in curing Batman. She agrees, as the effects of the Batnip were more severe than she had planned.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: The two take the Catmobile to the Batcave, where Catwoman attempts to give Batman the antidote, but Batman anticipated it and took the Bat Anti-Antidote. Batman defeats the two in a fight and leaves them to die in the Atomic Pile, but they survive thanks to Robin's Bat Anti Isotope Spray. Knowing they cannot take on an army of Batmen by themselves, Robin and Catwoman disguise themselves as prison inspectors and break most of Batman's rogues gallery from Gotham State Penitentiary by claiming to Warden Crichton that the ball and chains and pickaxes are not in good shape, replacing them with versions that carry the villains out of the prison. While a prison guard tells Crichton that Joker, Penguin, and Riddler did not escape, the three of them mysteriously turn into a pile of dust.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: The two confront Batman and his army on the "Gotham Palace" set, but they still lose even with the help of the criminals. Before Batman kills Robin and Catwoman, a disguised Alfred arrives and gives Batman a strong enough antidote to counter the Bat Anti-Antidote. Batman returns to normal, and the rest of his clones turn to dust as the Replication Ray was not strong enough to make perfect clones. Batman realizes that his behavior change was used as a distraction by Joker, Penguin, and Riddler, and that the ones they arrested were copies; the real ones have been using the opportunity to rob the Gotham Art Museum. Batman, Robin, and Catwoman (who came as vengeance for what they did at the space station) chase them to Penguin's blimp, where the villainous trio is defeated after they are knocked off the blimp to a safe location to be arrested. Catwoman tries to escape with the stolen paintings, but Batman recovers them. Unwilling to be imprisoned, Catwoman allows herself to fall into a smokestack.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Bruce and Dick then throw Aunt Harriet a surprise birthday party, acting as if that is the secret they have been hiding from her. During the party, Bruce and Dick are called away by the Bat-Signal.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: West and Ward announced at the Mad Monster Party that one or two Batman animated films will be released on Digital HD, starting with "Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders" on October 11 and Blu-ray on November 1 in 2016. West, Ward and Newmar provided the voices of their respective characters for the series' 50th anniversary. Five decades after the original Batman series, West jokingly remarked that it took him "about twenty seconds" to get back into character.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Warner Home Video hosted the world premiere of "Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders" during the 2016 New York Comic Con on October 6. The film was later released digitally on October 11, while the deluxe edition DVD and combo pack Blu-ray of the film was released on November 1. Fathom Events cinemas released the film in select theaters for one night only on October 10. It also received a limited release in Australia on October 8 and 9 the same year.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics' consensus reads: "Adam West's groovy interpretation of "The Caped Crusader" returns in a new medium, popping in the realm of animation with the irascible energy of an exclamation-accented onomatopoeia".


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Dave Robinson of outlet "Crash Landed" awarded the film 3 stars out of 5, citing its success in capturing the iconic '60s television show but failing to be of the cinematic quality expected of an animated feature film.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: Scott Mendelson of "Forbes" gave the film a score of 7/10, writing: "I wish the film dove a little deeper into its subtext... but what's there is enjoyable and entertaining". Michelle Jaworski of "The Daily Dot" wrote that the film was "not a continuation of the TV series that first brought Batman to our screens 50 years ago (nor the DC series, which occurs in the same universe), but it embodies the spirit that made the series so endearing over the years". Renee Schonfeld of Common Sense Media gave the film 3/5 stars: "The campy, dynamic, and oh-so-self-aware "Batman" of 1960s TV has returned to delight old fans and inspire new ones with Adam West and Burt Ward along for the fast-moving ride".


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: The film debuted at No. 17 on the NPD VideoScan First Alert sales chart and No. 11 on the Blu-ray Disc sales chart in its first week. As of August 2017, it has earned over $1.1 million from domestic home video sales.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: A sequel, titled "Batman vs. Two-Face", was released in 2017 with William Shatner voicing Two-Face as the main antagonist. Burt Ward and Julie Newmar reprised their roles as Robin and Catwoman. On June 9, Batman's voice actor Adam West died from leukemia. According to Bleeding Cool, West and Shatner recorded their lines separately with West finishing his lines by October 2016.


title: Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders

text: After the success of "Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders", Warner Bros. had stated that their executives are also considering making an animated film based on the classic 1970s "Wonder Woman" TV series, with actress Lynda Carter reprising her role as Wonder Woman.


title: California bearing ratio

text: The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) is a measure of the strength of the subgrade of a road or other paved area, and of the materials used in its construction.


title: California bearing ratio

text: The ratio is measured using a standardized penetration test first developed by the California Division of Highways for highway engineering. Empirical tests measure the strength of the material and are not a true representation of the resilient modulus.


title: California bearing ratio

text: The CBR is the ratio of the bearing load that penetrates a material to a specific depth compared with the load giving the same penetration into crushed stone. The test measures neither Stiffness


title: California bearing ratio

text: Penetration is measured by applying the bearing load on the sample using a standard plunger of diameter 50 mm at the rate of 1.25 mm/min. The CBR is expressed as a percentage of the actual load causing the penetrations of 2.5 mm or 5.0 mm to the standard loads on crushed stone. A load penetration curve is drawn. The load values on standard crushed stones are and at 2.5 mm and 5.0 mm penetrations respectively.


title: California bearing ratio

text: The CBR test is a penetration test in which a standard piston, with a diameter of , is used to penetrate the soil at a standard rate of 1.25 mm/minute.


title: California bearing ratio

text: Although the force increases with the depth of penetration, in most cases, it does not increase as quickly as it does for the standard crushed rock, so the ratio decreases. In some cases, the ratio at 5 mm may be greater than that at 2.5 mm. If this occurs, the ratio at 5 mm should be used. The CBR is a measure of resistance of a material to penetration of a standard plunger under controlled density and moisture conditions. The test procedure should be strictly adhered to if a high degree of reproducibility is desired. The CBR test may be conducted on a remolded or undisturbed specimen in the laboratory. The test is simple and has been extensively investigated for field correlations of flexible pavement thickness requirement.


title: California bearing ratio

text: The laboratory CBR apparatus consists of a mould of 150 mm diameter with a base plate and a collar, a loading frame and dial gauges for measuring the penetration values and the expansion on soaking. If a soaked (wet) measurement is desired, the specimen in the mould is soaked in water for four days and the swelling and water absorption values are noted. The surcharge weight is placed on the top of the specimen in the mould and the assembly is placed under the plunger of the loading frame.


title: California bearing ratio

text: CBR values for common soil subgrades can be estimated according to the USC soil types, for example: clay around 2%, sand from 7% (poorly graded) to 10% (well graded), well graded sandy gravel 15%, clayey sand 5-20%, silty gravel 20-60%, gravel from 30-60% poorly-graded to 40-80% if well-graded.


title: Mike McMahan

text: Mike McMahan is an American comedy writer and television producer. He is the creator of the animated comedies "Solar Opposites" (with Justin Roiland) and "".


title: Mike McMahan

text: McMahan, a native of Chicago, first worked in production as an assistant at The Second City. From there, he was hired by Scott Rudin Productions as a production assistant, and worked on "Drawn Together" and "South Park".


title: Mike McMahan

text: McMahan served as a writer and producer on "Rick and Morty". He was one of the first writers hired for the series, as he had met co-creator Justin Roiland while working at 20th Century Fox Animation. McMahan described himself as "kind of the sci-fi guy" of the staff, and was promoted to showrunner for the show's fourth season, though he left during production to work on other projects. In 2018, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for his work as a supervising producer on the episode "Pickle Rick".


title: Mike McMahan

text: On August 28, 2018, Hulu announced it had ordered an animated comedy "Solar Opposites" created by McMahan and Roiland. The series premiered on May 8, 2020. In October 2018, McMahan was announced as the creator of "" for CBS All Access. More recently, he signed an overall deal with CBS Studios.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media (such as mainstream media or mass media) in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term "independent media" is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but this term is also used to indicate media enjoying freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada (later rebranded Aboriginal Peoples Television Network), and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.


title: Alternative media

text: In contrast to mainstream mass media, alternative media tend to be "non-commercial projects that advocate the interests of those excluded from the mainstream", for example, the poor, political and ethnic minorities, labor groups, and LGBT identities. These media disseminate marginalized viewpoints, such as those heard in the progressive news program "Democracy Now!", and create communities of identity, as seen for example in the It Gets Better Project that was posted on YouTube in response to a rise in gay teen suicides at the time of its creation.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative media challenge the dominant beliefs and values of a culture and have been described as "counter-hegemonic" by adherents of Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony; however, since the definition of alternative media as merely counter to the mainstream is limiting, some approaches to the study of alternative media also address the question of how and where these media are created, as well as the dynamic relationship between the media and the participants that create and use them.


title: Alternative media

text: There are various definitions of "alternative media". John Downing, for example, defines "radical alternative media" as media "that express an alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities, and perspectives". In his assessment of a variety of definitions for the term, Chris Atton notes repeatedly the importance of alternative media production originating from small-scale, counter-hegemonic groups and individuals.


title: Alternative media

text: Christian Fuchs also argues that alternative media must have four distinct properties. The first being that the audience of these media must be involved in the creation of what is put out in alternative media. The second is that it has to be different from the mainstream. The third is that it should create a perspective different from that of the state and major corporations. The fourth property is that alternative media must "establish different types of relationships with the market and/or the state."


title: Alternative media

text: As defined by Atton and Hamilton "Alternative journalism proceeds from dissatisfaction not only with the mainstream coverage of certain issues and topics but also with the epistemology of news. Its critique emphasizes alternatives to, inter alia,  conventions of news sources and representation; the inverted pyramid of news texts; the hierarchical and capitalized economy of commercial journalism; the professional, elite basis of journalism as a practice; the professional norm of objectivity; and the subordinate role of the audience as a receiver"


title: Alternative media

text: Journalistic Practices says "Alternative media not only allow but also facilitate the participation (in its more radical meaning) of its members (or the community) in both the produced content and the content-producing organization.' In this sense, participation in alternative media as described and reflected upon by the participants in this study can best be understood as a form of active citizenship".


title: Alternative media

text: Approaches to the academic study of alternative media attempt to understand the ways in which these media are significant, each emphasizing a different aspect of media, including the role of the public sphere, social movements, and the participation by communities that create the media.


title: Alternative media

text: One way of understanding alternative media is to consider their role in the process of democratic communication. Philosopher Jürgen Habermas proposed that a healthy democratic community requires a space where rational debate can take place between engaged citizens. It is essential that the dialogue in this public sphere occurs outside the control of any authority so that citizens can exchange ideas as equals. This translates to the need for free speech and a free press.


title: Alternative media

text: In Habermas's idea of the public sphere, participation is open to everyone, all participants are considered equal, and any issue can be raised for debate. However, this view fails to note the inherent exclusion of women and minorities (and their interests) from the debate in the public sphere. In light of this social inequality, philosopher Nancy Fraser argues for the importance of multiple independent public spheres, in which members of subordinated groups can first deliberate their issues and concerns among themselves and later assert those issues into the larger public sphere. The alternative media associated with these counter-public spheres are critical in developing the needs and identity of the group and in challenging the larger dominant public sphere. A feminist counter-public sphere is, for example, responsible for circulating the view that women's issues such as domestic abuse and reproductive rights are deserving of debate in the larger public sphere.


title: Alternative media

text: Social movements are a type of collective action. They involve large, sometimes informal, groups or organizations which focus on specific political or social issues and promote, instigate, resist or undo the social change. Social movement media is how social movements use media, and oftentimes, due to the nature of social movements, that media tends to be an alternative.


title: Alternative media

text: Communication is vital to the success of social movements. Research shows that social movements experience significant difficulties communicating through mainstream media because the mainstream media often systematically distort, stigmatize, or ignore social movement viewpoints. They may deny social movements' access or


title: Alternative media

text: representation at critical moments in their development, employ message frames that undermine or weaken public perceptions of a movement's legitimacy or implicitly encourage movement actors who seek coverage to cater to the questionable values of mainstream reportage on social activism, including a heightened interest in violence, emotionality, and slogans. This problematic coverage of social movements is often referred to as the protest paradigm: the idea that mass media marginalizes protest groups through their depictions of the protesters, and, by doing so, subsequently support the status quo. As a result, social movements often turn to alternative media forms and practices in


title: Alternative media

text: An example of how the mainstream media problematically covers social movements is the Occupy movement, which began with Occupy Wall Street in September 2011. The Occupy movement protested against social and economic inequality around the world, its primary goal being to make the economic and political relations in all societies less vertically hierarchical and more flatly distributed. Among the movement's primary concerns is the system which allows large corporations and the global financial system to manipulate the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a wealthy minority, undermines democracy, and disregards environmental sustainability. In comparing the mainstream news coverage of the Occupy movement against coverage from alternative press several trends emerge. First, mainstream media used confusion over the event as the dominant frame while alternative media focused on what the demonstrators were actually trying to accomplish. Second, the mainstream media placed the protesters at fault of any violence while the alternative media focused on the brutality of the police and their violent acts on the peaceful protesters.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative media tend to be activist by nature. Social movements in areas such as human rights, the environmental movement, and civil rights produce alternative media to further their goals, spread awareness, and inspire participation and support.


title: Alternative media

text: organization and its mission is to partner with on-the-ground organizations to support the documentation of human rights violations and their consequences, in order to further public engagement, policy change, and justice. They rely on video recordings using technology such as handheld camcorders and smartphones to capture the world's attention and viscerally communicate human rights abuses. They have documented human rights abuses from the police in the "favelas" of Brazil, children soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, human trafficking in Brazil and the United States, and many other human rights issues, all through the use of alternative media.


title: Alternative media

text: An example of an environment movement using alternative media is the group Greenpeace. Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization whose goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, lobbying, and research to achieve its goals, as well as alternative media. They use online tactics such as podcasts and blogs as well as performance art.


title: Alternative media

text: An example of a civil rights group using alternative media was the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC was one of the most important organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in


title: Alternative media

text: the 1960s. SNCC was involved in voter registration rights in the south, established Freedom Schools, organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), among many other accomplishments. Alternative media tactics used by SNCC included establishing a dedicated Communication Section which included a photography arm, its own printing press (which published its newsletter the Student Voice), published publicity materials, and created an alternative wire press.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative media have frequently been studied as a manifestation of participatory culture, in which citizens do not act as consumers only, but as contributors or producers as well. By opening up access to media production, participatory culture is believed to further democracy, civic engagement, and creative expression.


title: Alternative media

text: Participatory culture pre-dates the Internet. Amateur Press Associations are a form of participatory culture that emerged late in the 19th century. Members of such associations typeset and print their own publications, which are mailed through a network of subscribers. Zines, community-supported radio stations, and other types of projects were predecessors of blogs, podcasts, wikis, and social networks. Web services such as Tumblr, Imgur, Reddit, Medium, TikTok, and YouTube, among others, allow users to distribute original content to wider audiences, which makes media production more participatory.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative media are also created by participatory journalism as citizens play an active role in collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. This form of alternative and activist news-gathering and reporting functions outside of mainstream media institutions, often as a response to the shortcomings of professional journalism. It engages in journalistic practices but is driven by goals other than profit making, has different ideals, and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy.


title: Alternative media

text: Participatory media approaches consider participation in producing media content as well as in making decisions about media production processes as a defining feature of alternative media. Participatory culture can be realized in a number of ways. Media literacy is a way to begin participating by understanding media systems' conventions and means of production. Individuals learning to produce media themselves is the step that moves citizens from literacy to participation. Fan fiction, community radio (or low-power FM), and hyper-local blogging are just a few ways that citizens can produce media content to participate in the production of alternative media.


title: Alternative media

text: By fostering participation, alternative media contribute to the strengthening of a civic attitude and allow citizens to be active in one of the main spheres relevant to daily life and to put their right to communication into practice. To demonstrate the relationship between democracy and participation in media production, the term citizen's media illustrates that alternative media can help those who are producing media also become active citizens – particularly in a democracy. This idea is tied very closely to community media (see next section).


title: Alternative media

text: Community media includes citizens′ media, participatory media, activist and radical media as well as the broader forms of communication in which local or regional specific platforms are engaged. Like other forms of alternative media, community media seeks to bypass the commercialization of media. The elimination or avoidance of sole ownership or sponsorship is motivated by a desire to be free of oversight or obligation to cater to a specific agenda. Community media is often categorized as grassroots, a description that applies to both the financial structure and the process of content creation. While there is diversity in community media, which varies by media platform (radio, TV, web or print), it is typical that the media source is open to the public/community to submit material and content. This open policy aligns with the values of community media to maintain a democratic approach and ethos. Historically community media has served to provide an alternative political voice. Across the world forms of community, media are used to elevate the needs and discourse of a specific space, typically connected by geographical, cultural, social, or economic similarities.


title: Alternative media

text: Minority community media can be both localized and national, serving to disseminate information to a targeted demographic. They provide a platform for discussion and exchange within the minority communities as well as between the minority and the majority communities. Oftentimes minority-focused media serves an essential resource, providing their audiences with essential information, in their own language of origin, helping the specified group to participate as equal citizens of their country of residence. These media platforms and outlets create an opportunity for cultural exchange and the elevation or empowerment of a disenfranchised or marginalized group, based on racial, ethnic or cultural identity. Historically, these forms of media have served a dual purpose, to disseminate information to a community that is traditionally ignored or overlooked by major media outlets and as a vehicle for political protest or social reform.


title: Alternative media

text: Spaces created to address minority discourse typically straddle the line of both alternative and activist media, working to provide a resource unavailable through mainstream measures and to shift the universally accepted perspective or understanding of a specific group of people. Sociologist Yu Shi's exploration of alternative media provides opposing arguments about the role of minority media to both facilitate cultural place-making and hinder community assimilation and acculturation. Shi expounds a widely shared understanding that racially informed media provide a place, power, and political agency.


title: Alternative media

text: Throughout the 20th-century, media spaces were developed to accommodate the growing multi-cultural state of the United States. African-Americans created local publications like the Chicago Defender to share critical information to protect citizens from discriminatory practices by police and policy-makers, while Jet and Ebony's magazine served to empower the national black identity, lauding the achievements and thought leadership of Black Americans. Similar practices became increasingly common for Latino/Latina and Asian groups. As immigration increased post-1965, Spanish-language newspapers and television stations, along with the creation of television networks like ICN-TV specifically for Chinese immigrants. A critical awareness of an increasingly participatory global media culture in multicultural societies is becoming widespread and a necessary approach to explaining the success and impact of ethnic or minority media, as well as to embrace the changing ways in which people 'use' their media.


title: Alternative media

text: There are related aims found in alternative media studies and subaltern studies, as a concern for disenfranchised and oppressed voices pervades both fields. Subaltern studies draw on Antonio Gramsci's discussion of "subaltern" groups, that is, groups of people considered to be of inferior rank socially, economically, and politically. One of the most significant questions in subaltern studies is posed by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the subaltern speak?" which she asks in her seminal essay of the same name. Spivak investigates whether the subaltern has a voice within hegemonic political discourses, and if so if their voices are being heard, allowing them to participate. This is important, as the subaltern's ability to participate in politics and other social and cultural practices is key in establishing—as well as challenging—their subaltern status. This particular body of scholarship is useful to the study and discussion of alternative media due to their shared preoccupation with the ability of disenfranchised peoples to participate and contribute to mainstream hegemonic discourses, especially in regards to ethnic and racial media in which these groups speak from a subaltern position.


title: Alternative media

text: This connection is strengthened in the work of alternative media scholar Clemencia Rodriguez. In her discussion of citizenship, Rodriguez comments that "Citizens have to enact their citizenship on a day-to-day basis, through their participation in everyday political practices...As citizens actively participate in actions that reshape their own identities, the identities of others, and their social environments, they produce power." So it could be said that by subaltern groups creating alternative media, they are indeed expressing their citizenship, producing their power, and letting their voice be heard.


title: Alternative media

text: The alternative press consists of printed publications that provide a different or dissident viewpoint than that provided by major mainstream and corporate newspapers, magazines, and other print media.


title: Alternative media

text: "Factsheet Five" publisher Mike Gunderloy described the alternative press as "sort of the 'grown-up' underground press. "Whole Earth", the "Boston Phoenix", and "Mother Jones" are the sorts of things that fall in this classification." In contrast, Gunderloy described the underground press as "the real thing, before it gets slick, co-opted, and profitable. The underground press comes out in small quantities, is often illegible, treads on the thin ice of unmentionable subjects, and never carries ads for designer jeans."


title: Alternative media

text: An example of alternative media is tactical media, which uses 'hit-and-run' tactics to bring attention to an emerging problem. Often tactical media attempts to expose large corporations that control sources of mainstream media.


title: Alternative media

text: One prominent NGO dedicated to tactical media practices and info-activism is the Tactical Technology Collective which assists human rights advocates in using technology. They have released several toolkits freely to the global community, including NGO In A Box South Asia, which assists in the setting up the framework of a self-sustaining NGO, Security-In-A-Box, a collection of software to keep data secure and safe for NGOs operating in potentially hostile political climates, and their new short form toolkit 10 Tactics, which "... provides original and artful ways for rights advocates to capture attention and communicate a cause".


title: Alternative media

text: Radio has been a significant form of alternative media due to its low cost, ease of use, and near ubiquity. Alternative radio has arisen in response to capitalist and/or state-sponsored mainstream radio broadcasts. For example, in early 1970s Australia, a new alternative radio sector was created by those who felt excluded from the two-sector national broadcasting system, consisting of a national public service broadcaster and commercial services. In the US, the first listener-supported independent station, KPFA, began in 1949 in order to provide an avenue for free speech unconstrained by the commercial interests that characterized mainstream radio.


title: Alternative media

text: Their content ranges broadly; while some stations' primary aims are explicitly political and radical, others namely seek to broadcast music that they believe to be excluded from mainstream radio. Alternative radio often, though not always, takes the form of community radio, which is generally understood as participatory, open, non-profit, and made by and for a community. These radio stations may broadcast legally or illegally, as pirate radio. Alternative radio is a global phenomenon. Examples of community and alternative radio endeavors include Tilos Rádió (Hungary), Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation (Canada), Pacifica Radio and the Prometheus Radio Project (both in the United States), and Radio Sagarmatha (Nepal).


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative film and video are generally produced outside of the mainstream film and video industries and features content and/or style that is rarely seen in mainstream product. However, its particular genre, content, and form vary widely. It is often produced in non-profit organizational contexts, such as video art collectives (e.g. Videotage, Los Angeles Filmmakers' Cooperative) or grassroots social justice organizations (e.g. Line Break, CINEP—Center for Research and Popular Education). Participatory video projects in which marginalized or under-resourced groups tell their stories through video demonstrate the possibility for access and participation in video-making to empower those involved, circulate representations unseen in mainstream media, and challenge existing power relations.


title: Alternative media

text: Alternative film in the United States is evident in the work of The Film & Photo League chapters of the 1930s, which drew attention to union and class issues through social documentary film and the editing of newsreels. Though initiated in the 1960s and 1970s, radical video making reached an apex in the 1980s, as technology became more accessible. Public access television provided a broadcast outlet for oftentimes punk and hip-hop-influenced radical cultural critique. Deep Dish TV, for instance, is a television network which seeks to provide media access to grassroots organizations and to marginalized or misrepresented perspectives through public access television. Today, portable, accessible recording technology and the internet allow increasing opportunities for global participation in the production, consumption, and exchange of alternative video content.


title: Alternative media

text: With the increasing importance attributed to digital technologies, questions have arisen about where digital media fit in the dichotomy between alternative and mainstream media. First, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other similar sites, while not necessarily created to be information media, increasingly are being used to spread news and information, potentially acting as alternative media as they allow ordinary citizens to bypass the gatekeepers of traditional, mainstream media and share the information and perspectives these citizens deem important.


title: Alternative media

text: Second, the Internet provides an alternative space for mobilization through the cultivation of interpersonal networks, collective action towards social change, and making information much readily accessible. Typically, among those with deviant, dissident or non-traditional views, Internet platforms allow for the creation of new, alternative communities that can provide a voice for those normally marginalized by the mainstream media.


title: Alternative media

text: In addition, the Internet has also led to an alternative form of programming, which allows both professionals and amateurs to subvert or evade commercial and political restraints on open access to information and information technologies. Some examples of alternative computing are hacking, open source software or systems, and file sharing.


title: Alternative media

text: Lastly, the Internet also breeds a new way of creation and dissemination of knowledge—commons knowledge—that is different from the top-down manner. It seeks out and encourages the participation of multiple users, fostering forms of collaborative knowledge production and folksonomies. Wikipedia is an excellent example of this genre.


title: Alternative media

text: Often considered guerilla-art, street art operates free from the confines of the formal art world. In the form of graffiti, stencil, mural, and print, street art appropriates or alters public spaces as a means of protest and social commentary. Important aspects of street art as an alternative form are its blend of aesthetics and social engagement, use of urban spaces, and interaction with the social landscape of the area in which the art is made.


title: Alternative media

text: The street art movement gained popularity in the 1980s as a form of art distinct from high art and commercial venues, but as popularity grew, some street artists moved from the alternative venues of the streets to gallery and museum showings. Cities such as Paris, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo rose to prominence in using street art as legitimate alternative media through artist collectives and competitions, bringing attention to alternative voices. The internet has also influenced street art greatly by functioning as a platform for artists and fans to share pictures of street art from around the world. Websites like Streetsy.com and WoosterCollective.com are among the most popular of street art sharing sites.


title: Alternative media

text: Performance as an alternative medium uses theater, song, and performance art as a means of engaging audiences and furthering social agendas. Performance art is an avant garde art form that typically uses live performances to challenge traditional forms of visual art. It operates as "the antithesis of theatre, challenging orthodox art forms and cultural norms." Playing an important role in social and cultural movements from Dada and Surrealism to Post-Minimalism, performance art reflects the political environment of the time. While performance art is often relegated to high art, street theater is typically used in a grassroots fashion, utilizing local communities for performance or conversation. It can be used as a form of guerilla theater to protest, like in the case of The Living Theatre which is dedicated to transforming the hierarchy of power in society through experimental theater.


title: Alternative media

text: Certain genres of music and musical performance can be categorized as alternative media. Independent music, or indie music, is music that is produced separate from commercial record labels. Professor David Hesmondhalgh describes indie music's alternative nature as a "hard-headed network of post-punk companies which made significant challenges to the commercial organization of cultural production favoured by the major record companies." Its subversive roots of sound or lyrics and alternative models of distribution distinguish it from the commercial record companies.


title: Alternative media

text: Some alternative media can be associated with the political left in the United States, the political right in the United States, and various political positions in the United Kingdom.


title: Alternative media

text: Primarily concerned with the growing role of new media in alternative media projects, communication scholar Leah Lievrouw identifies five genres of contemporary new media based alternative and activist media: culture jamming, alternative computing, participatory journalism, mediated mobilization, and commons knowledge.


title: Alternative media

text: Thinking of current forms of alternative media in terms of the genre not only allows one to identify the features and conventions of certain modes of communication, but also how "they allow people to express themselves appropriately, and to achieve their various purposes or intentions." In other words, one can begin to understand how the creators and participants of alternative new media projects actively shape their communication practices.


title: Alternative media

text: YouTube is considered to be not only a commercial enterprise but also a platform designed to encourage cultural participation by ordinary citizens. Although YouTube aimed to be foremost a commercial enterprise, nevertheless, it has become a community media as one of the forms of alternative media. Scholars assume that YouTube's commercial drive may have increased the probability of participation in online video culture for a broader spectrum of participants than before. This idea allows one to shift our concern away from the false contradiction between market-driven and non-market-driven culture towards the tensions between corporate logics and unruly and emergent traits of participatory culture, and the limits of YouTube model for cross-cultural diversity and global communication. In theory, YouTube stands as a site of cosmopolitan cultural citizenship. Uploading foreign soap opera episodes and dividing into several pieces to pass YouTube's content limits, can be seen as acts of cultural citizenship similar to the media sharing practices of diverse communities identified by Cunningham and Nguyen (2000). However, people who have the highest chance of encountering other cultural citizens are those who have the access to various contents, information and platforms; this is commonly referred to as the 'participation gap'. The notion of participation gap makes both digital literacy and digital divide such important issues for cultural politics. Therefore, it is still controversial whether YouTube is just another conduit for strengthening cultural imperialism or one of the alternative media.


title: Alternative media

text: In association with experimental and innovative modes of production and collaboration, aesthetics in alternative media can be a political tool used to subvert dominant power. Like many makers of alternative media, scholar Crispin Sartwell identifies politics as an aesthetic environment. As such, these art political systems not only use aesthetics as a tool to gain power but are also produced via aesthetic forms within all media. Thus, it is not uncommon for alternative media to seek new artistic, non-traditional, or avant-garde means to represent its content. In this case, the use of aesthetics allows alternative media to address otherwise banal content in a manner which re-aligns, re-negotiates, or exposes the politics at work within it.


title: Alternative media

text: Scholars have linked the Avant-garde art movements as one arena where alternative aesthetics are used as a political tool. Movements such as Futurism, Dada, and Situationism looked to challenge the formal rules regarding what art was, how it looked or sounded like, or where it could be in order to radically alter public and political ideology. The logic, reason, and rules of style and beauty, mandated by the dominant class, was rejected as an affirmation of subjugation.


title: Alternative media

text: While some alternative makers look to radically break away from the suffocating restraints of the dominant class by rejecting their dominant visual dogma, others appropriate, twist, and remix in order to subvert dominant language and messaging through mimicry, mockery, and satire. The détournement (and its successor culture-jamming) of the Situationists, the mimicry of Pop Art, and the reworking of normative narratives in slash fiction are examples of appropriation of mainstream media texts.


title: Alternative media

text: Avant-garde movements that have emphasized audience participation include Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Situationism, Pop art, Neo-concretism, and the Theatre of the Oppressed. By inviting the audience to participate in the creation of media, collaborators look to subvert or critique hierarchical structures (capitalism, the ivory tower) within society by embracing democratic modes of production. Strategies that involve the input or collaboration of all stakeholders often result in less formally 'correct' aesthetics.


title: Alpha course

text: The Alpha course is an evangelistic course which seeks to introduce the basics of the Christian faith through a series of talks and discussions. It is described by its organisers as "an opportunity to explore the meaning of life". Alpha courses are run in churches, homes, workplaces, prisons, universities and a wide variety of other locations. The course began in Britain and is run around the world by various Christian denominations.


title: Alpha course

text: Alpha originated in 1977 with the work of Charles Marnham, a curate at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), a parish of the Church of England in London. It started as a course for church members regarding the basics of beliefs commonly held by many believers in Christ, but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith. John Irvine, Marnham's successor curate at HTB, took over the running of the course in 1981 and developed the 10-week format which continues to this day. In 1985 Nicky Lee took on the course, and in 1990 Nicky Gumbel, then also curate at Holy Trinity, took over the running of the course at the invitation of Sandy Millar (vicar at that time) and oversaw its revision and expansion.


title: Alpha course

text: Alpha grew rapidly in Britain in the 1990s, from just four courses in 1991 to 2,500 in 1995. It reached a peak in 1998, when 10,500 courses were run. By 2001 this figure had fallen to 7,300. In 2018 the Alpha website described the course as running in over 100 countries and in over 100 languages, with more than 24 million people having taken the course.


title: Alpha course

text: Courses have been run by Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, with some variations in course material.


title: Alpha course

text: Alpha is organised as a series of sessions over 10 weeks, including a day or weekend away. Each session starts with a meal, followed by a talk and then discussion in small groups. The talks aim to cover the basic beliefs of the Christian faith.


title: Alpha course

text: In April 2016, Alpha introduced the Alpha Film Series, where traditional Alpha content is shown in a series of films, featuring stories and interviews. This series is mainly presented by Nicky Gumbel, Toby Flint (a curate at Holy Trinity Brompton) and Gemma Hunt. Interviewees include Bear Grylls, Jackie Pullinger, and Friar Raniero Cantalamessa.


title: Alpha course

text: In conjunction with Youth for Christ, Alpha International produces two study programmes designed for children aged 11–14, "exploRE: The Christian Faith" a 12-week programme on the Christian faith, and "exploRE: The Life of Jesus", a 14-lesson study of Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. The capitalised RE is a reference to religious education, part of the British curriculum. The materials are aimed at religious education teachers.


title: Alpha course

text: Several relationship-oriented programmes have emerged alongside Alpha which are now separately run by a sister organisation called Relationship Central. The Marriage Course is a seven-session course for married couples, consisting of a "candlelit meal and/or coffee, tea and dessert at a romantic table for two while listening to practical talks that are informative and fun, either given live or played on DVD", while the Marriage Preparation Course follows a similar format over five sessions in preparation for married life. Unlike Alpha, there are no group sessions - the couple are to spend the time together, and relationship details are not shared with a counsellor or other participants. The Marriage Course was adopted by the British Army and an additional session on enforced separation (e.g. as a result of operational deployment) was added by a military couple working in co-operation with Relationship Central. In 2012, DVD versions of the Parenting Children Course (for parents or caregivers of children aged 0–10) and the Parenting Teenagers Course (11-18) were released. Unlike the Marriage Course, the parenting courses use a similar format to Alpha: a meal followed by a talk and group discussions.


title: Alpha course

text: The website says about these courses that while they are "based on Christian principles", they are "designed for all couples with or without a church background". The courses are authored by Nicky Lee and Sila Lee, staff at Holy Trinity Brompton and authors of "The Marriage Book" and "The Parenting Book".


title: Alpha course

text: Caring for ex-offenders is a follow-up to the Alpha for Prisons course, supporting released prisoners by providing them with material assistance including accommodation, work, food, and pastoral support through church life. It operates in Britain, Canada, South Africa and the United States.


title: Alpha course

text: St Paul's Theological Centre is Alpha/Holy Trinity Brompton's theological institution, with aims to provide lay and clerical training in theology and resources for theological training in churches across the world, as well as theological guidance for Alpha.


title: Alpha course

text: Alpha's teachings are intended to centre upon aspects of Christian faith on which all denominations are in general agreement. Nicky Gumbel says (quoting the current Apostolic Preacher Raniero Cantalamessa), "What unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us."


title: Alpha course

text: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox distinctives, such as those concerning the Virgin Mary and certain sacramental teachings are absent, as are Baptist teachings on baptism. Instead, individual churches are encouraged to provide follow-up courses of their own.


title: Alpha course

text: The New International Version of the Bible is quoted in the course materials. St Paul's reference to scripture being "God breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16) is referred to, although whether this view of scripture implies strict inerrancy is not made clear.


title: Alpha course

text: Within evangelical Protestantism the most controversial element of Alpha is what is considered to be its charismatic slant. Three of the fifteen sessions are given to the person and work of the Holy Spirit and cover the infilling of the Spirit; speaking in tongues and healing via prayer. Conversion stories in the book of Acts (see 2:1ff, 9:17-19, 10:44-46, 19:1-6) are seen as normative.


title: Alpha course

text: Possibly Alpha's greatest influence came from the ministry of John Wimber, who visited Holy Trinity Brompton a number of times during the 1980s and 1990s. Nicky Gumbel's approach can also be linked to the ministry of E. J. H. Nash, an influential Anglican cleric who set out to evangelise "top boys at top schools" and who organised summer camps at Iwerne Minster in Dorset. David Fletcher, who took responsibility for the camps after Nash, described Alpha as: "basically the Iwerne camp talk scheme with charismatic stuff added on." Rob Warner addresses both, when he says: "Alpha can ... be summed up as [Nash] camp rationalistic conservatism combined with Wimberist charismatic expressivism ... this is a highly unusual, even paradoxical hybrid."


title: Alpha course

text: Although originating from the evangelical Anglican tradition, Alpha is now used in various denominations around the world. Its supporters include many Catholic cardinals, Anglican archbishops and bishops, and leading figures of all denominations. Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey described the courses as "superb."Rowan Williams was an enthusiastic supporter when he was Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales and continued his support as Archbishop of Canterbury, opening an Alpha conference and accepting an invitation to speak at an Alpha supper in London in 2004. He has described it as "a very special tool" and "a unique mixture of Christian content and Christian style". Father Raniero Cantalamessa, a monk of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and Preacher to the Papal Household for Pope Benedict XVI wrote a document praising Alpha in June 2005.


title: Alpha course

text: Alpha been criticised for having a charismatic emphasis, with some non-charismatic evangelicals criticising Gumbel's emphasis upon the person and work of the Holy Spirit in particular. As a result, some churches have chosen to teach a different view of the Holy Spirit in the course, although this is discouraged in Gumbel's book "How to Run the Alpha Course".


title: Alpha course

text: More conservative critics (especially from a Reformed and evangelical perspective) have complained that the course does not adequately define sin, and therefore does not properly explain the reason for Jesus's death and resurrection. The alternative Christianity Explored course is an attempt to go beyond what Alpha teaches on sin.


title: Alpha course

text: John Vincent of the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield has suggested that Alpha presents too narrow a version of Christianity and one too centred on what theologians have said about Jesus, rather than allowing students the freedom to draw their own inspiration from studying Jesus' life and teaching. "The Alpha course, because of its didactic style, its narrow-mindedness and its closed nature, doesn't facilitate alternative views", he says. "I happen to believe it therefore leads people into a self-centred religion which is not the same as the genuine Christian discipleship."


title: Alpha course

text: Some Catholics have criticised the fifteen-session "Alpha in a Catholic Context" version of the course for being unbalanced without sufficiently presenting some Roman Catholic doctrines, which instead need to be added afterwards in additional sessions.


title: Pontefract

text: Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wakefield District and had a population of 30,881 at the 2011 Census. Pontefract's motto is , Latin for "After the death of the father, support the son", a reference to the town's Royalist sympathies in the English Civil War.


title: Pontefract

text: At the end of the 11th century, the modern township of Pontefract consisted of two distinct and separate localities known as Tanshelf and Kirkby. The 11th-century historian, Orderic Vitalis, recorded that, in 1069, William the Conqueror travelled across Yorkshire to put down an uprising which had sacked York, but that, upon his journey to the city, he discovered that the crossing of the River Aire at what is modern-day Pontefract had been blockaded by a group of local Anglo-Scandinavian insurgents, who had broken the bridge and held the opposite bank in force. Such a crossing point would have been important in the town's early days, providing access between Pontefract and other settlements to the north and east, such as York. Historians believe that it is this historical event which gives the township of Pontefract its modern name. The name "Pontefract" originates from the Latin for "broken bridge", formed of the elements "pons" (bridge) and "fractus" (broken). Pontefract was not recorded in the 1086 "Domesday Book", but it was noted as Pontefracto in 1090, four years after the Domesday survey.


title: Pontefract

text: In 2007 a suspected extension of Ferrybridge Henge – a Neolithic henge – was discovered near Pontefract during a survey in preparation for the construction of a row of houses. Once the survey was complete, the construction continued.


title: Pontefract

text: The modern town is situated on an old Roman road (now the A639), described as the "Roman Ridge". This is believed to form part of an alternative route from Doncaster to York via Castleford and Tadcaster, as a diversion of the major Roman road Ermine Street, which may have been used to avoid having to cross the River Humber near North Ferriby during rough weather conditions over the Humber.


title: Pontefract

text: The period of Yorkshire's history between the demise of the Viking king Eric Bloodaxe in 954 and the arrival of the Normans in 1068 is known as the Anglo-Scandinavian age. The modern township of Pontefract consisted of two Anglo-Scandinavian settlements, known as Tanshelf and Kirkby. In Yorkshire, place-name locations often contain the distinctive Danish '-by' i.e. Kirkby. And even today, the major streets in Pontefract are designated by the Danish word 'gate' e.g. Bailygate.


title: Pontefract

text: The Anglo-Scandinavian township of Tanshelf recorded variously as "Tateshale", "Tateshalla", "Tateshalle" or "Tatessella" in the Domesday Book of 1086 existed in the region that is today occupied by the town of Pontefract. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" makes its first reference to Tanshelf in the year 947 when King Eadred of England met with the ruling council of Northumbria to accept its submission. King Eadred did not enjoy Northumbria's support for long, and a year later the kingdom voted Eric Bloodaxe King of York.


title: Pontefract

text: When the Domesday Book was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, Tanshelf was still a sizeable settlement for the period. The town had a priest, 60 petty burgesses, 16 cottagers, 16 villagers and 8 smallholders, amounting to a total of 101 people. But the actual size of the population might be as much as four or five times larger than this as the people listed are landholders, and therefore the Domesday Book does not take their families into account. Tanshelf also had a church, a fishery and three mills. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of the church on The Booths in Pontefract, off North Baileygate, below the castle. The oldest grave dates from around 690. The church is likely to be at Tanshelf and may have been similar to the church at Ledsham. The area which is now the town market place was the original meeting place of the Osgoldcross wapentake.


title: Pontefract

text: In the Anglo-Saxon period a part of the modern township of Pontefract was known by the Anglo-Scandinavian name of Kirkby.


title: Pontefract

text: After the Norman conquest in 1066 almost all of Yorkshire came under the ownership of followers of William the Conqueror, one of whom was Ilbert de Lacy who became the owner of Tateshale (Tanshelf) where he began to build a castle.


title: Pontefract

text: Pontefract Castle began as a wooden motte and bailey castle, built before 1086 and later rebuilt in stone. The de Lacys lived in the castle for more than two centuries and were holders of the castle and the Honour of Pontefract from 1067 until the death of Alice de Lacy in 1348.


title: Pontefract

text: King Richard II was murdered at the castle in 1400. Little is known of the precise nature of his demise; in particular Shakespeare may have "adjusted" the facts for his own purposes. There are at least three theories which attempt to explain his death: He was starved to death by his keepers, he starved himself to death or he was murdered by Sir Piers (Peter) Exton on 14 February 1399 or 1400.


title: Pontefract

text: The town of Pontefract and the village of Wentbridge are of central importance to the legend of Robin Hood, as it was told in the Middle Ages. The Fifteenth century Robin Hood ballads place the outlaw's activities in the forest of Barnsdale, the southern edge of which bordered modern Wakefield. The earliest surviving manuscript of a Robin Hood ballad, "Robin Hood and the Potter" makes reference to Wentbridge: "'Y mete hem bot at Went breg,' s(e)yde Lytyll John" ('I met him but at Wentbridge', said Little John). Likewise, the Fifteenth Century ballad "A Gest of Robyn Hode", appears to make a cryptic reference to the village by depicting a friendly knight explaining to Robin that he 'went at a brydge' where there was 'a wraste-lyng' (wrestling). Significantly, the Gest of Robyn Hode makes a very specific reference to a location within Wentbridge known as 'the Saylis' and 'the Sayles', as in a four line stanza the outlaw chief instructs his Merry Men to


title: Pontefract

text: The 19th-century antiquarian Joseph Hunter identified the site of the Saylis: a small tenancy, of one-tenth of a knight's fee (i.e. a knight's annual income), located on high ground 500 yards (457.2 metres) to the east of the village of Wentbridge in the manor of Pontefract. The Saylis is recorded as having contributed towards the aid that was granted to King Edward III in 1346–47 for the knighting of his son, the Black Prince. The late, great historians Richard Barrie Dobson and John Taylor indicated that this location provides a very specific clue to Robin Hood's Pontefract heritage, noting that such evidence of continuity makes it virtually certain that the Saylis or Sayles, which was so well known to the Robin Hood of the "Gest" survived into modern times as the 'Sayles Plantation' near Wentbridge. To commemorate this, English Heritage has sited a Blue Plaque on the bridge that stands in the heart of the village, above the River Went, lending weight to Pontefract's claims to be the true home of Robin Hood.