Newcastle is the unofficial capital of north-east England. A city of both tradition and innovation, where old and new comfortably co-exist, it inspires a fierce loyalty among its “Geordie” population. But it is a cosmopolitan place (famed for its hospitality), which has accepted many immigrant groups, and welcomed generations of students to its universities. Here is a look at some of central Newcastle's most notable areas.

Bigg Market - The area known as “the Bigg Market” actually comprises Bigg Market, Groat Market, and Cloth Market. The offices of the Newcastle's local newspapers are situated here. A small fruit and vegetable market operates three days a week in the recently prettified square, where wooden seating provides a welcome rest for shoppers. But it is after dark that the place really comes alive, offering the loudest, brashest, nightlife in the city. With 15 pubs you can have a pub crawl without walking more than a hundred yards. Takeaways selling pizzas, kebabs, Chinese food, and baked potatoes give ample opportunity for soaking up excess beverage. If you prefer to eat sitting down, choose Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. For something more formal there are Greek and Indian restaurants.

Grey Street - From its towering column, the statue of Earl Grey (who instituted major electoral reforms in the nineteenth century, but is probably best remembered for the tea that bears his name) gazes along what former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman once called the finest curved street in England. Although generally quieter than the bustling streets around it, it does have pubs, restaurants, cafes, and a few shops. It also boasts the Victorian splendour of the Theatre Royal , which is regularly visited by prestigious touring companies, most notably the Royal Shakespeare Company .

Haymarket - Adjacent to the main campuses of both universities, Haymarket understandably caters for students, with an academic bookshop (necessary evil), banks (for acquiring those overdrafts), takeaways (because students never cook), and an Oxfam shop (student heaven). Marks and Spencer is here, and also entrances to the Eldon Square and Eldon Garden shopping centres. There are several pubs here, most of them popular with students. Also in this area are the Newcastle Playhouse & Gulbenkian Studio Theatre , the Museum of Antiquities , and Haymarket Bus Station. The Hancock Museum is just around the corner.

Quayside - This is the oldest part of Newcastle, and was for many years in a state of decay. Recently, however, the decline has been reversed. Some of the old warehouses and residences (many dating back to the sixteenth century) have been converted into pubs, restaurants, and apartments without compromising the original architecture. Complementing the renovation there has been recent construction of hotels, offices, pubs, housing, and the Crown Court. Development continues, and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge now links the Quayside with the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art across the Tyne in Gateshead.

Every Sunday there is a street market , with stalls selling clothes, books, records, and much else. Perhaps less vibrant and varied than in former years, it is still worth a visit. Other attractions include the Live Theatre in Broad Chare which specialises in innovative productions, and Bessie Surtees House in Sandhill, a rare example of timber-framed Jacobean domestic architecture. But one of the nicest things to do at the Quayside is simply to stroll. There are broad paved areas fronting the river, with seating, and a number of intriguing sculptures to look at.

The area has very few shops, but with a couple of dozen pubs, varying from the trendy to the traditional, four night clubs, a handful of hotels, and more than twenty restaurants offering various cuisines and spanning the spectrum from the affordable to the exclusive, the Quayside is the place for anything from a quiet business lunch to a noisy Saturday night out.

Stowell Street - Newcastle's Chinatown, where even the litter bins and telephone kiosks resemble pagodas. With more than fifteen varied restaurants and an express takeaway, there should be something here to suit all palates and all pockets. There is also a Chinese supermarket, a craft shop that offers advice on Feng Shui, a couple of oriental herbalists, and the offices of the North East Chinese Association. Chinese New Year is marked with colourful parades featuring dragon dances.

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas. It is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area which includes most parts of the Local Government Areas of City of Newcastle, City of Lake Macquarie, City of Cessnock, City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council.
Situated NNE of Sydney, at the mouth of the Hunter River, it is the predominant city within the Hunter Region. Famous for its coal, Newcastle is the largest coal export harbour in the world, exporting 80.2 million tonnes of coal worth AUD $5.3 billion in 2005-2006. Beyond the city the Hunter Region boasts massive coal deposits.

History

Pre-European settlement

Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by the Awabakal and Worimi Aboriginal People.

Founding and settlement by Europeans

The first European to explore the area was Lt. John Shortland in September 1797. His discovery of the area was largely accidental; Shortland had been sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized the HMS Cumberland as she was sailing from Sydney Cove. While returning he entered what he later described as "a very fine river" which he named after New South Wales' Governor, John Hunter. Shortland also returned with reports of the deep-water port and abundant coal in the area. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export.
Newcastle was nicknamed "Hell" by the most brutal convicts as it was a place where the most dangerous convicts were sent to dig in the coal mines as harsh punishment for their crimes.
By the turn of the century the mouth of the Hunter River was being visited by diverse groups of men, including coal hewers, timber-cutters, and more escaped convicts. Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales from 1800, decided on a more positive approach to exploit the now obvious natural resources of the Hunter Valley.
Besides coal, vast cedar forests covered a huge tract up the Hunter, a source of urgently needed building timber for the infant Sydney colony.
Governor King decided to establish a small post at the river mouth, however this first settlement was short lived. It was headed by one Corporal Wixtead, who was then suddenly replaced by Surgeon Martin Mason. Surgeon Mason's rule ended in a mutiny, and Governor King closed the settlement early in 1802.
A settlement was again attempted in 1804 as a place of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. The settlement was named Coal River, also Kingstown and then re-named Newcastle, after England's famous coal port. The name first appeared by the commission issued by Governor King on 15 March 1804 to Lieut. Charles Menzies of the Royal Marines, appointing him superintendent of the new settlement.
The new settlement comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804, in three ships, the Lady Nelson, the Resource and the James. The convicts were rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion, also known as the second Battle of Vinegar Hill.
The link with Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, its namesake and also from whence many of the 19th century coal miners came, is still obvious in some of the place-names - such as Jesmond, Hexham, Wickham Wallsend and Gateshead. Morpeth, New South Wales is a similar distance north of Newcastle as Morpeth, Northumberland is north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Newcastle remained a penal settlement for nearly 20 years. The military rule was harsh, and there was possibly no more notorious place of punishment in the whole of Australia than Limeburners' Bay, on the inner side of Stockton peninsula, where incorrigibles were sent to burn oyster shells for making lime.
Under Captain James Wallis, commandant from 1815 to 1818, the convicts' conditions improved, and a building boom began. Captain Wallis laid out the streets of the town, built the first church of the site of the present Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, erected the old gaol on the seashore, and began work on the breakwater which now joins Nobbys Head to the mainland. The quality of these first buildings was poor and only (a much reinforced) breakwater survives.
For these works, and for his humane rule in the convict colony, Captain Wallis earned the personal commendation of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. In the governor's opinion the prison colony was too close to Sydney and in any case the proper exploitation of the land was not practical with prison labour. Therefore, in 1823, military rule in Newcastle ended. The number of prisoners was reduced to 100 (most of these were employed on the building of the breakwater), and the remaining 900 were sent to Port Macquarie. Between 1826 and 1836, however, the convict-built Great North Road established the overland link with Sydney.

Civilian government

Freed for the first time from the infamous influence of the penal law, the town began to acquire the aspect of a typical Australian pioneer settlement, and a steady flow of free settlers poured into the hinterland.

Early steamers

The formation during the nineteenth century of the Newcastle and Hunter River Steamship Company saw the establishment of regular steamship services from Morpeth and Newcastle with Sydney. The company had a fleet of freighters as well as several fast passenger vessels, including the PS Newcastle and the PS Namoi. The latter vessel's first-class cabins had the latest facilities and overnight passage to Sydney, where passengers would arrive fresh for the new day, was considered preferable to the long and arduous railway journey right into the inter-war period.
Because of the coal supply, small ships plied between Newcastle and Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, carrying coal to gas works and bunkers for shipping, and railways. These were commonly known as "sixty-milers" based on the nautical journey between Newcastle and Sydney, and continued in service until recent times.

Coal and other industries

Coal mining began in earnest in the 1830s, with collieries working close to the city itself and others within a ten-mile radius. Most of Newcastle's principal coal mines (Stockton, Tighes Hill, Carrington, the Australian Agricultural Company, the Newcastle Coal Mining company's big collieries at Merewether (includes the Glebe), Wallsend, and the Waratah collieries), had all closed by the early 1960s, being steadily replaced over the previous four decades by the larger coal mining activities further inland at places such as Kurri Kurri and Cessnock.
On 10 December 1831 the Australian Agricultural Company officially opened Australia's first railway. On 10 December 2006 a plaque was unveiled on the southern shore of Newcastle Harbour celebrating this event.

Copper

About 1850 a major copper smelting works was established at Burwood, near Merewether (now a suburb), an engraving of which appeared in the Illustrated London News on 11 February 1854. The English and Australian Copper Company built another substantial works at Broadmeadow circa 1890, and in that decade a zinc smelter was built inland, by Cockle Creek.

Soap

What was said to be the largest factory of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere was constructed in 1885, on a 22 acre site between the suburbs of Tighes Hill and Port Waratah, by Mr Charles Upfold (1834-1919), from London, for his Sydney Soap and Candle Company, to replace a smaller factory in Wickham. Their soap products won 17 medals at International Exhibitions, and at the Sydney International Exhibition they won a bronze medal "against all-comers from every part of the world", the only first prize awarded for soap and candles. Following World War I the company was sold to Messrs Lever & Kitchen (today Lever Bros), and the factory closed in the mid-1930s.

Steel

After a major steel strike in the Sydney basin, the New South Wales State Government encouraged BHP to build a vast modern steel producing industry with much American expertise. The land put aside was prime real estate, on the southern edge of the harbour. At one stage the idea of a Botanical Garden was considered because of the waterfront location and proximity to the wealthy suburb of Mayfield. In 1915 the BHP steelworks opened, beginning a period of some 80 years dominating the steel works and heavy industry. As Mayfield and the suburbs surrounding the steelworks declined in popularity because of pollution, the steelworks thrived, becoming the region's largest employer.
In 1999, the steelworks closed. Many workers, having spent their entire working lives there saw Australia's largest industrial shutdown complete as the last blast furnace went out. As the former workforce began to deal with the economic and emotional impact, Newcastle began to experience a new image as less of an industrial, smoke stack city.

World War II

During the Second World War, Newcastle was an important industrial centre for the Australian war effort. Consequently, it was considered to be a potential Japanese target during the Second World War. On 31 May 1942 three midget submarines crept into Sydney Harbour and killed 21 sleeping sailors on an accommodation vessel at Garden Island, east of the Harbour Bridge. By this time, there was a great fear among the Australian people of a full-scale Japanese invasion and cities and towns along the eastern seaboard were forced into strict wartime regulations.
In the early hours of 8 June 1942 the Japanese submarine I-21 briefly shelled Newcastle. Newcastle was one of the most prepared cities in the country and the people of Newcastle acted with composure. Given the distance between the submarine and the browned-out city, there was little precision in the attack. Among the areas hit within the city were dockyards, the steel works, Parnell Place in the city's now affluent East End, the breakwall and Art Deco ocean baths. There were no casualties in the attack and damage was minimal.

Disasters

The most tragic maritime accident of the twentieth-century in Newcastle occurred during 1934 when the Stockton-bound ferry Bluebell collided with a coastal freighter and sank in the middle of the Hunter River. The Bluebell Collision claimed three lives and caused fifteen passengers to be admitted to the Newcastle Hospital, two suffering severely from the effects of immersion. However, the tragedy was but only one chapter in Newcastle's very long history of shipwrecks including the 1974 beaching of the Sygna, the 2007 beaching of the MV Pasha Bulker and the tragic sinking of the SS Cawarra in 1866 that claimed sixty-lives.

Earthquake

On 28 December 1989, Newcastle experienced an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale which killed 13 people, injured 162 and destroyed or severely damaged a number of prominent buildings which had to be subsequently demolished. These included the large George Hotel in Scott Street (city), the Century Theatre at Broadmeadow, the Hunter Theatre (formerly 'The Star') at Merewether, and the majority of The Junction school, also at Merewether. Part of the Newcastle Workers' Club, a popular venue, was also damaged but later restored. The following economic recession of the early 1990s meant that the city took several years to recover.

2007 storms

On 8 June 2007 the Hunter and Central Coast regions were battered by fierce storms which resulted in extensive flooding throughout the areas. Nine people eventually lost their lives in what was described as being the worst series of storms to hit New South Wales in 30 years.Wikinews,
Worst Storm in 30 years, Wikinews, June 9 2007
During the early stages of the storms the 225m long bulk carrier ship, MV Pasha Bulker, ran aground at Nobby's Beach after failing to heed warnings to move offshore.
On 9 June 2007 the Hunter and Central Coast regions were declared natural disaster areas by the state Premier Mr Morris Iemma. Although further flooding was predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology this never eventuated to the extent predicted.
On 2 July 2007 the Pasha Bulker was finally refloated on the 3rd salvage attempt despite earlier fears that the ship would break up. After initially entering the port for minor repairs it departed for major repairs in Asia under tow on 26 July 2007.

Geography

Newcastle is located on the southern bank of the Hunter River at its mouth. The northern side is dominated by sand dunes, swamps and multiple river channels. A 'green belt' protecting plant and wildlife flanks the city from the west (Watagan mountains) around to the north where it meets the coast just north of Stockton. Because of this, urban development is mainly restricted to the hilly southern bank. The small village of Stockton sits opposite central Newcastle at the river mouth and is linked by ferry. Much of the city is undercut by the coal measures of the Sydney sedimentary basin, and what were once numerous coal-mining villages located in the hills and valleys around the port have merged into a single urban area extending southwards to Lake Macquarie.

Climate

Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Modern times

The Port of Newcastle remains the economic and trade centre for the resource rich Hunter Valley and for much of the north and northwest of New South Wales. Newcastle is the world's largest coal export port and Australia's oldest and second largest tonnage throughput port, with over 3,000 shipping movements handling cargo of 85.6 million tonnes per annum, of which coal exports represented 80.2 million tonnes per annum in 2005/06. The volume of coal exported, and attempts to increase coal exports, are opposed by environmental groups.
Newcastle has a small ship-building industry, which has declined since the 1970s due to failure to win government contract tenders.
With the closure of the steel works in 2000 the era of extensive heavy industry has passed. Many of the remaining manufacturing industries have located themselves well away from the city itself, focusing on cheap land and access to road transport routes and lack the concentrated social impact of BHP on the city's life.
Newcastle has claim to one of the oldest theatre districts in Australia, with its still standing Victoria Theatre on Perkins Street the oldest purpose-built theatre in the country. Sadly, the theatre district that occupied the area around what is now the Hunter Street Mall vanished during the 1940s when much of Newcastle's cultural appreciation disintegrated in the very industrial-oriented city.
The city's population is growing. The old city centre has seen some new apartments and hotels built in recent years, but the rate of commercial and retail occupation remains low as alternate suburban centres have become more important. The CBD itself is shifting to the west, towards the major urban renewal area known as "Honeysuckle". This renewal, to run for another 10 years, is a major part of arresting the shift of business and residents to the suburbs.
The old central business district, located at Newcastle's eastern end, still has a considerable number of historic buildings, dominated by Christ Church Cathedral, seat of the (Anglican) Bishop of Newcastle. Other noteworthy buildings include Fort Scratchley, the Ocean Baths, the old Customs House, the 1920s City Hall, the 1890s Longworth Institute (once regarded as the finest building in the colony) and the 1930s art deco University House (formerly NESCA House, recently seen in the film Superman Returns). Residents of Newcastle refer to themselves as "Novocastrians".

Domestic architecture

A heritage area to the east of the Central Business District, centred around Christ Church Cathedral, has many fine Victorian terrace houses, embedded in architecturally "sympathetic" later housing developments.

Education

The University of Newcastle (formerly established in 1951 as part of the University of New South Wales) obtained its autonomy in 1965 and now with a student population of just over 20,000, it offers over 150 undergraduate and graduate courses.
Together with six major city universities (Flinders, Griffith, James Cook, La Trobe, Macquarie and Murdoch), The University of Newcastle, which holds the distinction of being the only regional university in the group, formed Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU Australia) in 2003. IRU Australia is one of the major university groupings in the country. The University of Newcastle is also one of the first universities in Australia to provide Master of Business Administration courses.
The University of Newcastle was ranked 127 in the world by the UK Times in 2005. One year after, both Melbourne institution The University of Melbourne and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University recognised The University of Newcastle as one of the top ten universities in Australia. Within the same year, Newsweek international ranked the University of Newcastle one of the top 100 universities in the world. The University is one of the only eight, as well as the only regional Australian Universitity to have achieved this status.

Culture

Festivals

Newcastle holds a variety of Cultural Events and Festivals, many of which attract national and some even international attention.
This Is Not Art is a national festival of new media and arts held in Newcastle each year over the October long weekend. Since its humble beginnings in 1998, it has become one of the leading arts festivals in Australia dedicated to the work and ideas of communities not included in other major Australian arts festivals. The umbrella program includes the independent festivals Electrofringe, the National Young Writers' Festival, National Student Media Conference, Sound Summit and other projects that vary from year to year.
The Shootout Film Festival, first started in Newcastle in 1999. This is the film festival where film-makers come together in one place to make a short film in 24 hours. It is run annually in July.
Mattara, founded in 1961, is the official festival of Newcastle with a more traditional 'country fair' type program that combines a parade, rides, sporting events, band competitions and portrait and landscape painting exhibitions.
Rainbow Visions holds its annual Festival in October for the local Gay and Lesbian Community. Set over 10 days the festival ends with annual Picnic day where up to a thousand Gay and Lesbians gather together with their family and friends.
The Newcastle Jazz Festival is held across three days in August, and attracts performers and audiences from all over Australia.
The Newcastle Regional Show is held in the Newcastle Showground annually. There are a mixture of typical regional show elements such as woodchopping displays, showbags, rides and stalls and usually fireworks to compliment the events in the main arena. Arguably, the Newcastle show has experienced a period of decline ever since the turn of the century, when an industrial dispute arose between the event organisers and the showman's guild who travel the country providing services for such regional events. The separation of the two parties resulted in a sharp decline in the size and popularity of the event.
The Newcastle Entertatinment Centre, located inside the Newcastle Showground is a popular venue for regular events including wrestling, concerts and monster truck shows.

Music

Newcastle has an active youth music culture, as well as a Conservatorium of Music which is part of the University of Newcastle. It continues to support local bands and has a large underground music scene. Silverchair, the highly successful Australian band, hail from Newcastle, as does the Australian band The Screaming Jets. It has a fertile punk and hardcore scene in, and over the past 15 years has spawned many successful local acts.
The pioneering hardcore techno and gabber group Nasenbluten also came from Newcastle and spawned a vibrant and influential local scene and record label Bloody Fist.
The percussionist of the Australian rock band The Screaming Jets is also teaching music industry studies at Tighes Hill TAFE. Several Newcastle musicians have collaborated with widely known Australian bands such as The Whitlams (Nick Cecire) and Machine Gun Fellatio (Kim Pink - Current music teacher at Hunter School of Performing Arts).
Popular music venues in Newcastle are The Queens Wharf Brewery, The Lucky Country, The Lass O'Gowrie, The Cambridge Hotel, The Bar on the Hill at the University, The Civic Theatre, The Newcastle Panthers and The Newcastle Entertainment centre.

Visual arts and galleries

Noted Australian artists John Olsen and William Dobell once lived in Newcastle and today the city Newcastle is home to a wide range of public, commercial and private galleries. The Newcastle Regional Art Gallery (located in Laman Street, just off Darby Street) is home to an extensive collection of works by contemporary and historical Australian visual artists. It regularly presents local exhibitions from its collection and hosts touring Australian exhibitions. Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich is the youngest gallery director in Australia and has given the gallery a much more contemporary focus since he took over in 2002. The gallery is currently planning a major redevelopment which is the subject of an architectural design competition.

Theatre

Newcastle has a variety of smaller theatres, but the main theatre in the CBD is now the Civic, at Wheeler Place, (seating capacity about 1500), one of Australia's great historic theatres built during 1929 in Art Deco style. It hosts a wide range of musicals, plays, concerts, dance and other events each year. Newcastle previously boasted several large theatres, among them the oldest purpose-built theatre in Australia, the Victoria Theatre on Perkins Street (built 1876, capacity 1750), saw touring international opera companies such as the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and other troupes, and played host to some of the greatest stars of the age, such as Dame Nellie Melba, Gladys Moncrieff, and Richard Tauber, (it is now closed and derelict); the Century, Nineways, Broadmeadow, (built 1941, capacity 1800) although largely used as a cinema was a popular Symphony orchestra venue (demolished 1990 after being severely damaged by the 1989 earthquake); the Hunter (capacity 1000) at The Junction, had advanced modern stage facilities, but was eventually sold and demolished to make way for a motel that was destroyed by the 1989 earthquake. The decline in theatres and cinemas from the 1960s onwards was blamed on television.
Newcastle has also been home to noted Australian actors, comedians and entertainers, including Sarah Wynter, John Doyle (part of comic act Roy and HG), Susie Porter, Celia Ireland, Yahoo Serious and Jonathan Biggins. The cast of the Tap Dogs show also come from Newcastle.

Media arts

Newcastle is home to the Octapod Association, a New Media Arts collective established in 1996. Octapod is one of Australia's most innovative regional arts organisations and presents the annual This Is Not Art Festival as well as a diverse range of local festivals and projects. The arts web sites Object Not Found and Art Crimes were also produced in Newcastle.

Sport

Newcastle sports teams playing in national competitions include the Newcastle Knights, a team that plays in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League. The Knights play at EnergyAustralia Stadium, situated in the suburb of New Lambton. After a recent upgrade, the stadium now has capacity for almost 27,000 spectators. The stadium is the only sports venue of its class in Northern New South Wales.
The Newcastle United Jets soccer team, which plays in Australia's highest level comp the A-League, also play at EnergyAustralia Stadium. The Newcastle United Jets have qualified for back-to-back finals in their first two seasons. Nick Carle, one of their players, won the A-League player of the year in the 2006-07 season. The Newcastle United Jets finished 4th in their first season, and 3rd in their second season. In the 2006-07 season, they bowed out in the Prelimenary Final against Adelaide United, who eventually lost to Melbourne Victory in the Grand Final 6-0.
Other major spectator and participant sports include Netball, Basketball, soccer, Rugby Union, Lawn bowls, Hockey and Surfing.
The Hunter Jaegers (Commonwealth Bank Trophy - Netball) are based at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. Officially opened in June 1992, the Centre offers 5,000 square metres of clear span floor space and is capable of catering for capacities from 2,000 to 6,500 for entertainment style events. The Centre was built to house the now defunct Newcastle Falcons National Basketball League team and was also home to the Hunter Pirates before a lack of sponsorship forced them to relocate to Singapore after the 2005-06 season, where they were renamed the Singapore Slingers. The Slingers played one home game at the Centre during the 2006-07 season.
In Cricket, Newcastle's No.1 Sports Ground was for many years a stopover on the tour itinerary for visiting international teams as they faced the Northern New South Wales XI. In 1981-82 the ground was allocated a Sheffield Shield match when the SCG was unavailable, and healthy crowds saw No.1 then become host to at least one first-class fixture featuring the New South Wales Blues each year. Newcastle also hosts a suburban competition of its own and has been the birthplace of many New South Wales and Australian representative cricketers.
Newcastle Jockey Club Limited races 35 times annually at Broadmeadow, a spacious 2000m turf track with a 415m home straight.
Newcastle has an abundance of beaches and surf breaks for which the city is internationally well known. Newcastle hosts the annual surfing contest 'Surfest' on the world professional surfing tour. Four time world champion surfer Mark Richards grew up surfing at Newcastle's Merewether Beach, and is a local icon, appearing at many local functions, and supporting local charities. Nobbys beach is a very popular kitesurfing spot, especially during the warm summer months when there are North Easterly sea breezes.
The Newcastle North Stars are Newcastle's representatives in the Australian Ice Hockey League championships. Originally based in Newcastle West in the 1970-80s, the North Stars now play out of the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium in Warners Bay. Since joining the league in 2002 they have won national championships in 2003, 2005 and 2006, been awarded Newcastle's Outstanding Senior Team of the Year for 2003, 2004 and 2006 and are finalists for 2007 Team of the Year.
Newcastle Golf Club is a championship 18-hole, par 72 golf course. It plays to 6160m, and is regarded as one of the best in Australia - consistently appearing in the top 15 best rated courses in Australia.

Media

Newcastle is served by a daily tabloid, The Herald (formerly The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate and then The Newcastle Herald), several weeklies including the Newcastle Star, The Post and the bi-monthly The Hunter Advocate.
The city is also served by several local radio stations, including those owned by the ABC and SBS.

AM stations

2HD (commercial)1143 AM

1233 ABC Newcastle (ABC Local Radio)

2HRN (community) 1629 AM

FM stations

KOFM (commercial) 102.9

NXFM (commercial) 106.9

New FM (commercial) 105.3

2NUR (community) 103.7

Rhema FM 99.7 Newcastle (Christian) 99.7

Nationally owned services

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1233 ABC Newcastle AM local radio 1233 AM

ABC Radio National 1512 AM

ABC News Radio 1458 AM

Triple J (youth station) 102.1 FM

ABC Classic FM (classical music) 106.1 FM

SBS Radio (foreign language service) 1413 AM

Other stations

2KY Racing Radio (as part of state-wide network) 1341 AM

Newcastle is also served by 5 television stations, three commercial and two national services, and by Foxtel pay television.

NBN Television (Nine Network affiliate, incumbent station, established 1962)

Southern Cross Ten (Network Ten affiliate, established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991)

Prime Television (Seven Network affiliate, established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991)

ABC Television (owned by the government, established in the 1960s)

SBS Television (owned by the government, introduced in the 1980s)

Wi-Fi hotspots and hotzones

There are several free public Wi-Fi hotspots and hotzones in Newcastle allowing the public and business to access free broadband Internet using a Desktop, Laptop or Mobile Device.
Currently, there is free Wi-Fi coverage along Beaumont Street in a hotzone that stretches between Tudor Street and Maitland Road.
The NSW Government had planned to provide the Sydney CBD and other major centres of NSW including Newcastle with free Wi-Fi by early 2008 however the project has stalled.

Transport

The Newcastle metropolitan area has an extensive system of both road links and road based public transport services (bus, taxi etc) which cover most areas of both Newcastle and Lake Macquarie and which extend beyond the metropolitan area itself. Rail transport, however, is accessible to only a relatively small percentage of the population along the major rail transport routes and ferry services are restricted to those commuting between Newcastle and Stockton. Within the metropolitan area the car remains the dominant form of transportation. At the time of the 2001 Census, less than 4% of the population caught public transport, of which around 2.5% travelled by bus and 1% used the train or ferry to commute to work. On the other hand, over 72% of the population travelled by car to and from work.

Road

Newcastle is connected to surrounding cities by the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway (South), New England Highway (West) and the Pacific Highway (North). Hunter Street, the main shopping street in the Newcastle CBD, is the major link to the Pacific Highway from the CBD.

Bus

Bus services within Newcastle are operated by Newcastle Buses & Ferries, a subsidiary of the State Transit Authority of New South Wales. Trips within a designated area of the Newcastle CBD on State Transit-operated bus services are fare-free under the Newcastle Alliance's Free City Buses programme.
The network radiates from a bus terminal near CityRail's Newcastle station, on the waterfront of Newcastle's CBD. Major interchanges are located at the University of Newcastle, Wallsend, Glendale, Warners Bay, Belmont, Charlestown, Westfield Kotara and Broadmeadow Station. To reduce journey times, bus-only lanes are in operation on certain major roads in Newcastle.

Rail

Newcastle is serviced by two CityRail lines providing local and regional commuter services. The Newcastle & Central Coast Line has hourly train services to Sydney and more frequent services to the Central Coast. The Hunter Line has twice-hourly services to Maitland and less frequently to Scone and Dungog. Countrylink (an intercity/interstate rail service) operate two lines through the Newcastle area using Broadmeadow Station. These provide services to Moree, Armidale, Brisbane and Sydney.
Newcastle once had rail passenger services to Belmont and Toronto, on Lake Macquarie, Wallsend, Kurri Kurri and several towns and villages between Maitland and Cessnock, but these lines have today been closed. Since the late 1990s, there had been intense debate about the viability of the rail line into central Newcastle. The New South Wales government had planned to cut the line at Broadmeadow, ceasing rail services into the city and to sell the land where the railway ran for development. The State government has subsequently decided, since Premier Morris Iemma took power, and at least partly in response to a huge public outcry, to keep the rail service.

Water

The Port of Newcastle is crucial to the economic life of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley region beyond. Over 70 million tonnes of coal is shipped through the facility each year - making it the largest coal exporting port in the world. The Port of Newcastle claims to be Australia's first port. Coal was first exported from the harbour in 1799, 11 years after the start of European settlement in Australia.
Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates a ferry service across the Hunter River between Newcastle's CBD and Stockton.

Air

Newcastle Airport is located north of the Newcastle CBD ( by road). The airport, which is a joint venture between Newcastle City Council and Port Stephens Council, has experienced rapid growth since 2000 as a result of an increase in low cost airline operations. It is served by Virgin Blue, Qantas, Jetstar Airways, Brindabella Airlines, Norfolk Air, and Tiger Airways (commencing 2008). The airport is shared with RAAF Base Williamtown, a Royal Australian Air Force base. The airport now has direct flights to Norfolk Island. Broadmeadow Helipad is also in service as it is used by the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service. Newcastle Airport has direct flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Canberra, Port Macquarie and Norfolk Island.
The closure of Belmont Airport, commonly referred to as Aeropelican, in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Marks Point has caused Williamtown to become Newcastle's only major airport and residents in the south of the Newcastle metropolitan area must commute up to by car to reach Williamtown.
Outside of the Newcastle Metropolitan area a number of small, mostly private, airports service the Greater Newcastle region.

External links

Newcastle City Council

Newcastle Visitor Centre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Newcastle is an affluent city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 9,175 in 2006 according to the Chief Demographer of the Washington State Office of Financial Management.
Based on per capita income Newcastle ranks 23rd of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked.

History

Newcastle was most likely named after Newcastle upon Tyne in England, as it was originally a coal mining town founded in the 1870s. Coal mining ended in 1963. The area was an unincorporated area within King County until it incorporated as a city in on September 30, 1994. Currently the city is a suburban community; most residents work in nearby Seattle, Bellevue, or Renton. The most notable attraction of the area is probably The Golf Club at Newcastle.

Geography

Newcastle is located at (47.533215, -122.172101).
Bordering Newcastle to the north is Bellevue, and to the south is Renton.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.5 square miles (11.6 km²), of which, 4.5 square miles (11.6 km²) of it is land and 0.22% is water.

Schools

The City of Newcastle is served by two school districts with the boundary line roughly going north-south just to the west of Coal Creek Parkway.
District: Issaquah School District 411
Schools: Newcastle Elementary School, Maywood Middle School, Liberty Senior High School
District: Renton School District,
Schools: Hazelwood Elementary School, McKnight Middle School, Hazen High School

Politics

On the national level, Newcastle leans toward the Democratic Party. In 2004, Democrat John Kerry received 55 percent of the vote here, defeating Republican George W. Bush, who received around 44 percent.

External links

Newcastle city government website

The Golf Club at Newcastle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nottingham (pronounced ) is a city, unitary authority area, and county town of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England. The centre of Nottingham lies on the River Leen and its southern boundary follows the course of the River Trent, which flows from Stoke to the Humber. According to the 2001 census, Nottingham had an estimated city population of 275,100 which increased to an estimated 278,700 in 2005. The Nottingham Urban Area conurbation (which includes surrounding suburbs outside the city boundary such as Arnold, Carlton, West Bridgford and neighbouring towns) has a population of 666,358 (2001 figures). Nottingham is a member of the English Core Cities Group.
The heart of Nottingham City Centre is the Old Market Square, where a controversial major redevelopment was completed in May 2007. Most of the main shopping streets surround the square. The Council House, which sits at the East end of the square, can be seen for miles around due to its dome which rises 200ft above the city. Inside the Council House is the Exchange Arcade, a shopping centre. A bohemian quarter of the city known as Hockley is situated to the east of the city, close to the Lace Market area.

History

Nottingham is relatively unusual among big manufacturing cities in Britain in having a mediæval and pre-industrial past of equal importance to its more recent one. The first evidence of settlement dates from pre-Roman times, and it is possible that the Romans also lived in the area.
In Anglo-Saxon times, around 600 AD, the site formed part of the Kingdom of Mercia, when it was known in the Brythonic language as "Tig Guocobauc" meaning "a place of cave dwellings", until falling under the rule of a Saxon chieftain named Snot, whereby it was dubbed "Snotingaham" literally, "the homestead of Snot's people" (Inga = the people of; Ham = homestead). Snot brought together his people in an area where the historic Lace Market in the City can now be found.
Nottingham was captured in 867 by Danish Vikings and later became one of the Five Burghs - or fortified towns - of The Danelaw.
In the 11th century, Nottingham Castle was constructed on a sandstone outcrop by the River Leen. The Anglo-Saxon settlement developed into the English Borough of Nottingham and housed a Town Hall and Courts. A settlement also developed around the castle on the hill opposite and was the French borough supporting the Normans in the Castle. Eventually, the space between was built on as the town grew and the Old Market Square became the focus of Nottingham several centuries later.
The town became a county corporate in 1449, giving it effective self-government, in the words of the charter, "for eternity". The Castle and Shire Hall were expressly excluded and technically remained as detached Parishes of Nottinghamshire.
During the Industrial Revolution, much of Nottingham's prosperity was founded on the textile industry; in particular, Nottingham was an internationally important centre of lace manufacture. However, the rapid and poorly planned growth left Nottingham with the reputation of having the worst slums in the British Empire outside India. Residents of these slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to the Reform Act 1832, setting fire his residence, Nottingham Castle.
In common with the UK textile industry as a whole, Nottingham's textile sector fell into headlong decline in the decades following the World War II, as British manufacturers proved unable to compete on price or volume with output of factories in the Far East and South Asia. Very little textile manufacture now takes place in Nottingham, but the City's heyday in this sector endowed it with some fine industrial buildings in the Lace Market district. Many of these have been restored and put to new uses.
Nottingham was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and at that time consisted of the parishes of Nottingham St Mary, Nottingham St Nicholas and Nottingham St Peter. It was expanded in 1877 by adding the parishes of Basford, Brewhouse Yard, Bulwell, Radford, Sneinton, Standard Hill and parts of the parishes of West Bridgford, Carlton, Wilford (North Wilford). In 1889 Nottingham became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. City status was awarded as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria, being signified in a letter from the Prime Minister the Marquess of Salisbury to the Mayor, dated 18 June 1897. Nottingham was extended in 1933 by adding Bilborough and Wollaton, parts of the parishes of Bestwood Park and Colwick, and a recently developed part of the Beeston urban district. A further boundary extension was granted in 1951 when Clifton and Wilford (south of the River Trent) were incorporated into the city.

Robin Hood

The legend of Robin Hood first arose in the Middle Ages. Robin Hood is said to have lived in Sherwood Forest, which extended from the north of Nottingham to the north side of Doncaster, Yorkshire. Although Robin Hood is generally associated with Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, some authors (eg Phillips & Keatman, 1995) argue that he came from Yorkshire. Hood's main adversary was the Sheriff of Nottingham. Today the office of Sheriff of Nottingham is a ceremonial position with no real jurisdiction. Whilst the accuracy of the legend is questionable, particularly the finer points, it has had a major impact on Nottingham, with Robin Hood imagery a popular choice for local businesses and many modern tourist attractions exploiting the legend. The Robin Hood Statue in Nottingham is within walking distance from the Old Market Square.

Caves of Nottingham

The Nottingham Caves have always formed an important part of the region, at first providing shelter and sanctuary, but growing to house thriving tanning works and in modern times becoming a tourist attraction. The caves are artificial, having been carved out of the soft sandstone rock by prospective dwellers, and have grown to become a complex network under the city. The city has more manmade caves than anywhere else in the country and this whole cave network has Scheduled Ancient Monument protection equal to that of Stonehenge, making Nottingham Caves a site of vast importance to the heritage of the United Kingdom. Part of the network can be viewed by the public at the City of Caves attraction which is accessed from the upper mall of the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.
Before the industrial revolution, the cave network was substantially expanded and became home to a large proportion of the poorer populace, particularly those involved in the tanning industry. The majority of the caves were thought to have been used for storage by the 18th century and were still inhabited until around 1924 when the last family (the Shore family) moved out of the caves in Ilkeston road; they came into use again as air raid shelters during World War II. A section of the cave network under the Broadmarsh shopping centre is now open as a tourist attraction, and some parts are still used as pub cellars.
Another section of the caves, under the castle, is still in regular use as the indoor rifle range of the Nottingham Rifle Club. In addition, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn, a pub that claims to be the oldest in Britain, is partly built into the cave system below the castle and still retains access from the beer cellars to the castle through the cave inside castle rock. Although the pub's building only dates from the 16th or 17th century, the caves themselves may date to the 11th century and could have been the site of the brewhouse for the castle.

Nottingham Castle

Mediæval Nottingham Castle, founded by William the Conqueror and famed through the Middle Ages as one of the country’s finest strongholds, no longer exists. Charles I raised the Royal Standard over the castle in 1642, but the castle was destroyed after his execution in 1649. Construction began in 1674 on a new, classical ducal palace that occupies the site today. Of the mediæval castle only the (restored) gatehouse, and the ruined remains of some walls/foundations survive.

Architecture

The city descends from north to south, and eventually to the River Trent, though the river itself is not a central feature. The western third of the city houses the castle and several new tall buildings along with some harmonious streets around Nottingham Playhouse, that are mainly occupied by professional firms, and the unimposing Nottingham Cathedral (Roman Catholic). The central third leads down from the Nottingham Trent University building past the Theatre Royal to Old Market Square, which has Nottingham Council House to the east. This was built in the 1920s to display civic pride, ostentatiously using baroque columns and statues of two lions; the Exchange Arcade underneath, containing boutique shops, is a small but pleasant covered area. Portland Stone from the same quarry used for St Paul's Cathedral was used to construct the Council House and Exchange Arcade. Streets lead south to the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre, a bus terminus. The Canalside, further south of this - and adjacent to the railway station and several new but sympathetically designed modern offices - is an inviting redevelopment of 19th century industrial buildings into a cluster of bars and restaurants. The eastern third of the city contains the Victoria Shopping Centre and the Victoria centre flats (1972), at 75 m high the tallest building in the city. Interesting areas of this part of the city are Hockley Village (Photos) and the Lace Market, where the old red-brick warehouses have been used for other purposes, creating an attractive aspect to this part of the city. The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin is in this area; it and the adjacent Shire Hall are two of the more interesting buildings from the city’s pre-industrial past.
Roughly in the centre lies Old Market Square, focal point of the city, and reputedly the largest open square of any English at 26,311 yd². It was recently redeveloped, with work being completed in March 2007, and there are currently plans to erect a statue of the late Brian Clough, a legend in the city for his triumphs with football team Nottingham Forest. The statue's position has yet to be finalised, but it is likely to be on the left of the Council House, at the bottom of King Street and Queen Street, looking out over the Old Market Square. Wollaton Hall lies about 2.5 Miles to the west of the centre, just north of the University of Nottingham's University Park Campus.
Three pubs in Nottingham claim the title of "England's Oldest Pub". The contenders for the crown are Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem near the castle, The Bell on the Old Market Square, and The Old Salutation on Maid Marian Way. Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem is supposedly named for its role as a meeting point for those going on the Crusades in the Middle Ages. However, its claim may be due partly to the questionable date of 1189 painted on the side of the inn. A recent television documentary tested the three claimants and found that, while each has its own evidence, none can claim exclusivity. The Trip, while the oldest building and oldest location, was for most of its early life a brewery and not a public house. The Salutation sits on the oldest recognised public house site, but the current building is comparatively recent. The Bell, although not in such an antiquated location, does boast the oldest public house building. There is also conflicting information available: dendrochronology from roof timbers in the Salutation give a date for the building of c.1420 with similar dates for the Bell. Ultimately, the roots of the multiple claims can be traced to various subtleties of definition in terms such as "public house" and "inn".
Prominent local architect Watson Fothergill is responsible for many of the city's fine 19th century Gothic Revival buildings.

Education

Despite a lot of investment, the closing of numerous schools and the opening of new city academies, Nottingham remains near the bottom of the league tables at both primary and secondary levels. At primary level, Nottingham was ranked second-worst overall in the country, at 149th out of 150 local authorities rated.
At secondary level, Nottingham came third from bottom nationally in terms of GCSE results attained.
The authority has instituted a plan for wide-sweeping reform of education across the city, but in many cases have been met with opposition from parents who say the planned changes are not in the best interests of education. Stanstead School, in the Rise Park area, successfully managed to prevent its planned closure, with the Independent Schools' Adjudicator finally ruling against the authority in February 2006.
The decision, the first of its kind in the country, adds more weight to the campaigns of the many other schools attempting to prevent closure or amalgamation.
Nottingham is home to two universities: the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University (formerly Trent Polytechnic). Together they are attended by over 40,000 full-time students. The University of Nottingham's teaching hospital, Queen's Medical Centre, is the largest hospital in the UK. In October 2007 Unipol Student Homes opened an accommodation bureau in Nottingham to assist students at the two universities who were seeking to find accommodation in the private sector.
Other notable educational institutions include the further education college New College Nottingham, Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Nottingham High School, Bilborough College, Nottingham High School for Girls, Chilwell Comprehensive School, The Nottingham Bluecoat School and Technology College, South Nottingham College, The Midlands Academy of Dance and Drama and Djanogly City Academy and Greenwood Dale Technology College. Nottingham is home and headquarters of the National College for School Leadership.
The Nottingham School of Fashion is a fashion school respected around the country. The designer Paul Smith trained there.

Industry

Nottingham is home to the headquarters of many well-known companies. One of the best known is Boots the Chemists, founded in the city by Jesse Boot 1st Lord Trent in 1849 and substantially expanded by his son John Boot (2nd Lord Trent).
Other large current employers include the credit reference agency Experian, the energy company E.ON UK, the tobacco company John Player & Sons, betting company Gala Group, engineering company Siemens, sportswear manufacturers Speedo, high street opticians Vision Express, games and publishing company Games Workshop (the creator of the popular games Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Warhammer 40,000), and the American credit card company Capital One, whose European offices are situated by the side of Nottingham station. Nottingham is also the home of HM Revenue and Customs and the Driving Standards Agency.
Although Boots itself is no longer a research-based pharmaceutical company, a combination of former Boots researchers and university spin-off companies have spawned a thriving pharmaceutical/science/biotechnology sector. BioCity, the UK’s biggest bioscience innovation and incubation centre, sits in the heart of the city and houses around thirty science-based companies. Other notable companies in the sector include ClinPhone and Pharmaceutical Profiles. The city has recently been made one of the UK's six Science Cities.
Until recently bicycle manufacturing was a major industry, the city being the birthplace of Raleigh Cycles in 1886 and later joined by Sturmey-Archer, the creator of 3-speed hub gears. However, Raleigh's factory on Triumph Road, famous as the location for the filming of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, was demolished in Summer 2003 to make way for the University of Nottingham's expansion of Jubilee Campus.
Nottingham is also joint headquarters of Paul Smith, the high fashion house.
Creative Industries are a target growth sector for the city with graphic design, interiors and textile design being a particular focus. already many small design companies are establishing a base in the city with Jupiter and the multi award winning Purple Circle being two of the higher profile consultancies. Nottingham City Council has recently announced that other target sectors include Financial and Business Services, Science and Technology, Public Sector and Retail and Leisure as part of their economic development strategy for the city.
Ceramics manufacturer Mason Cash was founded and continues to have operations in Nottingham.
The schools and aerial photographers, H Tempest Ltd were Nottingham-based for many years, until relocating to St Ives (Cornwall) around 1960. A skeleton office remained for many years in the original building next to Mundella School.
Many of the UKs railway ticket machines and platform departure boards run software written by Atos Origin in their offices in Nottingham. Other major industries in the city include engineering, textiles, knitwear and electronics. An increasing number of software developers are located in Nottingham: Reuters and Monumental Games are based in the city, with Free Radical Design located in nearby Sandiacre and Serif Europe based between Wilford and Ruddington, south west of the Trent and east of Clifton.
Nottingham is progressively changing from an industrial city to one based largely in the service sector. Tourism - particularly from the United States and the Far East - is becoming an increasingly significant part of the local economy.
In 2004 Nottingham had a GDP per capita of £24,238 (US$48,287, €35,529), which was the highest of any English city after London, and the fourth highest of any city of the UK, after London, Edinburgh and Belfast.

Shopping

In 2007, Nottingham was positioned seventh in the shopping league in Britain (CACI Retail Footprint 2007), behind London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, but ahead of Southampton, Bluewater and Newcastle upon Tyne.
There are two main shopping centres in Nottingham: Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh. Work on redeveloping the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre at a cost of £400 million (creating 300 stores, 136,000 sq m of shoping space) is to start in 2008. Debenhams and Marks and Spencers are to be the anchors of the new Centre, which will be open in 2011. Smaller shopping centres are the The Exchange Arcade, the Flying Horse Walk (once a famous hotel) and new developments in Trinity Square and The Pod. The new developments will increase the shopping sales area in the city centre by 28% to 4.3 million square feet. The Bridlesmith Gate area has numerous designer shops, and is the home of the original Paul Smith boutique. There are also various side streets and alleys that hide some interesting and often overlooked buildings and shops - streets such as Poultry Walk, West End Arcade and Hurts Yard. These are home to many specialist shops.
Nottingham has a number of department stores including the House of Fraser, John Lewis, and Debenhams. Hockley Village caters to alternative tastes with shops like Ice Nine and Void, famous across the city.

Culture

Nottingham has two large-capacity theatres, the Nottingham Playhouse and the Theatre Royal (which together with the neighbouring Royal Concert Hall form the Royal Centre) and a smaller theatre space at the University of Nottingham's Lakeside Arts Centre. There are also several art galleries which often receive national attention, particularly the Nottingham Castle Museum, the Angel Row Gallery (attached to the main library), the University of Nottingham's Djanogly Gallery and Wollaton Park's Yard Gallery. The visual arts in Nottingham will be significantly enhanced in 2008 and 2009 by the opening of New Art Exchange and Centre for Contemporary Art Nottingham. In a new £13.9 million 3000 square metre building on the corner of High Pavement and Middle Hill designed by Caruso St John, CCAN will be one of the largest venues for exhibitions of contemporary art in the UK. Both of the city's universities also put on a wide range of theatre, music and art events open to the public throughout the year.
The city has several multiplex cinemas alongside two arthouse cinemas in Hockley. The independent cinemas are the Broadway Cinema, one of the major independent cinemas in the UK and Screen Room, which claims to be the world’s smallest cinema (at just 21 seats). Broadway was redeveloped and expanded in 2006. Quentin Tarantino held the British premiere of Reservoir Dogs there in 1992.
There is a classical music scene, with long-established groups such as the city's Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra, Harmonic Society, Bach Choir, Early Music Group Musica Donum Dei and the Symphonic Wind Orchestra giving regular performances in the city.
The annual Goose Fair in October is always popular, being one of the largest fairs in the country.
Nottingham won the Britain in Bloom competition, in the Large City category, in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2007. It also won the Entente Florale Gold Award in 1998.
Nottingham is known for its large teenage alternative scene (rock, punk, emo etc.), the heartland of which is Old Market Square. Another focus for their activities is the Rock City concert venue. The Sumac Centre based in Forest Fields has for many years supported local upcoming musicians, artists and film makers, and a variety of campaign groups.
Nottingham has a strong grass roots "Do it yourself" music culture, and is very in touch with underground trends in modern music. Nottingham is renowned as one of the biggest cities supporting the Dubstep movement of dance music. It also has a strong DIY Punk and Indie/Folk scene based at venues such as The Old Angel Inn, The Rose of England and Lee Rosys Tea in Hockley.

Tourism

Nottingham receives a considerable volume of tourism. Many visitors are attracted by Nottingham's nightlife and shops, by its history, and by the legend of Robin Hood, visiting Sherwood Forest, Nottingham Castle and The Tales of Robin Hood on Maid Marian Way. Popular history-based tourist attractions in central Nottingham include the Castle, City of Caves, Lace Market, The Galleries of Justice, and the City's ancient pubs.
Parks and gardens include Wollaton Park (over 500 acres) near the University Highfields Park on the University of Nottingham campus, Colwick Park, which includes the racecourse, and the Nottingham Arboretum, Forest Recreation Ground and Victoria Park which are in or close to the city centre. Sherwood Forest, Rufford Country Park, Creswell Crags and Clumber Park are further away from the city itself. A new park is being developed in the city at the Eastside City development.

Demographics

Nottingham is a multi cultural city with significant Black and Asian populations and is becoming increasingly more mixed as more immigrants arrive from Eastern Europe the Middle East and Africa. Nottingham is also said to have a higher Female to Male ratio though this is disputed.
Nottingham also has on average over 50,000 full time students studying at the two Nottingham universities.
The influence of the ethnic groups can be seen with the widespread influence of Black and Jamaican culture on the different ethnicities in the city. Hyson Green is the most multi religious and multi racial part of the city with Radford road being the hub of activity. Once home to the city's Black and Pakistani communities it is now becoming increasingly Middle Eastern in its makeup.

Entertainment

The 2,500-capacity Nottingham Royal Concert Hall and 9,500-capacity Nottingham Arena attract the biggest names in popular music. For less mainstream acts and a generally more intimate atmosphere, Nottingham has a selection of great smaller venues including Junktion 7, The Old Angel, the award-winning dedicated rock music venue Rock City and Rock City's compact sister venues The Rescue Rooms, The Social and Stealth. These venues, with their packed listings and close proximity, make Nottingham one of the centres of live popular music in the UK.
The Marcus Garvey Ballroom is world renowned for dance music hosting the biggest acts in the uk. Regular nights include Firefly (Techo & Electronic), Detonation (Drum & Bass) and Misst (Dubstep).
In the 1980s, Nottingham was barely mentioned in the Good Food Guide; but now there are several restaurant entries and a range of cuisine reflecting the ethnic diversity of the city. The Nottingham Restaurant Awards play a leading role in promoting the industry.
The large number of students in the city bolsters the night time entertainment scene. There are several well established areas of the city centre for entertainment such as Lace Market, Hockley, The Waterfront and The Corner House.

Sport

Nottingham is home to two football teams: Nottingham Forest (currently in Football League One) (who under their most famous manager, the late Brian Clough, won the European Cup twice in succession) and Notts County (who play in Football League Two). Notably, these two stadia are the closest in England. The latter is the oldest Football League team in the UK, and indeed the world, having been founded in 1862 - a year before the establishment of the Football Association.
Trent Bridge cricket ground, located across the river in West Bridgford, Rushcliffe, is the home of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, who were winners of the 2005 County Championship and runners-up in the 2006 Twenty20 cup competition. Trent Bridge is a major venue for international Test matches, and also hosts other important cricketing events such as the Twenty20 cup finals and regular one-day international games. The ground, which has won architectural awards for the design of some of its newer stands, also houses a cricket academy, a hotel, and a gym, and also uniquely features not one, but two public houses built within the ground itself.
All three famous sports venues are within sight of each other even though the River Trent separates Trent Bridge and Forest's stadium (known as the City Ground and near the cricket ground) from Notts County's ground, Meadow Lane. As a curiosity Meadow Lane is actually in the City of Nottingham and the City Ground is in the County of Nottingham, the river forming the boundary. Forest should not be confused with 'The Forest', which is an open green space where the Goose Fair (see above) is held; however, the team take their name from this open space, having been founded there in 1865. This makes Forest the third oldest team in the league.
The National Ice Centre, a large ice skating rink; the city's links to ice skating can be traced back to arguably its most famous children of recent times, Olympic ice dancing champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean who collected a unanimous 6.0 score at the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo. The NIC is used as a training and competition venue for speed skating, sledge hockey and figure skating and receives an annual grant from bodies such as Sport England to maintain and fund these sports.
The NIC is the home of the Nottingham Panthers ice hockey team, founded in 1946 and the current British Play Off Champions. There is a thriving junior ice hockey programme which is also based at the centre. Since 2001, Nottingham has been the host city of the annual ice hockey Play-Off Championship Finals weekend, which attracts fans from many different parts of the country. Also calling the NIC home is the Nottingham North Stars recreational ice hockey team. Founded in 1989 North Stars are one of the oldest recreational clubs in the country.
The city's rugby union side, Nottingham R.F.C. are currently based at a new venue in West Bridgford near the City Ground, and play their league matches at Meadow Lane.
There is a large tennis centre, where the annual Nottingham Open is held in the weeks immediately prior to Wimbledon and has been used as warm-up practice by various tennis stars.
The National Water Sports Centre is based at Holme Pierrepont, with a 2000 m regatta lake for rowing, canoeing and sailing, and a white water slalom course fed from the river. A number of other sailing, rowing and canoeing clubs are also based along the River Trent, as is the boatbuilder Raymond Sims.
Every year since 1981 Nottingham has played host to the 'Robin Hood Marathon' taking in many of the city's historic and scenic sights. The race is run alongside a half marathon and a fun run among other events and is widely considered to be the second best marathon in the UK.
Motorcycle speedway racing was staged in Nottingham before the second world war. The original venue known as Olympic Speedway was redeveloped by the building of the White City stadium which also featured speedway.
A book by Philip Dalling, published by Tempus Publishing, chronicles speedway events in Nottingham.
For a short spell in the 1980s the promotion based at Long Eaton raced under the Nottingham Speedway banner and the team was known as Nottingham Outlaws.

Transport

Road

Nottingham is close to the M1 motorway and the major roads the A52 and the A46. To the west of Nottingham through to Derby, the road is known as the Brian Clough Way.

Air

East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, served by low-cost international airlines, makes the city easily accessible from other parts of the world providing daily services to many principal European destinations such as Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Amsterdam, internal flights to Edinburgh and Belfast and limited services to trans-continental destinations such as Barbados, Mexico, Sanford and Florida. Nearby Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield also provides domestic European and Trans-Atlantic services. Birmingham International airport is about one hour's drive away and 2 hours 15 minutes on the train, providing flights to most principal European cities, New York, Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Dubai and the Indian sub-continent.

Rail

Nottingham is served by train services operated by East Midlands Mainline from Nottingham railway station to London, CrossCountry and local services by East Midlands Connect.
The re-opening of the Robin Hood Line to passengers rather than just freight, between 1993 and 1998 linked Nottingham with its close neighbours of Hucknall, Mansfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield. Other lines connect the city to Beeston, Burton Joyce, Netherfield and Carlton. Nottingham has direct services to London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Norwich.
From 11 November 2007 Midland Mainline and Central Trains services in Nottingham were combined into a new franchise, East Midlands Trains, with the exception of the Nottingham to Cardiff services which are now operated by CrossCountry.
Also, from the December 2008 timetable change, Nottingham will be served by an hourly express from Leeds, operated by Northern Rail. This service will serve Nottingham, Chesterfield, Dronfield, Sheffield, Meadowhall, Barnsley, Wakefield Kirkgate and Leeds.
Nottingham railway station is the last survivor of a once much larger rail network around Nottingham. At one time Nottingham was served by Four other railway stations,

Nottingham Victoria Station (closed 1967)

Nottingham Arkwight Street (Closed 1969)

Nottingham London Road High Level (closed 1969)

Nottingham London Road Low Level (closed 1948)

Light Rail

Nottingham Express Transit a light rail system opened in 2004, running from Hucknall in the north to the city's railway station. An additional spur to/from Phoenix Park serves as a Park and Ride Station close to the M1 motorway (Junction 26). See National Park and Ride Directory for details. Phase 2 development of the system will add two new lines to the southern suburbs of Wilford and Clifton and western suburbs of Beeston and Chilwell to create a three-line network.

Buses

Nottingham is bucking the national trend, as bus use in the city is growing and employment rates are rising. This is a result of the city council, as well as the two principal operators, Nottingham City Transport (NCT) and Trent Barton, making multi-million-pound investments in some of the newest fleets in the country. NCT was also the first transport operator in the UK to use RFID technology for its EasyRider bus passes, introduced in 2000. The two operators are also frequent winners of the National Bus Operator of the Year award. Also new LocalBus services operated by Premiere Travel.

Crime

Nottingham is served by Nottinghamshire Police and has a Crown Court and Magistrates' Court.
In 2000 - 2003 the press and other media claimed Nottingham was the 'gun-crime capital of the UK', although by 2007 the BBC reported that the number of shootings in the City had fallen from 51 (in 2003) to 13 (in 2006). In January 2008, however, it was reported that gun crime in the city had risen for a second consecutive year with a 50% increase in gun crime during 2007. The incidence of many crimes in Nottingham is several times higher than the English average. A 2006 crime survey stated that Nottingham topped the crime rankings for police statistics on murders, burglaries, and vehicle crime, and "had almost five times the level of crime as the
safest town in the rankings". The survey was condemned as inaccurate by Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire Police due largely to the use of out of date (2001) population figures, and The University of Nottingham argued that the way in which statistics such as these are calculated is severely flawed, and if the population of the entire conurbation were taken into account instead of just the centre of the city then a more accurate picture would be revealed. A revised survey based on 2004 population estimates, however, appears to back up the original rankings. In 2007 a property focused TV programme named Nottingham as the 4th worst city to live in, stating the city has "loads of good aspects but crime lets it down". Interestingly the same programme also ranked the neighbouring Nottinghamshire borough of Rushcliffe, which contains suburbs of Greater Nottingham, among the best 20 places to live in the UK.
While the crime figures in the city are high, initiatives introduced to tackle the levels of crime appear to be having an effect, with a 2006 Home Office survey showing that the overall level of crime in the city is down by 12% since 2003.
Initiatives include the Community and Neighbourhood Protection Service developed by Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire Police and Nottingham City Homes to take an uncompromising stance to anti-social behaviour. It comprises Community Protection Officers (CPOs), Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and Anti-Social Behaviour Officers who work with internal and external agencies to reduce anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime.
Community Protection Officers (also known as City Wardens) highly visible in their bright yellow stab vests, are accredited by the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) for littering and are employed to tackle other anti-social behaviour.

Religion

In Nottingham one can find places of worship for all the major world religions, including Christianity, Paganism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism. The Nottingham Interfaith Council works to make connections between faith groups and show the wider public the importance of spiritual aspects of life and the contribution faith groups make to the community.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Barnabas on Derby Road was designed by the architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, it was consecrated in 1844 and is the cathedral church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nottingham established in 1850 which covers Nottinghamshire (except Bassetlaw District), Leicestershire, Derbyshire (except Chesterfield and parts of the High Peak), Rutland and Lincolnshire (pre-1974 boundaries).
Nottingham has three historic Anglican parish churches all of which date back to mediæval times. St. Mary the Virgin, in the Lace Market, a member of the Greater Churches Group is the oldest foundation (dating from the eighth or ninth centuries) but the building is at least the third on the site dating from 1377 to 1485. St. Mary's is considered the mother church of the City and civic services are held here, including the welcome to the new Lord Mayor of Nottingham each year. St.Peter's in the heart of the city is the oldest building in continuous use in Nottingham, with traces of building starting in 1180. St. Nicholas' was rebuilt after destruction in the Civil War.
Non-conformism was strong from the seventeenth century onwards and a variety of chapels and meeting rooms proliferated throughout the town. Sadly many of these grand buildings have been demolished, including Halifax Place Chapel, but some have been re-used, notably the Unitarian Chapel on High Pavement which is now a public house. The offices of the Congregational Federation are in Nottingham.
The Christian Centre is a Pentecostal church located in the centre of Nottingham.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was born in Nottingham in 1829.

Media

Television

The BBC has its East Midlands headquarters in Nottingham on London Road. BBC East Midlands Today is broadcast from the city every weeknight at 6:30. Central TV was broadcast from Nottingham on ITV until recently, but has now been moved to Birmingham. They still have a news room there at Chilwell. This decision was controversial and although a petition was set up to try to stop it, the TV studios were shut down in early 2005. Central News still keep a news bureau outside of the city at Chilwell, though. The former studios were purchased by the University of Nottingham to accommodate their administrative departments.

Radio

The Nottingham area is served by four licenced commercial radio stations (though all broadcast to a wider area than the city), three community radio stations, one student station broadcasting on a Low powered AM Restricted Service Licence and a BBC local radio station.
Nottingham is the home of 96 Trent FM, a commercial radio station in Nottinghamshire, which is licensed to broadcast to Nottingham and Mansfield. The old building that housed 96 Trent FM until 2007 was a converted Victorian Hospital which connects to the underground network of caves. Many famous presenters have been employed at 96 Trent FM (formerly Radio Trent), including Dale Winton, Kid Jensen, John Peters and Penny Smith. The station is also the home of the award-winning Jo and Twiggy.
The other professional radio stations broadcast from the city are BBC Radio Nottingham (BBC Radio Five Live's Simon Mayo appeared on this station and was the rival to Trent's Dale Winton), Gold (formerlyClassic Gold GEM), and the East Midlands' regional stations Heart 106 (formerly Century FM) and 106.6 Smooth Radio (formerly Saga 106.6 fm). Heart 106 has its headquarters in the same business park as the BBC, while Trent FM's (and Classic Gold GEM's) building is on the other side of the Nottingham City Centre near Nottingham castle.
Student Radio is broadcast in the city permanently by URN (University Radio Nottingham). URN has won many awards for quality and which is broadcast on medium wave (AM) around the main campus (University Park) at 1350 kHz and from Sutton Bonnigton campus on 1602 kHz. It is also streamed over the Internet at www.urn1350.net.
There are also three community radio stations serving the city; Faza FM on 97.1FM is aimed at Asian Women and their families and has been broadcasting since 2002; Dawn FM on 107.6FM used to share it's broadcast hours with Faza, but in 2006 became a separate service in its own right - broadcasting news, current affairs and music of relevance to the Asian (specifically Islamic) community within the city; Kemet Radio on 97.5 broadcasts urban music while also serving the Afro-Caribbean community. Prior to its launch in 2007 such programming had only been available on pirate radio stations Unique 106.3 (later 107.3) and 107.9 Switch FM (later Freeze FM, networked with the London pirate of the same name), both of which appear to have ceased broadcasts as of late 2006.

Newspapers

Nottingham has one daily newspaper, the Evening Post. There are also a number of weekly/monthly publications available which focus on individual areas around the city, for instance the Hucknall and Bulwell Dispatch.
There is also a local culture and listings magazine available free from many sites around the city called LeftLion.

Alternative media

Community news project Nottinghamshire Indymedia, which was set up in April 2005, works within a variety of groups to create community media and collaboration between communities throughout the county. At the centre of the project is an online news site, which is run on the principles of open publishing.

Geography

Nottingham is located at (52.9667,-1.1667).
The City of Nottingham boundaries are tightly drawn and exclude several suburbs and towns that are usually considered part of Greater Nottingham, including Arnold, Carlton, West Bridgford, Beeston and Stapleford. Outlying towns and villages include Hucknall, Eastwood, Tollerton, Ruddington, Ilkeston and Long Eaton of which the last two are in Derbyshire. The geographical area of Greater Nottingham includes several local authorities: Gedling, Broxtowe, Rushcliffe, Ashfield, Erewash and Amber Valley.

Within the City of Nottingham

Alexandra Park

The Arboretum

Aspley

Bakersfield

Beechdale

Bilborough

Bulwell

Basford

Bestwood Park

Carrington

Cinderhill

Clifton

Colwick

Dunkirk

Forest Fields

Hockley

Hyson Green

Lace Market

Lenton

Lenton Abbey

Mapperley

Mapperley Park

Mapperley Plains

The Meadows

Nottingham City Centre

The Park

Radford

Rise Park

Sherwood

Sneinton

St Anns

Strelley

Top Valley

Whitemoor

Wilford

Wollaton

Around the City of Nottingham

Arnold

Beeston

Bingham

Bulcote

Burton Joyce

Carlton

Chilwell

Daybrook

Eastwood

Edwalton

Gedling

Holme Pierrepont

Hucknall

Ilkeston (Derbyshire)

Kimberley

Kirkby-in-Ashfield

Long Eaton (Derbyshire)

Mansfield

Netherfield

Nuthall

Porchester

Redhill

Ruddington

Sandiacre (Derbyshire)

Stapleford

Thorneywood

Toton

Trowell

West Bridgford

Woodthorpe

Twin Cities

Nottingham is twinned with the following cities:

— Ghent, Belgium (since 1985)

— Harare, Zimbabwe (since 1981)

— Karlsruhe, Germany (since 1969)

— Ljubljana, Slovenia (since 1963)

— Minsk, Belarus (since 1966)

— Ningbo, China (since 2004)

— Poznań, Poland (since 1994)

Famous people from Nottingham

See here for Notable Nottingham residents.

External links

Official website

Vision Nottingham Vision Nottingham is the inward investment agency for the Greater Nottingham area, helping businesses relocate or expand in the city.

HockleyVillage.co.uk

BBC Nottingham

Nottingham in Pictures

New Nottingham

Wikitravel

Rise Park area of Nottingham

National Park and Ride Directory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chippewa Falls, named after the Chippewa Indians, is a city located on the Chippewa River in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 12,925 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Chippewa County. Chippewa Falls was incorporated as a city in 1869.
Chippewa Falls is also known for being the birthplace of Seymour Cray and the location of the headquarters for the original Cray Research. Chippewa Falls is the home of Leinenkugel's Beer, brewed by the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company and the Heyde Center for the Arts, a showcase venue for local, regional, national and international artists and performers. Chippewa Falls is also the home to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair, which is held annually.

Geography

Chippewa Falls is located at (44.934110, -91.393228).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.4 square miles (29.5 km²), of which, 10.9 square miles (28.1 km²) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.4 km²) of it (4.66%) is water.

Chippewa Falls in the media

The title character played by Diane Keaton in Woody Allen's Oscar-winning film Annie Hall (1977) hails from Chippewa Falls. The sequence where Alvy Singer meets Annie's family takes place in the town.

Chippewa Falls is also mentioned in another best-picture winner, Titanic, as the birthplace and hometown of Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). During the movie, the character recalls fishing as a boy on Lake Wissota, a man-made lake that was not created until 1917 -- five years after the Titanic sank.

The Stargate Atlantis character, Dr. Jennifer Keller is from Chippewa Falls.

Chippewa Falls is also the hometown of Dorothy McGuire's character 'Pat Ruscomb' in the 1946 movie 'Till The End Of Time'.

There is an instrumental rock band from Newcastle upon Tyne, England named after Chippewa Falls.

Musical Artist Al Duvall recorded a song entitled, "When It's Ice Chopping Time (in Chippewa Falls)"

Notable natives and residents

Moose Baxter - John Morris Baxter, former Major League Baseball player.

Chad Cascadden - Former National Football League linebacker for the New York Jets and New England Patriots from 1995-1999. He also played for the Wisconsin Badgers and was a member of the 1994 Rose Bowl Championship team.

Seymour Cray - U.S. electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who founded the company Cray Research.

Gus Dorais - Charles E. "Gus" Dorais was a former quarterback and kicker for the University of Notre Dame. A consensus All-America pick at in 1913, the first-ever at Notre Dame. Coached from 1914 until 1942, and was inducted into College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954

Judy Henske - An American singer and songwriter, once known as “the Queen of the Beatniks”.

Howard Luedtke - also known as Howard "Guitar" Luedtke, is an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and musician. Luedtke is considered one of the best slide guitar players in the American midwest and currently tours with his band Howard "Guitar" Luedtke & Blue Max.

Charles E. Mower - United States Army soldier and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II

Joe Vavra - Former player in Los Angeles Dodgers organization and current Hitting Coach for the Minnesota Twins.

Eddy Waller (14 June 1889 – 20 August 1977), was an American film actor. He appeared in over 200 films between 1929 and 1963.

Alexander Wiley - Member of the Republican Party who served four terms in the United States Senate for the state of Wisconsin from 1939 to 1963.

David Zien - Former Member of the Wisconsin State Senate. He held office from 1993-2007 and was defeated by Pat Kreitlow.

External links

General

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

Chippewa Falls Area Chamber of Commerce

United_States/Wisconsin/Localities/C/Chippewa_Falls at the Open Directory Project

School District Homepage

Tourism

Chippewa Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Port Fairy is a coastal town in the Moyne Shire of Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Princes Highway 28 km west of Warrnambool and 290 km west of Melbourne, where the Moyne River enters the Southern Ocean.

History

The area was initially inhabited by the Knarn Kolak Aborigines.
In the early nineteenth century the area was used by whalers and seal hunters.
By 1835 a whaling station had been established on what is now Griffiths Island. Bluestone cottages built by whalers and sealers of the time are still standing around the town. A general store was opened in 1839. In 1843, James Atkinson, a Sydney solicitor, purchased land in the town. He drained the swamps, subdivided and leased the land, and built a harbour on the Moyne River. He renamed the town 'Belfast' after his hometown in Ireland.
Agriculture developed in the region, and Port Fairy became an important transport hub. By 1857 the town had a population of 2,190. In the mid to late nineteenth century, Port Fairy was one of Australia's largest ports, catering to the whaling industry. In 1887 the town was renamed Port Fairy, as a result of an act of parliament.

The town

At the 2001 census, Port Fairy had a population of 2,523. Its primary industries are tourism and fishing, and it is the home port for one of Victoria's largest fishing fleets. It contains 50 buildings protected by the National Trust of Australia. The adjoining Griffiths Island holds a breeding colony of the Short-tailed Shearwater or Australian Muttonbird.
The Port Fairy Folk Festival is held in March each year. Port Fairy also has a highly rated golf course.

The M.V. Port Fairy

The British Port Line freighter Port Fairy, 8027 grt. was named for the town. Built in 1928 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, she was the first ship adapted to transport chilled, as opposed to frozen, meat from Australasia to the UK. Port Fairy had an eventful career in World War II, surviving a collision with the Canadian destroyer Margaree, which sank with heavy loss of life, and bombing by the Luftwaffe. She was scrapped in 1965.

External links

Port Fairy Folk Festival

Port Fairy Community Pages

History and overview of the town today

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Warkworth is a town in the upper North Island of New Zealand. It is located in the Rodney District and lies at the far north of the Auckland Region, just south of Northland. It is located on State Highway 1, 64 km north of Auckland and 98 km south of Whangarei, and lies at the head of Mahurangi Harbour.
According to the 2006 census, the permanent resident population was 3,270, an increase of 15.7% in the preceding 5 years. This figure swells during the summer, as many holiday makers come into the area over the Christmas period.
The general area in and around Warkworth is known as the Kowhai Coast, named after the native kowhai tree, Warkworth being at its heart. Warkworth is well known for its ducks, which live around the river running through the town.
The town's annual Kowhai Festival is one of the largest community festivals in the country running for around a week in spring. The festival winds up with what was once a large one day event of family fun, rides, street stalls, music, food and wine, which the entire main street was closed to accommodate the tens of thousands of visitiors which would attend . The day would end in a large parade with entries from many community groups. Unfortunately the organisers now find there is a lack of funding for this day to continue with its old flair.

Geography

One of the most prominent features of Warkworth is the Mahurangi River, an estuary which runs right through the township, where it then joins the Mahurangi Harbour and flows into the Hauraki Gulf. On the eastern side of the river is the Mahurangi East peninsula, with the seaside towns of Snells Beach and Algies Bay. It is here that the scenic Kawau Island is found, notable for its historic Mansion House, once the private retreat of Governor Grey. East of Warkworth and north of Mahurangi East lies the Tawharanui Peninsula, home of the Tawharanui Regional Park which is managed by the Department of Conservation. To the north is the town of Wellsford, with the thickly forested Dome Valley lying in between. On the west coast lies the Kaipara Harbour, while to the south is the small historic township of Puhoi and further south the larger town of Orewa.

History

Warkworth was founded in 1853 by John Anderson Brown (born Newcastle upon Tyne), who named it after the village of Warkworth, Northumberland where one of his relatives had taught for many years. Early industry included logging (for kauri and other timbers), flour milling and boat-building.
The first portland cement manufacturing works in the southern hemisphere was established near the town in 1884. The ruins still remain and the mine is now a popular local swimming hole.
New Zealand's main satellite communications ground station is located 5km south of Warkworth.

Sister towns

Warkworth has several sister towns with which is pursues international relations. These include:

Warkworth, Northumberland (Town founder John Anderson Brown named Warkworth after his former home in the England)

Furudono, Fukushima (Furudono is a sister school of Mahurangi College and Warkworth Primary School located in Honshū, Japan)

Warkworth, Ontario (This town in Canada was recently sistered in 2003)

External links

Warkworth Visitor Information Centre

Rodney District Council

Statistics New Zealand's profile of Warkworth (2001 Census)

Population information from the 2006 Census

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benton is the name of a number of places:

United Kingdom

Benton, Devon, near Bratton Fleming

Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne

United States

Benton, Alabama

Benton, Arkansas

Benton, California

Benton, Illinois

Benton, Iowa

Benton, Kansas

Benton, Kentucky

Benton, Louisiana

Benton, Maine

Benton, Missouri

Benton, New Hampshire

Benton, New York

Benton, Pennsylvania

Benton, Tennessee

Benton, Wisconsin

Benton (town), Wisconsin

Benton Charter Township, Michigan

Benton City, Missouri

Benton City, Washington

Benton Harbor, Michigan

Benton Hot Springs, California (ghost town)

Benton Paiute Reservation, California

Benton Ridge, Ohio

Fort Benton, Montana

Lake Benton, Minnesota

Benton County

Benton County, Arkansas

Benton County, Indiana

Benton County, Iowa

Benton County, Minnesota

Benton County, Mississippi

Benton County, Missouri

Benton County, Oregon

Benton County, Tennessee

Benton County, Washington

Benton Township

Benton Township, Faulkner County, Arkansas

Benton Township, Fulton County, Arkansas

Benton Township, Franklin County, Illinois

Benton Township, Massac County, Illinois

Benton Township, Elkhart County, Indiana

Benton Township, Monroe County, Indiana

Benton Township, Benton County, Iowa

Benton Township, Cass County, Iowa

Benton Township, Des Moines County, Iowa

Benton Township, Fremont County, Iowa

Benton Township, Keokuk County, Iowa

Benton Township, Lucas County, Iowa

Benton Township, Ringold County, Iowa

Benton Township, Taylor County, Iowa

Benton Township, Wayne County, Iowa

Benton Township, Atchison County, Kansas

Benton Township, Butler County, Kansas

Benton Township, Hodgeman County, Kansas

Benton Township, Cheboygan County, Michigan

Benton Township, Eaton County, Michigan

Benton Township, Minnesota

Benton Township, Adair County, Missouri

Benton Township, Andrew County, Missouri

Benton Township, Atchison County, Missouri

Benton Township, Cedar County, Missouri

Benton Township, Crawford County, Missouri

Benton Township, Daviess County, Missouri

Benton Township, Douglas County, Missouri

Benton Township, Holt County, Missouri

Benton Township, Howell County, Missouri

Benton Township, Knox County, Missouri

Benton Township, Linn County, Missouri

Benton Township, Newton County, Missouri

Benton Township, Wayne County, Missouri

Benton Township, Webster County, Missouri

Benton Township, Hocking County, Ohio

Benton Township, Monroe County, Ohio

Benton Township, Osage County, Ohio

Benton Township, Ottawa County, Ohio

Benton Township, Paulding County, Ohio

Benton Township, Pike County, Ohio

Benton Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania

Benton Township, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

Benton Township, McCook County, South Dakota

Benton Township, Minnehaha County, South Dakota

Benton Township, Spink County, South Dakota

East Benton Township, Missouri

Lake Benton Township, Minnesota

North Benton Township, Dallas County, Missouri

North Benton Township, Polk County, Missouri

South Benton Township, Dallas County, Missouri

South Benton Township, Polk County, Missouri

West Benton Township, Christian County, Missouri

West Benton Township, Newton County, Missouri

West Benton Township, Webster County, Missouri

Non-placenames

the Benton meteorite of 1949, which fell in New Brunswick, Canada (see Meteorite falls)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Taiyuan ( lit. "Great Plains") is a prefecture-level city in China, capital of Shanxi province. The city has an elevation of about 800 meters.

History

Taiyuan is an ancient capital, constructed by Zhaojianzi (趙簡子/赵简子) in ca. 500 BC, named Jinyang (晉陽/晋阳). It was renamed Taiyuan in the Qin Dynasty. Several Kings came from this city, therefore the other name of the city is "Dragon City".
A new city was built in 562 AD, which was later linked to the old city during the Tang Dynasty (733 AD).
In 617 AD, Li Yuan and his son Li Shimin rebelled against Sui Dynasty, and founded the Tang.
The oldest existing building in the city is the Temple of Goddess (聖母殿/圣母殿) inside the Jin Ci Complex; it was originally built in 1023 AD and reconstructed in 1102 AD.
The city had been deliberately flooded several times: 453 BC, 969 AD, and was destroyed by war in 1125 AD.
During Ming Dynasty, the city wall was reconstructed in 1568 AD.
During the Sino-Japanese War, Taiyuan was the most inland point that the Japanese Soldiers reached.(quote require!)
The city was home of the Chinese Football Association Jia League's Shanxi Aosen Luhu club for the 2006 season. It is also the home of the Shanxi Zhongyu (Chinese Basketball Association) since 2006.

The City

The Fen River flows across the city from north to south, dividing the city into two parts: Qiaoxi (West of the Bridge) and Qiaodong (East of the Bridge). As of 2007, there are five bridges across the Fen River within the city limit: the Shengli Bridge (1970), the Yifen Bridge (1990), the Yingze Bridge (1954), the Nanneihuan Bridge (1988), and the Changfeng Bridge (2001). About ten kilometers to the north of the Shengli Bridge, there is the Chaicun Bridge. Two more bridges are being planned: Beizhonghuan Bridge and Nanzhonghuan Bridge.

Tourism

Tourist attractions in and around Taiyuan include:

Chongshan Monastery

Jinci Temple

Twin Pagoda Temple

Mount Wutai (五台山）

Shuanglin Monastery

Liu Xiang Lane

Taiyuan Fifth High School

Shanxi Experimental Secondary School （山西省实验中学）

Also, Taiyuan is known for its Liuxiang shopping district and the construction of parks and recreational areas on both sides of the Fen River that are specifically praised by the UN Environmental Programme for their role in the improvement in the environmental condition of Taiyuan. Taiyuan's environmental improvement project is being copied in many other Chinese cities and urban areas around the world.

Sister cities

Taiyuan is twinned with:

- Chemnitz (Germany)

- Himeji (Hyōgo, Japan)

- Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

- Nashville (Tennessee, United States)

- Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Colleges and universities

Shanxi Agricultural University (山西农业大学)

Shanxi College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (山西中医学院)

Shanxi Medical University (山西医科大学)

Shanxi Teachers University also called Shanxi Normal University (山西师范大学)

Shanxi University (山西大学)

Shanxi University of Finance and Economics (山西财经大学)

Taiyuan Normal University (太原师范学院)

Taiyuan University of Science and Technology (太原科技大学)

Taiyuan University of Technology (太原理工大学)

North University of China (中北大学)

External links

Official Website (in English)

Taiyuan Dialect

TravelChinaGuide.com - City Guide of Taiyuan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gelsenkirchen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the Ruhr area. Its population in 2006 was c. 267,000.
Gelsenkirchen was first documented in 1150, but it remained a tiny village until the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution led to the growth of the entire area. In 1840, when the mining of coal began, 6000 inhabitants lived in Gelsenkirchen; in 1900 the population had increased to 138,000.
In the early 20th century Gelsenkirchen was the most important coal mining town in Europe. It was called the "city of a thousand fires", for the flames of mine gasses being flared during the nights. In 1928 Gelsenkirchen was merged with the adjoining cities of Buer and Horst. The city bore the name Gelsenkirchen-Buer, until it was renamed Gelsenkirchen in 1930. During the Nazi era Gelsenkirchen remained a centre of coal production and oil refining, and for this reason it was bombed by Allied air raids in World War II. During the war, it was the site of a women's subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Today in Gelsenkirchen there are no collieries any more and Gelsenkirchen is searching for a new image, having been hit for decades with one of the highest unemployment rates of Germany. Today Germany's largest solar power plant is located in the city. In Gelsenkirchen-Scholven there is a coal fired power station with the tallest chimneys in Germany (302 metres).

History

Ancient and Medieval times

Although the part of town now called Buer was first mentioned by Heribert I in a document as Puira in 1003, there were hunting people on a hill north of the Emscher as early as the Bronze Age - and therefore earlier than 1000 BC. They did not live in houses as such, but in small yards gathered together near each other. Later, the Romans pushed into the area. In about 700, the region was settled by the Saxons. A few other parts of town which today lie in Gelsenkirchen's north end were mentioned in documents from the early Middle Ages, some examples being: Raedese (nowadays Resse), Middelvic (Middelich, today part of Resse), Sutheim (Sutum; today part of Beckhausen) and Sculven (nowadays Scholven). Many nearby farming communities were later identified as iuxta Bure ("near Buer").
It was about 1150 when the name Gelstenkerken or Geilistirinkirkin cropped up for the first time. At about the same time, the first church in town was built in what is now Buer. This ecclesia Buron ("church at Buer") was listed in a directory of parish churches by the sexton from Deutz, Theodericus. This settlement belonged to the Mark. However, in ancient times and even in the Middle Ages, only a few dozen people actually lived in the settlements around the Emscher basin.

Industrialisation

Up until the middle of the 19th century, the area in and around Gelsenkirchen was only thinly settled and almost exclusively agrarian. In 1815, after temporarily belonging to the Grand Duchy of Berg, the land now comprising the city of Gelsenkirchen passed to the Kingdom of Prussia, which assigned it to the province of Westphalia. Whereas the Gelsenkirchen of that time - not including today's north-end communities, such as Buer - was put in the Amt of Wattenscheid in the Bochum district, in the governmental region of Arnsberg, Buer, which was an Amt in its own right, was along with nearby Horst joined to Recklinghausen district in the governmental region of Münster. This arrangement came to an end only in 1928.
After the discovery of coal - lovingly known as "Black Gold" - in the Ruhr area in 1840, and the subsequent industrialization, the Cologne-Minden Railway and the Gelsenkirchen Main Railway Station were opened. In 1868, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of an Amt within the Bochum district which encompassed the communities of Gelsenkirchen, Braubauerschaft (as of 1900, Bismarck), Schalke, Heßler, Bulmke and Hüllen.
Friedrich Grillo founded the Corporation for Chemical Industry (Aktiengesellschaft für Chemische Industrie) in Schalke in 1872, and also the Schalke Mining and Ironworks Association (Schalker Gruben- und Hüttenverein). A year later, and once again in Schalke, he founded the Glass and Mirror Factory Incorporated (Glas- und Spiegel-Manufaktur AG).
After Gelsenkirchen had become an important heavy-industry hub, it was raised to city in 1875.

Gelsenkirchen becomes a city

In 1885, after Bochum district was split up, Gelsenkirchen became the seat of its own district (Kreis), which would last until 1926. The cities of Gelsenkirchen and Wattenscheid, as well as the Ämter of Braubauerschaft (as of 1900, Bismarck), Schalke, Ückendorf, Wanne and Wattenscheid all belonged to the Gelsenkirchen district. A few years later, in 1896, Gelsenkirchen was split away from Gelsenkirchen district to become an "independent city" (kreisfreie Stadt). In 1891, Horst was split away from the Amt of Buer, which itself was raised to city in 1911, and to kreisfreie Stadt the next year. Meanwhile, Horst became the seat of its own Amt. In 1924, the rural community of Rotthausen, which until then had belonged to the Essen district, was made part of the Gelsenkirchen district.
In 1928, under the Prussian local government reforms, the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Buer along with the Amt of Horst together became a new kreisfreie Stadt called Gelsenkirchen-Buer, effective as of 1 April that year. From that time, the whole city area belonged to the governmental district of Münster. In 1930, on the city's advice, the city's name was changed to Gelsenkirchen, effective 21 May. By this time, the city was home to about 340,000 people.
In 1931, the Gelsenkirchen Mining Corporation (Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-Aktien-Gesellschaft) founded the "Gelsenberg" Petrol Corporation (Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG).
The Hibernia Mining Company founded the Hydrierwerk Scholven AG GE-Buer, a hydrogenation plant, in 1935.

The Third Reich

During the time of Nazi Germany, Gelsenkirchen, owing to its location in the heart of the Ruhr area, was a centre of wartime industry. In no other time has Gelsenkirchen's industry been so highly productive. This brought about, on the one hand, after the massive job cuts in the 1920s, a short-term boost in mining and heavy-industry jobs. On the other hand, the city naturally became the target of many heavy Allied bombing raids during the Second World War, which destroyed three fourths of Gelsenkirchen. Even today, many old above-ground air-raid shelters can be found in the city, and some of the city's official buildings such as Hans-Sachs-Haus downtown and the town hall in Buer have air-raid shelters still kept more or less in their original form.
Two synagogues in Gelsenkirchen were destroyed in the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. The one in Buer was burnt down. The one in downtown Gelsenkirchen was likewise destroyed. In the Kristallnacht Nazis in the German Reich destroyed Jewish business, dwellings and cemeteries, set synagogs on fire. Also the synagog in Gelsenkirchen, which had been inaugurated in 1885, was burned down to the foundation walls. Since 1963 a board reminded passers of the destruction of the old synagogue. Finally, in 1993 the area was renamed to the "place of the old synagogue" and 66 years later, on 9.November 2004, Paul Spiegel put the foundation-stone for the new synagog. On 1.February the place of worship was solemnly opened. After an approximate one year construction period is the new synagog in Gelsenkichen now that new center of the Jewish municipality in the place developed, in which also the 1938 destroyed old synagog were. The praying area offers place for altogether 400 people, additionally is attached a community center with meeting area. Today the Jewish municipality Gelsenkirchen counts about 430 members.
In Gelsenkirchen there was an external camp of the KZ Buchenwald in the year 1944. In the Gelsenberg Lager on the working area of the Gelsenberg Benzin AG about 2000 Hungarian women and girls were accommodated, who were assigned to the hard labour on the hydrogenation work. About 150 of these Hungarian Jewesses died with heavy bomb attacks in September 1944 on the work. The admission to shelters and protection ditches was forbidden to them. List of victims is accessible on the page of GELSENZENTRUM Documentationcenter for urban and contemperary history
Throughout the time when Hitler was in power, from 1933 to 1945, the city's mayor was Carl Engelbert Böhmer, an NSDAP member appointed by the régime. The Institute for City History set up a documentation site: "Gelsenkirchen in National Socialist times".

After the war

On 17 December 1953, the Kokerei Hassel went into operation, billed as Germany's "first new coking plant" since the war. When postal codes (Postleitzahlen) were introduced in 1961, Gelsenkirchen was one of the few cities in West Germany to be given two codes: Buer was given 466, while Gelsenkirchen got 465. These were in use until 1 July 1993. The "first comprehensive school in North Rhine-Westphalia" was opened in 1969. Scholven-Chemie AG (the old hydrogenation plant) merged with Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG to form the new corporation VEBA-Oel AG. In 1987, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass before 85,000 people at Gelsenkirchen's Parkstadion. The Pope also became an honorary member of FC Schalke 04.
In 1997, the Federal Garden Show (Bundesgartenschau or BUGA) was held on the grounds of the disused Nordstern coalmine in Horst. In 1999, the last phase of the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition, an undertaking that brought together many cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, was held. Coke was produced at the old Hassel coking works for the last time on 29 September 1999. This marked the shutdown of the last coking plant in Gelsenkirchen, after being a coking town for more than 117 years. In the same year, Shell Solar Deutschland AG took over production of photovoltaic equipment. On 28 April 2000, the Ewald-Hugo colliery closed - Gelsenkirchen's last colliery. Three thousand coalminers lost their jobs. In 2003, Buer celebrated its thousandth anniversary of first documentary mention, and FC Schalke 04 celebrated on 4 May 2004 its hundredth anniversary.
Today, Gelsenkirchen is a centre for sciences, services, and production, with good infrastructure.

Population development

The following figures are estimates, census data, or official extrapolations of Gelsenkirchen's population at various times.
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¹ Census figures

Economy and infrastructure

Gelsenkirchen presents itself above all as a centre of solar technology. Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH produces solar cells in Rotthausen. Scheuten Solar Technology has taken over its solar panel production. There are other large businesses in town: THS GmbH, Gelsenwasser, e.on, BP Gelsenkirchen GmbH, Shell Solar Deutschland GmbH and Pilkington. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, Gelsenkirchen is, after Leipzig, Karlsruhe and Bremen, Germany's fourth business-friendliest city.

Transport

Gelsenkirchen lies on Bundesautobahnen A 2, A 40, A 42 and A 52, as well as on Bundesstraßen (Federal Highways) B 224, B 226 and B 227. Gelsenkirchen's main railway station lies at the junction of the Oberhausen-Gelsenkirchen-Herne-Dortmund and Essen-Gelsenkirchen-Recklinghausen-Münster lines.
As for waterways, Gelsenkirchen can be reached along the Rhine-Herne Canal, where a commercial-industrial harbour is to be found. The harbour has a yearly turnover of 2 000 000 t and a water surface area of about 1.2 km², one of Germany's biggest and most important canal harbours, and is furthermore connected to Deutsche Bahn's railway network.
Local transport in Gelsenkirchen is afforded by trams and buses run by the Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahn AG (BOGESTRA), as well as by Vestische Straßenbahnen GmbH in the city's north end (despite its name, it nowadays runs only buses). The Stadtbahn train U17, which connects Horst to Essen, as well as tram line 107, which connects Gelsenkirchen Central Station to Essen, are operated by EVAG. Tram line 302 connects the city to Bochum. All these services have an integrated fare structure within the VRR. There are three tram lines, one light rail line, and about 50 bus routes in Gelsenkirchen.

Media

Gelsenkirchen is the headquarters of the Verband Lokaler Rundfunk in Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (VLR) (Network of Local Radio in North Rhine-Westphalia Registered Association (VLR). REL (Radio Emscher-Lippe) is also headquartered in Gelsenkirchen.
Among newspapers, the Buersche Zeitung was a daily till 2006. Then the paper was closed down, though economically there was no reason for it. The Dortmund paper Ruhr-Nachrichten did the local news section. Now, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung is the only local newspaper in Gelsenkirchen and has so to say a monopoly. The local radio station REL also reports the local news.
There is also a free weekly newspaper, the Stadtspiegel Gelsenkirchen, along with monthly, or irregular, local publications called the Familienpost and the Beckhausener Kurier.

Miscellaneous

On the occasion of the 2006 FIFA world football championship, the transport infrastructure in Gelsenkirchen leading to the Veltins-Arena underwent modifications. Likewise, the main railway station is undergoing extensive reconstruction, with completion planned in time for the championship.
The Power Station Westerholt has the tallest chimney in Germany (337 metres tall)

Education

Gelsenkirchen has 51 elementary schools (36 "community" schools, 12 Catholic schools, 3 Evangelical schools), 8 Hauptschulen, 6 Realschulen, 7 Gymnasien, and 4 Gesamtschulen, among which the Gesamtschule Bismarck, as the only comprehensive school run by the Westphalian branch of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, warrants special mention.
The Fachhochschule Gelsenkirchen, founded in 1992, has campuses in Bocholt and Recklinghausen with the following course offerings: Economics, Computer Science, Physical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Supply and Disposal Engineering.
Also found in Gelsenkirchen is one of the seven locations of the Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung NRW (Fachhochschule for public administration North Rhine-Westphalia) offering as fields of study Municipal Administrative Service, Police Training, and Administrative Economics. There is also a folk high school as well as a city library with three branches in Horst, Buer and Erle with more than 100,000 books, films, and CDs.

Sports

Gelsenkirchen is home of the football club FC Schalke 04. Schalke's home ground, Veltins-Arena, is generally regarded as one of the most innovative stadiums built in recent years. It is one of 12 German cities to host games during the Football World Cup 2006, and has already hosted the matches between Poland and Ecuador, Argentina and Serbia and Montenegro, Portugal and Mexico and USA and Czech Republic.
Gelsenkirchen has also hosted two important Yugoslav games. These games were Serbia's two largest FIFA world cup defeats. They were a 6-0 loss to Argentina and a 9-0 win over Zaire.

Twinned towns

Büyükçekmece, Turkey

Cottbus, Germany

Kutaisi, Georgia

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom

Olsztyn, Poland

Shakhty, Russia

Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina

External links

Official city website, with information in English including British/Irish influence during the 19th century

GELSENZENTRUM Documetation center of urban and contemporary history Gelsenkirchen

Gelsenkirchen at MapQuest (interactive)

about the football World Cup 2006 in Gelsenkirchen

Lots of photos on neubaustrecke.de

Website of partnership Gelsenkirchen - Schachty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia