Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.
Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.
Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a firework display. (read more . . . )
Sir Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA
, (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist
. The son of a mining engineer, born in the Yorkshire
town of Castleford
, Moore became well known for his larger-scale abstract
cast bronze and carved marble sculptures. Substantially supported by the British art establishment, Moore helped to introduce a particular form of modernism
into the United Kingdom.
Moore is best known for his abstract monumental bronzes which can be seen in many places around the world as public works of art. The subjects are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically mother-and-child or reclining figures. Apart from a flirtation with family groups in the 1950s, the subject is nearly always a woman. Characteristically, Moore's figures are pierced, or contain hollow places. Many interpret the undulating form of his reclining figures as references to the landscape and hills of Yorkshire where Moore was born.
His ability to satisfy large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy towards the end of his life. However, he lived frugally and most of his wealth went to endow the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts. (read more . . . )
List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in Northern England describes the 50 churches cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust in Northern England, covering the counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and Cheshire, spanning a period of more than 1,000 years. The oldest is St Andrew's Church, Bywell, which dates from about 850; the most recent, Old Christ Church, Waterloo, was built between 1891 and 1894. All but one of the churches have been designated by English Heritage as listed buildings. Some stand in the centres of cities or towns and their functions have been taken over by nearby churches; these include St John the Evangelist's Church, Lancaster, Christ Church, Macclesfield, St John the Evangelist's Church, Leeds, St Stephen's Church, Low Elswick, Church of All Souls, Bolton, and Old Christ Church, Waterloo. Others stand in remote or isolated positions in the countryside. Some fell into disuse because the village they served was deserted, or the local population moved elsewhere; examples include Ireby Old Church, St Mary's Chapel, Lead, and St Thomas' Church, Friarmere. Alternatively the church once served the estate of a country house, as with All Saints' Church, Harewood, Church of Christ the Consoler, Skelton-on-Ure, and St Martin's Church, Allerton Mauleverer. In some cases the churches have only been partially conserved. Only the tower of Old St Lawrence, York, the tower and part of the aisle walls of Christ Church, Heaton Norris, and the tower, chancel and walls of the nave of Old Holy Trinity Church, Wentworth have survived. Most of the churches remain consecrated and are used for occasional services where practical; some are venues for concerts and other purposes. One church still vested in the Trust, St James, Toxteth, Liverpool, which was at one time derelict, re-opened in 2010 for regular worship. (read more . . . )