Quezi

Grimes Graves is the name given to the area of ancient flint mines found near Thetford, Norfolk, England.

Covering an area of over 90 acres, the land is pot-marked, rather like a lunar landscape, with grassy mounds and craters. These craters are the remains of 433 in-filled shafts, pits and spoil heaps from diggings made 5000 years ago to extract flint. The earliest diggings are from .c3000BC. The craters clearly show on a satellite image on Google Maps.

Flint is a hard stone which early man discovered could be shaped or knapped into axes, knives, arrow heads, scrapers and many other tools. The workings at Grimes Graves commenced at a time when metal technology was still in its infancy and flints were still needed for everyday use.

Many of the shafts are as deep as 12 meters, which is astounding considering that the early mines were dug out with red-deer antlers adapted to be used as picks or levers. Occasionally an ox-bone would be used as a pick-axe, or a stone axe employed to hack at the chalk. The miners were aiming for the layer of hard black flint which can be seen in the photograph above. This layer is known as floorstone. Once that was struck then horizontal galleries and tunnels were dug following the flint layer.

The site is now managed by English Heritage and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Twenty pits have been examined by archaeologists and one pit, 9 meters deep, is now open to the public.

Why are they called Grimes Graves? This is a corruption of the name given to them by the Anglo Saxons. They thought the pits were the work of Grim, also known as Woden, a god.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was a two-year-old princess when German paratroops landed in the Hague on May 10, 1940 with orders to take the entire Dutch royal family to Berlin. Her grandmother, Queen Wilhelmina, wanted the younger generations to flee to safety as soon as possible.  Apart from any personal feelings she wished to ensure the continuity of the Royal House of Orange.  But how could any of them leave?

Two days later Crown Princess Juliana, her husband Prince Bernhard, and their two little daughters Beatrix and Irene were inside an armoured van belonging to the Netherlands Bank.  They were driven to IJmuiden to meet the British ship HMS Codrington.  On the way to the coast a German plane appeared, the Dutch military escort opened fire, but the family reached the dock safely. Next stop was England, a staging post on the way to their wartime home in Canada.

The van which took them to the ship can now be seen at the National War and Resistance Museum at Overloon, near the border with Germany, about 150km south-east of Amsterdam.   The story of the Vluchtwagen, or ‘flight vehicle’, is told in an online exhibition organised by the National Library of the Netherlands.

Only one day after the younger royals had left, Queen Wilhelmina decided she too must leave Holland, along with her government.  She met British ships at Walcheren, and HMS Hereward carried her to England.

After a few days staying in Buckingham Palace she moved to a house near Claridge’s Hotel in London. When bombing started, she shared the air raid shelter in the hotel cellar, sometimes appearing there in a flannel dressing gown, according to an article in Life magazine of April 16, 1945.   Later she had a home in South Mimms, Hertfordshire. Even a house in the countryside was not really safe, and when bombs fell in the garden two of her guards were killed.

Cleopatra’s Needle stands on the north bank of the River Thames on the Victoria Embankment, central London. It is an ancient Egyptian obelisk and one of a pair. The other one now stands in New York. The name Cleopatra is inappropriate as they were made hundreds of years before Cleopatra’s reign.

The obelisks are made of red granite, 21 meters (68 ft) high and weigh 224 tons. They were erected circa 1500BC in the city Heliopolis. Hieroglyphs commemorating Thutmosis III and the victories of Ramesses II adorn the sides. They were later moved to Alexandria to the temple of Caesareum. At some time later, perhaps as the result of an earthquake, one toppled and was partially buried. This saved it from erosion and preserved many of the hieroglyphs.

During the removal of the French from Egypt by Nelson and Abercromby in 1801, great interest was shown by several army officers in the partly buried “Cleopatra’s Needle, a long narrow square pillar … about 70 feet high, one piece of granite.”[1] Lord Cavan and a number of other officers raised a subscription to pay for shipping Cleopatra’s Needle to Britain. A jetty was built, a ship prepared and the obelisk excavated, but work came to halt when sailors who had been assisting, were ordered not to do so. The plan was abandoned and the obelisk remained where it lay. [2]

In 1820 the obelisk was given as a gift to the George IV by Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt. [3] At the same time a much smaller obelisk had been shipped to Britain by Giovanni Belzoni and it was anticipated Cleopatra’s Needle would soon follow. However, the cost and the practicalities behind the transportation of the obelisk prevented its move to Britain.

The question of the obelisk came up again in 1851, prompted by patriotic interest in the Great Exhibition, with demands for its recovery as souvenir hunters were now hacking pieces off it. Again cost reared its ugly head with the Government unwilling to put up the money. Puns about ‘costly needlework’ abounded in the newspapers.

In early 1877 with the agreement of the British and Egyptian Governments, Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S. the Professor of Dermatology in the Royal College of Surgeons, and very wealthy man, undertook to pay the whole cost of the recovery of the obelisk.

John Dixon, a civil engineer, designed a craft in which the obelisk could be transported. It was to be enclosed in an iron cylinder containing nine water tight compartments. Inside, the obelisk would secured by wooden blocks. The craft would be fitted with keel, masts, sails, anchors, chain cables, and a pump. A crew of six men and a captain were required, and the whole craft could then be towed by a ship.

Excavation of the obelisk and construction of the cylinder began. By September 1877 the obelisk was in the cylinder and afloat in Alexandria harbour. Named the ‘Cleopatra’, and crewed by a Captain Carter and a Maltese crew, she left Alexandria on 29 September, pulled by the steamer Olga.

On 14 October she had reached the Bay of Biscay where she encountered a gale force 8 storm. It lost its mast and Carter believed they were in danger of floundering. A boat was sent out from Olga to rescue the men, but it sank with the loss of the crew of six men. Another boat was successfully passed to Cleopatra by means of a rope and the crew rescued. The Olga abandoned Cleopatra to look for the missing boat’s crew without success. When they retuned, Cleopatra had gone, believed lost.

Unbelievably, the Cleopatra was found a few days later by The Fitzmaurice bound for Valencia and it was towed into Ferrol, Spain. The problem then arose of salvage, and quite a novel problem it was for an obelisk had never featured before in a salvage claim. Meanwhile, as negotiations were ongoing, a decision had yet to be made for where the obelisk was to be sited in London when it did eventually arrive.

Finally, the salvage terms were agreed, and after refitting, on 15 January 1878, the paddle ship Anglia towed Cleopatra out of Ferrol and onto Britain with Captain Carter back on board. After an uneventful voyage she sailed up the Thames to East India Dock on 21 January.

A decision was finally made for its final resting place and the obelisk was raised in its current position on 12 September 1878. At its base a ‘time-capsule’ of articles were laid including a bronze model of the obelisk, written accounts as to how it was transported, a portrait of Queen Victoria, bibles, Bradshaw’s Railway Guide, cigars, toys, maps, and, rather curiously, “photographic likenesses of a dozen beautiful Englishwomen.” [4] On the outside were placed two plaques, one to Erasmus Wilson, and the other to the men who lost their lives in the Bay.

[1] Caledonian Mercury, Thursday, December 24, 1801
[2] The Belfast News-Letter, Friday, August 15, 1851
[3] Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, December 9, 1820
[4] The Graphic, Saturday, September 21, 1878

A Mud-Lark (or Mudlark) was the name given in the 19th century to children and adults who scavenged the banks of the River Thames in London. There were river scavengers in other parts of the country, but it seems the term Mud-Lark was largely used in London. According to the OED, the first mention of the word is from 1796.

During the Victorian period the River Thames was a busy waterway with thousands of boats and ships carrying cargoes and passengers, and with hundreds of wharfs lining its banks. It was also one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

In this filth, the poor and sometimes homeless of both sexes, scavenged and raked through the river mud and where the sewer outlets disgorged their contents into the river. The tide restricted their work to 7 or 8 hours at a time. They worked in all weathers often wading up to their armpits to recover all types of material. They recovered pieces of coal, iron, brick, copper, canvas, and bones, and sold it onto dealers. The numbers of Mud-Larks are not known, although in one court case in 1839 the police stated there were fourteen Mud-Larks working in their small area. They could earn 20d to 30d a day scavenging. [1]

The scavengers often broke the law. One notorious, but very unpopular female Mud-Lark, took scavenging a little too far when she regularly stole coal from barges moored on the river. She dropped the coal into the river mud and washed it in the mud to make it look as if she had found it on the foreshore. When stopped by the river police and as they tried to arrest her, she would resist and roll around in the mud determined to make them as dirty as she was. [2]

Nowadays, the modern Mud-Lark searches the river bank for objects of historic and archaeological interest.

[1]The Charter (London, England), Sunday, December 8, 1839;
[2] The Era (London, England), Sunday, July 11, 1841;

From its very first appearance in 1935, a Toucan became immediately recognisable as an advertisement for Guinness, the Dublin based brewers. For over 45 years it appeared on many types of advertising and marketing products for Guinness and it became as important a motif as was the Guinness Harp.

The idea of using a toucan was born in the advertising agency of S.H.Benson in London, England. Talented artist John Gilroy was newly employed as the poster artist, and among the copywriting team was Dorothy L Sayers, now famous as a writer, poet and playwright, and best known for her amateur detective stories featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. She had started at the agency in 1922 and worked there while writing books in her spare time.

This team produced some memorable posters for Guinness including several posters in the whimsical “Zoo” series. These included a zoo keeper with a Guinness, a sealion balancing drink on his nose, an ostrich with the shape of a swallowed glass halfway down its neck, a tortoise with a glass of stout on its back, and a toucan with two Guinness bottles balanced on its beak accompanied by the words.

If he can say as you can
“Guinness is good for you”
How grand to be a Toucan
Just think what Toucan do.

Gilroy remained with the advertising agency until 1960 during which time he designed many other Guinness posters. As to how animals came to be used in an advertising campaign was recalled later by Gilroy. “The Guinness family did not want an advertising campaign that equated with beer. They thought it would be vulgar. They also wanted to stress the brew’s strength and goodness. Somehow it led to animals.” [1]

The toucan returned on several occasions on all types of advertising media and on memorabilia. In 1982 Guinness changed advertising agencies and it was decided that the toucan was no longer an effective advertising motif and it was dropped. However, it still pops its head up on occasions on limited edition products. There is also a strong market for toucan collectibles on Ebay.

[1] The Times, Saturday, Apr 13, 1985; pg. 28;

When travelling along the roads in the UK you may see orange warning signs on lorries, tankers, and other vehicles. The orange signs are known as Hazchem Emergency Action Code Signs and are used on domestic journeys. The law requires vehicles which are carrying dangerous goods to display a warning signs which reveal the material or chemical being carried. In the event of a collision or other incident to which the emergency services attend, they know how to deal with the hazardous material and the relevant equipment required.

The system was made compulsory in 1979, but it had been running voluntarily for a number of years and was developed by the London Fire Brigade.

The top left characters represent the Emergency Action Code ‘EAC‘. This informs the emergency services on how to deal with the hazardous material or chemical.

The first character which is a number and indicates the method of fire fighting:
1. Coarse Spray
2. Fine Spray
3. Foam
4. Dry Agent

The second character, a letter, informs the safety precautions which must be observed. V indicates explosive or reactive.

P	V	Chemical suits breathing apparatus	Dilute spillage with large quantities of water, but be careful of the environment.
R
S	V	Breathing apparatus and fire kit
T
W	V	Chemical suits and breathing aparatus	Contain spillage. Must not enter drains or watercourses.
X
Y	V	Breathing apparatus and fire kit
Z

Orange on black lettering, or white on black, for the letters S,T,Y and Z indicates breathing apparatus for fire only.

The final character, a letter, is either an E or a blank. E means that there is a public safety hazard.

The next set of numbers on the sign is the United Nations Substance Identification Number.

At the bottom is a telephone number for specialist advice and the name of the company transporting the material or their logo. Finally a warning triangle for the substance such as radioactive or flammable.

As well as the orange sign, some vehicles must also display warning diamonds which indicate one of nine classes into which the substance is classified.

Vehicles on international journeys use ADR Hazard Identification Numbers.

More information on both systems can be found on The National Chemical Emergency Centre website.