Houses for Sale

Middlesbrough North Yorkshire

Approximate Population: 142,691

In Middlesbrough in 686 a monastic cell was consecrated by St. Cuthbert at the request of St. Hilda Abbess of Whitby and in 1119 Robert Bruce granted and confirmed the church of St. Hilda of Middleburg to Whitby.   Up until its closure on the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537, the church was maintained by 12 Benedictine monks, many of whom became vicars or rectors of various places in Cleveland.   The importance of the early church at “Middleburg”, later known as Middlesbrough Priory, is indicated by the fact that in 1452 it possessed four altars.

After the Angles the area became home to Viking settlers and it is argued by some that ‘old’ Cleveland has the highest density of Scandinavian parish names in Britain. Names of Viking origin (with the suffix by) are abundant in the area – for example, Thornaby, Ormesby, Stainsby, Lackenby, Maltby and Tollesby were once separate villages that belonged to Vikings called Thormad, Orm, Steinn, Hlakkande, Malti and Toll, but now form suburbs of Middlesbrough.   Lazenby was the village belonging to a Leysingr – a freeman; Normanby, a Norseman’s village and Danby (in neighbouring North Yorkshire), a Dane’s village.   The name Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of Middlesbrough’s name and dates to Anglian times (400 to 1000 AD), while many of the aforementioned villages appear in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Other links persist in the area, often through school and/or road names, to now-outgrown or abandoned local settlements, such as the medieval settlement of Stainsby, deserted by 1757, which amounts to little more today than a series of grassy mounds near the A19 road.  In 1952 Stainsby Secondary Modern School, now renamed Acklam Grange Secondary School, was named for this village.

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Middlesbrough North Yorkshire

Houses for Sale Rochester Kent

Approximate Population: 27,000

Rochester City Council bought the land at Rochester Airfield in September 1933 from the landowner as the site for a municipal airport. One month later Short Brothers, who had started building aircraft in 1909 on the Isle of Sheppey, asked for permission to lease the land for test flying.
Rochester station building. The railway passes at first floor level on a viaduct.

In 1934-5 Short Brothers took over the Rochester Airport site when they moved some of their personnel from the existing seaplane works. The inaugural flight into Rochester was from Gravesend, John Parker flying their Short Scion G-ACJI.

In 1979 the lease reverted to the council. After giving thorough consideration to closing the airport, GEC (then comprising Marconi and instrument makers Elliot Automation) decided to take over management of the airport. It maintained two grass runways while releasing some land for light industrial expansion.

Houses for Sale Rochester Kent

Houses for Sale Birkenhead Merseyside

Approximate Population: 83,729

In 1886 Birkenhead and Liverpool were linked by an underground railway system, which today is part of the Merseyrail network.

The major underground station in Birkenhead is Hamilton Square, the nearest station to the ferry terminal. Hamilton Square station is linked to the “Liverpool Loop” of the Wirral Line, which includes James Street, Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street and Liverpool Central stations, all of which are underground.   Other stations located in Birkenhead include Birkenhead Central, Green Lane, Rock Ferry, Conway Park, Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead North and Bidston.

The Wirral Line from Birkenhead travels south to Chester and Ellesmere Port, north to New Brighton and westwards, across the Wirral Peninsula, to West Kirby. The Borderlands Line leaves Bidston station, in the north of Birkenhead and travels through the rural centre of Wirral, ultimately leaving England near Shotton and terminating in Wrexham, Wales.

From 1878, until its closure in 1967, Birkenhead Woodside railway station was the town’s mainline railway terminus.   Originally located close to Woodside Ferry Terminal, the site has been redeveloped into flats, a bus depot and offices for HM Land Registry.

Houses for Sale Birkenhead Merseyside

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London Greater London

Approximate Population: 7,556,900

London has a temperate marine climate, like much of the British Isles, so the city rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures.   Summers are warm with average high temperatures of 23 °C (73 °F) and lows of 14 °C (57 °F), however, temperatures can exceed 25 °C (77 °F) on many days.  Winters in London are chilly, but rarely below freezing with daytime temperatures around 2 – 8 °C (36 – 46 °F), while spring has mild days and cool evenings.

London has regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year, with average precipitation of 583.6 millimetres (22.98 in) every year.   Snow is relatively uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London up to 5 °C (9 °F) hotter than the surrounding areas in winter. Some snowfall, however, is usually seen up to a few times a year.   London is in USDA Hardiness zone 9, and AHS Heat Zone 2.

In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, London was noted for its dense fogs and smogs. Following the deadly Great Smog of 1952, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, leading to the decline of such severe pollution in the capital.

Houses for Sale London Greater London

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St. Helens Merseyside

Approximate Population: 102,629

St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England.   It is the largest settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000 of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census.

Historically a part of Lancashire, the area grew during the 18th and 19th century as a significant centre for coal mining, and glassmaking.  Both prior and during this time it was also home to a cotton and linen industry (notably sail making) that did not last through the mid 19th century as well as salt, lime and alkali pits, copper smelting, and brewing.

The town and borough is notable for being the site of the first fully man made canal opened in autumn 1757, and also the first competition for steam locomotives, in Rainhill Trials.

Today, St Helens is very much a commercial town. The main industries have since left, become outdated, or have been outsourced leaving the float and patterned rolled glass producer Pilkingtons, a world leader in their industry, as the town’s one remaining large industrial employer. Previously the town had been home to Beechams (now part of GlaxoSmithKline), Ravenhead glass (bought out by the Belgian nationalised Durobor), United Glass Bottles (U.G.B.), Triplex (owned by Pilkington, farmed out to India), Daglish Foundry (closed and demolished 1939), and Greenall’s (now located in nearby Warrington).

Houses for Sale St. Helens Merseyside

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Leicester Leicestershire

Approximate Population: 285,100

On 4 November 1530, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was arrested on charges of treason and taken from York Place.   On his way south to face dubious justice at the Tower of London, he fell ill.   The group escorting him was concerned enough to stop at Leicester.   There, Wolsey’s condition quickly worsened and he died on 29 November 1530 and was buried at Leicester Abbey, now Abbey Park.

Leicester was a Parliamentarian stronghold during the English Civil War.   In 1645, Prince Rupert decided to attack the city to draw the New Model Army away from the Royalist headquarters of Oxford.   Royalist guns were set up on Raw Dykes and after an unsatisfactory response to a demand for surrender, the Newarke was stormed and the city was sacked on 30 May. Although hundreds of people were killed by Rupert’s cavalry, reports of the severity of the sacking were exaggerated by the Parliamentary press in London.

The construction of the Grand Union Canal in the 1790s linked Leicester to London and Birmingham and by 1832 the railway had arrived in Leicester; the new Leicester and Swannington Railway providing a supply of coal to the town from nearby collieries.   By 1840 the Midland Counties Railway had linked Leicester to the national railway network and by the 1860s, Leicester had gained a direct rail link to London (St Pancras) with the completion of the Midland Main Line.

Houses for Sale Leicester Leicestershire

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Peterborough Cambridgeshire

Approximate Population: 163,300

From 1889 the ancient Soke of Peterborough formed an administrative county in its own right with boundaries similar, although not identical, to the current unitary authority.  The area however remained geographically part of Northamptonshire until 1965,  when the Soke of Peterborough was merged with Huntingdonshire to form the county of Huntingdon and Peterborough.

Following a review of local government in 1974, Huntingdon and Peterborough was abolished and the current district created by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Peterborough with Peterborough Rural District, Barnack Rural District, Thorney Rural District, Old Fletton Urban District and part of the Norman Cross Rural District, which had each existed since 1894.

This became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire.  Letters patent were granted which continued the style of the city over the greater area.  In 1998 the city became autonomous of Cambridgeshire county council as a unitary authority, but it continues to form part of that county for ceremonial purposes.  The leader and cabinet model of decision-making, first adopted by the city council in 2001, is similar to national government.

Policing in the city remains the responsibility of Cambridgeshire Constabulary; and firefighting, the responsibility of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. Nowadays the Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, one of few of its kind, effectively functions as a retained fire station.  The Royal Anglian Regiment serves as the county regiment for Cambridgeshire. Peterborough formed its first territorial army unit, the 6th Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, in 1860.

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Peterborough Cambridgeshire

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Blackpool Lancashire

Approximate Population: 142,900

Much of Blackpool’s growth and character from the 1870s on was predicated on the town’s pioneering use of electrical power.   In 1879, it became the first municipality in the world to have electric street lighting, as large parts of the promenade were wired.   The lighting and its accompanying pageants reinforced Blackpool’s status as the North’s most prominent holiday resort, and its specifically working class character.

It was the forerunner of the present-day Blackpool Illuminations.   In 1885 one of the world’s first electric tramways was laid down as a conduit line running from Cocker Street to Dean Street on the Promenade.   The line was operated by the Blackpool Electric Tramway Company until 1892 when their lease expired and Blackpool Corporation took over running the line.   A further line was added in 1895 from Manchester Square along Lytham Road to South Shore, and the line was extended north, first to Gynn Square in 1899, and then to Fleetwood.   The tramway has remained in continuous service to this day.

By the 1890s, the town had a population of 35,000, and could accommodate 250,000 holidaymakers.   The number of annual visitors, many staying for a week, was estimated at three million. 1894 saw the opening of two of the town’s most prominent buildings; the Grand Theatre on Church Street, and Blackpool Tower on the Promenade.

The first decade of the new century saw the development of the Promenade as we know it today, and further development southwards beyond South Shore towards Harrowside and Squires Gate.   The Pleasure Beach was first established about this time. Seasonal static illuminations were first set up in 1912, although due to World War I and its aftermath, they only enjoyed two seasons until they were re-introduced in 1925.   The illuminations extended the holiday season into September and early October.

Houses for Sale Blackpool Lancashire

Houses for Sale

Hereford Herefordshire

Approximate Population: 50,400

The annual Three Choirs Festival, originating in the eighteenth century and one of the oldest music festivals in Europe, is held in Hereford every third year, the other venues being Gloucester and Worcester. The city’s main theatre and cultural venue is the Courtyard Centre for the Arts which was opened in 1998, replacing the New Hereford Theatre.   There is also a single screen Odeon cinema in Commercial Road, although the nearest multiplex facility is some distance away in Worcester.

Composer Sir Edward Elgar lived at Plas Gwyn in Hereford between 1904 and 1911, writing some of his most famous works during that time.   He is commemorated with a statue on the Cathedral Close. One of his Enigma Variations was inspired by a bulldog named Dan falling into the River Wye at Hereford, and the dog is similarly honoured with a wooden statue beside the river.

H.Art, or Herefordshire Art Week, is an annual county-wide exhibition held in September, displaying the work of local artists.  The original lineup of The Pretenders, with the exception of lead singer Chrissie Hynde, were from Hereford, as were the rock band Mott the Hoople. Actor and director Frank Oz was born in Hereford, and lived there for the first five years of his life.

The troops of the fictional commando squad Rainbow were based at RAF Hereford, as detailed in the novel Rainbow Six.  The Local radio stations are Wyvern FM which broadcasts on 97.6FM, Sunshine Radio on 106.2 FM and 954 kHz Am, and BBC Hereford and Worcester which broadcasts on 94.7FM.

Hereford is briefly mentioned in Ronin as a ploy by Sam (Robert De Niro) to expose Spence (Sean Bean) as a liar.  Grant Nicholas of the rock band ‘Feeder’ supposedly brought his first guitar from a shop in Hereford as a present for passing some exams from his parents.

Houses for Sale Hereford Herefordshire

Houses for Sale Maidstone Kent

Approximate Population: 75,000

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, 32 miles (51 km) south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town’s trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of a settlement in the area dating back to beyond the Stone Age. The town is within the borough of Maidstone. In 2001, the town had a population of 75,000. Maidstone’s economy has changed over the years from being involved in much heavy industry: now light industry predominates; and to more service industries.

Maidstone has had the right to a town gaol since 1604; the present prison lies north of the town centre and was completed in 1819. Army barracks have been a feature of the town since 1797, when the first was built. The present Invicta Barracks is home to the Royal Engineers 36 Engineer Regiment, which includes two Gurkha field squadrons. From an economic point of view, Maidstone’s history has developed around the river, and also the surrounding countryside. Paper mills, stone quarrying, brewing and the cloth industry have all flourished here.

As with most towns, Maidstone has continued to grow. In doing so it has incorporated hitherto separate settlements, villages and hamlets within its boundaries. These include Allington, Barming, Bearsted, Penenden Heath, Sandling, Tovil and Weavering Street. Housing estates include Grove Green, Harbourland, Lunsford, Oakwood Park, Ringlestone, Roseacre, Shepway and Vinters Park.

Houses for Sale Maidstone Kent