Billingsgate is the principal fish-market of London. It is located on the left bank of the River Thames, a little below London Bridge. It has been frequently improved, and was rebuilt in 1852 and again bewteen 1874 and 1876. From the character, real or supposed, of the Billingsgate fish-dealers, the term Billingsgate was applied in Victorian society to coarse and violent language. Research Billingsgate
Bless This House was a British situation comedytelevision show about a fictional suburban stationery salesman ('Sidney Abbott' played by Sid James) who longs for a quiet life, but never gets one due to his wife and two teenage children. Bless This House was produced by Thamestelevision and ran from 1971 to 1976. Research Bless This House
Bridewell was a house of correction in Blackfriars, London. The building took its name from a holy well of medicinal water once existing between Fleet Street and the Thames, and dedicated to St Bride. Henry VIII built a palace to accommodate the Emperor Charles V on the site in 1522. This building was converted into a hospital to serve the poor and Edward VI chartered the hospital to the city. After the reformation Bridewell was made into a workhouse for the poor and a house of correction for the idle (vagrants) and vicious (unruly apprentices). The building was badly damaged by the Fire of London in 1666. Research Bridewell
Fleet Prison was a famous London Prison which stood in Farringdon Street, on what was called Fleet Market, from the River Fleet which flowed into the Thames. Its keeper was called the Warden of the Fleet. As far back as the 12th century the Fleet served as a Royal Prison. In the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth I it was used for religious martyrs and the political victims of the StarChambers. In 1641 it became a place of confinement for debtors and persons committed for contempt of court, and rapidly acquired a notoriety for every kind of brutality and extortion. It was It was burned by Wat Tyler in 1381, at the Great Fire in 1666, and by the Gordon rioters in 1780 and rebuilt several times before being finally abolished in 1842. Research Fleet Prison
A levee is an embankment along the course of a river. Natural levees are low banks that are produced by the river during floods, when the overflowing of the river decreases the speed of the water and permits the deposit of silt. Artificial levees are considerably higher than natural ones and are built in order to protect the surrounding countryside from floods, and as such levees are similar to the protective dikes in the Netherlands that prevent flooding by the sea. On a large river such as the Thames in England or the Mississippi in the USA, floods cannot be controlled by levees alone because the waters rise to heights that would overwhelm any embankment. Research Levee
The Thames Conservancy Board is a body, appointed in 1857 as the Thames Conservancy, to look after all matters affecting the river Thames, including its fishing, locks and navigation. In 1909 it handed over part of its work to the Port of London Authority. Research Thames Conservancy Board
A valley is a long narrow depression in the earth's crust, flanked by well defined ridges and usually due to the erosive action of rivers or glaciers but sometimes due to trough-faulting.
Longitudinal valleys are the hollows between the up-folded mountain ranges, parallel to the mountains, and they usually contain a largee river. Similar valleys occur between upfoldod mountains and the crustal plateau which has resisted upheaval. The Indo-Gangetic valley between the upfolded Himalayas and the Deccanplateau is the largest example of this type.
The valley cut by vertical erosion is usually V-shaped in cross-section and irregular in its course, its gradient being punctuated by sudden drops and long shelves. These irregularities represent local base levels which are gradually removed by denudation, so that as the falls are worn back and lakes infilled the breaks in the profile are reduced. In southern England the valleys of the Severn and the Thames show the results of denudation, which has carved away the softer rocks, and left the more resistant ridges of the Cotswolds, Downs, and Chilterns, which confine the drainage system.
With lateral erosion and mass movement, the valley broadens. Deposition occurs as the gradient slackens, and floodplains fill the valley floor. Rejuvenation leaves remnants of old floodplains above the new ones in the form of terraces, the highest of which are the oldest. A lowering of the water-table may leave dry valleys, and sudden uplift may leave hanging valleys, while the flooding of valleys by the sea gives rias or 'drowned valleys' which are existing estuaries where the sea has encroached upon the lower courses of rivers, such as the Gulf of St Lawrence. Research Valley
The Barbel (Barbus), is a genus of fresh-water fishes of the carp family, distinguished by the four fleshy filaments growing from the lips, two at the nose and one ay each corner of the mouth, forming the kind of beard to which the genus owes its name. Of the several species the European Barbuis vulgaris, common in most rivers, has an average length of from 30 to 45 cm, and in form and habits strongly resembles the pike. Its body is elongated and rounded, olive-coloured above and bluish on the sides, and covered with small scales. The upper jaw, which is much longer than the lower, forms a snout, with which it bores into the mud for worms, insects, aquatic plants etc. It is common in the Thames, where it gives good sport to the angler; but its flesh is very coarse, and at the time of spawning the roe is dangerous to eat. Research Barbel
Amy Johnson was an English aviator. She was born in 1903 at Hull, Humberside and died in 1941. She became a pilot in 1929 and in 1930 flew solo from England to Australia in a second-hand De Havilland DH 60 Gipsy Moth aircraft (christened Jason Wanderer) which her father bought for her, setting a new speed record, breaking the record held by Bert Hinkler - despite losing two days after hitting a ditch while landing at Insein which caused considerable damage to the plane - for which she won a prize of £10,000 awarded by the London Daily Mailnewspaper. During the Second World War she was a pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary and died after bailing out over the Thamesestuary. Research Amy Johnson
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Billingsgate
