House Surveyor

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.

House Surveyor

Peterborough Cambridgeshire

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House Surveyor

Stockport Greater Manchester

Approximate Population: 136,082

Stockport is a large town in Greater Manchester, England.   It lies on elevated ground on the River Mersey at the influx of the rivers Goyt and Tame, 6.1 miles (9.8 km) southeast of the city of Manchester.   Stockport is the largest settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, and has a population of 136,082, the wider borough being 281,000.

Stockport in the 16th century was known for the cultivation of hemp and rope manufacture and in the 18th century the town had one of the first mechanised silk factories in the United Kingdom.   However, Stockport’s predominant industries of the 19th century were the cotton and allied industries.   Stockport was also at the centre of the country’s hatting industry which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year.   In December 1997 the last Stockport hat works closed. The town’s hatting heritage is preserved at ‘Hat Works – the Museum of Hatting’.

Dominating the western approaches to the town is the Stockport Viaduct. Built in 1840, the viaduct’s 27 brick arches over the River Mersey carry the mainline railways from Manchester to Birmingham and London.   This structure featured as the background in many paintings by L.S. Lowry.

House Surveyor Stockport

Greater Manchester

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House Surveyor

Liverpool Merseyside

Approximate Population: 816,900

Liverpool has more galleries and national museums than any other city in the United Kingdom apart from London.   The Tate Liverpool gallery houses the modern art collection of the Tate in the North of England and was, until the opening of Tate Modern, the largest exhibition space dedicated to modern art in the United Kingdom.   The FACT centre hosts touring multimedia exhibitions, whilst the Walker Art Gallery houses an extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelites.

Sudley House contains another major collection of pre 20th century art and the number of galleries continues to expand:   Ceri Hand Gallery opened in 2008, exhibiting primarily contemporary art, and Liverpool University’s Victoria Building was re-opened as a public art gallery and museum to display the University’s artwork and historical collections which include the second-largest display of art by Audubon outside the US.

Artists have also come from the city, including painter George Stubbs who was born in Liverpool in 1724.

The Liverpool Biennial festival of arts runs from mid-September to late November and comprises three main sections; the International, The Independents and New Contemporaries although fringe events are timed to coincide.   It was during the 2004 festival that Yoko Ono’s work “My mother is beautiful” caused widespread public protest when photographs of a naked woman’s pubic area were exhibited on the main shopping street.   Despite protests the work remained in place.

House Surveyor Liverpool Merseyside

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House Surveyor 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.

House Surveyor Rochester Kent

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House Surveyor

Manchester Greater Manchester

Approximate Population: 458,100

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted city status in 1853.   In 2007, the population of the Manchester local government district was estimated to be 458,100, whilst the surrounding Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester had an estimated population of 2,562,200.

Manchester itself lies at the centre of the wider Greater Manchester Urban Area, which at the 2001 census was shown to have a population of 2,240,230 (of which 394,269 lived within the Manchester subdivision), and it was the United Kingdom’s third largest conurbation at that census.

Manchester has the second most populous Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) in the UK with an estimated population in the 2004 Urban Audit of 2,539,100 and is the fourteenth most populated in Europe.   Forming part of the English Core Cities Group, often described as the second city of the UK, and the “Capital of the North”, Manchester today is a centre of the arts, the media, higher education and commerce.   In a poll of British business leaders published in 2006, Manchester was regarded as the best place in the UK to locate a business.

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Manchester Greater Manchester

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House Surveyor

Nottingham Nottinghamshire

Approximate Population: 288,700

In the 15th century, Nottingham had established itself as the centre of a thriving export trade in religious sculpture made from alabaster.   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 World War II, as British manufacturers proved unable to compete on price or volume with the 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.

House Surveyor

Nottingham Nottinghamshire

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House Surveyor

Lambeth Greater London

Approximate Population: 267,785

Lambeth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Lanchei. It was held partly by Lambeth Church and partly by Count Robert of Mortain. Its domesday assets were: 2½ hides; 1 church, 10 ploughs, 22 acres (89,000 m2) of meadow, woodland worth 3 hogs, 19 burgesses in London paid £1 16s 0d. It rendered £15.

The ancient settlement of Lambeth Marsh was immediately opposite the Palace of Westminster.   The Archbishop of Canterbury has had his official residence at Lambeth Palace since the 15th century.   The village was home to boatmen serving the City of London and Westminster.

The riverside village had an extensive parish, which stretched for six miles (10 km) south, including the manors of Kennington and Vauxhall. It formed part of Surrey until the creation of the County of London in 1889.  The parish, and the subsequent Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth (1900–1965), included the later settlements at Brixton and Norwood.

House Surveyor Lambeth Greater London

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House Surveyor

Chelmsford Essex

Approximate Population: 120,000

Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England – the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford.   It is located 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Charing Cross in London.   Chelmsford is steeped in history and was one of the original settlements in the United Kingdom.   Residents of Chelmsford are known as ‘Chelmsfordians’.   The town has a population of roughly 120,000 and is still growing.   It is a modern, well placed town that has a large number of commuters who work in the City of London financial sector.

The town is surrounded by many small villages that retain their original charm (examples of these are Writtle, Good Easter, Roxwell, Mashbury, Chignal Smealy, Broomfield, Great and Little Baddow, Great and Little Waltham, Pepper’s Green and Pleshey). Chelmsford is home to three active local radio stations. Essex FM has been on air since 12 September 1981 and is owned by Global Radio. It moved to studios in Glebe Road in late 2004, having previously been based in Southend.

House Surveyor Chelmsford Essex

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House Surveyor Southend Essex

Approximate Population: 162,000

Southend is known for its seafront. Since 1986, a diesel-hydraulic railway has run the length of pier, replacing the electric service which opened in 1890.   A fire in October 2005 damaged the far end of the pier.   The pier has been beset by fires; a fire in 1995 destroyed the bowling alley at the start of the pier.   The pier was also run through by a boat in 1984.

The Kursaal was one of the earliest theme parks, built at the start of the 20th century.   It closed in the 1970s and much of the land was developed as housing.   The entrance hall, a listed building, is a bowling alley arcade operated by Megabowl and casino.   A newer theme park, Adventure Island, developed on land formerly occupied by Peter Pan’s Playground, straddles the pier entrance. It has grown into a large amusement park with 50 rides. The seafront also houses the “Sea-Life Adventure” aquarium.

The cliff gardens, which included Never Never Land and Victorian bandstand were an attraction until slippage in 2003 made parts of the cliffs unstable, and the bandstand has been removed.  The council wants to re-erect the bandstand but a location has to be found.

A cliff lift links the base of the High Street with the new pier entrance.   The older lift, a short funicular, is a few hundred metres away, closed because structural and mechanical work needs to be done in order to meet European Union legislation which classes it as a cablecar.

In August Southend Carnival opens along the Golden Mile with the lighting of the Southend Illuminations. On the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, Southend hosts a farmers’ market.

House Surveyor Southend Essex

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House Surveyor

Chichester West Sussex

Approximate Population: 23,731

It has been argued that Chichester was a bridgehead for the Roman invasion of Britain. The city centre stands on the foundations of the Romano-British city of Noviomagus Reginorum, capital of the Civitas Reginorum, and near to the Roman Palace of Fishbourne.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it was captured towards the close of the fifth century, by Ælle, and renamed after his son, Cissa. It was the chief city of the Kingdom of Sussex. The Roman Road of Stane Street, connecting Fishbourne Palace with London, passes through the city centre.

The city streets have a cross-shaped layout, inherited from the Romans: radiating outwards from the medieval market cross lead the North, South, East and West shopping streets. Quite a lot of the city walls are in place, and may be walked along over what still remains .

An amphitheatre was built close to what would have been the city walls, outside the East Gate in around 80 AD. The remains are now buried under land currently used as a park, but the bank of the amphitheatre is clearly discernible and a notice board in the park gives more information.

House Surveyor Chichester West Sussex

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