Cockfighting is a blood sport involving roosters ("cocks"), held in a ring called a cockpit. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the sport of cockfighting in The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting in 1607. But it was during Magellan's voyage of discovery of the Philippines in 1521 when modern cockfighting was first witnessed and documented for Westerners by the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, in the Kingdom of Taytay.
Sir John Betjeman, was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, helping to save St Pancras railway station from demolition. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his House of Cards trilogy.
Donaghadee is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about 18 miles (29 km) east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower. It had a population of 6,869 people in the 2011 Census.
Gospel Oak is an inner urban area of north west London in the London Borough of Camden at the very south of Hampstead Heath. The neighbourhood is positioned between Hampstead to the north-west, Dartmouth Park to the north-east, Kentish Town to the south-east, and Belsize Park to the south-west. Gospel Oak lies across the NW5 and NW3 postcodes and is served by Gospel Oak station on the London Overground. The North London Suburb, Gospel Oak, has many schools around it.
Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2021 census was 6,622. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell.
Wimborne St Giles is a village and civil parish in east Dorset, England, on Cranborne Chase, 7 miles (11 km) north of Wimborne Minster and 12 miles (19 km) north of Poole. The village lies within the Shaftesbury estate, owned by the Earl of Shaftesbury. A tributary of the River Allen, formerly known as the Wimborne, snakes its way through the village.
John Thomas Alderdice, Baron Alderdice is a Northern Ireland politician. He was the Speaker and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2004 and 1998 to 2003, respectively. Alderdice was the leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland from 1987 to 1998, and since 1996 has sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat.
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more people. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters either place the carrying poles directly upon their shoulders or use a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulders.
The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebrating the start of the third. The body was wound up in 2006.
Metro-land is a BBC documentary film written and narrated by the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Sir John Betjeman. The film was directed by Edward Mirzoeff, and first broadcast on 26 February 1973. The film celebrates suburban life in the area to the northwest of London that grew up in the early 20th century around the Metropolitan Railway (MR), later the Metropolitan line of the London Underground.
Benjamin John Whitrow was a British actor. He was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as Mr Bennet in the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, and voiced the role of Fowler in the 2000 animated film Chicken Run. His other film appearances include Quadrophenia (1979), Personal Services (1987) and Bomber (2009).
William Legge, 10th Earl of Dartmouth, styled Viscount Lewisham from 1962 to 1997, is a British politician and hereditary peer, usually known as William Dartmouth.
Joan Jackson, née Joan Hunter Dunn was the muse of Sir John Betjeman in his poem "A Subaltern's Love-song".
Jack Straw's Castle is a Grade II listed building and former public house on North End Way, Hampstead, north-west London, England close to the junction with Heath Street and Spaniards Road.
Sarah Ann Jones is a British Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon Central since the 2017 general election. She currently serves as Shadow Minister for Industry and Decarbonisation as part of Labour's Shadow Department for Business and Trade team. Until September 2023, Jones was the Shadow Minister for Policing and the Fire Service.
This is a list of works by or featuring David John Moore Cornwell, a British author better known by his pseudonym John le Carré. It also includes a list of film, television, and radio adaptations of le Carré's writing.
Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL).
David Peace MBE FSA FGE was a British glass engraver and a town planner. Peace, along with William Wilson and Laurence Whistler are accredited as simultaneously reviving the craft of glass engraving during the 1930s. Several pieces of his work are situated in Westminster Abbey including an engraved glass screen at St George's Chapel.
