Newark Castle revamp project building work under way
The infamous King John died at the castle in 1216, but a large part of the structure was demolished after a protracted siege in 1646.The facelift has been several years in the planning, with archaeologists investigating the site before building work began.Work will also see the gatehouse being reroofed, new exhibition spaces built and improved access to the formal Victorian gardens that fill the former interior of the building.Sarah Clarke, project delivery manager, said: "We are creating a new room underneath the steps that will lead to the gatehouse."That room is going to be used for school visits, community events and workshops."It is going to be a real game changer to have that kind of space."
It is hoped that by boosting visitor numbers to the castle, it will provide economic benefits to the wider town.Provision is also being made for wildlife, with pollinator friendly flower beds and bat roosts included in the design.While it was planned to open the site in autumn next year, Ms Clarke emphasised this was dependent on many factors."All these things can change with a project as complicated as this one."This morning we have found some archaeology, some remains of stonework and we have now got to find out what that is."It is quite possible it is medieval stonework, so we will have a little pause while we figure that out, so these kind of delays can make a difference," she said.
The project is backed by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the government's Towns Fund, and Newark and Sherwood District Council.Rowan Cozens, deputy leader of the council, said: "This project ensures the castle remains standing strong for another 900 years while ensuring that accessibility and biodiversity are at its very heart. "We'll be able to open new spaces in the castle to the public and provide exhibitions telling of Newark's rich medieval history."Drop-in sessions with project staff are being planned for August and September, with both evening and weekend options available.
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Times
9 hours ago
- Times
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered in seven books
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In calm prose, he tells the story of the first atomic bombing and the year that followed through the interwoven accounts of six survivors, including a war widow, a young female clerk and a German missionary. Tamiki Hara scribbled parts of his novella in a notebook as he staggered through the ruins of Hiroshima in the hours after the bombing. In its unselfconscious attention to detail, it is as close to eyewitness documentary as a work of literature can come. It begins with the narrator laying flowers on the grave of his young wife, recently dead from tuberculosis. In the third paragraph, he is saved from death by being in the lavatory at the moment the bomb explodes. But Hara's death was delayed, not avoided: four years later, in despair at reports that the United States was contemplating the use of atomic bombs in the Korean War, he killed himself by lying in front of an oncoming train. • The nation's favourite 20th century novels: 50 modern classics Takashi Nagai, a brilliant Roman Catholic doctor, was a few hundred yards from the atomic bomb that exploded over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945; six years later, he died of leukaemia at the age of 43. His bestselling book, which made him internationally famous even as he lay dying, describes with intimate horror the bombing and its aftermath, and the heroic relief efforts carried out by Nagai and a team of injured and dying medical workers. It ends with an extraordinary, jolting and unforgettable religious meditation, deeply controversial ever since, that pictures Nagasaki as 'a victim, a pure lamb, to be slaughtered and burned on the altar of sacrifice to expiate the sins committed by humanity in the Second World War'. The crew of the bomber Enola Gay in 1945 ALAMY This great and neglected novel begins deceptively, as a story about that timeless subject of literature: a family's anxious efforts to find a husband for an unmarried young woman. Despite living far from Hiroshima, Yasuko's prospects are blighted by rumours that she was exposed to the sinister 'black rain' that fell and irradiated areas outside the city. In an effort to refute these, her uncle Shigematsu writes an account of the family's experience of the bombing five years earlier. His account, interleaved with accounts of peaceful village life, conveys the terrible events and the cruel prejudice that its victims faced for decades afterwards. Inside illustrations from Barefoot Gen © KEIJI NAKAZAWA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER LAST GASP Originally published in a weekly magazine, rendered in the exaggerated style of popular manga, Keiji Nakazawa's comic book has little of the artfulness and refinement of the modern graphic novel. But the power, simplicity and anger of the storytelling, based on the author's experience, are indelible, especially in the early volumes of the long series. After seeing his family die in the bomb, young Gen escapes with his pregnant mother to scrabble for a living in the ashes of the city and the broken ruins of postwar Japanese society. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List The atomic bombing goes almost unmentioned in the Nobel prizewinner's first novel, but it lingers in its pages like a faint but ineradicable smell. 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Abe's understated style serves her well in recounting the appalling details of the bombing's aftermath: the living people with their skin burnt off; the boiling, raging sky; a child helplessly scrabbling to pull his mother out of a burning house. Richard Lloyd Parry has written a foreword to a new edition of The Bells of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai (Vintage Classics £16.99)
Wales Online
12 hours ago
- Wales Online
Appeal launched to repair historic North Wales pier
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Due to rising costs and inflation, the FBGP, in partnership with Bangor City Council, are asking for support to finish the final two phases of the work to future proof the pier. The £40,000 from the appeal will be matched with funding from Bangor City Council. It will complete the work to make the pier safe and enable it to weather future storms. The work will be completed by November this year, weather permitting. With the support of the public and local businesses FBGP are hoping that this incredible structure stands strong for another century for future generations to walk along, fish, paint, propose and dream over the water. All donations, whether large or small, go directly towards the structural preservation of the pier. All funds will be managed by FBGP a registered charity and will solely be used for repair work. If they exceed their target, surplus funds will go towards future projects including the sandblasting and painting of the pier substructure. Donations can be made online at GoFundMe, or via the FBGP website or in person at the Entrance Kiosk or FBGP kiosk shop on the pier. Avril Wayte FBGP Chair said: "Following our launch as a charity in 2022, Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are very excited to be working now in collaboration with Bangor City Council to raise funds to protect our beautiful pier for the future. "Although £2.2 million has already been spent on structural repairs to the pier since 2017, 2 sections of the pier still need to be repaired, to keep the pier safe. "Please help us raise this money by supporting our fundraising campaign – your pier needs you – be part of our pier's future. "Let's protect the pier together. It is a national treasure, a community gem, and a living connection to our past. Bangor City Council Director Martin Hanks said: "Bangor City Council are extremely grateful to the Friends to Garth Pier for organising this initiative to match fund the final phases of the structural renovations of Garth Pier. If successful it will allow us to move to complete the Pier structural renovations much sooner. "To date the City Council has over £2m on the project, which is now some 80% completed. Once the final two phases have been finished, structurally the Pier's future will be secured for another 15-20 years. "Bangor Pier is one of the major attractions of the City and, mainly thanks to the volunteers of the Friends of Garth Pier, a thriving community has developed here. "The completion of the structural renovations will ensure that Bangor Pier is a healthy and enjoyable place to visit for many years to come." Bangor Aberconwy MP Claire Hughes said: "The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier have done an amazing job mobilising the community to support this much-loved, Grade II* listed structure at the heart of the City of Bangor. Please help secure it for future generations to enjoy, and give generously." FBGP Patron Aled Jones said: "As a Patron of the Friends of Bangor Garth Pier I fully support their appeal to raise £40,000 ensuring a sustainable future for this iconic heritage structure in the City of Bangor. "The pier is very close to my heart as I was born in Bangor and grew up locally, singing in Bangor Cathedral. The 2025 appeal means this unique and special place will be enjoyed for generations to come. "Even if you can only give a little, it will make a big difference to this wonderful cause." BGP Patron Revd Wynne Roberts the Welsh Elvis, said: "As a child I went to the pier with my parents to go crabbing, as a student, to sit by the closed gates to eat my lunch, gazing at what was a derelict pier. Now our pier has become a shining gem within the crown of our city, stretching out not only into the Menai Straits, but into the hearts of so many people. This has happened due to the hard work of our Board of Trustees, volunteers, stallholders and Bangor City Council and its officers. "One important way in which you can be a part of this, is by supporting our new appeal, so that we can ensure that our pier continues to shine for generations to come. The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are a community group and a registered charity established in March 2022 to work with Bangor City Council, the owners of the pier, to secure a sustainable future for the pier. They have over 60 volunteers who man the entrance kiosk 365 days a year to provide a warm welcome to visitors and who work in the FBGP kiosk gift shop, which supports local artists and where all profits go towards supporting the future of the pier. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Find out what's happening near you
North Wales Live
15 hours ago
- North Wales Live
Appeal launched to repair historic North Wales pier
An appeal has been launched to repair a historic North Wales pier. The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are aiming to raise £40,000 to complete essential work on the substructure of the pier to make it safe "and protect it for generations to come". Bangor Garth Pier is one of only 3 Grade II* listed piers in the whole of the UK and is of architectural and historical significance as a Victorian gem. It has been beloved by locals and visitors alike for a walk to enjoy the Menai Strait since 1896, FBGP say. Since 2017 Bangor City Council, who own the pier, has spent £2.2 million on the urgent repairs. The unseen substructure beneath the planks is the challenge, it has deteriorated since the 1980s when the last significant renovations took place. Without the work it risks further deterioration on the two sections yet to be completed, they said. Due to rising costs and inflation, the FBGP, in partnership with Bangor City Council, are asking for support to finish the final two phases of the work to future proof the pier. The £40,000 from the appeal will be matched with funding from Bangor City Council. It will complete the work to make the pier safe and enable it to weather future storms. The work will be completed by November this year, weather permitting. With the support of the public and local businesses FBGP are hoping that this incredible structure stands strong for another century for future generations to walk along, fish, paint, propose and dream over the water. All donations, whether large or small, go directly towards the structural preservation of the pier. All funds will be managed by FBGP a registered charity and will solely be used for repair work. If they exceed their target, surplus funds will go towards future projects including the sandblasting and painting of the pier substructure. Donations can be made online at GoFundMe, or via the FBGP website or in person at the Entrance Kiosk or FBGP kiosk shop on the pier. Avril Wayte FBGP Chair said: "Following our launch as a charity in 2022, Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are very excited to be working now in collaboration with Bangor City Council to raise funds to protect our beautiful pier for the future. "Although £2.2 million has already been spent on structural repairs to the pier since 2017, 2 sections of the pier still need to be repaired, to keep the pier safe. "Please help us raise this money by supporting our fundraising campaign – your pier needs you – be part of our pier's future. "Let's protect the pier together. It is a national treasure, a community gem, and a living connection to our past. Bangor City Council Director Martin Hanks said: "Bangor City Council are extremely grateful to the Friends to Garth Pier for organising this initiative to match fund the final phases of the structural renovations of Garth Pier. If successful it will allow us to move to complete the Pier structural renovations much sooner. "To date the City Council has over £2m on the project, which is now some 80% completed. Once the final two phases have been finished, structurally the Pier's future will be secured for another 15-20 years. "Bangor Pier is one of the major attractions of the City and, mainly thanks to the volunteers of the Friends of Garth Pier, a thriving community has developed here. "The completion of the structural renovations will ensure that Bangor Pier is a healthy and enjoyable place to visit for many years to come." Bangor Aberconwy MP Claire Hughes said: "The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier have done an amazing job mobilising the community to support this much-loved, Grade II* listed structure at the heart of the City of Bangor. Please help secure it for future generations to enjoy, and give generously." FBGP Patron Aled Jones said: "As a Patron of the Friends of Bangor Garth Pier I fully support their appeal to raise £40,000 ensuring a sustainable future for this iconic heritage structure in the City of Bangor. "The pier is very close to my heart as I was born in Bangor and grew up locally, singing in Bangor Cathedral. The 2025 appeal means this unique and special place will be enjoyed for generations to come. "Even if you can only give a little, it will make a big difference to this wonderful cause." BGP Patron Revd Wynne Roberts the Welsh Elvis, said: "As a child I went to the pier with my parents to go crabbing, as a student, to sit by the closed gates to eat my lunch, gazing at what was a derelict pier. Now our pier has become a shining gem within the crown of our city, stretching out not only into the Menai Straits, but into the hearts of so many people. This has happened due to the hard work of our Board of Trustees, volunteers, stallholders and Bangor City Council and its officers. "One important way in which you can be a part of this, is by supporting our new appeal, so that we can ensure that our pier continues to shine for generations to come. The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are a community group and a registered charity established in March 2022 to work with Bangor City Council, the owners of the pier, to secure a sustainable future for the pier. They have over 60 volunteers who man the entrance kiosk 365 days a year to provide a warm welcome to visitors and who work in the FBGP kiosk gift shop, which supports local artists and where all profits go towards supporting the future of the pier.
