History Shorts: snippets of local history

Ordnance Survey benchmarks are among the most significant features of Britain’s historic landscape. Whether carved into stone walls, bridges or buildings, or displayed in a metal plate, these marks formed the backbone of a national system for measuring height. More than 700,000 benchmarks were created across the country from the 1830s to the 1990s, though most are no longer in use. The Ordnance Survey was originally founded in the 18th century to record features and settlements for military purposes. As surveying techniques improved during the 19th century, accurate maps of different scales were developed and published. A consistent vertical reference system was needed. Surveyors had to know not just where places were, but how high they stood above sea level. To achieve this, Ordnance Survey established a network of benchmarks, named for the process of placing an angle iron into a horizontal mark to form a "bench" on which a levelling staff could rest while measuring height. ...

"One Blake hung upon an oak in the way to Abingdon, beyond the half-way gate. This traitor betrayed three Christian kings, and would have betrayed the fourth ; upon which he was hanged, within two days after his design was discovered, upon the said oak, which is still called 'Blake's Oak.'  The wood was formerly a haunt of robbers, and here St. Edward* of Abingdon was once attacked by them, but his protestations of poverty being found to be true, he was allowed to proceed unharmed."  A Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire , London: J. Murray, 1860 A very small copse named Blake's Oak exists on land north of Abingdon near to where a proposed large housing development will be built. It lies relatively close to the slightly bigger Sugnell Copse and is adjacent to the main Oxford to Abingdon road. The OS Six Inch map (1888-1913) shows what is still effectively the modern extent of both copses (though I wonder if both copses were once joi...

This map shows some of the places where the 15th RIR battalion were located during service in France and Flanders.   The 15th Royal Irish Rifles battalion was first posted to France and Flanders in October 1915, and remained active until the end of the Great War. Location information is primarily taken from Cyril Falls' A History of the 36th (Ulster) Division , first published in 1922. Other sources include the service record of Rfn William Cowan, from 1915 to 1919, and the diary of Private Harold Tugwell, details of which were posted online on the Great War Forum. View 15th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles WWI in a larger map