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Return

Return may refer to:

In business, economics, and finance

 * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense.
 * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment
 * Tax return, a blank document or template supplied by a government for use in the reporting of tax information
 * Product return, the process of bringing back merchandise to a retailer for a refund or exchange
 * Returns (economics), the benefit distributed to the owner of a factor of production
 * Abnormal return, denoting the difference in behaviour between one stock and the overall stock market
 * Taxes, where tax returns are forms submitted to taxation authorities

In technology

 * Return (architecture), the receding edge of a flat face
 * Carriage return, a key on an alphanumeric keyboard commonly equated with the "enter" key
 * Return statement, a computer programming statement that ends a subroutine and resumes execution where the subroutine was called
 * Return code, a method of messaging status in software
 * Aux-return, the input complement of an Aux-send output
 * "Return", synonym of "register", "grille" in HVAC system

Film

 * Return, a 1954 Hong Kong film directed by Lee Dut
 * Return (1985 film), a film directed by Andrew Silver
 * The Return (2003 film), a Russian film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
 * Wide Awake (2007 film), a South Korean film also known as Return
 * Return (2010 film), a short film directed by Harri J. Rantala
 * Return (2011 film), an independent film directed by Liza Johnson
 * Return, a 2018 documentary film directed by Rufat Asadov

Literature

 * Nostoi (Νόστοι, Nostoi, "Returns"), a lost epic in ancient Greek literature, thought to have been completed in the sixth or seventh century BC
 * Return, a 1997 novel by Al Sarrantonio, the first installment in the Five Worlds trilogy
 * Return, a 2003 novel by Karen Kingsbury with Gary Smalley, the third installment in the Redemption series
 * A Return (El regreso), a 2005 novel by Alberto Manguel
 * Return, a 2010 novella by Peter S. Beagle
 * Return, a 2019 novel by Morgan Rice, the fourth installment in The Invasion Chronicles

Music

 * Return (iKon album)
 * Return (Jack DeJohnette album)
 * Return (The Winans album), 1990
 * Return, an album by David Rovics
 * Return (band), a Norwegian 80s pop/rock band
 * "Return", a song by OK Go from the 2002 album OK Go
 * "Return", a song by Shed Seven from album Let It Ride
 * "Return", a song by The Wedding from the 2008 EP The Sound, The Steel
 * "Return", a single by Natalie Hemby from Puxico (album) (2017)
 * Returns (album), a 2009 album by Return to Forever
 * Return (EP), a 2011 EP by F.T. Island

Other

 * "Return" (Law & Order), 2000
 * "Return" (The Secret Circle), 2012
 * "Return" (Succession), 2019
 * The Returns, a 2009 ballet by William Forsythe
 * Return (TV series), a 2018 South Korean TV series
 * Return (Polish TV series) a 2022 Polish TV series

In politics

 * Return (Transnistria), a European political party
 * Election returns, denoting the resulting tallies of election ballots

People

 * Return J. Meigs, Sr. (1740–1823), American Revolutionary War officer, federal Indian agent
 * Return J. Meigs, Jr. (1764–1825), Governor of Ohio, U.S. Postmaster General
 * Return Torrey (1835–1893), American politician

Other

 * Return Point, Antarctica
 * In gridiron football (American or Canadian), "return" can refer to either:
 * Kickoff return
 * Punt return

 * Nostoi ("Returns"), a lost ancient Greek epic
 * Diminishing returns, referring to a decrease of efficiency with scaling

title: Return


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User talk:Maj~enwiki

Welcome to wikipedia. I see there is probably no need to give you our standard blurb on editing, etc. Anyway, have fun. --snoyes 17:19, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Maj. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Maj~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 01:16, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 15:49, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Maj~enwiki


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Lords

Lords may refer to:

 * The plural of Lord

Places

 * Lords Creek, a stream in New Hanover County, North Carolina
 * Lord's, English Cricket Ground and home of Marylebone Cricket Club and Middlesex County Cricket Club

People

 * Traci Lords (born 1968), American actress

Politics

 * House of Lords, upper house of the British parliament
 * Lords Spiritual, clergymen of the House of Lords
 * Lords Temporal, secular members of the House of Lords
 * Trịnh Lords, Vietnamese rulers (1553-1789)

Other

 * Lords Feoffees, English charitable trust
 * Lords of Acid, electronic band
 * Lords Hoese, English noble house
 * Lords of the Realm, Lords of the Realm II, and Lords of the Realm III, a series of video games
 * "Lords", a song by the Sword from the album Gods of the Earth

title: Lords


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Wario's Woods

Wario's Woods is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released in Japan and North America in 1994 and Europe in 1995 for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A spin-off of the Mario series, players control Toad in his mission to defeat Wario, who has taken control of the Peaceful Woods. Gameplay revolves around clearing each level by using bombs to destroy groups of enemies. The game also features a multiplayer mode that allows two players to compete against each other.

The NES version is noteworthy for being the last officially-licensed game as well as the final first-party game for the system in North America, due to its release at the end of the console's lifespan. It is also the only NES game to receive a rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which was inducted several months before the game's release. In Japan, the game was released alongside a re-release of The Legend of Zelda to coincide with the release of the AV Famicom.

Wario's Woods has been re-released several times for other platforms, such as the Satellaview and the Virtual Console. The game received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, design, and multiplayer mode, though some believed it was not as refined as Nintendo's previous puzzle games like Dr. Mario, and lacked depth and enough content to keep players engaged.

Gameplay

The objective of Wario's Woods is to clear the playing field of monsters of varying colors by using bombs of matching color, which are dropped into the field from the top of the screen by a sprite. In order to do so, the monsters and bombs must be rearranged by the player such that three or more objects of the same color are placed adjacent to one another in horizontal, vertical, or diagonal rows, with at least one object being a bomb (such rows are called a "match"). For example, a match may consist of two red monsters and one red bomb, but may also consist of two red bombs and one red monster. However, a match cannot consist of three monsters of the same type. A Thwomp may also come down a number of rows (being disguised as the ceiling), making less room for the player to match enemies and bombs. When the play field is cleared of all the monsters, the player progresses to the next round, where the initial number of monsters increases. There are different monster types that can only be destroyed in specific ways, such as requiring two matches in quick succession or being placed into a diagonal match.

Unlike other action puzzle games such as Tetris or Puzzle League where the player directly manipulates the game pieces, either as they fall or via a cursor, the player directly controls the character Toad, who moves around inside the playing field atop the fallen objects. Toad can pick up individual objects or lift entire stacks and place them elsewhere in the playing field, but is unable to manipulate objects he cannot immediately reach. However, Toad can perform a variety of additional tricks, such as kicking objects across the play field and scurrying up the sides of stacks to retrieve specific objects. If the player cannot clear the playing field of its objects quickly enough, the play field will eventually fill to the brim and trap Toad, resulting in a Game Over.

Multiplayer
The game has a multiplayer mode, called 'VS' or 'VS 2P', where the player can play against another player. In the multiplayer mode, players can make two or more matches after another to make a stack of enemies on their opponents field.

Story
Wario casts a spell over the inhabitants of a once peaceful area known appropriately as the "Peaceful Woods", manipulating the forest's residents into becoming his minions. In an attempt to take over the Peaceful Woods, Wario uses his band of monsters to destroy the peace of the forest and as a result, peaceful creatures were no longer welcome in the newly renamed "Wario's Woods". Toad, who is introduced as the Mushroom Kingdom hero, makes his way to Wario's Woods in order to quiet the sinister lout and win the woods back for the sprites (fairylike beings who kept the peace in Wario's Woods until Wario gained control).

With the help of a sprite (who can create bombs) and Birdo (who provides encouragement for Toad), Toad must rescue the Peaceful Woods from Wario's greed and power. When Toad's time bar runs out, Birdo is replaced by Wario, who occasionally lowers the ceiling, and the Sprite is replaced by a Pidgit, who spawns monsters instead of bombs. Birdo and Wanda replace them after Toad's time bar runs out again, ad infinitum. Toad's job is to take the bombs and line them up with the enemies of the woods, to defeat Wario's monsters. If Toad clears enough monster-packed sections of the forest (including various mini-bosses), he'll go up against Wario himself. After defeating Wario the first time, it is then revealed to Toad that the villain that he had just defeated was a "False Wario", and that the real Wario in the meantime had prepared for the final battle by inflating himself to a massive size. Upon defeating the real Wario, the antagonist soon shrinks back to his regular size and is soon chased out of the woods by the victorious Toad; thus allowing peace to finally be restored to the woods. The ending to the SNES version of Wario's Woods is slightly different as it instead involves Toad destroying Wario's Castle through the use of a large bomb, which causes the castle to crumble and puts an end to Wario's rule and spell over the Peaceful Woods and its inhabitants.

Re-releases
Two modified versions of the SNES version of Wario's Woods were released in Japan for the Satellaview, a satellite modem add-on for the Super Famicom. The first version was copyrighted in 1994 and released under the name Wario's Woods: Bakushou Version (ワリオの森 爆笑バージョン). The Bakushou Version featured personalities from the Japanese radio comedy show, Bakushō Mondai.

The second version of Wario's Woods broadcast for Satellaview was released under the name Wario's Woods: Again (ワリオの森 再び). It was broadcast from April 23, 1995, to June 30, 2000, throughout the lifespan of the Satellaview. The game was quite popular and it was rebroadcast at least seven times throughout the tenure of St.GIGA's Satellaview-broadcasting period. The game was also broadcast at least once as one of the Satellaview's special event versions.

The NES version of Wario's Woods is available as a collectible item in the 2001 game Animal Crossing for the GameCube, obtained through use of the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. This version was one of the first titles available for the Wii Virtual Console, released alongside the service's launch in North America, Australia, and Europe, and on December 12, 2006, in Japan. It was available for purchase at the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Nintendo Points. It was released for the eShop in Japan on May 29, 2013, for the Nintendo 3DS and on January 29, 2014, for the Wii U, in Europe for the 3DS on October 24, 2013, and for the 3DS and the Wii U eShop in North America on November 7, 2013. The game was added to the Nintendo Switch Online service on December 13, 2018.

Reception
Wario's Woods has received mixed to positive reviews. Reviewing the SNES version, GamePro called it "a ho-hum puzzler", commenting that though it has some interesting gameplay mechanics, it ultimately fails to be more than a standard Tetris clone. They also regarded the controls as difficult. Nintendo Power reviewed the game noting that it had a fun two-player mode and was challenging and fast-paced while saying that it's not as easy to control as Tetris 2. For the individual scores, the game ranked scores evenly for graphic and sound for both systems, but gave slightly higher scores for the Super NES in the Play Control, Challenge, and Theme and Fun categories. A reviewer for Next Generation argued that the gameplay mechanics are too complicated for an action puzzle game and that the learning curve in the game is "too steep".

In retrospective reviews, Allgame rated Wario's Woods 4 stars out of 5 for the NES version, and 3.5 stars out of 5 for the SNES version. Christian Huey, who reviewed the NES version, wrote that the controls were "both surprisingly complex and completely intuitive" while the gameplay has a "surprising level of depth", and labeled the two-player versus mode as welcome addition to the game. Scott Alan Marriott, who reviewed the SNES version, felt that the game "doesn't quite measure up to the addictiveness of either Tetris or Dr. Mario", citing the game's "extremely awkward" controls and complicated gameplay. While Marriott appreciated "that the developers were trying something new", he also argued that sometimes when adding things to an already proven formula for action puzzle games can work, it can also "dilute" the ingredients that made the game a success.

The reviews for the Virtual Console release ranged from mixed to positive, applauding the gameplay and depth, but criticizing the choice to release the primitive NES version over the more comprehensive SNES version. Lucas Thomas of IGN awarded the game an 8.0 out of 10, praising the game's unique approach to the puzzle genre and graphics that "took full advantage of the 8-bit hardware [and were] full of character", but recommended saving Nintendo Points for the SNES version. Aaron Thomas of GameSpot gave Wario's Woods a score of 7.0 out of 10, admiring the "fun, addictive game play" and "surprising amount of depth", but criticizing the game's repetitive music and poor sound effects, adding that he also prefers the "ideal" SNES version. Nintendo Life scored the game 6 out of 10, stating that while the game is fun, he noted the game's length to be short. IGN ranked the game 29th on their "Top 100 SNES Games of All Time".

title: Wario's Woods


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Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, known in Japan as Mario Golf: Family Tour (マリオゴルフ ファミリーツアー), is a 2003 sports game developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 title Mario Golf, and is the third game in the Mario Golf series. It was released in North America on July 28, 2003, in Japan on September 5, 2003, and in PAL regions in 2004.

Toadstool Tour is a golf game featuring characters and elements from the Mario series. There are 16 playable characters in total, each with a set of golfing statistics defining their style of play. The game's main mode involves the player competing in tournaments to obtain new features, although there are alternative modes consisting of a training session and variations to the golf format. This includes "Ring Attack", requiring the player to hit the ball through rings of varying sizes while remaining on or under par. The game also features connectivity with Mario Golf: Advance Tour using the Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance cable.

Toadstool Tour was met with positive reception. In general, reviewers praised the game's visuals, sound, and variety of courses, although a perceived lack of advancement from its predecessor was criticised. The game became part of the Player's Choice label in 2004.

Gameplay
Toadstool Tour is a golf game incorporating characters, enemies and themes from the Mario series. As a typical golf game, the player's objective is to hit the ball into the hole using as few strokes as possible. Prior to the swing, the player chooses a club, a general direction and range for the ball to travel. During the swing, the player determines power by timing a button press for a marker to stop at the desired point on a power meter. At this point, the player can choose to influence the direction of the ball by applying spin. Players can alternate between auto and manual shots, with the latter providing the player with more control, albeit at a higher risk of a poor shot. Many of these gameplay aspects, such as spin, are affected by the individual statistics of each character. These relate to features such as control of the ball and the general height of the character's shot, which determines how much the character's play is affected by the wind. At varying stages in the "Character match" mode, characters have a chance to be upgraded into "Star characters", which grants statistical enhancements. To achieve this, the player must defeat a computer-designated artificial intelligence (AI) opponent with a character of their choice, awarding the AI character with the upgrade for use later by the player. The opportunities are only available once an envelope appears beside a character portrait in the selection screen.

There are seven courses in the game, with the later versions featuring more complex terrain and exotic features. The more advanced courses offer a higher frequency of difficult terrain and elevation, as in bunkers, which limit the accuracy and range of shots. There are also hazards such as lava pits and thwomps, which will incur a one-shot penalty if landed on. Each course takes its name from a particular Mario feature, such as "Peach's Castle Grounds", which is themed in particular on the Mushroom Kingdom. This course includes themed hazards such as chain chomps in bunkers, as well as warp pipes to change the location of the ball. Toadstool Tour contains several gameplay modes and variants of golf, as well as the traditional stroke and match play. The player can choose to play the "Doubles" option in several modes, which allows two players to play alternate strokes as a team. "Coin attack" entails collecting several coins scattered on the course, while "Ring attack" requires the player to direct the ball through rings of varying locations, angles, and diameter while keeping on or under par. Some side games incorporate personal training for the player, such as the side games, which develop approaching, putting, shots, and birdie skills (see types of shots). The main mode is "Tournament mode", which involves the player competing against artificial intelligence opponents on each course to win trophies. The game features interactivity with the Game Boy Advance via the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. Players can transfer their player characters from Mario Golf: Advance Tour to Toadstool Tour and gain experience points through gameplay, which can then be transferred back to Advance Tour; players can also unlock bonus characters in Advance Tour based on their progress in Toadstool Tour.

Development and release
Toadstool Tour was developed by Camelot Software Planning, the same team responsible for the game's predecessor, Mario Golf. During an interview with two Camelot developers, Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi, it was revealed that the game was developed simultaneously with the GameCube Mario Tennis title, Mario Power Tennis. According to the brothers, ideas and technology used for the development of Toadstool Tour were also used for Power Tennis. The music was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, who previously scored Mario Golf. The game was displayed as a playable demonstration in the E3 convention of 2003. Toadstool Tour became part of the Player's Choice label in 2004, which offers a reduced price to games that have sold more than one million copies.

Reception
Toadstool Tour received a positive reaction from critics, although it was criticised for being too similar to its predecessor. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell commented that "Mario Golf hasn't really grown much since its time on the N64", despite enjoying the game's course design and "sense of fun". Both GameSpot and IGN praised the game's courses, although the later stages were preferred to the more basic initial courses. Electronic Gaming Monthly lauded the game's physics evidenced by the use of wind, weather, and surface conditions. The game was often likened to the Tiger Woods PGA Tour games, which served as a criticism when Eurogamer noted the absence of events and player progression in the game's single-player mode. This point was shared by Jennifer Tsao of EGM, who wanted "a more compelling single-player mode" that would offer a "golf pro who coaches me based on my swings".

The game's controls were generally well received, despite specific issues such as difficulties executing very short putts due to the game's power meter. The accessibility of the controls in particular were lauded, although Camelot's choice not to use the analogue swing present in many golf games was a common complaint. This specifically was compared to the analogue system present in Tiger Woods games, prompting Matt Casamassina to comment "going from Tiger Woods back to the mechanics of Mario Golf feels like going from car to horse". The variety of modes available in Toadstool Tour was rated as "amazing" by GameSpot, who proceeded to commend the clarification provided by the game's manual booklet and in-game tutorial. Eurogamer also noted this by offering praise to "Ring attack", but conversely rated "Coin attack" as "a bit shallow". The game's multiplayer offerings were highly regarded by most reviewers.

Many reviewers criticised Toadstool Tour's use of camera, especially when the ball's presented route would ignore obstacles. GameSpot otherwise welcomed the game's visuals, however, arguing that the recurring Mario characters "never looked better". IGN also lauded the graphics present in the full motion video and the rest of the game, as well as Toadstool Tour's audio. Matt Casamassina acknowledged the characters' voiced taunts, saying "the muttering, complaining Waluigi, never fails to bring a smile to our faces".

Alex Trickett of BBC Sport gave it 85% and stated, "If you like pure simulation stick with world number one Tiger Woods, but if you are ready for a wackier round of golf, let your favourite Italian plumber come to the fore." Likewise, Marc Saltzman of The Cincinnati Enquirer gave it four stars out of five and stated that, "One of the game's greatest assets is its intuitive control scheme. Novice and seasoned players will be able to pick up and play with little trouble. There are customizable options for manual or automatic swing modes." However, the only negative review came from Alex Porter of Maxim, who gave it a score of four out of ten, saying, "Golfing game standards like club selection, power meter, and control of backspins and topspins satisfy, but the sometimes-clunky controls and confusing camera perspectives will leave you teed-off." In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine remarked "Perfect controls, lovely visuals, a classic character roster... what more could you want from a sports game?", placing the game 53rd on a list of greatest Nintendo games.

Sales and awards
GameSpot named Toadstool Tour the best GameCube game of July 2003.

By July 2006, Toadstool Tour had sold 830,000 copies and earned $26 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 72nd highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of Mario sports games released in the 2000s reached 2.5 million units in the United States by July 2006. Toadstool Tour sold 1.03 million units in North America as of December 27, 2007.

title: Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour


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Tom Byron

Tom Byron (born Thomas Bryan Taliaferro Jr.; April 4, 1961) is an American former pornographic actor, director, and producer. A member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame, he was voted #20 in AVN's list of top 50 pornstars of all time. Byron is also co-founder of Xtreme Professional Wrestling, a wrestling promotion that began in Los Angeles in 1999 and was resurrected in 2019 in Rochester, New York. He continues to work as an editor for XPW TV.

Early life
Byron is of Italian descent and was raised in Orange, Texas. He attended Stark High School and later West Orange-Stark high school where he graduated in 1979. He attended Houston Baptist University on a full scholarship, but dropped out after a semester and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of appearing in adult films.

Acting
Byron first started acting in hardcore films in May 1982, and continued to perform mostly in roles portraying doctors or "coming of age" scenarios, as he resembled a teenager even though he was in his early to mid-20s. He starred alongside the underage Traci Lords in many films including her porn debut in early 1984, What Gets Me Hot!. He performed with porn legend Ginger Lynn in her second-ever scene, and claims that experience convinced the actress to remain in porn after her first scene with Ron Jeremy had her contemplating quitting the business. "America, you have me to thank for Ginger Lynn", Byron has said.

In porn's 1980s heyday, Byron says that pills such as Viagra didn't yet exist to help male performers, and many including himself regularly smoked cannabis before filming as a means of getting in the mood. Byron did, however, begin to turn to pills for help later in his career. "Viagra kept me in the game for at least ten years after my due date", he says.

He was rumored to have had an ongoing off-screen relationship with Lords in the mid-80s, though in the years since he has alternately downplayed their relationship and admitted that he had been in love with her. He says he "fell hard" in love with porn actress Jill Kelly in the early 90s after the suicide of her estranged husband Cal Jammer. Byron also dated porn actress Tera Patrick early in her career.

He has changed his image several times throughout his career, frequently portraying a clean-shaven, adolescent virgin in his early years in porn. His late 1980s long-haired hard rock persona was no pretense, as Byron was at that time moonlighting as a struggling hard rock musician in Hollywood with hopes of a legitimate career in music. In 1986, he released a music video for his song "Cat Alley". By the early 1990s, Byron again changed his persona and appearance to that of a clean-cut "businessman" type.

Near the end of his career, Byron also acted under the “dirty old man” persona.

Byron says Jamie Summers was his all-time favorite co-star, citing her "amazing pussy". He lists Jada Stevens and Gia Derza as his favorite current performers, though he retired before he had an opportunity to work with either of them.

In August 2003, Byron announced his retirement from performing to focus on his directing career. However, in the fall of 2006, after just three years, he returned to performing in numerous scenes, most notably his House of Ass series for his own company, Evolution Erotica.

In February 2007, he founded Tom Byron Pictures, which produced award-winning series such as Seasoned Players, Asseaters Unanimous and Big Ass Fixation. Byron left the company in 2013 after a disagreement with his distributor.

Post-retirement
Byron currently resides in upstate New York. He says that a return to performing in porn is extremely unlikely, as age has caught up with him and he currently has problems maintaining an erection. "What am I... 59 now? I'm done! It's all over with," he said.

In 2020, Byron revealed that he is busy writing his autobiography with the help of author Mike Sager, whose work inspired the award-winning 1997 motion picture Boogie Nights. Byron has said there is already interest in turning his story into a major motion picture.

Filmography
Byron appeared in about 3,200 videos in his pornographic career, making him the most credited actor in the Internet Adult Film Database.

His earliest video that can be dated with certainty is Anything Goes from 1982.

title: Tom Byron


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Peon

Peon (English, from the Spanish peón ) usually refers to a person subject to peonage: any form of wage labor, financial exploitation, coercive economic practice, or policy in which the victim or a laborer (peon) has little control over employment or economic conditions. Peon and peonage can refer to both the colonial period and post-colonial period of Latin America, as well as the period after the end of slavery in the United States, when "Black Codes" were passed to retain African-American freedmen as labor through other means.

Usage
In English, peon (doublet of pawn) and peonage have meanings related to their Spanish etymology (foot soldier ); a peon may be defined as a person with little authority, often assigned unskilled tasks; an underling or any person subjected to capricious or unreasonable oversight. In this sense, peon can be used in either a derogatory or self-effacing context.

There are similar usages in contemporary cultures:
 * South Asian dialects of English: a peon is an office boy, an attendant, or an orderly, a person kept around for odd jobs (and, historically, a policeman or foot soldier).
 * Shanghai: among native Chinese working in firms where English is spoken, the word refers to a worker with little authority, who suffers indignities from superiors.

However, the term has a historical basis and usage related to much more severe conditions of forced labor:
 * American English: in a historical and legal sense, peon generally referred to someone working in an unfree labor system (known as peonage). The word often implied debt bondage or indentured servitude.

History

The Spanish conquest of Mexico and Caribbean islands included peonage; the conquistadors forced natives to work for Spanish planters and mine operators. Peonage was prevalent in Latin America, especially in the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru. It remains an important part of social life, as among the Urarina of the Peruvian Amazon.

Peonage in the United States
After the American Civil War of 1861–1865, peonage developed in the Southern United States. Poor white farmers and formerly enslaved African Americans known as freedmen, who could not afford their own land, would farm another person's land, exchanging labor for a share of the crops. This was called sharecropping. The land owner would pay for the seeds and tools in exchange for a percentage of the money earned from the crop and a portion of the crop. As time passed, many landowners began to abuse this system. The landowner would force the tenant farmer or sharecropper to buy seeds and tools from the land owner's store, which often had inflated prices. As sharecroppers were often illiterate, they had to depend on the books and accounting by the landowner and his staff. Other tactics included debiting expenses against the sharecropper's profits after the crop was harvested and "miscalculating" the net profit from the harvest, thereby keeping the sharecropper in perpetual debt to the landowner. Since the tenant farmers could not offset the costs, they were forced into involuntary labor due to the debts they owed the landowner. Additionally, unpredictable or disruptive climatic conditions, such as droughts or storms, caused disruptions to seasonal plantings or harvests, which in turn, caused the tenant farmers to accrue debts with the landowners.

After the U.S. Civil War, the South passed "Black Codes", laws to control freed black slaves. Vagrancy laws were included in these Black Codes. Homeless or unemployed African Americans who were between jobs, most of whom were former slaves, were arrested and fined as vagrants. Usually lacking the resources to pay the fine, the "vagrant" was sent to county labor or hired out under the convict lease program to a private employer. The authorities also tried to restrict the movement of freedmen between rural areas and cities, to between towns.

Under such laws, local officials arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of people and charged them with fines and court costs of their cases. Black freedmen were those most aggressively targeted. Poor whites were also arrested, but usually in much smaller numbers. White merchants, farmers, and business owners were allowed to pay these debts, and the prisoner had to work off the debt. Prisoners were leased as laborers to owners and operators of coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations, with the lease revenues for their labor going to the states. The lessors were responsible for room and board of the laborers, and frequently abused them with little oversight by the state. Government officials leased imprisoned blacks and whites to small town entrepreneurs, provincial farmers, and dozens of corporations looking for cheap labor. Their labor was repeatedly bought and sold for decades, well into the 20th century, long after the official abolition of American slavery.

Southern states and private businesses profited by this form of unpaid labor. It is estimated that at the beginning of the 20th century, up to 40% of blacks in the South were trapped in peonage. Overseers and owners often used severe physical deprivation, beatings, whippings, and other abuse as "discipline" against the workers. After the Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment prohibited involuntary servitude such as peonage for all but convicted criminals. Congress also passed various laws to protect the constitutional rights of Southern blacks, making those who violated such rights by conspiracy, by trespass, or in disguise, guilty of an offense punishable by ten years in prison and civil disability. Unlawful use of state law to subvert rights under the Federal Constitution was made punishable by fine or a year's imprisonment. But until the involuntary servitude was abolished by president Lyndon B. Johnson in August 6, 1966, sharecroppers in Southern states were forced to continue working to pay off old debts or to pay taxes. Southern states allowed this in order to preserve sharecropping.

The following reported court cases involved peonage:
 * 1903 – South Dakota, a 17-year-old girl was reported to have been sold into peonage at the age of two by her own father
 * 1904 – Alabama, ten persons indicted for holding black and white persons in peonage
 * 1906 – John W. Pace of Alabama, the "father" of peonage; pardoned by his friend President Theodore Roosevelt.
 * 1906 – Five officials of Jackson Lumber Company sentenced in Pensacola, Florida, to prison terms ranging from 13 months to 18 months. One of the defendants was fined $5,000, while the others were each fined $1,000.
 * 1916 – Edward McCree of Georgia Legislature; owner of 37,000 acres of land; indicted on 13 charges. Pleaded guilty to first charge and paid a $1,000.00 fine.
 * 1916 – two men found guilty in Lexington County, South Carolina, of trying to force a white man into peonage; each fined $500 and sentenced to a year and day in jail
 * 1921 – Hawaiian sugar plantation owners unsuccessfully try to legalize peonage of Chinese workers.
 * 1921 – Georgia farmer John S. Williams and his black overseer Clyde Manning were convicted in the deaths of 11 blacks working as peons at Williams' farm. Williams was the only white farmer in Georgia convicted of murder for killing black peons since April 1, 1877.
 * 1922 – Convicted in 1921 for hopping a freight train in Florida without a ticket, Martin Tabert of North Dakota becomes part of Florida State Convict leasing. He died Feb 1, 1922, after being whipped for being unable to work due to illness. Reports of his death led to the prohibition in 1923 of convict leasing in Florida. The man who killed Tarbert, Thomas Walter Higginbotham, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison for second degree murder.
 * 1923 – Investigations of the Tabert killing by the Florida state legislature in 1923 led to evidence of widespread abuses in north Florida and found that peonage was standard practice at the Knabb Turpentine camp in Baker County belonging to State Senator T. J. Knabb.
 * 1925 – Pensacola, Florida - White farmer and four others found guilty of using negro workers in peonage
 * 1925 – Columbia, South Carolina - An African-American youth who had been missing since 1923 escaped from peonage at a work camp.
 * 1954 - Sumter County, Alabama - Two brothers Oscar and Fred Dial were convicted in May of holding two African-American men in peonage. In December they were sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison.

Because of the Spanish tradition, peonage remained legal and widespread in the New Mexico Territory even after the Civil War. In response, Congress passed the Peonage Act of 1867 on March 2, 1867, which said: "Sec 1990. The holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage is abolished and forever prohibited in the territory of New Mexico, or in any other territory or state of the United States; and all acts, laws, … made to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons, in liquidation of any debt or obligation, or otherwise, are declared null and void." The current version of this statute is codified at Chapter 21-I of and makes no specific mention of New Mexico.

title: Peon


text:
Robert Fischer

Robert Fischer may refer to:

 * Robert Fischer (unionist) (1883–1945), German unionist and social democratic politician
 * Robert Fischer (Canadian politician) (1937–2020), Canadian politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
 * Bobby Fischer (1943–2008), American chess grandmaster and chess world champion between 1972 and 1975
 * Robert Fischer (actor) (1881–1973), German actor featured in The Wiser Sex, Zaza and They Raid by Night
 * Robert Fischer (author) (born 1960), German author, see Bernhard Wicki
 * Robert Fischer (football) (fl. 1930s), Austrian football manager of RC Strasbourg and Racing Club de Paris

 * Robert Fischer (judge) (1911–1983), German judge, president of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany from 1968 till 1977
 * Robert Fischer (rugby union), German rugby player, see 2008–09 Rugby-Bundesliga squads
 * Robert Fischer (soldier), German soldier awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
 * Robert Fischer, character in the film Inception
 * Bob Fischer, American philosopher

title: Robert Fischer


text:
Kiyoshi Oka

Kiyoshi Oka (岡 潔) was a Japanese mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of several complex variables.

Biography
Oka was born in Osaka. He went to Kyoto Imperial University in 1919, turning to mathematics in 1923 and graduating in 1924.

He was in Paris for three years from 1929, returning to Hiroshima University. He published solutions to the first and second Cousin problems, and work on domains of holomorphy, in the period 1936–1940. He received his Doctor of Science degree from Kyoto Imperial University in 1940. These were later taken up by Henri Cartan and his school, playing a basic role in the development of sheaf theory.

The Oka–Weil theorem is due to a work of André Weil in 1935 and Oka's work in 1937.

Oka continued to work in the field, and proved Oka's coherence theorem in 1950. Oka's lemma is also named after him.

He was a professor at Nara Women's University from 1949 to retirement at 1964. He received many honours in Japan.

Honors

 * 1951 Japan Academy Prize
 * 1954 Asahi Prize
 * 1960 Order of Culture
 * 1973 Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1st class

Selected papers (Sur les fonctions analytiques de plusieurs variables)

 * 1) PDF TeX

title: Kiyoshi Oka


text:
New Romney

New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, with the harbour adjacent to the church, but is now more than a mile from the sea. A mooring ring can still be seen in front of the church. It is the headquarters of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.

Geography
New Romney is not significantly different in age from the nearby village of Old Romney. However New Romney, now about a mile and a half from the seafront, was originally a harbour town at the mouth of the River Rother. The Rother estuary was always difficult to navigate, with many shallow channels and sandbanks. The names of two local settlements, Greatstone and Littlestone, are a reminder of these aids. Another possible explanation for these place-names is a result of the effects of longshore drift, which disperses shingle and sand deposits, from west to east, with heavier stones accumulating in the area known as Greatstone, while far smaller shingle is to be found in great quantities at Littlestone. Very fine sand is found further east at neighbouring St Mary's Bay.

History
In the latter part of the thirteenth century a series of severe storms weakened the coastal defences of Romney Marsh, and the South England flood of February 1287 almost destroyed the town, as it did destroy the nearby ancient parish of Broomhill. The harbour and town were filled with sand, silt, mud and debris, and the River Rother changed course to run out into the sea near Rye, Sussex. The mud, silt and sand were never entirely removed from the town, which is why many old buildings, especially the church, have steps leading down into them from the present pavement level.

New Romney is one of the original Cinque Ports of England, although its importance declined rapidly during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries after the loss of the harbour. Archaeological investigations in 2007 during replacement of the town's main drainage have cast new light on the medieval origins and development of the town. New Romney Town Hall was built in 1702.

During World War II a fleet of floating concrete harbour sections (called Mulberry Harbours) were towed across the English Channel to France to aid the Allied landings. One of these harbour pieces remains, embedded in a sandbank just off the coast by Littlestone-on-Sea, and is clearly visible at low tide. Further up the coast during the Pipe Line Under The Ocean, or PLUTO, oil was pumped to France under the English Channel for use by allied troops.

New Romney is the main centre of population on the Romney Marsh. Founded in 1610 by John Southland and formerly known locally as just "Southland's", John Southland's Community Comprehensive School, the only secondary school in the area, was renamed The Marsh Academy in August 2007.

Town centre
Like many towns on the marsh it has an impressive Norman church, the Church of St Nicholas, in the centre of town. This church originally stood at the harbourside, and its entrances are several feet below ground level. The church is also notable for the boat hooks still evident on the side walls.

New Romney's historic high street has several small and interesting shops. A few businesses closed after the opening of a branch of supermarket chain Sainsbury's, but the town retains much of its character. The former almshouses in West Street are noted historic buildings of Kent; they were founded in 1610 by John Southland, an important local magnate, and rebuilt in 1734. Adjacent to these is Plantagenet House and No 3 Old Stone Cottage, which originated as a single house constructed c. 1300–1350. Researchers think it was originally the home of the Master of The Hospital of St John the Baptist, a large secular establishment. The hospital was operating by c. 1260 and flourished until the close of the fifteenth century.

Three-quarters of a mile north of the town is the links golf course at Littlestone-on-Sea. The golf course was a favourite of Denis Thatcher, late husband of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and has been used several times for the qualifying rounds of The Open Championship.

Transport
The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway has a station at the extreme east of New Romney, which as well as being a major tourist attraction was also used by students travelling to school until 2015. The station is about three-quarters of a mile east of the historic town centre.

New Romney was once serviced by the New Romney and Littlestone-On-Sea railway station which was part of the Lydd Line. The station was sited halfway between New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea. As built the station had two platforms and a small goods yard with four sidings, a goods shed, cattle dock, coal wharves, end loading dock, water tower and other small buildings. The up platform was rarely used in latter years other than as a livestock loading dock. The station was originally called New Romney & Littlestone with on-Sea being added in October 1888. In 1927 a single line extension was built with an unprotected level crossing to an exchange siding with the adjacent Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway station on the opposite side of the Station Road; it was used to deliver coal to that railway. The signal box was taken out of use in the 1950s and goods service was withdrawn in 1964. The station was closed in 1967 and replaced with a bus service.

New Romney is easily accessible by road, sitting astride the A259 (which runs from Folkestone to Havant). Several bus services run to and through New Romney from Hastings, Folkestone and Ashford.

Media
New Romney has one dedicated weekly newspaper, the Kentish Express (published by the KM Group) is the only weekly newspaper for the Romney Marsh covering the town. There is also the Folkestone Herald (which incorporated the Romney Marsh Herald in 2014, published by Kent Regional News and Media). The local radio station for New Romney is KMFM Ashford which contains Marsh-based adverts amongst a county-wide station, and New Romney is also served by the county-wide stations Heart, Gold and BBC Radio Kent.

Cinque Ports Radio 100.2FM is the community radio station for Romney Marsh and has been broadcasting since 7 March 2022 replacing Shoreline FM which now broadcasts online to the same area as Shoreline Easy and previously broadcast on 100.2FM since January 2020

In 1951 the Richard Burton, Roger Livesey, and Honor Blackman film Green Grow the Rushes was made on location in and around New Romney and in nearby St Mary in the Marsh.

Namesakes
In 1762 Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron named the town of Romney in present-day West Virginia in the United States after the town of New Romney.

title: New Romney


text:
Romney

Romney may refer to:

Romney (surname), including a list of people with the name
 * Romney family, a family prominent in U.S. politics
 * George W. Romney (1907–1995), former CEO of American Motors, Governor of Michigan, and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
 * Mitt Romney (born 1947), Republican politician, U.S. Senator for Utah, and former Governor of Massachusetts, and businessman

Canada

 * Romney Township, Ontario, a township in Kent County, Ontario

United Kingdom

 * Romney Deanery, a Deanery of the Canterbury Diocese, in Kent, England
 * Romney Island, an island in the English River Thames
 * Romney Marsh, a wetland in Kent and East Sussex, England
 * Romney Road, a road in England near the River Thames
 * New Romney, a town in Kent

United States

 * Romney, Indiana, an unincorporated community
 * Romney, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
 * Romney, Texas, an unincorporated community
 * Romney, West Virginia, (population, 1,940), the oldest town in West Virginia

Buildings and structures

 * Romney's House, a Grade I listed house in Hampstead, London, built by the artist George Romney
 * Romney hut, a type of British pre-fabricated building
 * George W. Romney Building or the Romney Building, the Governor of Michigan's main office location
 * Romney African-American Cemetery, an old cemetery in Romney, West Virginia
 * Romney Lock, a lock on the English River Thames
 * Romney Stadium, an outdoor football stadium at Utah State University

Companies and organizations

 * Romney's, an English baking company, founded 1918
 * Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a heritage railway in Kent, England
 * Romney Academy, a 19th-century educational institution in Romney, West Virginia
 * Romney Middle School, a school in Romney, West Virginia
 * Sir William Romney's School, Tetbury, a secondary school

Military

 * Romney Expedition, an early maneuver of the Confederate Army in the US Civil War

Naval warships

 * HMS Romney, a British Royal Navy ship name
 * HMS Romney (1694), a 50-gun English naval warship
 * HMS Romney (1708), a 50-gun English naval warship
 * HMS Romney (1762), a 50-gun English naval warship

Other uses

 * Romney (sheep), a breed of sheep bred for meat
 * Earl of Romney, an English title
 * Romney Formation, a stratum of sedimentary rock

title: Romney


text:
Northwich

Northwich is a market and port town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies in the heart of the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane. The town is about 18 mi east of Chester, 15 mi south of Warrington, and 19 mi south of Manchester.

The population of the civil parish was 20,924 in 2021 and the wider built-up area (which also covers parts of several other civil parishes) was 50,531.

The area around Northwich has been exploited for its salt pans since Roman times, when the settlement was known as Condate. The town had been severely affected by salt mining, and subsidence has historically been a significant problem. Mine stabilisation work was completed in 2007.

Early history
During Roman times, Northwich was known as Condate, thought to be a Latinisation of a Brittonic name meaning "Confluence". There are several other sites of the same name, mostly in France; in Northwich's case, it lies at the junction of the rivers Dane and Weaver.

Northwich can be identified through two contemporary Roman documents. The first of these is the Antonine Itinerary, a 3rd-century road map split into 14 sections. Two of these sections, or Itinerary, mention Condate: Route II ("the route from the Wall to the port of Rutupiae") and Route X ("the route from Glannoventa to Mediolanum"). The second document is the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography. This document refers to Condate between the entries for Salinae (now Middlewich, Cheshire) and Ratae (now Leicester, Leicestershire), at the time the capital of the Corieltauvi tribe.

The Romans' interest in the Northwich area is thought to be due to the strategic river crossing and the location of the salt brines. Salt was very important in Roman society; the Roman word salarium, linked employment, salt and soldiers, but the exact link is unclear. It is also theorised that this is the basis for the modern word salary. Another theory is that the word soldier itself comes from the Latin sal dare (to give salt). See History of salt for further details. There is archaeological evidence of a Roman auxiliary fort within the area of Northwich now known as "Castle" dated to AD 70. This and other northwestern forts were built as the Romans moved north from their stronghold in Chester.

The association with salt continues in the etymology of Northwich. The "wich" (or wych) suffix applies to other towns in the area: Middlewich, Nantwich and Leftwich. This is considered to have been derived from the Norse, wic, for bay, and is associated with the more traditional method of obtaining salt by evaporating sea water. Therefore, a place for making salt became a wych-house; Northwich was the most northern of the -wich towns in Cheshire.

Medieval to early modern
The existence of Northwich in the early medieval period is shown by its record in the Domesday Book of 1086:

"In the same Mildestuic hundred there was a third wich called Norwich [Northwich] and it was at farm for £8.

There were the same laws and customs there as there were in the other wiches and the king and the earl similarly divided the renders.

... All the other customs in these wiches are the same.

This was waste when (Earl) Hugh received it; it is now worth 35s."

- Henry Ellis

The manor of Northwich belonged to the Earls of Chester until 1237 when the family line died out. Subsequently, Northwich became a royal manor and was given to a noble family to collect tolls in exchange for a set rent.

The Cheshire archers were a body of elite soldiers noted for their skills with the longbow that fought in many engagements in Britain and France in the Middle Ages. Battles at which there were sizeable numbers of Cheshire archers include Agincourt and Crecy; many of these archers hailed from the Northwich Hundred. Richard II employed a bodyguard of these yeoman archers who came from the Macclesfield Hundred and the forest districts of Cheshire.

That salt production continued throughout the centuries and can be seen through John Leland's description of the town in 1540:

"Northwich is a pratie market town but fowle,

and by the Salters houses be great stakes of smaul cloven wood,

to seethe the salt water that thei make white salt of."

- cited in Fred H. Crossley

Between 1642 and 1643, during the English Civil War, Northwich was fortified and garrisoned by Sir William Brereton for the Parliamentarians.

The salt beds beneath Northwich were re-discovered in the 1670s by employees of the local Smith-Barry family. The Smith-Barrys were looking for coal, but instead discovered rock salt, in the grounds of the family home, Marbury Hall, to the north of Northwich.

19th century
During the 19th century it became uneconomical to mine for the salt. Instead hot water was pumped through the mines, which dissolved the salt. The resultant brine was pumped out and the salt extracted from the brine. This technique weakened the mines and led to land subsidence as they collapsed. Subsidence affected the town and the surrounding landscape. For example, collapses in 1880 formed Witton Flash as the River Weaver flowed into a huge hole caused by subsidence. Subsidence also allegedly accounts for many old timber-framed houses in the town centre, which were better able to withstand the movement of the ground. Some houses were built on a base of steel girders that could be jacked up to level the house with each change in the underlying ground. The town's historical link with the salt industry is celebrated in its museum, which is today in the old workhouse.

In 1874, John Brunner and Ludwig Mond founded Brunner Mond in Winnington and started manufacturing soda ash using the Solvay ammonia-soda process. This process used salt as a main raw material. The chemical industry used the subsided land for the disposal of waste from the manufacture of soda-ash. The waste was transported through a network of cranes and rails to the produce limebeds. This was a dangerous alkaline substance and caused the landscape to be abandoned as unusable.

Modern development
In 1975 Marbury Country Park was the first area to be reclaimed from dereliction and has become a popular recreational area. In 1987 more land was reclaimed to form Furey Wood and over later years, Cheshire County Council's Land Regeneration Unit reclaimed what is now known as Anderton Nature Park, Witton Flash, Dairy House Meadows, Witton Mill Meadows, and Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes. The area now extends to approximately 323 ha of public space known as Northwich Community Woodlands.

In February 2004 a £28 million programme to stabilise the abandoned salt mines underneath Northwich was begun. The work was funded by the English Partnerships through its Land Stabilisation Programme, introduced to resolve issues associated with unstable mines around England.

The four mines identified for work were Baron's Quay, Witton Bank, Neumann's and Penny's Lane. These mines were chosen because their subsidence was causing problems for the town centre. The stabilisation plan involved removing millions of litres of brine from the four mines and replacing it with a mixture of pulverised fuel ash (PFA), cement and salt. The project was completed in late 2007.

The old Magistrates Court and Memorial Hall have been demolished and been replaced by Memorial Court, a £12.5 million cultural and leisure centre, which offers a pool, dance studios and a gym.

The £80 million Barons Quay Development, a retail and leisure complex, opened in 2016 and has seen the creation of more than 300,000 sqft of shopping space, together with a large supermarket with a petrol filling station, cinema, restaurants, cafés, new public spaces, and car parking. As of January 2023 roughly half of the retail space remains empty.

A major fire occurred at the Northwich Outdoor Market on 3 January 2020. The Market's remains were quickly demolished and so far there are no plans to rebuild it.

Governance
At the time of the Domesday survey (1086) Northwich was in the hundred of Middlewich, but by the 14th century it had become part of the Northwich hundred. This probably happened during the reorganisation of the Hundreds in the 12th century. Northwich has been described as a borough from around 1288, though there is no surviving borough charter.

Northwich originally constituted an area of only 13 acre at the confluence of the Rivers Weaver and Dane. The much larger township of Witton cum Twambrooks lay to the east, Leftwich to the south, Castle Northwich to the south-west, and Winnington to the north-west.

The manor of Northwich was granted to the Stanley family, later Earls of Derby in 1484, and stayed in the family's hands until the late 18th century. A local board was founded on 26 June 1863 after the Local Government Act 1858 and it purchased the manor from Arthur Heywood Esq. in 1871. In 1875, the local boards for Northwich and Witton cum Twambrooks were amalgamated, and the resultant district was further extended in 1880 to include the whole of Castle Northwich and parts of Hartford, Winnington and Leftwich. On 10 September 1894 these areas were united as the civil parish of Northwich, served by Northwich Urban District Council.

The town was further enlarged in 1936 by the addition of parts of Winnington, Lostock Gralam, Barnton, Leftwich and Rudheath, and again in 1955 when parts of Davenham, Hartford, Rudheath and Whatcroft were added.

The Local Government Act 1972 replaced the Urban District Council of Northwich with a new district (later borough) council: Vale Royal. Vale Royal covered areas previously covered by Northwich UDC (Urban District Council), Northwich RDC (Rural District Council), Winsford UDC and parts of Runcorn RDC. Northwich Town Council now has the powers of a parish council and is now made up of five main districts of Leftwich, Northwich, Castle, Winnington and Witton. In 2018 Northwich Town Council won 'Council of the Year' at the NALC Star Council Awards. The current Town Clerk of Northwich Town Council is Chris Shaw.

Vale Royal Borough Council was abolished on 1 April 2009, and Northwich now falls within the new unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester.

Between 1885 and 1983 Northwich gave its name to a parliamentary constituency. Northwich was also split between the Tatton and Eddisbury constituencies until the formation of Weaver Vale for the 1997 general election. The seat is currently held by Mike Amesbury (Labour).

The town coat of arms features the Latin motto "Sal est Vita" meaning "Salt is Life", which can be seen on the town's crest of arms. The town is twinned with Dole in France.

Geography
Northwich is situated in the Cheshire Plain at coordinates h53.25556°N, -2.52222°W (53.255, −2.522). The town is between 15 and 35 m above mean sea level. Northwich is surrounded by the following civil parishes, starting due north and proceeding in a clockwise direction: Anderton with Marbury, Marston, Wincham, Lostock Gralam, Rudheath, Davenham, Hartford, Weaverham, Barnton.

Two rivers meet in the town centre, the Weaver and the Dane. The town is surrounded by undulating pasture. Subsidence and the collapse of underground saltworks has created flashes and there are also local meres – for example, to the north is Budworth Mere and to the north-east is Pick Mere.

Demographics
The population of Northwich in 1664 has been estimated as 560. The population of Northwich over the last 200 years has been:

The 2011 Census shows the population of Northwich civil parish to be 19,924. This was composed of 9,878 (49.6%) males and 10,046 (50.4%) females. There were 8,808 households. This makes the average household size 2.62, an increase on 2001.

The adjacent civil parishes of Anderton with Marbury, Barnton, Davenham, Hartford, Kingsmead, Lostock Gralam, Rudheath, Weaverham and Wincham are in part built up, giving a total population of 53,391 in 2011 considered to use the facilities of Northwich town centre.

The population of Northwich is estimated at around 63,000 in 2021, The town forms part of the Cheshire West and Chester (Northwich and Winsford Locality) which has an estimated 2021 population of 107,000. Northwich and its urban area make up 63,000, Winsford makes up around 34,100 and the remaining 10,000 are the surrounding rural areas of the locality

Economics
Northwich has been described as having a market since at least 1535, when it was described as a market town by Leland, but there is no surviving charter. The town still has a market today, which is earmarked for refurbishment as part of the Northwich Vision plans.

The town's economy was dominated by the salt industry. However, a list of tolls for goods crossing over Northwich bridge in 1353 shows goods coming into the town, including a wide range of carcasses, fleeces, hides and skins, cloth, fish, alcoholic drinks, dairy products, building materials, household goods, metals and glass, and millstones. This indicates a much wider economic base to medieval Northwich than just the salt trade. Documentary evidence also exists for a mill from 1332 onwards and there is evidence for more than one mill from 1343.

Allied to the extraction of salt was a bulk chemical industry, which became concentrated at the three ICI sites at Winnington, Wallerscote and Lostock. The first industrially practical method for producing polythene was accidentally discovered at the Winnington Laboratory in 1933.

Bakers Frank Roberts & Sons have been associated with the town since 1887 and continues to be based near the town at Rudheath on the A556. Two of Frank Roberts & Sons's three main business divisions, Roberts Bakery and The Little Treats Co, are based in Northwich and Aldred's The Bakers, is in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

There are many contemporary major employers in nearby Rudheath and Hartford.

Based on the 2001 Census, Northwich had 13,928 people aged between 16 and 74. Of these, 8,908 (64.0%) people were categorised as economically active; 4,268 (30.6%) were economically inactive; 455 (3.3%) were unemployed.

Culture and community
The town hosts a number of large annual events including a music festival, a river festival and a Pina Colada festival.

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, Northwich Festival is held at Moss Farm Sports Complex, featuring four days of music and sport.

Since 2021, an annual Piña Colada Festival has taken place in recognition of Rupert Holmes who was born in the town and wrote "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)", released in 1979. The festival grew in 2022, with live music, fairground rides and old school street games among other attractions. Local bars, restaurants and cafés offered piña coladas alongside other tropical themed drinks and snacks.

Northwich Memorial Hall was opened in 1960 but closed for redevelopment in 2013, to be replaced by the Memorial Court Facility, opened in 2015. It hosted a range of activities, including pantomimes, music events and the Purple Cactus Comedy Club.

The Harlequin Theatre produces six plays each year, and it is also the home of Northwich Folk Club (which has run continuously since 1977).

The Regal cinema closed in 2007 and was demolished. A cinema in the Barons Quay development opened in 2016. Northwich Plaza also offered a wide range of music gigs and other cultural events.

Local newspaper, the Northwich Guardian, is published by Newsquest. Radio Northwich is a popular and community focussed radio station broadcasting out of Barons Quay.

Northwich musicians include Steve Hewitt, drummer with Placebo, which provided a song for the soundtrack to the film Cruel Intentions, and Tim Burgess from the Charlatans, a band once managed by Steve Harrison from the town's much missed Omega Music record store.

Local horror author Stuart Neild's first novel, A Haunted Man, was set in the salt mines that run underneath Northwich, combining fact with supernatural fiction. Neild's novels featuring Northwich and other North West locations. A Hollywood film and television series was in development.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill TV transmitter. The town is served by both BBC Radio Merseyside and BBC Radio Stoke. Other radio stations include Capital North West & Wales, Heart North West, Smooth North West, Greatest Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire, Silk Radio, and Radio Northwich, a community based local station. The local newspaper is the Northwich Guardian which publishes on Wednesdays.

Sport
Northwich is the home of three non-league football teams: Witton Albion, Northwich Victoria and 1874 Northwich. In May 2018 the Cheshire FA announced plans for a £70m development near Northwich, modelled on St George's Park National Football Centre. The facility would include two FIFA-standard pitches with a 1000-seat stadium, 3G pitches, six grass pitches, full medical facilities and a hotel/spa.

The town has two rugby union sides Northwich RUFC and Winnington Park.

The area also boasts several amateur cricket clubs, including Winnington Park CC, Davenham CC, Weaverham CC, Northwich CC and Hartford CC. Northwich also has a successful competitive swim team – Northwich Swimming Club, first formed in the late 19th century.

Northwich Rowing Club was formed in 1875 in Northwich and continues to row on the River Weaver, producing Olympic and international rowers such as Matt Langridge. The club has its own boat and clubhouse located by The Crescent and holds three events every year, the Autumn Head in November, the Spring Head in April and the Regatta in May. In 2015 the club was the first rowing club from the north of England to win the Junior Coxed Quad Sculls at the Head of the River Fours on the tideway in London. Club crews have also competed in the Henley Royal Regatta, with a crew seeded in 2015 for the first time in the club's history. The club also has a large junior section taking rowers on from age 12.

The Northwich Festival, held at Moss Farm Sports Complex each August includes the UK Strongman-North Competition.

The town also has a long-standing cycling club, Weaver Valley CC. Established in 1962, its members included ex-pro and ITV commentator Paul Sherwen and domestic rider Alan Kemp. The club competes in road racing, time trials, track racing and off-road. The club promotes three road races, a series of circuit races in June at Oulton Park, the Cat and Fiddle hill climb, and cyclo-cross in September. Since 1980, the club has promoted the Cheshire Classic women's cycling road race, held every April. Part of British Cycling's National Road Race Series, it is the longest running race on the women's national calendar. Previous winners include Dame Sarah Storey, Lucy Garner, Lizzie Armitstead, Nicole Cooke and Mandy Jones.

The first known swimming baths in Northwich was the Verdin Baths, situated on Verdin Park, presented by Robert Verdin in commemoration of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. It consisted of a 60 x cast-iron plunge bath and five slipper baths. Northwich Public Baths was built in 1913 following subsidence at Verdin Park pool. It its doors on 23 January 1991 to be replaced with Moss Farm leisure complex, which in turn was replaced by Memorial Court entertainment and leisure venue in 2015.

Landmarks and religious sites
The parish church is known as St. Helen's Witton. It is a Grade I Listed Building. The church initially developed as a chapel of ease associated with the parish of Great Budworth to serve the local community, known as the Chapel of Witton. There is no known date for the creation of this chapel, but it is thought to have existed in the 13th century. None of this building exists in the current church. There is no documentary evidence to indicate the dates of the older parts of the current building. However, stones in the fabric of the porch carry inscriptions attributed to "Ricardus Alkoke Capellanus". This name matches documents concerning land in Northwich and Lostock Gralam dated 1468, but this cannot be used to date the church accurately.

It was not until 7 August 1900 that the parish of Witton (otherwise Northwich) was formed from parts of Great Budworth, Davenham and other surrounding parishes.

The present St Wilfrid's (Roman Catholic) church was built in 1866. The current Northwich Methodist Chapel was opened in 1990, but there has been a Methodist presence in the town at least since 1774, when John Wesley laid the foundation stone of the first chapel in the London Road area.

The Northwich Union Workhouse opened in 1837 following the Poor Law Amendment of 1834 that standardised the system of poor relief throughout Britain. The building is now the Weaver Hall Museum.

The Dock Road Edwardian Pumping Station is a Grade II Listed Building originally built by Northwich Urban District Council in 1913. For over 60 years it was used for pumping sewage from parts of Northwich to the Wallerscote Treatment Works. Before it was built, untreated sewage was discharged directly into the River Weaver, causing widespread pollution.

Two swing bridges, Hayhurst Bridge built in 1898, and Town Bridge built in 1899, cross the Weaver at Northwich. The bridges were the first two electrically powered swing bridges in Great Britain and were built on floating pontoons to counteract the mine subsidence. They were designed by Colonel John Saner.

The Floatel Northwich was moored on the Weaver near the confluence of the two rivers, but was closed when the owners, The Real Hotel Company plc, went into administration in January 2009. It has since been removed. It was the UK's only floating hotel.

Transport
The key historical mode of transport is water. By 1732 the River Weaver was improved from Frodsham Bridge to Winsford Bridge and eventually allowed vessels up to 160 t to travel up to Northwich Bridge. The Trent and Mersey Canal, opened in 1775, passed to the north of Northwich because of objections from the trustees of the Weaver Navigation. However, the canal passed salt deposits near the village of Marston, and many of the later salt mines were based along its banks including the Lion Salt Works. The Anderton Boat Lift was opened in 1875 to connect the canal and river systems. It was fully restored in 2002 and now houses a visitor centre.

The road system around Northwich can be dated back to the Roman times. The A556 and A559 follow the route of the Roman road that runs from Chester to York. The A556 diverts away from the route of the Roman road following a new route to the south of the town acting as the town's bypass. The Chester to Manchester road became a Turnpike in 1769. The A530, known as King Street, also passes near to the town, and this follows the route of the Roman road that connected Warrington and Middlewich. The old route to Warrington and the north from Middlewich, however, was replaced by a new route through Knutsford, which became a turnpike in 1753. Northwich is connected to the motorway network to the north of the town via the A559 onto the M56 motorway; and to the east of the town via the A556 at Junction 19 of the M6 motorway.

The railway came to the town in 1863 when the Cheshire Midland Railway constructed its line from Knutsford. The West Cheshire Railway built its line to Helsby in 1869. Passenger trains from Northwich to Chester via Delamere commenced in 1875. The route through Northwich is now marketed as the Mid-Cheshire line. Northwich railway station, last rebuilt in 1897, is on the line from Chester to Manchester Piccadilly. There are also stations within close vicinity at Greenbank, also on the Mid-Cheshire line, and Hartford (on the West Coast Main Line).

There are bus routes between Northwich and a number of local towns, and villages including Weaverham, Hartford, Crewe, Warrington, Kelsall and Chester.

Family run coach company, Walker's Coaches, was based in Anderton, before being taken over by Holmeswood Coaches; who still run the Northwich depot.

Education
Northwich and its surroundings has a number of schools and colleges. Sir John Deane's College is now a sixth form college, but was originally formed as a grammar school in 1557. The school was originally known as Witton Grammar School and was erected close to Witton Chapel. The school moved to its current location, to the south of the town, in 1907–08. The Grange School, Northwich is an independent school. Primary education include:
 * The Grange Junior School
 * Witton Church Walk CofE Primary School
 * Victoria Road Primary School
 * Charles Darwin Community Primary School
 * Winnington Park Community Primary and Nursery School
 * St Wilfrid's Catholic Primary School
 * Hartford Manor Primary School
 * Hartford County Primary School
 * Kingsmead Primary School was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Better Public Building award in 2005.
 * Rosebank School is a school for autistic children aged 3–11 years.

During the 19th century many new schools were founded and by 1850 twelve "academies" were recorded in the area. The town is now served by County High School Leftwich, a specialist media arts college, while Rudheath Senior Academy, a specialist performing arts college and Hartford High School both admit pupils from Northwich. There are also several primary schools in the area. St. Nicholas Catholic High School is also in the local vicinity, and performs well on national exam boards, coming second in the whole of Cheshire.

Mid Cheshire College had its main campus in nearby Hartford, offering further education courses. The campus closed in 2018 after it merged with Warrington Collegiate a year earlier to form Warrington and Vale Royal College

In November 2005, as part of the Northwich Vision, a refurbishment of the town's railway station included a Centre called Zone that promotes lifelong learning by offering people the opportunity to access a range of online and taught courses.

Notable people

 * Industry
 * Peter Drinkwater (1750 – 1801) an English cotton manufacturer and merchant. In 1782 he opened his first cotton mill on the River Weaver in Northwich
 * Sir Joseph Verdin, 1st Baronet (1838 in Witton – 1920) ran a family salt business known as Joseph Verdin & Sons with his brothers, Robert and William, lived at The Brockhurst in the town.
 * Ludwig Mond (1839–1909) German-born co-founder of Brunner Mond, a soda factory in Winnington
 * Sir John Brunner, 1st Baronet PC DL (1842–1919) founder of chemical firm Brunner Mond in 1873,  MP for Northwich 1885–1886 and from 1887 to 1910, lived at Winnington Hall
 * William James Yarwood (1851–1926) shipbuilder and proprietor of W. J. Yarwood & Sons, a local shipbuilding business

 * Creative arts
 * Alethea Lewis (1749 at Acton - 1827) an English novelist, she centred on profound Christianity and virtue.
 * Bob Crossley (1912 in Northwich – 2010) an abstract artist who worked in oil and acrylic and lived in Cornwall from 1959
 * Percy M. Young (1912 in Northwich – 2004) a British musicologist, editor, organist, composer, conductor and teacher
 * Peter Gammond (born 1925 in Northwich) a British music critic, writer, journalist, musician, poet, and artist.
 * Robert Westall (1929–1993) the children's author lived in the town and taught at Sir John Deane's Grammar School.
 * Sue Birtwistle (born 1945 in Northwich) a producer and writer of television drama
 * Rupert Holmes (born 1947 in Northwich) composer, songwriter and author, now lives in New York
 * Malcolm Garrett (born 1956 in Northwich) a British graphic designer
 * Jennifer Saunders (born 1958) actress and comedian, attended Northwich Girls' Grammar School
 * Jim Tavaré (born 1963) an English stand-up comedian, actor, and musician. He attended art school in Northwich.
 * Moira Buffini (born 1965) an English dramatist, director, and actor.
 * Tim Burgess (born 1967) an English singer-songwriter and lead singer of the alternative rock band The Charlatans
 * Cathie Pilkington RA (born 1968) is a British sculptor, she attended the North Chester College of Art in Northwich
 * Steve Hewitt (born 1971 in Northwich) an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and former drummer for the band Placebo, 1996–2007
 * Helsinki Seven (formed 2006) are an alternative rock band from Northwich,
 * Addictive (formed 2008) an English musical duo based in Northwich consists of Louise Bagan and Aisha Stuart

 * Politics
 * Robert Verdin (1836 in Witton – 1887) a salt manufacturer, philanthropist and MP for Northwich 1886–1887
 * Sir Philip Holland (1917 in Northwich – 2011) Conservative MP for Acton 1959-1964 and for Carlton 1966-1983
 * Paul Dean, Baron Dean of Harptree PC (1924 in Northwich – 2009) Conservative MP for North Somerset 1964 to 1983
 * John Greenway (born 1946) MP for Ryedale, was born and educated in the town
 * Arron Banks (born 1966 in Northwich) a British businessman and political donor.
 * Diana Johnson (born 1966) MP for Hull North was born and educated in the town

 * Sport

 * Charles James Hughes (1853 in Northwich –1916), footballer, referee, and co-founder of Northwich Victoria
 * George Elmore (1880 in Witton – 1916 Somme), English footballer
 * John Boden (1882 in Northwich – 1946), footballer
 * Billy Harrison (1886 in Wybunbury – 1948), footballer
 * Jack Eyres (1899 in Northwich – 1975), footballer
 * Sid Collins Jr. (1912 in Northwich – 1983) golfer
 * Tom Manley (1912 in Northwich – 1988), footballer and manager
 * Zandra Nowell (born 1936 in Northwich), alpine skier
 * Malcolm Arnold (born 1940 in Northwich), athletics coach
 * Mike Whitlow (born 1968 in Northwich), footballer
 * Michael Oakes (born 1973 in Northwich), footballer
 * Andy Oakes (born 1977 in Northwich), footballer
 * Matt Langridge (born 1983), rower
 * Mark Roberts (born 1983 in Northwich), footballer
 * Craig Jones (1985–2008), motorcycle racer
 * Dennis Walker (1944 in Northwich - 2003), footballer
 * Joe Dale (1921 in Northwich - 2000), footballer

 * Other
 * Eaton Hodgkinson FRS (1789 in Anderton – 1861) an English engineer, a pioneer of the application of mathematics to problems of structural design.
 * William Allen Whitworth (1840–1905) was an English mathematician and a priest in the Church of England, schooled at the Sandicroft School in Northwich
 * Harold Drinkwater (1855-1925) physician and botanical artist, born and raised in Northwich
 * Geoffrey Cheshire FBA (1886 in Northwich – 1978) an English barrister, scholar and influential writer on law
 * Arthur Dodd (1919 in Northwich – 2011) served in the British Army during WWII and was a Prisoner of War at Auschwitz
 * Mary-Ann Ochota (born 1981 in Northwich) a British broadcaster and anthropologist specialising in archaeology, social history and adventure factual television

Twin town
Northwich is twinned with:

 * Flag of France.svg Dole, France
 * Flag of Ireland.svg Carlow, Republic of Ireland

title: Northwich


text:
Rosmarie Waldrop

Rosmarie Waldrop (born Rosmarie Sebald; August 24, 1935) is an American poet, novelist, translator, essayist and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958 and has settled in Providence, Rhode Island since the late 1960s. Waldrop is a co-editor and publisher of Burning Deck Press.

Early life in Germany
Waldrop was born in Kitzingen am Main on August 24, 1935. Her father, Joseph Sebald, taught physical education at the town's high school. Towards the end of the Second World War, she joined a travelling theatre, but returned to school in early 1946. At school, she studied piano and flute and played in a youth orchestra. During Christmas in 1954, the orchestra gave a concert for American soldiers stationed at Kitzingen. After the performance, Keith Waldrop, a member of the audience, invited members of the orchestra to listen to his records. He and Rosmarie became friendly and worked together over the next few months, translating German poetry into English.

University years
That same year, she entered the University of Würzburg, where she studied literature, art history and musicology. In 1955, she transferred to the University of Freiburg, where she discovered the writings of Robert Musil and participated in a protest against a lecture given by Heidegger. She then moved to the University of Aix-Marseille, where Keith spent 1956–57 on his GI Bill. At the end of the year, he returned to the University of Michigan. In 1958, he won a Major Hopwood Prize, sending most of the money to Rosmarie to pay for her passage to the United States.

In the United States
The couple married and Rosmarie enrolled at the University of Michigan, where she received a Ph.D. in 1966. She also became active in literary, musical and artistic circles around the university and the wider Ann Arbor community. She began serious translation of French and German poetry. In 1961, the Waldrops bought a second-hand printing press and started Burning Deck Magazine. This was the beginning of Burning Deck, which was to become one of the most influential small press publishers of innovative poetry in the United States. As such, she is sometimes closely associated with the Language poets.

Poetry and translations
Rosmarie Waldrop started publishing her own poetry in English in the late 1960s. Since then, she has published over three dozen books of poetry, prose and translation. Today her work is variously characterized as verse experiment, philosophical statement and personal narrative. Of the many formative influences on her mature style, a crucial influence was a year spent in Paris in the early 1970s, where she came into contact with leading avant garde French poets, including Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne-Marie Albiach, and Edmond Jabès. These writers influenced her own work, while at the same time she and Keith became some of the main translators of their work into English, with Burning Deck one of the main vehicles for introducing their work to an English-language readership.

Awards and honors
Rosmarie Waldrop has given readings and published in many parts of Europe as well as the United States. She has received numerous awards and fellowships and was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2003 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts' Grants to Artists Award. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. She received the 2008 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for her translation of Ulf Stolterfoht's book Lingos I - IX. Her translation of Almost 1 Book / Almost 1 Life by Elfriede Czurda was nominated for the Best Translated Book Award in 2013. She was given the America Award in Literature for a lifetime contribution to international writing in 2021.

Poetry

 * The Aggressive Ways of the Casual Stranger, NY: Random House, 1972
 * The Road Is Everywhere or Stop This Body, Columbia, MO: Open Places, 1978
 * When They Have Senses, Providence: Burning Deck, 1980
 * Nothing Has Changed, Windsor, VT: Awede Press, 1981
 * Differences for Four Hands, Philadelphia: Singing Horse, 1984; repr. Providence: Paradigm Press, 1999
 * Streets Enough to Welcome Snow, Barrytown, NY: Station Hill, 1986
 * The Reproduction of Profiles, NY: New Directions, 1987
 * Shorter American Memory, Providence: Paradigm Press, 1988
 * Peculiar Motions, Berkeley, CA: Kelsey Street Press, 1990
 * Lawn of Excluded Middle, NY: Tender Buttons, 1993
 * A Key Into the Language of America, NY: New Directions, 1994
 * Another Language: Selected Poems, Jersey City: Talisman House, 1997
 * Split Infinites, Philadelphia: Singing Horse Press, 1998
 * Reluctant Gravities, NY: New Directions, 1999
 * (with Keith Waldrop) Well Well Reality, Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press, 1998
 * Love, Like Pronouns, Omnidawn Publishing, 2003
 * Blindsight, New York: New Directions, 2004
 * Splitting Image, Zasterle, 2006
 * Curves to the Apple, New Directions, 2006
 * Driven to Abstraction, New Directions, 2010
 * Gap Gardening: Selected Poems, New Directions, 2016
 * The Nick of Time, New Directions, 2021

Fiction

 * The Hanky of Pippin's Daughter, Barrytown, NY: Station Hill, 1986
 * A Form/of Taking/It All, Barrytown, NY: Station Hill, 1990

Essays and criticism
Series,Vol.1, No.3 (April 1997)
 * Against Language?, The Hague: Mouton/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1971
 * The Ground Is the Only Figure: Notebook Spring 1996, Providence: The Impercipient Lecture
 * Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès, Wesleyan University Press, 2002
 * Dissonance (if you are interested), University Alabama Press, 2005

Translations

 * The Book of Questions by Edmond Jabès, 7 vols. bound as 4, Wesleyan UP, 1976, 1977, 1983, 1984
 * From a Reader's Notebook, by Alain Veinstein, Annex Press, Ithaca New York, 1983
 * Paul Celan: Collected Prose, by Paul Celan, Manchester & NY: Carcanet & Sheep Meadow, 1986
 * The Book of Dialogue by Edmond Jabès, Wesleyan UP, 1987
 * Late Additions: Poems by Emmanuel Hocquard (with Connell McGrath), Peterborough, Cambs.: Spectacular Diseases, 1988
 * The Book of Shares by Edmond Jabès, Chicago UP, 1989
 * Some Thing Black by Jacques Roubaud, Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive, 1990
 * The Book of Resemblances by Edmond Jabès, 3 vols., Wesleyan UP, 1990, 91, 92
 * From the Book to the Book by Edmond Jabès, Wesleyan UP, 1991
 * The Book of Margins by Edmond Jabès, Chicago UP, 1993
 * A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Book by Edmond Jabès, Wesleyan UP, 1993
 * Heiligenanstalt by Friederike Mayröcker, Providence: Burning Deck, 1994
 * The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis by Jacques Roubaud, Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1995
 * Mountains in Berlin: Selected Poems by Elke Erb, Providence: Burning Deck, 1995
 * The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion by Edmond Jabès, Stanford UP, 1996
 * With Each Clouded Peak by Friederike Mayröcker (with Harriett Watts), Los Angeles, CA: Sun & Moon Press, 1998
 * A Test of Solitude by Emmanuel Hocquard, Providence: Burning Deck, 2000
 * (with Harry Mathews and Christopher Middleton) Many Glove Compartments by Oskar Pastior, Providence: Burning Deck, 2001
 * Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End by Edmond Jabès (Images & Design by Ed Epping), New York, New York : Granary Books, 2001
 * The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, Than the Human Heart by Jacques Roubaud, Dalkey Archive Press; Translation edition, 2006 ISBN 1-56478-383-9
 * Almost 1 Book / Almost 1 Life by Elfriede Czurda, Providence, Burning Deck, 2012
 * Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan by Jean Daive, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2020

title: Rosmarie Waldrop


text:
Painswick

Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The village is mainly constructed of locally quarried Cotswold stone. Many of the buildings feature south-facing attic rooms once used as weavers' workshops.

Painswick stands on a hill overlooking one of the Five Valleys, between Stroud and Gloucester. It has narrow streets and traditional architecture.

It has a cricket and rugby team and there is a golf course on the outskirts of the town. Painswick Beacon is in the nearby hills.

History
There is evidence of settlement in the area as long ago as the Iron Age. This can be seen in Kimsbury hill fort, a defensive earthwork on nearby Painswick Beacon, which has wide views across the Severn Vale. A Roman villa was built just to the north of the present village, dated by Welbore St Clair Baddeley to the late second century. The local monastery, Prinknash Abbey, was established in the 11th century. Painswick itself first appears in historical records in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Wiche, 'dairy-farm'. It continues to appear by this name into the 13th century. The form Painswik first appears in 1237, but must originate in the name of an earlier lord of the manor, Pain Fitzjohn (d. 1137). Pain was a common Anglo-Norman name (itself originating in paiën, Latin paganus, 'heathen').

During the first English Civil War (1642–45) Gloucester was a Parliamentarian stronghold of some strategic importance, but it was surrounded by forces loyal to King Charles I. After the siege of Gloucester was broken on 5 September 1643, the Royalist army, which had been surrounding the city, encamped overnight at Painswick, with the king staying at Court House. Some damage was caused by the troops and a scar from two small cannonballs can still be seen on the tower of St. Mary's parish church.

Painswick House dates from the 1730s and is the home of Baron Dickinson. Its Rococo Garden was laid out in the 1740s by Benjamin Hyett.

Government
For the purposes of local government, the civil parish of Painswick includes the neighbouring villages of Edge, Paradise, Sheepscombe and Slad. The civil parish forms part of the district of Stroud and the county of Gloucestershire. An electoral ward in the same name exists. This stretches beyond the confines of the civil parish. The total ward population taken at the 2011 Census was 4,158. Painswick Parish Council is based at Painswick Town Hall.

For parliamentary purposes, Painswick is within the UK constituency of Stroud. Prior to Brexit in 2020, it was in the European constituency of South West England.

Local traditions
On the first Sunday after 19 September, there has been an annual festival called "Feast Sunday". Three customs were historically followed: feasting, drinking and disorderly conduct; clipping the church; and eating "dog pie". The ceremony known as "clipping the church" involves mostly children, but also adults, who join hands, dance around and "embrace" St. Mary's parish church. Clipping the church and eating dog pie are customs that have been revived and continue to be practised. The "dog pie" is not made of dog meat, but the custom is based upon plum pie baked with a porcelain china dog, that had been baked annually between 1870 and 1880.

Folklore holds that the churchyard will never have more than 99 yew trees and that should a 100th grow the Devil would pull it out. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum a count of the trees showed there to be 103. The plan of the churchyard included in the church's own public leaflet shows 100.

While Royalists were encamped in Painswick, tradition has it that King Charles I went up to the Beacon and, seeing the beautiful valley to the east said "This must be Paradise". Since then that valley, and the hamlet on its western side to the north of Painswick have been called Paradise.

During the 18th century a group of gentry, led by Benjamin Hyett II, organised an annual procession dedicated to Pan, during which a statue of the deity was held aloft, and people shouted "Highgates! Highgates!". The tradition died out in the 1830s, but was revived in 1885 by the new vicar, W. H. Seddon, who mistakenly believed that the festival had been ancient in origin. Seddon's successor, however, was less appreciative of the pagan festival and put an end to it in 1950, when he had Pan's statue buried, although it was later dug up and placed within the grounds of Painswick House.

According to William Black's 'The Land that Thyme Forgot', Bow Wow Sauce, a sauce to be served with roast meats, was developed in Painswick.

Post office
The post office in Painswick occupies a listed building built in 1478, making it the oldest known building in Great Britain to also contain a post office. It is not known when the post office counter was opened. Mr. H M Strange moved the post office up the street (by four buildings) in 1933 and remained Post Master there until retirement in 1968.

School
Painswick has one school, Croft Primary School. The school is a small secular and co-educational Community School for children aged 4 to 11 with fewer than 150 pupils. In the Key Stage 2 results for 2008 91% of children achieved or exceeded Level 4 in English and Science and 84% did so in Maths. These results are slightly higher than the county averages of 86%, 82% and 91% in English, Maths and Science respectively.

Notable people

 * Gerald Finzi, composer, lived in Painswick from 1922–26 at a house called "Kingsmill".
 * Susan Lynch, Irish actress, moved to live in Painswick in 2008 with her husband, actor Craig Parkinson.
 * Charles Wilfred Orr, composer, lived in Painswick from 1934–76.
 * Julian Slade, composer of the 1954 hit musical Salad Days, moved to Painswick as a child, had a lifelong association with the village and was honorary President of Painswick Players.
 * Thomas Twining, tea merchant, was born in Painswick in 1675, and in 1706 set up his first tea shop at 216 Strand, London, later to become home of the famous Twinings brand.
 * The first Baron Dickinson lived in Painswick. His son, the second Baron, runs the Painswick Rococo Garden, designed by Benjamin Hyett II in the 1740s.
 * Robert Watkin-Mills, the bass-baritone, was born in Painswick

title: Painswick