A slight disagreement has broken out between members of one of Rome's leading families the Torlonias. over a collection of certain pieces of antique and historical sculpture. In actual fact, this relates to the largest privately owned collection of ancient antiquities, including over 600 pieces of sculpture, in the world, said to have an estimated value in the region of £1.6 Bllion.
The collection of artifacts from the ancient world is kept in various palaces, including the Villa Albani (above) which lies within the city of Rome. The collection was seized and impounded by court order and will be the subject of an inventory. This action came about after the challenge of one Carlo Torlonia, a Prince, who is said to believe his other family members were trying to break up the collection and sell them off. In recent years various attempts by the government to buy the collection have come to nothing.
The family came from France in the 18th century, they then worked in various money markets including money lending and banking, then eventually earned a title through the Vatican, after looking after their finances, The family then built up their collections from various sources, including, buying up private collections and even excavating certain items, from their own extensive land holdings.
During the period of the 1920s Villa Torlionias was leased to a certain Benito Mussolini, whom. among other things, added an air raid shelter to the extensive cellars.
Honister is to the South-West of Keswick and a notable pass in the area in the Lakeland Fells. Upon a worldwide scale, Fells, would probably rate as something similar to foothills. The image above shows part of the old quarry workings and the walkway is part of the Via Ferrata already in existence at the activity centre.
In a recent application to the Lake District National Park Authority LDNPA the company running the former Honister Slate Mine has now been granted planning permission for a Zip Wire. The decision comes after a protracted struggle with various objectors, the former applications being refused in 2011 and 2012
Certain interested groups, objecting to the proposal, were pinning their hopes upon public support and the recent grant of World Heritage Status to the Lake District National Park in a Cultural Landscape Category and supposedly quiet enjoyment and planning officers had previously recommended refusal of the application due to impact upon the landscape. However the LDNPA's planning authority deemed the site to be already developed as an industrial site and could not be considered to be a "tranquil" area.
The original plan was put forward by the late Mark Weir, owner of the Honister Quarry Operations and the plan has finally been brought to fruition by his widow Jan Wilkinson.
A recent crisis in The Royal Navy, brought about by a lack of personnel among other events, is having a marked affect upon the number of days ships of the Type 23 flotilla is able to spend on active duty at sea.
There are thirteen frigates in the class known as "The Duke Class" as all the ships are named after British Dukes. And of the thirteen, four, Richmond, Portland, Lancaster and Iron Duke, have, up until the end of September so far this year, remained in port.
The ships, first commissioned in 1989 with an intended lifespan of 18 years, which is currently extended, though they will soon be replaced by the new Type 26 ships (see previous article).
With the home ports of Portsmouth and Devonport, the ship's main function is anti-submarine warfare. Although with a recent host of cut-backs throughout the services, the Type 23 is being called upon to cover extra duties, in turn needing increased periods of servicing and days in port.
This is the moment the first British Jet the F35 Lightening Stealth Jet, touches down on the flight deck of the Royal Navy's Aircraft Carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, on Tuesday the 25th of September. The Aircraft Carrier was originally planned to carry a compliment of 36 of the F35's now reduced to 24. Yet still a formidable force, offering a capability matched by very few other nations. To support British and Allied naval operations across the globe.
An interesting and no doubt important 2000 year-old Roman Fountain Garden Ornament, found in Colchester back in 1998 now thought to be of immeasurable value. Has been "thrown-out" by the local council, due to the fact it was said to be "too big to store."
Reportedly the item was damaged in excavation and through exposure to the British weather and may have been too expensive to restore. Colchester council, have stated a balance must be struck with the level of public funding and storage space available, for such items and occasionally difficult decisions must be made.
On the day of the London flypast 9 July 2018 I was having a flypast of my own, to be honest a fairly regular occurrence, as I live in the Lake District, a low-flying training run for the RAF. I've long given up worrying about a Hercules Transport colliding with my Gable End! Don't know if they fly the F-35 through here, I keep hearing a screech of engines in the sky and by the time I look up the planes are gone. On that particular day I was surprised to see one of these, can't say I'd seen such a craft before,
In the London Flypast, they were using only and all aircraft currently in service with the RAF and not the one above, so could only assume the aircraft I saw was the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey or some variant. Which has the traditional or vertical take-off capabilities and may well have been doing some training for President Trump's visit to the UK two days later on 11 July.
The said aircraft could possibly have been a CV-22 as I noted the propellers were in the "normal" horizontal flight position. Something which is favoured by the USAF with extra fuel tanks for increased range missions and special operations.
This is the Type 26 Frigate, which will be the new generation of fighting ships entering service with the Royal Austrailian Navy. The order is for nine ships, which will be built in Australia, but using a design engineered by BAE Systems, ahead of other potential European designs.
The new ships will give the Australian Government a cutting-edge force to act as deterrent and security of her coastline and are seen as a suitable replacement for the "Anzac" group of frigates.
The ships will be built at the Government's yard in Adelaide by ASC shipbuilding and is expected to create around 4000 jobs in Australia. Although there shouldn't be many extra jobs in the UK there will be a large increase in exports and military equipment supply. And also scope for future orders with other nations.
The military capabilities of the Type 26 have already been discussed in a previous article, but the ships are designed for anti-submarine and air-defence activity.
The Royal Navy currently has eight of the Frigates on order, being built on the Clyde and are expected to begin entering service sometime in the 2020's.
