122-603: Steeple Langford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire , 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Wilton . It has also been called Great Langford or Langford Magna . The village lies on the north bank of the River Wylye , and is bypassed to the north by the A36 Warminster-Salisbury trunk road which follows the river valley. The parish includes two hamlets on the other side of
244-522: A London borough . (Since the new county was beforehand a mixture of metropolitan boroughs , municipal boroughs and urban districts, no extant parish councils were abolished.) In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 retained rural parishes, but abolished most urban parishes, as well as the urban districts and boroughs which had administered them. Provision was made for smaller urban districts and boroughs to become successor parishes , with
366-515: A Special Expense, to residents of the unparished area to fund those activities. If the district council does not opt to make a Special Expenses charge, there is an element of double taxation of residents of parished areas, because services provided to residents of the unparished area are funded by council tax paid by residents of the whole district, rather than only by residents of the unparished area. Parish councils comprise volunteer councillors who are elected to serve for four years. Decisions of
488-576: A boundary coterminous with an existing urban district or borough or, if divided by a new district boundary, as much as was comprised in a single district. There were 300 such successor parishes established. In urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes, the parishes were simply abolished, and they became unparished areas . The distinction between types of parish was no longer made; whether parishes continued by virtue of being retained rural parishes or were created as successor parishes, they were all simply termed parishes. The 1972 act allowed
610-477: A city council (though most cities are not parishes but principal areas, or in England specifically metropolitan boroughs or non-metropolitan districts ). The chairman of a town council will have the title "town mayor" and that of a parish council which is a city will usually have the title of mayor . When a city or town has been abolished as a borough, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of
732-462: A city council. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government , in England in 2011 there were 9,946 parishes. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases by splitting existing civil parishes, but mostly by creating new ones from unparished areas. Parish or town councils have very few statutory duties (things they are required to do by law) but have
854-559: A city was Hereford , whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary Herefordshire . The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city. As another example, the charter trustees for the City of Bath make up the majority of the councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Civil parishes cover 35% of England's population, with one in Greater London and few in
976-481: A civil parish which has no parish council, the parish meeting may levy a council tax precept for expenditure relating to specific functions, powers and rights which have been conferred on it by legislation. In places where there is no civil parish ( unparished areas ), the administration of the activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council. The district council may make an additional council tax charge, known as
1098-736: A comparison to everyday objects. Hailstones larger than 1 inch in diameter are denoted as "severe." Megacryometeors , large rocks of ice that are not associated with thunderstorms, are not officially recognized by the World Meteorological Organization as "hail", which are aggregations of ice associated with thunderstorms, and therefore records of extreme characteristics of megacryometeors are not given as hail records. Hail can cause serious damage, notably to automobiles, aircraft, skylights, glass-roofed structures, livestock , and most commonly, crops . Hail damage to roofs often goes unnoticed until further structural damage
1220-400: A cone of weaker reflectivities. More recently, the polarization properties of weather radar returns have been analyzed to differentiate between hail and heavy rain. The use of differential reflectivity ( Z d r {\displaystyle Z_{dr}} ), in combination with horizontal reflectivity ( Z h {\displaystyle Z_{h}} ) has led to
1342-463: A liquid phase. Because it undergoes "wet growth", the outer layer is sticky (i.e. more adhesive), so a single hailstone may grow by collision with other smaller hailstones, forming a larger entity with an irregular shape. Hail can also undergo "dry growth", in which the latent heat release through freezing is not enough to keep the outer layer in a liquid state. Hail forming in this manner appears opaque due to small air bubbles that become trapped in
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#17327805340421464-414: A market. Probably a stapol or pole may have been set up to show this to all who passed through. Or the ford may have been protected by stakes". Steeple Langford has a rich archaeological history. The Iron Age hillfort known as Yarnbury Castle is in the far north of the parish, and another known as Grovely Castle lies to the south of Little Langford. Neolithic finds in the parish include flint tools,
1586-529: A new code. In either case the code must comply with the Nolan Principles of Public Life . A parish can be granted city status by the Crown . As of 2020 , eight parishes in England have city status, each having a long-established Anglican cathedral: Chichester , Ely , Hereford , Lichfield , Ripon , Salisbury , Truro and Wells . The council of an ungrouped parish may pass a resolution giving
1708-431: A new smaller manor, there was a means of making a chapel which, if generating or endowed with enough funds, would generally justify foundation of a parish, with its own parish priest (and in latter centuries vestry ). This consistency was a result of canon law which prized the status quo in issues between local churches and so made boundary changes and sub-division difficult. The consistency of these boundaries until
1830-669: A parish (a "detached part") was in a different county . In other cases, counties surrounded a whole parish meaning it was in an unconnected, "alien" county. These anomalies resulted in a highly localised difference in applicable representatives on the national level , justices of the peace , sheriffs, bailiffs with inconvenience to the inhabitants. If a parish was split then churchwardens, highway wardens and constables would also spend more time or money travelling large distances. Some parishes straddled two or more counties, such as Todmorden in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Hail Hail
1952-416: A parish council, and instead will only have a parish meeting : an example of direct democracy . Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. A parish council may decide to call itself a town council, village council, community council, neighbourhood council, or if the parish has city status, the parish council may call itself
2074-526: A plain shield or receptacle, with a horn hanging on a strap from his left shoulder. This was tentatively identified as Waleran Venator (Waleran the Huntsman), who held land in the parish and was patron of the living in the 11th century, which was the approximate date of the chancel. However, since the costume is of a later date, Alan de Langford, Verderer of Grovely Wood at the end of the 13th century, has also been suggested. John Murray noted in 1859 that
2196-714: A polished axehead and pottery, as well as a bowl barrow and the remains of a round barrow ; from the Bronze Age axeheads, a palstave and a chisel; from the Iron Age pottery, a rotary quern fragment and a circular enclosure; from the Romano-British period coins, a polished and painted pebble, and a needle; from the Saxon period a spearhead and a silver brooch; medieval strip lynchets ; and field systems and earthworks of various dates. At Hanging Langford Camp, in
2318-431: A population in excess of 100,000 . This scope is similar to that of municipalities in continental Europe, such as the communes of France . However, unlike their continental European counterparts, parish councils are not principal authorities , and in most cases have a relatively minor role in local government. As of September 2023 , there are 10,464 parishes in England, and in 2020 they covered approximately 40% of
2440-503: A population of between 100 and 300 could request their county council to establish a parish council. Provision was also made for a grouped parish council to be established covering two or more rural parishes. In such groups, each parish retained its own parish meeting which could vote to leave the group, but otherwise the grouped parish council acted across the combined area of the parishes included. Urban civil parishes were not given their own parish councils, but were directly administered by
2562-1079: A range of discretionary powers which they may exercise voluntarily. These powers have been defined by various pieces of legislation. The role they play can vary significantly depending on the size, resources and ability of the council, but their activities can include any of the following: Parish councils have powers to provide and manage various local facilities; these can include allotments , cemeteries, parks, playgrounds, playing fields and village greens , village halls or community centres , bus shelters, street lighting, roadside verges, car parks, footpaths, litter bins and war memorials. Larger parish councils may also be involved in running markets , public toilets and public clocks, museums and leisure centres . Parish councils may spend money on various things they deem to be beneficial to their communities, such as providing grants to local community groups or local projects, or fund things such as public events, crime prevention measures, community transport schemes, traffic calming or tourism promotion. Parish councils have
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#17327805340422684-409: A role in the planning system; they have a statutory right to be consulted on any planning applications in their areas. They may also produce a neighbourhood plan to influence local development. The Localism Act 2011 allowed eligible parish councils to be granted a " general power of competence " which allows them within certain limits the freedom to do anything an individual can do provided it
2806-598: A set number of guardians for each parish, hence a final purpose of urban civil parishes. With the abolition of the Poor Law system in 1930, urban parishes became a geographical division only with no administrative power; that was exercised at the urban district or borough council level. In 1965 civil parishes in London were formally abolished when Greater London was created, as the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below
2928-943: A small village or town ward to a large tract of mostly uninhabited moorland in the Cheviots, Pennines or Dartmoor. The two largest as at December 2023 are Stanhope (County Durham) at 98.6 square miles (255 km ), and Dartmoor Forest (Devon) at 79.07 square miles (204.8 km ). The two smallest are parcels of shared rural land: Lands Common to Axminster and Kilmington (Devon) at 0.012 square miles (0.031 km ; 3.1 ha; 7.7 acres), and Lands Common to Brancepeth and Brandon and Byshottles (County Durham) at 0.0165 square miles (0.043 km ; 4.3 ha; 10.6 acres). The next two smallest are parishes in built up areas: Chester Castle (Cheshire) at 0.0168 square miles (0.044 km ; 4.4 ha; 10.8 acres) (no recorded population) and Hamilton Lea (Leicestershire) at 0.07 square miles (0.18 km ; 18 ha; 45 acres) (1,021 residents at
3050-521: A spur to the creation of new parishes in some larger towns which were previously unparished, in order to retain a local tier of government; examples include Shrewsbury (2009), Salisbury (2009), Crewe (2013) and Weymouth (2019). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for Burton upon Trent , and in 2001 the Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. Parishes can also be abolished where there
3172-467: A variety of hail classification algorithms. Visible satellite imagery is beginning to be used to detect hail, but false alarm rates remain high using this method. The size of hailstones is best determined by measuring their diameter with a ruler. In the absence of a ruler, hailstone size is often visually estimated by comparing its size to that of known objects, such as coins. Using objects such as hen's eggs, peas, and marbles for comparing hailstone sizes
3294-622: Is a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest , as an area of chalk grassland. Civil parishes in England In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government . It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes , which for centuries were the principal unit of secular and religious administration in most of England and Wales. Civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in
3416-414: Is a form of solid precipitation . It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone . Ice pellets generally fall in cold weather, while hail growth is greatly inhibited during low surface temperatures. Unlike other forms of water ice precipitation, such as graupel (which
3538-472: Is a mill paying 15 shillings, and 30 acres of meadow . The pasture is half a mile long and 2 furlongs broad. It was, and is, worth £10. Sir Lawrence St Martin, a descendant of Waleran, died c 1320 in possession of 'Stupel Langford'. In the time of King Edward III , John de Steeves held Steeple Langford in return for a knight 's service. As result of the Penruddock uprising of 1655, three men of
3660-401: Is a very useful tool to detect the presence of hail-producing thunderstorms. However, radar data has to be complemented by a knowledge of current atmospheric conditions which can allow one to determine if the current atmosphere is conducive to hail development. Modern radar scans many angles around the site. Reflectivity values at multiple angles above ground level in a storm are proportional to
3782-435: Is also much more common along mountain ranges because mountains force horizontal winds upwards (known as orographic lifting ), thereby intensifying the updrafts within thunderstorms and making hail more likely. The higher elevations also result in there being less time available for hail to melt before reaching the ground. One of the more common regions for large hail is across mountainous northern India , which reported one of
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3904-421: Is an example. This is the result of energy from the radar hitting hail and being deflected to the ground, where they deflect back to the hail and then to the radar. The energy took more time to go from the hail to the ground and back, as opposed to the energy that went directly from the hail to the radar, and the echo is further away from the radar than the actual location of the hail on the same radial path, forming
4026-418: Is another factor in the hailstone's growth. When the hailstone moves into an area with a high concentration of water droplets, it captures the latter and acquires a translucent layer. Should the hailstone move into an area where mostly water vapor is available, it acquires a layer of opaque white ice. Furthermore, the hailstone's speed depends on its position in the cloud's updraft and its mass. This determines
4148-507: Is at present the only part of England where civil parishes cannot be created. If enough electors in the area of a proposed new parish (ranging from 50% in an area with less than 500 electors to 10% in one with more than 2,500) sign a petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. Since the beginning of the 21st century, numerous parish councils have been created, including some relatively large urban ones. The main driver has been
4270-427: Is between 2.5 cm (1 in) and golf-ball -sized 4.4 cm (1.75 in). Stones larger than 2 cm (0.79 in) are usually considered large enough to cause damage. The Meteorological Service of Canada issues severe thunderstorm warnings when hail that size or above is expected. The US National Weather Service has a 1 in (2.5 cm) diameter threshold, effective January 2010, an increase over
4392-483: Is composed of transparent ice or alternating layers of transparent and translucent ice at least 1 mm (0.039 in) thick, which are deposited upon the hailstone as it travels through the cloud, suspended aloft by air with strong upward motion until its weight overcomes the updraft and falls to the ground. Although the diameter of hail is varied, in the United States, the average observation of damaging hail
4514-548: Is contained in Volume XV: Amesbury hundred and Branch and Dole hundred (1995) of A History of the County of Wiltshire . Domesday Book recorded two estates under the name Wylye, which were later known as Batham Wylye; the name Bathampton came into use in the 15th century. Two groups of buildings in the west of the parish, each including a manor house, were known as Great Bathampton and Little Bathampton. The former
4636-496: Is dependent on the size of the stone, its drag coefficient , the motion of wind it is falling through, collisions with raindrops or other hailstones, and melting as the stones fall through a warmer atmosphere . As hailstones are not perfect spheres, it is difficult to accurately calculate their drag coefficient - and, thus, their speed. In the United States, the National Weather Service reports hail size as
4758-539: Is evidence that this is in response to "justified, clear and sustained local support" from the area's inhabitants. Examples are Birtley , which was abolished in 2006, and Southsea , abolished in 2010. Every civil parish has a parish meeting, which all the electors of the parish are entitled to attend. Generally a meeting is held once a year. A civil parish may have a parish council which exercises various local responsibilities prescribed by statute. Parishes with fewer than 200 electors are usually deemed too small to have
4880-407: Is impacted by factors such as higher elevation, lower freezing zones, and wind shear. Like other precipitation in cumulonimbus clouds, hail begins as water droplets. As the droplets rise and the temperature goes below freezing, they become supercooled water and will freeze on contact with condensation nuclei . A cross-section through a large hailstone shows an onion-like structure. This means that
5002-568: Is imprecise, due to their varied dimensions. The UK organisation, TORRO , also scales for both hailstones and hailstorms. When observed at an airport , METAR code is used within a surface weather observation which relates to the size of the hailstone. Within METAR code, GR is used to indicate larger hail, of a diameter of at least 0.25 in (6.4 mm). GR is derived from the French word grêle . Smaller-sized hail, as well as snow pellets, use
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5124-443: Is made of rime ice ), ice pellets (which are smaller and translucent ), and snow (which consists of tiny, delicately crystalline flakes or needles), hailstones usually measure between 5 mm (0.2 in) and 15 cm (6 in) in diameter. The METAR reporting code for hail 5 mm (0.20 in) or greater is GR , while smaller hailstones and graupel are coded GS . Hail is possible within most thunderstorms (as it
5246-403: Is not highly accurate. Traditionally, hail size and probability can be estimated from radar data by computer using algorithms based on this research. Some algorithms include the height of the freezing level to estimate the melting of the hailstone and what would be left on the ground. Certain patterns of reflectivity are important clues for the meteorologist as well. The three body scatter spike
5368-474: Is not necessarily true. The storm's updraft , with upwardly directed wind speeds as high as 110 mph (180 km/h), blows the forming hailstones up the cloud. As the hailstone ascends, it passes into areas of the cloud where the concentration of humidity and supercooled water droplets varies. The hailstone's growth rate changes depending on the variation in humidity and supercooled water droplets that it encounters. The accretion rate of these water droplets
5490-405: Is not prohibited by other legislation, as opposed to being limited to the powers explicitly granted to them by law. To be eligible for this, a parish council must meet certain conditions such as having a clerk with suitable qualifications. Parish councils receive funding by levying a " precept " on the council tax paid by the residents of the parish (or parishes) served by the parish council. In
5612-602: Is part of the Wylye and Till Valley benefice. The parish registers now held in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre cover the years 1674–1924 (christenings), 1674–1980 (marriages), and 1674–1873 (burials). At Little Langford , the Church dedicated to St Nicholas of Mira is a 19th-century rebuilding of a 12th-century church; it is Grade II* listed. Baptists built a small redbrick chapel in 1849 at Hanging Langford, which
5734-815: Is produced by cumulonimbus ), as well as within 2 nmi (3.7 km) of the parent storm. Hail formation requires environments of strong, upward motion of air within the parent thunderstorm (similar to tornadoes ) and lowered heights of the freezing level. In the mid-latitudes , hail forms near the interiors of continents , while, in the tropics , it tends to be confined to high elevations . There are methods available to detect hail-producing thunderstorms using weather satellites and weather radar imagery. Hailstones generally fall at higher speeds as they grow in size, though complicating factors such as melting, friction with air, wind, and interaction with rain and other hailstones can slow their descent through Earth's atmosphere . Severe weather warnings are issued for hail when
5856-509: Is seen, such as leaks or cracks. It is hardest to recognize hail damage on shingled roofs and flat roofs, but all roofs have their own hail damage detection problems. Metal roofs are fairly resistant to hail damage, but may accumulate cosmetic damage in the form of dents and damaged coatings. Hail is one of the most significant thunderstorm hazards to aircraft. When hailstones exceed 0.5 in (13 mm) in diameter, planes can be seriously damaged within seconds. The hailstones accumulating on
5978-422: Is still within the thunderstorm, though 40% now lies within the clear air under the anvil. Below 10,000 ft (3,000 m), hail is equally distributed in and around a thunderstorm to a distance of 2 nmi (3.7 km). Hail occurs most frequently within continental interiors at mid-latitudes and is less common in the tropics, despite a much higher frequency of thunderstorms than in the mid-latitudes. Hail
6100-528: Is to enlist the help of the general public to develop a database of hail accumulation depths. During the Middle Ages , people in Europe used to ring church bells and fire cannons to try to prevent hail, and the subsequent damage to crops. Updated versions of this approach are available as modern hail cannons . Cloud seeding after World War II was done to eliminate the hail threat, particularly across
6222-504: The 'Standards Board regime' with local monitoring by district, unitary or equivalent authorities. Under new regulations which came into effect in 2012 all parish councils in England are required to adopt a code of conduct with which parish councillors must comply, and to promote and maintain high standards. A new criminal offence of failing to comply with statutory requirements was introduced. More than one 'model code' has been published, and councils are free to modify an existing code or adopt
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#17327805340426344-1010: The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) to become the smallest geographical area for local government in rural areas. The act abolished the civil (non-ecclesiastical) duties of vestries . Parishes which straddled county boundaries or sanitary districts had to be split so that the part in each urban or rural sanitary district became a separate parish (see List of county exclaves in England and Wales 1844–1974 ). The sanitary districts were then reconstituted as urban districts and rural districts , with parishes that fell within urban districts classed as urban parishes, and parishes that fell within rural districts were classed as rural parishes. The 1894 act established elected civil parish councils as to all rural parishes with more than 300 electors, and established annual parish meetings in all rural parishes. Civil parishes were grouped to form either rural or urban districts which are thereafter classified as either type. The parish meetings for parishes with
6466-472: The break with Rome , parishes managed ecclesiastical matters, while the manor was the principal unit of local administration and justice. Later, the church replaced the manor court as the rural administrative centre, and levied a local tax on produce known as a tithe . In the medieval period, responsibilities such as relief of the poor passed increasingly from the lord of the manor to the parish's rector , who in practice would delegate tasks among his vestry or
6588-595: The lord of the manor , but not all were willing and able to provide, so residents would be expected to attend the church of the nearest manor with a church. Later, the churches and priests became to a greater extent the responsibility of the Catholic Church thus this was formalised; the grouping of manors into one parish was recorded, as was a manor-parish existing in its own right. Boundaries changed little, and for centuries after 1180 'froze', despite changes to manors' extents. However, by subinfeudation , making
6710-403: The monarch ). A civil parish may be equally known as and confirmed as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council, a right not conferred on other units of English local government. The governing body of a civil parish is usually an elected parish council (which can decide to call itself a town, village, community or neighbourhood council, or a city council if
6832-470: The (often well-endowed) monasteries. After the dissolution of the monasteries , the power to levy a rate to fund relief of the poor was conferred on the parish authorities by the Poor Relief Act 1601 . Both before and after this optional social change, local (vestry-administered) charities are well-documented. The parish authorities were known as vestries and consisted of all the ratepayers of
6954-403: The 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73), which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry . A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with
7076-564: The 19th century is useful to historians, and is also of cultural significance in terms of shaping local identities; reinforced by the use of grouped parish boundaries, often, by successive local authority areas; and in a very rough, operations-geared way by most postcode districts. There was (and is) wide disparity in parish size. Writtle , Essex traditionally measures 13,568 acres (21 sq mi) – two parishes neighbouring are Shellow Bowells at 469 acres (0.7 sq mi), and Chignall Smealy at 476 acres (0.7 sq mi) Until
7198-591: The 2011 census, Newland with Woodhouse Moor and Beaumont Chase reported inhabitants, and there were no new deserted parishes recorded. Nearly all instances of detached parts of civil parishes (areas not contiguous with the main part of the parish) and of those straddling counties have been ended. 14 examples remain in England as at 2022, including Barnby Moor and Wallingwells , both in Nottinghamshire. Direct predecessors of civil parishes are most often known as "ancient parishes", although many date only from
7320-511: The 2021 census). The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were Chester Castle (in the middle of Chester city centre), Newland with Woodhouse Moor , Beaumont Chase , Martinsthorpe , Meering , Stanground North (subsequently abolished), Sturston , Tottington , and Tyneham (subsequently merged). The lands of the last three were taken over by the Armed Forces during World War II and remain deserted. In
7442-515: The English population. For historical reasons, civil parishes predominantly cover rural areas and smaller urban areas, with most larger urban areas being wholly or partly unparished ; but since 1997 it has been possible for civil parishes to be created within unparished areas if demanded by local residents . In 2007 the right to create civil parishes was extended to London boroughs , although only one, Queen's Park , has so far been created. Eight parishes also have city status (a status granted by
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#17327805340427564-628: The July 29, 2010 case of a foot of hail accumulation in Boulder County , Colorado. On June 5, 2015, hail up to four feet deep fell on one city block in Denver, Colorado . The hailstones, described as between the size of bumble bees and ping pong balls, were accompanied by rain and high winds. The hail fell in only the one area, leaving the surrounding area untouched. It fell for one and a half hours between 10:00 pm and 11:30 pm. A meteorologist for
7686-734: The National Weather Service in Boulder said, "It's a very interesting phenomenon. We saw the storm stall. It produced copious amounts of hail in one small area. It's a meteorological thing." Tractors used to clear the area filled more than 30 dump truck loads of hail. Research focused on four individual days that accumulated more than 5.9 inches (15 cm) of hail in 30 minutes on the Colorado front range has shown that these events share similar patterns in observed synoptic weather, radar, and lightning characteristics, suggesting
7808-453: The Women at Steeple Langford used to card and spin dyed wool... I have, I dare say, a thousand times talked about this Steeple Langford, and about the beautiful farms and meadows along this valley... When I got to Steeple Langford, I found no public-house, and I found it a much more miserable place than I had remembered it. The Steeple , to which it owed its distinctive appellation, was gone; and
7930-685: The administration of the poor laws was the main civil function of parishes, the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 , which received royal assent on 10 August 1866, declared all areas that levied a separate rate or had their own overseer of the poor to be parishes. This included the Church of England parishes (until then simply known as "parishes"), extra-parochial areas , townships and chapelries . To have collected rates this means these beforehand had their own vestries, boards or equivalent bodies. Parishes using this definition subsequently became known as "civil parishes" to distinguish them from
8052-422: The alternative of 'Great Langford', and it has long been presumed (for instance, by William Cobbett ) that the first element of this name refers to an architectural steeple . However, early forms of the name include 'Stapel', 'Steppul', and 'Staple' Langford, and one writer on the origin of the place-name has suggested that "the prefix Staple sometimes indicates that to a town was granted the privilege of holding
8174-493: The cause of costly and deadly events throughout history. One of the earliest known incidents occurred around the 9th century in Roopkund , Uttarakhand , India , where 200 to 600 nomads seem to have died of injuries from hail the size of cricket balls . Narrow zones where hail accumulates on the ground in association with thunderstorm activity are known as hail streaks or hail swaths, which can be detectable by satellite after
8296-399: The charter, the charter may be transferred to a parish council for its area. Where there is no such parish council, the district council may appoint charter trustees to whom the charter and the arms of the former borough will belong. The charter trustees (who consist of the councillor or councillors for the area of the former borough) maintain traditions such as mayoralty . An example of such
8418-407: The church "contains a rich altar-tomb to one of the family of Mompesson, but it has long lost the steeple which formerly distinguished it". In 1973, Steeple Langford parish was united with Little Langford, and became part of a new benefice of Wylye , Fisherton Delamere and The Langfords. Later the parish was extended under the name Middle Wylye Valley, and today the church, alongside nine others,
8540-412: The coding of GS, which is short for the French word grésil . Terminal velocity of hail, or the speed at which hail is falling when it strikes the ground, varies. It is estimated that a hailstone of 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter falls at a rate of 9 m/s (20 mph), while stones the size of 8 cm (3.1 in) in diameter fall at a rate of 48 m/s (110 mph). Hailstone velocity
8662-537: The council are carried out by a paid officer, typically known as a parish clerk. Councils may employ additional people (including bodies corporate, provided where necessary, by tender) to carry out specific tasks dictated by the council. Some councils have chosen to pay their elected members an allowance, as permitted under part 5 of the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003. The number of councillors varies roughly in proportion to
8784-464: The council of the urban district or borough in which they were contained. Many urban parishes were coterminous (geographically identical) with the urban district or municipal borough in which they lay. Towns which included multiple urban parishes often consolidated the urban parishes into one. The urban parishes continued to be used as an electoral area for electing guardians to the poor law unions . The unions took in areas in multiple parishes and had
8906-466: The council will an election be held. However, sometimes there are fewer candidates than seats. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by co-option by the council. If a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually ten) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor. The Localism Act 2011 introduced new arrangements which replaced
9028-525: The creation of town and parish councils is encouraged in unparished areas . The Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave residents in unparished areas the right to demand that a new parish and parish council be created. This right was extended to London boroughs by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 – with this, the City of London
9150-463: The desire to have a more local tier of government when new larger authorities have been created, which are felt to be remote from local concerns and identity. A number of parishes have been created in places which used to have their own borough or district council; examples include Daventry (2003), Folkestone (2004), Kidderminster (2015) and Sutton Coldfield (2016). The trend towards the creation of geographically large unitary authorities has been
9272-439: The ecclesiastical parishes. The Church of England parishes, which cover more than 99% of England, have become officially (and to avoid ambiguity) termed ecclesiastical parishes . The limits of many of these have diverged; most greatly through changes in population and church attendance (these factors can cause churches to be opened or closed). Since 1921, each has been the responsibility of its own parochial church council . In
9394-534: The established English Church, which for a few years after Henry VIII alternated between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England , before settling on the latter on the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558. By the 18th century, religious membership was becoming more fractured in some places, due in part to the progress of Methodism . The legitimacy of the parish vestry came into question, and
9516-418: The first half of the 13th century. Two of the six bells were cast in 1656. A carved medieval roof boss in the north aisle of the church represents a dog, its body coiled and surrounded by foliage. In 1857, when the chancel of the church was demolished for rebuilding, a slab of Purbeck marble was found, about 26 inches by 14, bearing an incised portrait of a man wearing a long robe, his hands raised to hold
9638-406: The force of the updrafts in the hail-producing thunderstorm, whose top is usually greater than 10 km high. It then falls toward the ground while continuing to grow, based on the same processes, until it leaves the cloud. It will later begin to melt as it passes into air above freezing temperature. Thus, a unique trajectory in the thunderstorm is sufficient to explain the layer-like structure of
9760-411: The freezing level is below the altitude of 11,000 ft (3,400 m). Movement of dry air into strong thunderstorms over continents can increase the frequency of hail by promoting evaporational cooling, which lowers the freezing level of thunderstorm clouds, giving hail a larger volume to grow in. Accordingly, hail is less common in the tropics despite a much higher frequency of thunderstorms than in
9882-455: The government at the time of the Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or their suburbs, but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example, Birmingham has two parishes ( New Frankley and Sutton Coldfield ), Oxford has four, and the Milton Keynes urban area has 24. Parishes could not however be established in London until the law was changed in 2007. A civil parish can range in area from
10004-502: The ground can also be hazardous to landing aircraft. Hail is a common nuisance to drivers of automobiles, severely denting the vehicle and cracking or even shattering windshields and windows unless parked in a garage or covered with a shielding material. Wheat, corn, soybeans, and tobacco are the most sensitive crops to hail damage. Hail is one of Canada's most expensive hazards. Rarely, massive hailstones have been known to cause concussions or fatal head trauma . Hailstorms have been
10126-438: The hailstone is made of thick and translucent layers, alternating with layers that are thin, white and opaque. Former theory suggested that hailstones were subjected to multiple descents and ascents, falling into a zone of humidity and refreezing as they were uplifted. This up and down motion was thought to be responsible for the successive layers of the hailstone. New research, based on theory as well as field study, has shown this
10248-408: The hailstone. The only case in which multiple trajectories can be discussed is in a multicellular thunderstorm, where the hailstone may be ejected from the top of the "mother" cell and captured in the updraft of a more intense "daughter" cell. This, however, is an exceptional case. Hail is most common within continental interiors of the mid-latitudes, as hail formation is considerably more likely when
10370-582: The high-frequency hail regions of northern Argentina. The high frequency of hailstorms in these areas of South America is attributed to the region's orographic forcing of convection, combined with moisture transport from the Amazon and instability created by temperature contrasts between the surface and upper atmosphere. In Colombia , the cities of Bogotá and Medellín also see frequent hailstorms due to their high elevation. Southern Chile also sees persistent hail from mid april through october. Weather radar
10492-472: The highest hail-related death tolls on record in 1888. China also experiences significant hailstorms. Central Europe and southern Australia also experience a lot of hailstorms. Regions where hailstorms frequently occur are southern and western Germany , northern and eastern France , southern and eastern Benelux , and northern Italy . In southeastern Europe, Croatia and Serbia experience frequent occurrences of hail. Some mediterranean countries register
10614-476: The late 19th century, most of the "ancient" (a legal term equivalent to time immemorial ) irregularities inherited by the civil parish system were cleaned up, and the majority of exclaves were abolished. The census of 1911 noted that 8,322 (58%) of "parishes" in England and Wales were not geographically identical when comparing the civil to the ecclesiastical form. In 1894, civil parishes were reformed by
10736-519: The maximum frequency of hail during the Fall season. In North America , hail is most common in the area where Colorado , Nebraska , and Wyoming meet, known as "Hail Alley". Hail in this region occurs between the months of March and October during the afternoon and evening hours, with the bulk of the occurrences from May through September. Cheyenne, Wyoming is North America's most hail-prone city with an average of nine to ten hailstorms per season. To
10858-465: The mid 19th century. Using a longer historical lens the better terms are "pre-separation (civil and ecclesiastical) parish", "original medieval parishes" and "new parishes". The Victoria County History , a landmark collaborative work mostly written in the 20th century (although incomplete), summarises the history of each English "parish", roughly meaning late medieval parish. A minority of these had exclaves , which could be: In some cases an exclave of
10980-524: The mid-latitudes because the atmosphere over the tropics tends to be warmer over a much greater altitude. Hail in the tropics occurs mainly at higher elevations. Hail growth becomes vanishingly small when air temperatures fall below −30 °C (−22 °F), as supercooled water droplets become rare at these temperatures. Around thunderstorms, hail is most likely within the cloud at elevations above 20,000 ft (6,100 m). Between 10,000 ft (3,000 m) and 20,000 ft (6,100 m), 60% of hail
11102-437: The more powerful updrafts in a stronger storm can keep larger hailstones aloft. Hail forms in strong thunderstorm clouds, particularly those with intense updrafts , high liquid-water content, great vertical extent, large water droplets, and where a good portion of the cloud layer is below freezing (0 °C; 32 °F). These types of strong updrafts can also indicate the presence of a tornado. The growth rate of hailstones
11224-576: The most frequent hailstorms in the world, with 10-30 storms per year on average. The Patagonia region of southern Argentina also sees frequent hailstorms, though this may be partially due to graupel (small hail) being counted as hail in this colder region. The triple border region between the Brazilian states of Paraná , Santa Catarina , and Argentina, in southern Brazil is another area known for damaging hailstorms. Hailstorms are also common in parts of Paraguay , Uruguay , and Bolivia that border
11346-465: The new district councils (outside London) to review their parishes, and many areas left unparished in 1972 have since been made parishes, either in whole or part. For example, Hinckley , whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, which together cover part of its area, whilst the central part of the town remains unparished. Some parishes were sub-divided into smaller territories known as hamlets , tithings or townships . Nowadays
11468-603: The north of this area and also just downwind of the Rocky Mountains is the Hailstorm Alley region of Alberta , which also experiences an increased incidence of significant hail events. Hailstorms are also common in several regions of South America , particularly in the temperate latitudes . The central region of Argentina , extending from the Mendoza region eastward towards Córdoba , experiences some of
11590-488: The other conurbations. Civil parishes vary greatly in population: some have populations below 100 and have no settlement larger than a hamlet , while others cover towns with populations of tens of thousands. Weston-super-Mare , with a population of 71,758, is the most populous civil parish. In many cases small settlements, today popularly termed villages , localities or suburbs, are in a single parish which originally had one church. Large urban areas are mostly unparished, as
11712-448: The parish has city status). Alternatively, in parishes with small populations (typically fewer than 150 electors) governance may be by a parish meeting which all electors may attend; alternatively, parishes with small populations may be grouped with one or more neighbours under a common parish council. Wales was also divided into civil parishes until 1974, when they were replaced by communities , which are similar to English parishes in
11834-401: The parish the status of a town, at which point the council becomes a town council . Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 , a civil parish may be given one of the following alternative styles: As a result, a parish council can be called a town council, a community council, a village council or occasionally
11956-568: The parish, Nicholas Mussell, yeoman, and Henry Collyer and Joseph Collier, gentlemen, were found guilty of high treason against Oliver Cromwell . Arthur Collier , a metaphysician , a native of the parish and rector from 1704 to 1732, is notable for his Clavis Universalis (1713). As a child of about ten in the 1770s, William Cobbett spent a whole summer in the village, and his happy memories of his stay led him to take one of his 'Rural Rides' into Wiltshire some fifty years later. However, he wrote in 1826 that I remembered, very well, that
12078-404: The parish. As the number of ratepayers of some parishes grew, it became increasingly difficult to convene meetings as an open vestry. In some, mostly built-up, areas the select vestry took over responsibility from the entire body of ratepayers. This innovation improved efficiency, but allowed governance by a self-perpetuating elite. The administration of the parish system relied on the monopoly of
12200-562: The parish; the church rate ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary from 1868. During the 17th century it was found that the 1601 Poor Law did not work well for very large parishes, which were particularly common in northern England. Such parishes were typically subdivided into multiple townships , which levied their rates separately. The Poor Relief Act 1662 therefore directed that for poor law purposes 'parish' meant any place which maintained its own poor, thereby converting many townships into separate 'poor law parishes'. As
12322-499: The perceived inefficiency and corruption inherent in the system became a source for concern in some places. For this reason, during the early 19th century the parish progressively lost its powers to ad hoc boards and other organisations, such as the boards of guardians given responsibility for poor relief through the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 . Sanitary districts covered England in 1875 and Ireland three years later. The replacement boards were each entitled to levy their own rate in
12444-605: The place altogether seemed to me to be very much altered for the worse. In June 1795, it was reported that some 120 sheep had been killed at Steeple Langford by a freak hailstorm . The Salisbury to Westbury branch line was built across the parish, bisecting Little Langford and passing close to Hanging Langford. Langford station was opened at the same time as the line, in June 1856, but closed in October 1857. The Warminster to Salisbury road running through Steeple Langford village
12566-411: The population of the parish. Most rural parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover larger areas, the parish can be divided into wards. Each of these wards then returns councillors to the parish council (the numbers depending on their population). Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on
12688-491: The possibility of predicting these events prior to their occurrence. A fundamental problem in continuing research in this area is that, unlike hail diameter, hail depth is not commonly reported. The lack of data leaves researchers and forecasters in the dark when trying to verify operational methods. A cooperative effort between the University of Colorado and the National Weather Service is in progress. The joint project's goal
12810-510: The precipitation rate at those levels. Summing reflectivities in the Vertically Integrated Liquid or VIL, gives the liquid water content in the cloud. Research shows that hail development in the upper levels of the storm is related to the evolution of VIL. VIL divided by the vertical extent of the storm, called VIL density, has a relationship with hail size, although this varies with atmospheric conditions and therefore
12932-407: The previous threshold of 0.75 in (1.9 cm) hail. Other countries have different thresholds according to local sensitivity to hail; for instance, grape-growing areas could be adversely impacted by smaller hailstones. Hailstones can be very large or very small, depending on how strong the updraft is: weaker hailstorms produce smaller hailstones than stronger hailstorms (such as supercells ), as
13054-446: The river: Hanging Langford and Little Langford (formerly a separate civil parish). To the west is the former settlement of Bathampton . Steeple Langford has thatched cottages, and several lakes created by the flooding of worked-out gravel pits. There is little doubt that the element 'Langford' refers to a ford over the River Wylye , around which the village grew up. The name 'Steeple Langford' has generally predominated over
13176-501: The same restrictive effects as snow accumulation, albeit over a smaller area, on transport and infrastructure. Accumulated hail can also cause flooding by blocking drains, and hail can be carried in the floodwater, turning into a snow-like slush which is deposited at lower elevations. On somewhat rare occasions, a thunderstorm can become stationary or nearly so while prolifically producing hail and significant depths of accumulation do occur; this tends to happen in mountainous areas, such as
13298-901: The school merged with the Codford school, with teaching at both sites; the Steeple Langford site closed in 2010. Three lakes created by gravel workings alongside the River Wylye have been turned into a wildlife reserve called the Langford Lakes Nature Reserve, under the ownership of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust . The reserve has an area of fifty acres, and species include mallard , gadwall , tufted duck , common pochard , northern shoveller , Eurasian wigeon , kingfisher , great crested grebe , common tern , osprey , brown trout , greyling , otters , and water voles . Steeple Langford Down
13420-401: The site of Little Bathampton, the late 17th-century farmhouse is known as Ballington Manor. Hanging Langford is a street village, probably a planned layout, with houses on both sides of the street having rectangular plots of roughly equal size behind them. By 1066, the land had been divided into two equal estates. From 1443 to 1914, Eton College owned land at Hanging Langford; another estate
13542-418: The southwest of the parish, a Mesolithic flint axe and Romano-British brooches have been found. The Domesday Book records that: Waleran himself holds Langford. Osulf held it in the time of King Edward , and it paid geld for 10 hides. The land is 5 carucates . Of this there are 5 hides in demesne , and there are 2 carucates and 5 serfs ; and there are 8 villans, and 4 bordars with 3 carucates. There
13664-435: The stone during rapid freezing. These bubbles coalesce and escape during the "wet growth" mode, and the hailstone is more clear. The mode of growth for a hailstone can change throughout its development, and this can result in distinct layers in a hailstone's cross-section. The hailstone will keep rising in the thunderstorm until its mass can no longer be supported by the updraft. This may take at least 30 minutes, based on
13786-505: The stones reach a damaging size, as it can cause serious damage to human-made structures, and, most commonly, farmers' crops. Any thunderstorm which produces hail that reaches the ground is known as a hailstorm . An ice crystal with a diameter of >5 mm (0.20 in) is considered a hailstone . Hailstones can grow to 15 cm (6 in) and weigh more than 0.5 kg (1.1 lb). Unlike ice pellets, hailstones are often layered and can be irregular and clumped together. Hail
13908-545: The storms pass by. Hailstorms normally last from a few minutes up to 15 minutes in duration. Accumulating hail storms can blanket the ground with over 2 in (5.1 cm) of hail, cause thousands to lose power, and bring down many trees. Flash flooding and mudslides within areas of steep terrain can be a concern with accumulating hail. Depths of up to 18 in (0.46 m) have been reported. A landscape covered in accumulated hail generally resembles one covered in accumulated snow and any significant accumulation of hail has
14030-410: The tower arch is 13th-century, but the church was substantially rebuilt in the 14th century. The top stage of the tower was added in the 15th century; in 1857 the chancel was rebuilt in 1857 by William Slater using coursed flint, and extensive restoration in 1875 by R. H. Carpenter included re-roofing and addition of a vestry. The square Purbeck marble font , on a modern plinth, is probably from
14152-431: The varying thicknesses of the layers of the hailstone. The accretion rate of supercooled water droplets onto the hailstone depends on the relative velocities between these water droplets and the hailstone itself. This means that generally the larger hailstones will form some distance from the stronger updraft, where they can pass more time growing. As the hailstone grows, it releases latent heat , which keeps its exterior in
14274-613: The way they operate. Civil parishes in Scotland were abolished for local government purposes by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ; the Scottish equivalent of English civil parishes are the community council areas established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which have fewer powers than their English and Welsh counterparts. There are no equivalent units in Northern Ireland . The parish system in Europe
14396-404: Was attended by a total of 125 at three services on Census Sunday in 1851; it was closed in 1960. Children of Steeple Langford attend the primary school at Codford (Wylye Valley Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School) and secondary schools further afield. A National School was built in 1861 and continued as a Church of England Aided school from 1954. Due to falling numbers, in 2005
14518-524: Was designated as the A36 in the 20th century, and became part of the Southampton-Bristol route. The road was rerouted close to the north of the village in 1989. Little Langford parish, which had a population of 64 in 1931, was added to Steeple Langford in 1934. The population of the parish was 501 in 2001, much the same as in 1801, having peaked at 628 in 1861. A detailed history of the parish
14640-498: Was established between the 8th and 12th centuries, and an early form was long established in England by the time of the Norman Conquest . These areas were originally based on the territory of manors , which, in some cases, derived their bounds from Roman or Iron Age estates; some large manors were sub-divided into several parishes. Initially, churches and their priests were the gift and continued patronage (benefaction) of
14762-578: Was owned by the Mompessons in the 15th and 16th centuries. The village has several 17th-century houses, including the Manor House, built in dressed limestone. A reading room was built c. 1913 and continues in use as the parish hall. The Church of England parish church of All Saints, in limestone and flint with a short lead-covered spire on its west tower, is a Grade I listed building . The east wall may survive from 12th-century building, and
14884-593: Was the seat of the Mompesson family, who built Mompesson House in Salisbury Cathedral Close. They rebuilt the manor house in 1694 in rubble stone and dressed limestone, as a U-shaped building with a seven-bay front. Now called Bathampton House, it is Grade II* listed. Most of the interior is 18th-century, and in a drawing room is a fine white marble fireplace in late-18th Gothick style with elaborate carving, said to have come from Fonthill . At
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