- published: 23 Oct 2015
- views: 861
Coordinates: 51°44′36″N 0°46′56″W / 51.743284°N 0.782167°W / 51.743284; -0.782167
Chequers, or Chequers Court, is a country house near Ellesborough, to the south of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. It is the country residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The original house probably gained its name in the 12th century because it may have been built or inhabited by an individual named Elias Ostiarius (or de Scaccario), who was acquiring land in the Ellesborough area at the time. The name "Ostiarius" meant an usher of the Court of the Exchequer. Elias Ostiarius' coat of arms included the chequer board of the Exchequer, so it is likely he named his estate after his arms and position at court. The house passed through generations of the De Scaccario family (spelt in many different forms) until it seems to have passed into the D'Awtrey family, whose name was eventually anglicised to Hawtrey.
Another explanation sometimes offered is that the house is named after the Chequers Trees that grow in its grounds. Also known as Wild Service Tree (Sorbus torminalis), it produces small berries which are called Chequers. There is a reference to this in the book Elizabeth: Apprenticeship by David Starkey, which describes the early life of Elizabeth I.
Mark P. Wirtz is an Alsatian born (3 September 1943 in Strasbourg) pop music record producer, composer, singer, musician, author, and stand-up comedian. As a producer, Wirtz's most famous output is from the mid to late 1960s, when he worked at Abbey Road Studios with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, under contract to EMI. Wirtz is chiefly known for the never-completed A Teenage Opera concept album, from which only four songs were ever finished before a concerned EMI pulled the plug on the project. (RPM, with Wirtz's direct involvement, pieced together all surviving songs from the unfinished project and issued it on CD.)
His signature style has been described by Mojo magazine as "Phil Spector scoring Camberwick Green", a sound most perfectly encapsulated on Wirtz's masterpiece, "Grocer Jack (Excerpt from A Teenage Opera)". This 1967 hit single is a densely orchestrated psychedelic marvel, which tells the whimsical and sad tale of an old man ("Grocer Jack"), who dies unappreciated, except by the children who loved him and miss him. The completed Teenage Opera songs all feature similar themes, usually based around elderly craftsmen carrying on with their outdated traditions (a weatherman, a steam train driver) to the ambivalence – and sometimes ridicule – of the community. The project has been likened to a British SMiLE, due largely to its near mythical status as a "lost" masterwork, but also because of the singularity of its creator's strange and magical vision.
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see
Well,there’ll be love and laughter
And peace ever after
Tomorrow, when the world is free
The shepherd will tend his sheep
The valley will bloom again
And Johnny will go to sleep
In his own little room again
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see
[Instrumental]
The shepherd will tend his sheep
The valley will bloom again
And Johnny will go to sleep
In his own little room again
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover
Tomorrow, just you wait and see
There’ll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover