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Coordinates: 53°06′18″N 0°10′31″W / 53.1051°N 0.1752°W / 53.1051; -0.1752

Coningsby
Coningsby  Coningsby shown within Lincolnshire
Population	3,238 (Parish)
OS grid reference	TF2258
District	East Lindsey
Shire county	Lincolnshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LINCOLN
Postcode district	LN4
Dialling code	01526
Police	Lincolnshire
Fire	Lincolnshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Louth and Horncastle
List of places: UK • England • Lincolnshire

Coningsby (pronounced /ˈkʌnɪŋzbɪ/) is a village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.

Geography

Taking its name from the Welsh 'cwningen' meaning 'Rabbit's' town (with an Old Norse suffix), it lies 8 miles (13 km) south of Horncastle on the A153 Horncastle to Sleaford road, with the Lincolnshire Wolds on one side and the Fens on the other. The B1192 Kirton to Woodhall Spa road passes through the town. At its western end it adjoins with the village of Tattershall, demarcated by the River Bain. Before the late 1950s, a railway passed through the town. Pubs include the Black Swan and the White Bull which are both on High Street.

Education

Primary school

Coningsby St Michael's CE Primary School is on School Lane.

Secondary schools

There is a secondary modern school, the Gartree Community School on the other side of the river, near the speed camera on the A153.

There is also the Banovallum School in nearby Horncastle. For those attending these two schools, there is no sixth form.

Further education

The nearest FE college is in Boston - some distance.

Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Horncastle provides sixth form education with enrollment open to pupils graduating both Gartree and Banovallum

In late March 2008, renovation on the Tattershall/Coningsby Library will include a small learning centre provided by Boston College.

Parish church

It is overseen by the impressive tower of its 15th century parish church, ‘St Michael's’ with its unique one-handed clock face. One of the few in the country (there is another at St Andrew's in Holt, Norfolk), it is thought to be the largest in the world. The face is painted directly onto the wall of the tower and was probably installed in the 17th century. It is 16.5 feet in diameter and its hand is nearly 9 feet long. The driving weights are large stones and the pendulum is so long that it swings only once every two seconds. The pendulum is not actually attached to the clock; it is some distance away, linked by a long connecting rod. There are only three wheels in the timekeeping mechanism but it keeps excellent time and needs winding once a day. The tower, on which the clock face is painted, is quite unusual in that it is on the outside of the building. There is an arched passage under the tower which is part of a public footpath through the churchyard.

RAF Coningsby

Half a mile (1 km) to the south of the village lies RAF Coningsby one of the Royal Air Force’s most important stations and home of No. XI Squadron, No. 3 Squadron, No. XVII Squadron and No. 29 Squadron. It is also home to an important feature of Britain’s heritage, for it is here that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, formed in 1957 to commemorate the Royal Air Force's major battle honour is based; a Lancaster, five Spitfires, two Hurricanes and a Dakota. These aircraft are no museum pieces as they are still flying and can be seen at a variety of air shows in the summer months.

From 1950 RAF Coningsby was home to three squadrons of "Washingtons", the RAF name for the American B29 bombers and for at least the first 18 months these were maintained by technicians from the National Service. Most personnel were conscripted in the first instance for 18 months which was then stretched to 24 months because of their skill.

External links

• Principal RAF Bases
• Town Council
• Coningsby Kart Club
• Parish church tower photo
• Banovallum School
• Gartree Community School
• the River Bain
• railway photo

From Wikiquote

Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

Coningsby , or The New Generation, is an 1844 English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli. The book is set against a background of the real political events of the 1830s in England that followed the enactment of the Reform Bill of 1832. In describing these events Disraeli sets out his own beliefs including his opposition to Robert Peel, his dislikes of both the British Whig Party and the ideals of Utilitarianism, and the need for social justice in a newly industrialized society. He portrays the self-serving politician in the character of Rigby (based on John Wilson Croker) and the malicious party insiders in the characters of Taper and Tadpole.

Quotes

Book II

• No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.
  • Ch. 1.

• A government of statesmen or of clerks? Of Humbug or Humdrum?
  • Ch. 4.

• Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for Antiquity, it offers no redress for the Present, and makes no preparation for the Future.
  • Ch. 5.

• Hush!' said Mr. Tadpole. 'The time has gone by for Tory governments; what the country requires is a sound Conservative government.'
  'A sound Conservative government,' said Taper, musingly. 'I understand: Tory men and Whig measures.'
  • Ch. 6.

• Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.
  • Ch. 7.

Book III

All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles; who condense in a sentence the secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a character or illustrates an existence.

• Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.
  • Ch. 1.

• Genius, when young, is divine.
  • Ch. 1.

• Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.
  • Ch. 1.

• Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.
  • Ch. 1.

• There arc some books, when we close them, — one or two ia the course of oar life, — difficult at it may be to analyze or ascertain the cause, after which our minds seem to have made a great leap. A thousand obscure things receive light; a multitude of indefinite feelings are determined. Our intellect grasps and grapples with all subjects with a capacity, a flexibility, and a vigor, before unknown to us. It masters questions hitherto perplexing, which are not even touched or referred to in the volume just closed. What is the magic? It is the spirit of the supreme author, by a magnetic influence blending with our sympathizing intelligence that directs and inspires it. By that mysterious sensibility we extend to questions which he has not treated, the same intellectual force which he has exercised over those which he has expounded. His genius for a time remains in us. 'Tis the same with human beings as with books. All of us encounter, at least once in our life, some individual who utters words that make us think forever. There are men whose phrases are oracles; who condense in a sentence the secrets of life; who blurt out an aphorism that forms a character or illustrates an existence. A great thing is a great book; but greater than all is the talk of a great man.
  And what is a great man? Is it a minister of state? Is it a victorious general? A gentleman in the Windsor uniform? A field marshal covered with stars? Is it a prelate or a prince? A king, even an emperor? It may be all these; yet these, as we must all daily feel, are not necessarily great men. A great man is one who affects the mind of his generation, whether he be a monk in his cloister agitating Christendom, or a monarch crossing the Granicus, and giving a new character to the Pagan world.
  • Ch. 2.

• Talk to a man about himself, and he is generally captivated.
  • Ch. 2.

Book IV

Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.

• A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.
  • Ch. 1.

• I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.
  • Ch. 11.

• It was not reason that besieged Troy; it was not reason that sent forth the Saracen from the desert to conquer the world; that inspired the crusades; that instituted the monastic orders; it was not reason that produced the Jesuits; above all, it was not reason that created the French Revolution. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.
  • Ch. 13.

• Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.
  • Ch. 13.

• The world is governed by very different personages to what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
  • Ch. 15.

Book VI

• We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.
  • Ch. 13.

Book VII

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour.

• Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour.
  • Ch. 2.

• How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutton his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts.
  • Ch. 2.

• Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness.
  • Ch. 5.

Book IX

• They stand now on the threshold of public life. They are in the leash, but in a moment they will be slipped. What will be their fate? Will they maintain in august assemblies and high places the great truths which, in study and in solitude, they have embraced? Or will their courage exhaust itself in the struggle, their enthusiasm evaporate before hollow-hearted ridicule, their generous impulses yield with a vulgar catastrophe to the tawdry temptations of a low ambition? Will their skilled intelligence subside into being the adroit tool of a corrupt party? Will Vanity confound their fortunes, or Jealousy wither their sympathies? Or will they remain brave, single, and true; refuse to bow before shadows and worship phrases; sensible of the greatness of their position, recognise the greatness of their duties; denounce to a perplexed and disheartened world the frigid theories of a generalising age that have destroyed the individuality of man, and restore the happiness of their country by believing in their own energies, and daring to be great?
  • Bk. IX, Ch. 7.

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Coningsby (novel)