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Look up Downs or downs in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Downland, Downs, or The Downs may refer to:
Places
Topography
In the 'hill' context, the word 'down' derives from Celtic (Gaelic or Welsh) dun "hill, hill fort".
- Downland, a geographical feature
Australia
- Darling Downs, Queensland, a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland
Europe
- The Downs (ship anchorage), sea area between Goodwin Sands and the East Kent coast
- The Downs, Bristol, a public open space in Bristol, England
- The Downs, County Westmeath, a rural community about 5 miles east of Mullingar, Republic of Ireland
- The North Downs, England, the counterpart of the South Downs. The two are often referred to as a collective term
- The South Downs, England, the counterpart of the North Downs
- The Downs, a large grassy area on the University of Nottingham's University Park Campus
- The Downs, White Horse Hills, England
- Downs (townland, County Westmeath), a townland in Taghmon civil parish, barony of Corkaree, County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland
- Downs, County Laois, a townland in County Laois, Republic of Ireland
- Downs, County Tyrone, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
- North Wessex Downs AONB, England
North America
- Downs, Illinois, a village in the United States
- Downs, Kansas, a small city in the United States
- The Downs, a hilly peninsula in Ferryland, Newfoundland and Labrador
Education
- The Downs School (disambiguation), name of three schools
Health
- Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, a human hereditary/congenital/genetic disorder
People
Technology
- Downs cell, a vessel used for manufacturing pure magnesium
Transport
- Downs Light Railway, the world's oldest private miniature railway; located in Worcestershire, England
See also
- Down (disambiguation)
- Downes (disambiguation)
- Downs Station, a former formation of the Royal Navy
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5 Annotations
Mary • Link
The Downs
An area of sea lying between the Thames Estuary and the Straits of Dover, protected by the Goodwin Sands from easterlies and by the land mass of Kent from westerlies. Hence a favoured (and often very crowded) holding point for merchant, and other, shipping that was awaiting a favourable wind for an outward voyage. (annot. 3 April 1660)
Pedro • Link
The importance of The Downs.
From Command of the Oceans by NAM Rodger…
The Downs is a broad anchorage which lies off Deal, enclosed by the Kentish coast to the west, and the Goodwin Sands to the east. At its northern end it can be entered from the North Sea or the Thames Estuary through the Gulf Stream, and its southern end from the Channel round the South Foreland. In the age of sail this anchorage was one of the crossroads of the world: during the prevailing south-westerlies ships from London and ports throughout the southern North Sea and the Baltic lay here waiting for a fair wind down the Channel, while ships that had come up the Channel for London waited their chance to get up the Thames. From the strategic point of view the Downs is the perfect position for warships to watch the upper Channel and the southern North Sea. From a tactical point of view it is a trap in the prevailing wind, for the Gulf Stream was too narrow for a large force to get through in a hurry. A fleet lying in the Downs might be caught like a lobster in a pot by an enemy entering by the southern entrance with the wind behind him.
(Tromp for the Dutch had won his great victory against the Spanish in 1639 in this way)
Pedro • Link
The map of the Downs.
http://www.whitecliffscountry.org.uk/heritage/gra…
Pedro • Link
On the 30th August 1661...
Allin nears the Goodwin after his voyage from Constantinople…
"The wind was WSW. A stiff gale, and in the narrow we sunk our longboat and overwelmed before we could get our topsails down and broke both her fasts and one poor man in her, and by great chance the boatswain's yawl was made fast astern the longboat with one in her, so the man got into the yawl and our ketch took her up with the two men in her, but lost our longboat, grap-iron and hawser and all her oars, windlass and davit. Before we brought St. Peter's Church upon Broadstairs, which is the mark that you are clear of the north head of the Goodwin, the wind was WNW, and stood a mile further and wended."
"The marks to come through the Gulls between the Goodwin and Brake is the lighthouse upon South Foreland upon a broad valley and a church upon the third valley and you have St. Peter's steeple or Church upon Ramsgate, then you are clear of the north head of the Brake, and St. Peter's church upon Broadstairs, then you are clear of the north end of the Goodwin and may run to sea what you please..."
(The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin edited by RC Anderson)
See sight above for map of the Goodwin.
Terry Foreman • Link
Map of the Downs and description of the Goodwin Sands
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/26117