Images Dated 6th May 2008

Mallard 4-6-2 steam locomotive, no 4468, 1938

This class A4 locomotive was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, the chief mechanical engineer for the London & North Eastern Railway and built at the railway's works in Doncaster. On Sunday 3 July 1938 the locomotive reached a speed of 126 mph on a straight stretch of track between Grantham and Peterborough, achieving a new world record for steam locomotives which remains unbroken to this day. Shown hauling Post Office coach on the Manchester-Scarborough line

© National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Libr

Cliveden

The Fountain of Love at Cliveden Buckinghamshire England on a spring day Cliveden House over looking the Thames near Maidenhead was the home of the Astor family and infamously associated with the Profumo Affair now a hotel the gardens are open

© Paul Felix Photography Twelve Beacon Park Pelynt nr Looe Cornwall PL13 2PQ photos@paulfelix.co.uk 01503 221069

Hillside flowers and town, Pienza, Italy

Pienza, a town and commune in the province of Siena, in the Val d Orcia in Tuscany (central Italy), between the towns of Montepulciano and Montalcino, is the touchstone of Renaissance urbanism. In 1996, UNESCO declared the town a World Heritage Site, and in 2004 the entire valley, the Val d Orcia, was included on the list of UNESCOs World Cultural Landscapes. Before the village was renamed to Pienza its name was Corsignano. It is first mentioned in documents from the 9th century. Around 1300 parts of the village became property of the Piccolomini family. after Enghelberto d Ugo Piccolomini had been enfeoffed with the fief of Montertari in Val d Orcia by the emperor Frederick II in 1220. In the 13th century Franciscans settled down in Corsignano

© Dennis Flaherty / Jaynes Gallery / DanitaDelimont.com