To estimate how long the ice we have now may last, and to contextualize present-day change, she examines the records of past climates, looking back at changes in the cryosphere and variations in sea level during the Quaternary Period (from about 2.6 million years ago to the present). She emphasizes that loss of ice on this scale will have global consequences by causing a menacing rise in sea levels and by amplifying temperature increases through feedback loops. Gornitz’s goal is to raise public awareness of these changes, and to make it clear that ice plays an important role in planetary processes and is thus vital to our future well-being. This involves the organising of such events as the Ceremonial Service for the Opening of the Judicial Year. The position is unpaid.In Vanishing Ice: Glaciers, Ice Sheets, and Rising Seas, Vivien Gornitz depicts dramatic recent changes in Earth’s cryosphere (the places where water is frozen into ice or snow), describing in detail the mounting evidence that an accelerating meltdown is taking place: Permafrost is thawing, summer sea ice is declining, ice shelves are crumbling, and glaciers are retreating. Today, the High Sheriff remains the Queen’s representative for Law and Order in the County. When not wearing Court Dress, a High Sheriff will wear a badge of office. The style of the uniform for men has remained essentially unchanged since the late seventeenth century and includes a sword and a cocked hat. The ceremonial uniform that is worn by High Sheriffs is known as Court Dress. The Act stipulates that the Office should be held for one year only and confirmed the historic process of nomination and selection by the Sovereign. The Sheriffs Act of 1887 consolidated the law relating to the Office of High Sheriff and the Act remains in force today though there have been several amendments. Under an Act of 1883 the responsibility for administering Crown Property passed to the Crown Commissioners. The High Sheriff from the 1800s onwardsīy Acts of Parliament in 18 the Sheriff’s powers relating to police and prisons passed to the Police Commissioners and the local constabulary.
They were appointed to be the personal representative of the Sovereign. Henry VIII was the first to create Lord Lieutenants to certain English counties in the 1540s. In the 13th century, some of the Sheriff’s powers were transferred to the newly created roles of Coroners and Justices of the Peace. From 1254 the High Sheriff supervised the election to Parliament of two knights of the Shire. In the Magna Carta, twenty seven of the sixty three clauses in that famous document relate to the role of the Sheriff. collecting taxes and all dues on Crown lands on behalf of the Crown.Administration of Crown Property in the Shire.summoning the ‘posse comitatus’ which was the power to conscript any able-bodied man to assist in keeping the peace.Raising the ‘hue and cry’ in pursuit of wrong-doers in their Shire (the phrase derives from an Anglo-Norman phrase).Acting as chief magistrate in cases before Courts of the Hundred (an administrative unit in the Shire) these Courts were chiefly responsible for the administration of the law and keeping the peace.In the 11 th and 12 th centuries, the powers of the High Sheriff were considerably extended. The High Sheriff & The NormansĪfter the Conquest in 1066, the Normans continued to appoint Sheriffs. Anglo-Saxon Sheriffs fought at the Battle of Hastings and Godric, the first recorded Sheriff from Berkshire, was killed during this famous battle. The King’s Reeve was also known as the ‘High Reeve’. The word ‘Sheriff’ derives from ‘Shire Reeve’ or the Anglo-Saxon ‘ Scir Gerefa’. The office of High Sheriff is the oldest secular office in the United Kingdom, after the Crown, and dates back to Saxon times.
A brief history of the office of High Sheriff and how it evolved into its present day role.