Philip Astley - Revision history

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 File:Astley's_Riding_School.jpg|Astley's Riding School (1777)
 File:Astley's_Dublin.jpeg|Astley's Amphitheatre Royal in Dublin (c.1790)
-Image:Philip_Astley.jpg|Philip Astley, c.1800.
+File:Astley's_Riding_House,_Dublin.png|Astley's Riding House in Dublin (c.1795)
 Image:Astley.jpg|Silhouette of Philip Astley (1801)
-Image:Astley's_London_Map.jpg|1802 London Map showing Astley's Amphitheatre
+Image:Astley's_London_Map.jpg|London Map showing Astley's Amphitheatre (1802)
 File:Astley%27s_System.jpg|Astley's training method (1804)
 File:Olympic_Pavilion.jpeg|Astley's Olympic Pavilion (1806)

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 * Karl Shaw, ''The First Showman – The Extraordinary Mr Astley'' (Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2019) &mdash; ISBN 978-1-4456-9549-5
 * Gisela Winkler, ''Philip Astley und die Folgen...'' (Gransee, Edition Schwarzdruck, 2019) &mdash; ISBN 978-3-935184-97-6
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-Philip Astley (1742-1814) is considered the creator of the modern circus. He had said to be born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the West Midlands, England, according to posthumous sources, but his tombstone, which had no reason to be inaccurate, gave his birth date as January 20, 1741 in Manchester. (The tombstone has long disappeared, but this inscription had been officially recorded in a survey of the the Mont-Louis Cemetery in Paris&mdash;today the Père Lachaise Cemetery&mdash;made in 1816, two years only after Astley's death.)
+Philip Astley (1742-1814) is considered the creator of the modern circus. It has been widely said that he was be born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the West Midlands, England (according to posthumous sources), but his tombstone, which had no reason to be inaccurate, gave his birth date as January 20, 1741 in Manchester. (The tombstone has long disappeared, but this inscription had been officially recorded in a survey of the the Mont-Louis Cemetery in Paris&mdash;today the Père Lachaise Cemetery&mdash;made in 1816, two years only after Astley's death.)
-There are no records of Philip Astley's birth or baptism either in Manchester or in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which is not surprising, but we know that the Astley family was from Manchester and moved around 1743 to Newcastle-under-Lyme, where some of his relatives were born. Philip was the the son of Edward Astley, a veneer-cutter and cabinet-maker. Edward had a short-fuse and a passion for horses, traits he passed on to his son. Philip Astley was nine years old when he became apprentice to his father.
+There are no records of Philip Astley's birth or baptism either in Manchester or in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which is not at all surprising, but we know that the Astley family was from Manchester and that Philip's parents moved around 1743 to Newcastle-under-Lyme, a vibrant market town, where some of his relatives were born. Philip's father was Edward Astley, a veneer-cutter and cabinet-maker. Edward had a short-fuse and a passion for horses, traits he passed on to his son. Philip Astley was nine years old when he became apprentice to his father.
 Two or three years later, the family moved to London, where Edward Astley opened shop near Westminster Bridge&mdash;an area that would become very familiar to young Philip, and where he will later return. For at age 17, Philip left home after one of many disputes with his father and enrolled in the 15th Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment newly formed by Colonel Granville Elliott.

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-Philip Astley (1742-1814) is considered the creator of the modern circus. He was born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the West Midlands, England, the son of Edward Astley, a veneer-cutter and cabinet-maker. Edward had a short-fuse and a passion for horses, traits he passed on to his son. Philip Astley was nine years old when he became apprentice to his father.
+Philip Astley (1742-1814) is considered the creator of the modern circus. He had said to be born January 8, 1742 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the West Midlands, England, according to posthumous sources, but his tombstone, which had no reason to be inaccurate, gave his birth date as January 20, 1741 in Manchester. (The tombstone has long disappeared, but this inscription had been officially recorded in a survey of the the Mont-Louis Cemetery in Paris&mdash;today the Père Lachaise Cemetery&mdash;made in 1816, two years only after Astley's death.)
-Two or three years later, the family moved to Lambeth, a borough of London, where Edward Astley opened shop near Westminster Bridge&mdash;an area that would become very familiar to young Philip, and where he will later return. For at age 17, Philip left home after one of many disputes with his father and enrolled in the 15th Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment newly formed by Colonel Granville Elliott.
+There are no records of Philip Astley's birth or baptism either in Manchester or in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which is not surprising, but we know that the Astley family was from Manchester and moved around 1743 to Newcastle-under-Lyme, where some of his relatives were born. Philip was the the son of Edward Astley, a veneer-cutter and cabinet-maker. Edward had a short-fuse and a passion for horses, traits he passed on to his son. Philip Astley was nine years old when he became apprentice to his father.
 ===From The Military To Show Business===
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 Philip Astley died from stomach ailments in his Parisian home, Rue du Faubourg du Temple, on October 20, 1814. He was seventy-two years old. He was buried at the Mont-Louis Cemetery in Paris (today the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where his grave, unfortunately, is no longer visible). His will asked that all his Parisian properties be sold and for the proceeds to go to his son, John, who also inherited the amphitheatre at Stangate Street. John Philip Conway Astley survived his father by only seven years.
-On November 1, 2015, a life-size statue of Philip Astley by the sculptor Andrew Edwards and the members of the Royal Doulton School of Sculpture was unveiled at the Newcastle-under-Lyme College's Performing Arts Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Astley's birthplace&mdash;a long overdue tribute to a major figure in the history of Performing Arts. Three years later, on April 4, 2018 (Easter Monday, which was traditionally the beginning of Astley's London season), a plaque was unveiled in Waterloo's Cornwall Road in Lambeth, London, not far from the original location Halfpenny Hatch, home to Astley's first Riding School, to mark the 250th anniversary of the creation  of the modern circus by Philip Astley. Then, on May 4, 2018, for World Circus Day, another monument was unveiled in Newcastle-under-Lyme, on St. George Street (on the boudary of Newcastle-under-Lume and Stoke on Trent), in presence of Zsuzsanna Mata, Executive Director of the [[Fédération Mondiale du Cirque]], to honor once more Philip Astley and the creation of the modern circus.
+On November 1, 2015, a life-size statue of Philip Astley by the sculptor Andrew Edwards and the members of the Royal Doulton School of Sculpture was unveiled at the Newcastle-under-Lyme College's Performing Arts Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which had long be considered as Astley's birthplace, but is where he spent his early childhood. It was a long overdue tribute to a major figure in the history of Performing Arts. Three years later, on April 4, 2018 (Easter Monday, which was traditionally the beginning of Astley's London season), a plaque was unveiled in Waterloo's Cornwall Road in Lambeth, London, not far from the original location Halfpenny Hatch, home to Astley's first Riding School, to mark the 250th anniversary of the creation  of the modern circus by Philip Astley. Then, on May 4, 2018, for World Circus Day, another monument was unveiled in Newcastle-under-Lyme, on St. George Street (on the boudary of Newcastle-under-Lume and Stoke on Trent), in presence of Zsuzsanna Mata, Executive Director of the [[Fédération Mondiale du Cirque]], to honor once more Philip Astley and the creation of the modern circus.
 ==Suggested Reading==

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 * Steve Ward, ''Father of the Modern Circus "Billy Buttons" The Life and Times of Philip Astley'' (Barnsley, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2018) &mdash; ISBN 978-1-52670-687-4
 * Karl Shaw, ''The First Showman – The Extraordinary Mr Astley'' (Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2019) &mdash; ISBN 978-1-4456-9549-5
 ==Image Gallery==

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 * Dominique Jando, ''Philip Astley & The Horsemen who invented the Circus'' (A [[Circopedia Books|Circopedia Book]], 2018) &mdash; ISBN 978-1984041319
 * Steve Ward, ''Father of the Modern Circus "Billy Buttons" The Life and Times of Philip Astley'' (Barnsley, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2018) &mdash; ISBN 978-1-52670-687-4
-* Karl Shaw, ''The First Showman – The Extraordinary Mr Astley'' (Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2019) &mdash; ISBN 978-4456-9549-5
+* Karl Shaw, ''The First Showman – The Extraordinary Mr Astley'' (Stroud, Amberley Publishing, 2019) &mdash; ISBN 978-4456-9550-1
 ==Image Gallery==

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 Image:Astleys_Theatre.jpg|Astley's Amphitheatre (c.1840)
 File:Astley_Statue.jpg|Astley's statue in Newcastle-under-Lyme (2015)
-File:Astley_2018_Pklaque.jpeg|Astley's Plaque on Cornwall Road (2018)
+File:Astley_2018_Pklaque.jpeg|Unveiling of Astley's Plaque on Cornwall Road (2018)
 File:Astley_Monument_on_St_George_Street.jpeg|Astley Monument on St. George Street, Newcastle-under-Lyne (2018)
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