 In contrast with the north and west of the island, the Roman way of life was more firmly entrenched in the south and east of Britain. One feature of this was the greater number of villas, rural buildings in Roman style that ranged from the relatively humble to the decidedly palatial. Most of these […]
Which anniversaries were marked in Britain in 2023? Below is a selection of fifty or so noteworthy occasions for your interest and amusement, from the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 to the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Each one was on someone’s calendar for 2023 – and each one offers an insight into Britain’s story.Â
Anniversaries in 2023 Read More »
British Stuff History
A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to anyone who ventures onto the pages of A Bit About Britain – provided you have also bothered to stay and read something, of course. I am neither sufficiently organised nor inspired to write a Christmas post this year – though I can highly recommend several
Looking back on 2022 Read More »
British Stuff History
Someone remonstrated with me the other day, saying that I could do more to promote my books. Being the sort of chap that always takes advice, I have consequently embarked upon a brazen, crass, plug of the most vulgar kind. Buy one of my books! No – buy two! If I publish another, buy that
Stocking fillers? Read More »
Books British Stuff News
Here is a dramatic tale – of shifting landscapes, lost settlements, abandoned military installations and wobbly legs. It features the spindly, exposed, crooked finger of Spurn Head on the East Yorkshire coast. Spurn is an enigmatic, fascinating and slightly scary place, a low-lying spit of glacial clay, sand and shingle, washed on one side by
In 2015, a rust-weathered steel spire was erected on the skyline above the City of Lincoln. It is 102 feet, more than 31 metres, high – by no coincidence equivalent to the wingspan of a Second World War Lancaster bomber. The spire is the dramatic centrepiece of The International Bomber Command Centre, which commemorates the
IBCC – Recognition, Remembrance, Reconciliation Read More »
East Midlands
Astonishingly, some people do not visit A Bit About Britain to read articles on the blog or find places to visit in Britain. Many of the most popular sections of the website are those dealing with different periods of British history, historic timelines, British monarchs and prime ministers. What with a new monarch and two
British history timelines Read More »
British Stuff History News
It is a wild, wind-blown, rain-lashed winter’s night. A spectral horse gallops up to the moss-covered ruins of old Wycoller Hall, the rider a man dressed in early 17th century fashion He slides swiftly from the saddle, enters the house and dashes up long-vanished stairs. A door is flung open. Terrified shrieks pierce the pitch
The ghosts of Wycoller Read More »
North West England
You may not expect to hear much about Roman hygiene in Scotland, but you’d be wrong. In Bearsden, a leafy suburb to the north of Glasgow, are the remains of a bathhouse and latrine that were in use more than 1800 years ago. Moreover, the site is presented such that you can get a very
Bearsden’s bathhouse Read More »
Scotland
I don’t really know why we went to Clun. It was there, of course, which I suppose is some sort of a reason to go anywhere at least once. Was the name vaguely familiar? It has a ruined castle, anyway, which might have been the deciding factor and, indeed, that became our target. Whatever the
Westminster Abbey is part of a World Heritage Site. It has been at the centre of English, and British, state occasions – coronations, weddings, funerals, services of commemoration – since William the Conqueror was crowned there on Christmas Day 1066. In fact, its roots are pre-Conquest. The powerful bishop, archbishop and later saint, Dunstan, established
Royal Westminster Abbey Read More »
British Stuff London
St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh is more properly known as the City Church, or High Kirk of Edinburgh, as well as the mother church of Presbyterianism. As a shining example of one of those confusing curiosities that we Brits love so much, it is not technically a cathedral at all, although most people still refer
St Giles’, High Kirk of Edinburgh Read More »
Scotland