Last Updated on 16th February 2020I’m not easily given to hyperbole; I’ve told you that a million times. But it is genuinely hard to think of a British town that can be quite so achingly beautiful as Oxford. Perhaps I…
Bletchley Park beyond Enigma
Part 2 – Lorenz and legacy Enigma was only part of the Bletchley Park story. As early as 1940, listening stations began to pick up enciphered teleprinter messages. These worked in a completely different way to messages enciphered on an…
Bletchley Park
Part 1 – Enigma and Ultra This is Bletchley Park. To all intents and purposes, it’s a nondescript, somewhat ugly, large Victorian mansion and estate just north of London. But what went on at Bletchley Park was extraordinary: it changed…
Molly visits Pevensey Castle, a Very Important Place
We bowled up to Pevensey Castle on a blue-sky day in the company of Molly. Molly, I should say, is a small dog of exceptional poise and dignity, but has no relevance whatsoever to our story. She is mentioned merely…
Some corner of a foreign field that is forever Turkey
The small south coast town of Gosport is an interesting, rather than an attractive, place. Optimistic residents may believe it was once known as ‘God’s port’, though the Oxford Dictionary of Place Names’ more prosaic and likely explanation is that…
The Needles – a tale of shipwrecks, Victorian forts and Cold War
The Needles, enormous 100-feet (30-metre) high chalk and flint stacks off the most westerly point of the Isle of Wight, are part of the Island’s iconography, and one of Britain’s most recognisable coastal features. They are an exposed eroded section…
The Oxford Martyrs
Be careful where you tread; you never know what might have happened beneath your feet, long ago. A cross in the centre of Oxford’s Broad Street marks the spot where, almost 500 years before, three men were legally burnt to…
HMS Victory, icon of empire
HMS Victory, flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, has been one of Portsmouth’s icons for so long, it’s easy to forget what else she represents. You could almost be forgiven for thinking she’s simply…
The legend of Wayland’s Smithy
Wayland’s Smithy was my next stop on a visit that included Uffington’s White Horse and hillfort. The Smithy is a Neolithic tomb – technically a chambered long barrow, similar to the one at West Kennet – and it is located…
Uffington’s White Horse – etc
I’d tell you a tale of a battle fought and won, a dragon slain near an old fortress, an ancient trackway and a magical metalworker that flies through the skies and will shoe your horse for a few coins. True,…
Churchill’s Chartwell
Winston Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived, and a brilliant man. Now, before anyone gets all hot and bothered about him being an imperialist, racist, capitalist, aristocrat, enemy of the working-class, opponent of women’s…
Spring at Nymans
Last Updated on 4th March 2018You don’t need great plants to have an attractive garden. But having lovely views, a romantic ruin and, in the first place, loads of money, helps no end. Fortunately, Nymans has benefited from all three…