Places to visit in South East England. South East England is the most densely populated, and most prosperous, region in Britain outside London. It stretches from Kent in the east through East and West Sussex to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight along the coast and also includes Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. There are two national parks, the South Downs and the New Forest, pretty villages and historic cities like Canterbury and Oxford. Castles, stately homes and gardens are almost everywhere – Windsor Castle, Blenheim Palace and Wisley, for example – and theme parks like Legoland. Maritime Heritage can be found at the revived naval docks of Portsmouth and Chatham. The weather is often good too. The drawback to the south east is that it is busy – and can be expensive.
Every now and again, something takes our breath away. I thought I knew roughly what to expect when visiting the Mary Rose Museum. I broadly knew the story: the 16th century English warship, a favourite of Henry VIII’s, that sank with the tragic loss of most hands. I remembered when she was raised from the […]
The story of the Mary Rose Read More »
South East
England’s King Henry VIII is usually thought of as the nasty big bloke with all the wives; the chap who officially stopped his subjects being Roman Catholic, gave them the Church of England instead and closed down all the nice monasteries. He is not usually seen as a builder – but he was; picture him
Done Deal Castle? Read More »
South East
This is HMS M.33, a relic of another time – yet a time of not so very long ago – and of almost-forgotten battles. M.33 was a monitor, essentially a floating gun platform. Designed to operate in shallow waters, close to shore, she was one of almost 40 monitors ordered to be built at the
King Alfred the Great is a national hero. At least, he is to the English – though, to be fair, we have always been very generous about sharing our heroes with the rest of Britain and, at the slightest opportunity, with the rest of the world too. Yet, somehow, we have managed to mislay King
The bones of the king Read More »
South East
The Weald is an area of outstanding natural beauty in South East England that, broadly speaking, stretches through the counties of Surrey, Sussex and Kent, between the chalk of the North and South Downs. It is characterised by small farms and fields, sunken lanes, gentle hills, deep deciduous woods, pretty picture-box ridge-top villages and attractive
A walk in the Weald Read More »
South East
The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, to give the institution its full name, is almost nine centuries old and said to be England’s oldest charitable body. Never heard of it? Neither had I – until reading about it in Ian Marchant’s delightful book, ‘The Longest Crawl’. This is an account of
The Hospital of St Cross Read More »
South East
The Sussex village of Wilmington lies about 6 miles north west of Eastbourne. Marked out on the side of nearby Windover Hill, just to the south of the village, you will find Wilmington’s Giant, or the Long Man of Wilmington as he’s generally known, a mysterious 235’ high figure of a man. Actually, the figure
Wilmington’s Giant Read More »
South East
My mother would love to walk from Point along Old Portsmouth’s walls, past the Sally Port, Square Tower and above Battery Row. There was the Regency Grand Parade, scene of many ceremonial occasions in days gone by. There was the statue of Nelson, who boarded HMS Victory nearby before the Battle of Trafalgar. And below
Domus Dei, a Portuguese princess and the Blitz Read More »
South East
I’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 should qualify that by saying that I refer to the few square miles of the city centre where, quite frankly,
Walking around Oxford Read More »
South East
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 Enigma and utilised two main types of even more sophisticated enciphering machines, the Geheimschreiber (secret
Bletchley Park beyond Enigma Read More »
South East
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 the course of the Second World War, and the world. From 1939-46, this was the
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 in a cynical attempt to win the cute dog vote. Sorry, Molly. We have included
Molly visits Pevensey Castle, a Very Important Place Read More »
South East