Westminster Abbey, formally the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is close to being the national church. 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. Indeed, 40 monarchs have been crowned
The Battle of Flodden took place on the afternoon of 9 September 1513 near Branxton in Northumberland between a Scottish invading army commanded by King James IV and the defending English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey. The Scottish invasion was in direct response to a request from King Louis XII following the English
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All Souls College Oxford was founded By Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Henry VI in 1438. It has no undergraduate students. Its purpose is to allow graduate fellows to undertake further studies and pray for the souls of all the faithful departed. The entrance exam is said to be one of the hardest in
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Caerlaverock Castle, Britain’s only triangular castle, occupies a strategic location on the Scottish side of the Solway. There was once a British fort on the site, later a medieval one, before the forerunner of the present ruin was built in a drier location a few yards away in the 1270s. It was, famously, besieged by
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This is where the English Parliament executed the King of Great Britain and established a republic in England and Wales. It was also a place of extravagant Jacobean entertainment. Banqueting House is a surviving relic of the great Palace of Whitehall, which was originally the medieval London home of the Archbishops of York and known
The National Portrait Gallery does what it says; it was founded in 1856 to collect portraits of famous British people. Its collection includes over 200,000 portraits from the 16th Century to the present day, created in a wide variety of mediums. These include drawings, miniatures, negatives, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures and many more. It can
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Deal Castle was built between 1539 and 1540, part of a massive construction programme of forts, blockhouses and other defences ordered by Henry VIII to protect England against possible French invasion. Unlike many castles of the past, these defences were not built for the benefit of an individual, but for the whole realm. Some 20
Montacute House is one of the foremost Elizabethan mansions in England, set in 300 acres in Somerset and built of warm local limestone in the classic symmetrical Elizabethan ‘E’ for Sir Edward Phelips lawyer, in the late 1590s. Inside, Montacute is a mixture of décor, from Tudor to Regency with a bit of early 20th
Arbury Hall is an Elizabethan manor house, originally built on the ruins of a 12th century Augustinian Priory and transformed into the Gothic style by Sir Roger Newdigate during the second half of the 18th century. It has been the seat of the Newdegate family for over 450 years and is the ancestral home of
Fotheringhay Castle was birthplace of the future King Richard III on 2 October 1452 and the place of execution for Mary, Queen of Scots on 8 February 1587, but sadly little remains of it. The first castle was probably built by Simon de Senlis (St Liz), Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, around the year 1100.
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Stokesay Castle is more like a perfect medieval fortified manor house, and it is unforgettably picturesque and interesting. Many of the interiors are original and little changed since being built in the 13th century by a wealthy wool merchant, including original timbers. The solar has original 17th century panelling. A wonderful timber-framed gatehouse was added
Lacock Abbey was established between 1229 and 1232 by Lady Ela, Countess of Salisbury. After the Reformation, it became a family home in the hands of the Sharingtons, followed by the Talbots. The most famous Talbot, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77) was an accomplished scientist and inventor of the negative/positive photographic process. Thus, Lacock is
