The Battle of Hastings took place on 14 October 1066. It is probably the most famous battle in British history, when the invading Normans under William the Conqueror beat the English (Saxons) led by King Harold. The consequences changed England – and Britain – forever. The battle actually took place several miles north of Hastings
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The Runnymede Air Forces Memorial is enormous, with names carved into panels around a sort of cloister. It is located off a quiet residential lane overlooking the River Thames, Runnymede Meadow, and Heathrow Airport’s flight path. The air forces memorial at Runnymede commemorates by name over 20,000 airmen and women who were lost in the Second World War during operations from bases in the United Kingdom and North and Western Europe, and who have no known graves.
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HMS Victory, the world’s oldest naval ship still in commission, was Admiral Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. After that victory, the Royal Navy was unchallenged for 100 years. A visit to this icon of Empire is fascinating.
Home to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, Highclere is a predominantly Victorian mansion set in extensive grounds. The house was redeveloped in Jacobean style by Sir Charles Barry, the architect responsible for the Houses of Parliament, from an earlier Georgian mansion which, itself, replaced a Tudor House. The 5th Earl sponsored the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 and Highclere was used as the location for the TV series Jeeves and Wooster as well as taking the title role in the highly successful Downton Abbey.
Britain’s moving memorial to the 35th President of the USA, John F Kennedy, is in an acre of ground in Surrey, gifted to the American people in perpetuity. The designer, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, was inspired by Bunyan’s allegory of life in Pilgrim’s Progress. The memorial stone itself is a 7 ton block of Portland stone from the same quarry used to for St Paul’s Cathedral.
Seven Sisters, seven famous chalk cliffs in Sussex, often mistaken for the White Cliffs of Dover, with walks and fabulous views over the English Channel.
