Places to visit in Britain associated with industry, or industrial production, attractions with an industrial background, or articles and events associated with British industry.
A meeting of the Ways and Means Committee decided that a visit to Ravenglass and its steam railway was required. Dissent would not be brooked. Reports of riding the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway were examined. Indeed, a stationary lurking locomotive had even been spotted a couple of times, at Ravenglass and Eskdale (respectively). But the […]
Ravenglass to Eskdale and return Read More »
There is an exceptional little museum in the unassuming village of Eastriggs, in Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway. The Devil’s Porridge Museum tells an unusual tale, of ‘the greatest factory on earth’, what it produced and the people that worked in it. It is a reminder of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The factory was called
The Devil’s Porridge Read More »
Britain has 29 World Heritage Sites. The United Kingdom has 30, including the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland but excluding overseas territories. It would have been 31, but Liverpool’s maritime mercantile city was, sadly, stripped of its status in 2021. Don’t let that put you off; Liverpool is more than worth spending
World Heritage Sites in Britain Read More »
Some years ago, we spent a happy couple of days with good friends in the Eden district of Cumbria. For many, Cumbria means the Lake District – which is, of course, a wonderful place; but there is more to the county than that. Eden, named for the river that flows north through it to the
A walk in Smardale Gill Read More »
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 »
People often compare the relative merits of Britain’s two largest membership heritage organisations, the National Trust and English Heritage. In fact, there are several heritage organisations in the United Kingdom that offer membership, the main ones being Cadw, Historic Houses, Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland – as well as English Heritage and
English Heritage or the National Trust? Read More »
Any self-respecting student of folklore will tell you that, in Britain, a kelpie (or kelpy) is a Scottish water spirit, a waterwraith. Kelpies are shape-shifters, but usually appear in the form of a horse and are malignant, deriving pleasure from the drowning of travellers. They are immensely strong and have been known to take human
It’s become something of a cliché, to describe a place as ‘being frozen in time’, or similar. But in the case of Culross, a small village on the north bank of Firth of Forth in Fife (try saying that after too many sherbets), there’s an element of truth in the statement. Most of Culross manages
The time capsule of Culross Read More »
We all do it. We’re busy, things around us blend into the background. And so, for all the years I spent living and working in and around London, I had never visited Tower Bridge, one of our capital’s most iconic images, until recently. Oh, I have driven over it many times, walked across it, watched
Tower Bridge, up close and personal Read More »
Imagine a simpler, hate-free, monochrome world, where you know your doctor, civil servants are both civil and servile, politicians benign and dogs only ever bark happily. You are secure in the womb of grim, factory-stained, buildings. There’s a footbridge over a railway and a train is coming. You gaily dash to cross just as the
The chuffing romance of Haverthwaite Read More »
Ribblehead Viaduct is one of the wonders of Victorian construction. It also provided the inspiration for a UK TV drama Jericho, which premiered in January 2016. It’s not hard to be impressed by Ribblehead. Not just because it’s quite big – it is a quarter of a mile long – but also because it seems
From Ribblehead to Jericho Read More »
We stepped down the lane in the dappled sunlight of a still frosty winter afternoon. It has an ancient, lived-in, feel to it, does the hamlet of Chapel-le-Dale. Sitting astride a Roman road, evidence of long-vanished communities are shown on the Ordnance Survey map with the word ‘settlement’ printed over various places close-by, in old
St Leonard’s, Chapel-le-Dale Read More »
This is the Bridge over the Atlantic, also known as the Atlantic Bridge; I daresay someone’s referred to it as Atlantic Crossing too. You’ll find it in Argyll, Scotland, about 10 miles south of Oban. Atlantic Bridge’s real name is Clachan Bridge and it joins the Hebridean island of Seil with the mainland, spanning a
It beggars modern belief just how much London – well, pretty much everywhere in Europe, I guess – was once dominated by the Church. Did you know there were more than one hundred parish churches within or just outside the boundaries of medieval London? No, neither did I; staggering, isn’t it? Plus the great religious
The remains of London’s white friars Read More »
