A statue or other structure dedicated to or associated with a famous British person or event.
Tumuli, tombs or burial chambers, in varying shapes and sizes, litter the British Isles. Long barrows are (roughly) rectangular tumuli, ranging from about 60 feet to more than 300 (28 – 100 metres) in length, usually with a stone (or wood) burial chamber at one end, the whole covered with soil and rubble dug from […]
West Kennet Long Barrow Read More »
South West
Amazing; moving; humbling; impressive: words you could choose to describe the annual National Service of Remembrance held in London on Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November. Thousands attend every year; thousands watch it on TV; thousands more attend similar, albeit slightly more modest, services throughout the United Kingdom – and beyond. It is an
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British Stuff Events London
The Scallop sits on the beach at Aldeburgh, in Suffolk. It is a 13 foot-ish (4 metre) high monument, by local-born artist Maggi Hambling, to the late Benjamin Britten, composer and past Aldeburgh resident, who used to take his afternoon walks along the beach. The sculpture consists of two, broken, interlocking scallop shells. Cut into
My chum Dave was at it again. Like me, Dave is tickled by the past and finds there’s more and more of it each day. “You must visit Swinbrook,” he said over a pint at The Olde Ruptured Duck one Friday. “Fettiplace memorials in the church. Amazing. Would go well on A Bit About Britain.”
Mitfords, Fettiplaces and P514 Read More »
South East
One of the most significant battles in British history took place on 25th September 1066. It was fought at Stamford Bridge, a village in the north of England on the River Derwent, about 7 miles east of York. Ah, you say – but wasn’t The Battle at Hastings, in the deep south, on 14th October
Stamford Bridge – the other battle in 1066 Read More »
Yorkshire and the Humber
There are few things more agreeable than pootling around and about a medieval cathedral. I found Lichfield’s reflected in the Minster Pool, a small reservoir which has been used by the city since the 11th century. You’d think it couldn’t get any better, wouldn’t you? Then you wander up the Cathedral Close, past Erasmus Darwin’s
Ladies of the Vale Read More »
West Midlands
Driving through Cannock Chase, a lovely area of heath and woodland in Staffordshire, I was surprised to see a sign pointing to the Katyn Memorial. Katyn Forest is about 1600 miles away, near Smolensk, in Russia. There, in 1940, more than 4,500 Polish nationals were murdered by the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s sinister security police
The Cross of Sacrifice instantly identifies a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery. Beautifully tended, as they all are, the information panel tells you that this one contains 383 burials from the First World War, 97 Commonwealth – mainly New Zealanders – and 286 Germans. There are also three burials from the Second World War. Shortly after
Cannock Chase War Cemetery Read More »
West Midlands
These are the remains of Sweetheart Abbey, founded by Dervogilla Balliol. Here’s devotion for you. When her husband, John Balliol, died in 1268, Lady Dervorgilla had his heart removed, embalmed and placed in an ivory casket which she carried with her for the rest of her days. Apparently, it sat there at mealtimes, her ‘sweet
Dervorgilla’s Sweetheart Read More »
Scotland
Althorp (sometimes pronounced ‘Awltrup’) is the Spencer family pile in Northamptonshire. Who amongst us lesser mortals had heard of either the estate or the family before Lady Diana Spencer shot into public awareness like a blazing comet? Perhaps, some may have vaguely thought, the family was something to do with that other lot, the Marks.
Geddington is an attractive Northamptonshire village, with Saxon roots. It boasts an ancient church, St Mary Magdalene, and a ford over the River Ise with an attractive old bridge, said to date from 1250, alongside. However, it is probably most famous for its Eleanor Cross, the best preserved of three of the twelve original crosses
Geddington’s Queen Eleanor Cross Read More »
East Midlands
The above is not a comment on Eleanor’s mood, addressed to someone called Hardingstone (which I’m thinking is a good name for a butler); it is a memorial to a dead queen beside a busy road in a suburb of Northampton. And it is part of a very old love story. When you think of
Eleanor’s Cross, Hardingstone Read More »
East Midlands