Stuart

Places, people or events associated with the Stuart monarchs, or the Stuart period in Britain,

Terror plot planned in peaceful village

Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire

It is hard to associate the Northamptonshire village of Ashby St Ledgers with one of the most notorious terrorist plots of all time.  In fact, despite nestling between Dunstable’s tired industrial estates and the fearsome Daventry International Rail Terminal to the north, you may actually struggle to associate Ashby St Ledgers with the 21st century […]

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Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood

Sudbury Museum of Childhood - the bedroom ceiling

Note: This article is largely based on a visit made in 2012. In 2022, the attraction was rebranded as ‘The Children’s Country House at Sudbury’, which includes the museum, focusing on the experience of childhood, the hall and garden. The hall is now specifically aimed at younger visitors, with over 12 rooms created with and

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Weald and Downland

Weald & Downland Museum, West Sussex, UK

Builders in the past were very selfish people.  They put their buildings up without considering for one moment that, one day, their structures might inconveniently stand in the way of a new road, town centre development or shopping centre. Fast forward to an intriguing museum on the South Downs in West Sussex, near the village

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London’s forgotten cathedral

Southwark Cathedral - soaring nave arches

Head west out of London Bridge Station.  If you’re very careful, you will discover London’s third Anglican cathedral, Southwark; it’s easily missed.  Hemmed in between the colourful and vibrant Borough Market and the occasionally vulgar Montagu Close, and often hidden by dark Victorian railway arches over which trains ceaselessly rattle and clunk in and out

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Why 467 pubs are called the Royal Oak

Boscobel House, Shropshire

What might be called ‘the Royal Oak Incident’ took place when the future King Charles II hid in an oak tree after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.  This was a real event, which might have had a very different outcome, and is a fascinating story.  You can visit the spot where it happened, Boscobel

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Visit the Tower of London

Tower of London

The Tower of London has been sitting on the north bank of the Thames, watching the tides of a great city ebb and flow, for around a thousand years.  The city has grown up around it and it is part of it; it is impossible to imagine London without the Tower.  Think of all that

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Eyam, 1665

Eyam, Derbyshire

This is a story about bravery and love.  It covers just one chapter in the long history of the village of Eyam (pronounced ‘Eeem’ *), tucked away in Derbyshire’s Peak District just north of Bakewell.  Casual travellers between Chesterfield and Chapel-en-le-Frith would pass it by without comment – unless they knew: in that case, they

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“The greatest happiness of the greatest number”

Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull

Britain wakes up to reason Exploring new lands, making new scientific discoveries, questioning long-held religious doctrines – even getting rid of the odd king or two – all of these things were part of Britain’s story between the 16th and 19th centuries.  Creative energy, though, was certainly not unique to Britain; there was so much

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