Etal Castle began life as a defensive tower on the troubled Anglo-Scottish border. Of necessity, it was later enlarged, but its most famous moment was probably when it was captured by King James IV of Scotland and his enormous army, just before their defeat at nearby Flodden on 9 September 1513. Etal is ruined now,
The Battle of Sedgemoor was fought on 6th July 1685, a desperate attempt by Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, to seize the throne from his uncle, James II. Monmouth’s largely peasant army was no match for the king’s well-trained professionals. The defeated rebels were treated terribly harshly. Often said to be the
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During the First World War, there was a large military camp at Cannock Chase which became the base for the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. There was also a prisoner-of-war hospital with 1,000 beds, and both camp and hospital used the same burial ground. Cannock Chase War Cemetery contains 97 Commonwealth burials of the First World
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White Ladies Priory was a small Augustinian nunnery of ‘white ladies’ (from the colour of their habits). It was actually named for St Leonard and was founded in 12th century. It was suppressed in 1535 and a timber-framed house was built on the site. No visible trace of the house remains and the priory is
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Nine Ladies stone circle is probably the best known of many Bronze Age monuments on Derbyshire’s Stanton Moor and one of four stone circles on the moor. The others – Stanton Moor I, III and IV – are largely overgrown and hard to pick out. Nine Ladies is roughly in the centre of the moor,
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The elaborate Italianate York Watergate marks the position of the north bank of the River Thames before the construction of the Victoria Embankment in 1862. It now stands some 450 feet (137 metres) from the river, in Embankment Gardens. The gate was built in 1626 by Nicholas Stone, master mason, for George Villiers, 1st Duke
The Necropolis is Glasgow’s very own City of the Dead, a monumental testimonial to the Victorian age on a hill beyond the Cathedral of St Mungo. It is an astonishing cemetery, a 37 acre site containing the remains of some 50,000 souls. Of course, the great unwashed majority lie in pitiable obscurity, but there are
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Though obviously much restored and refurbished, it is claimed that All Saints, Brixworth, is the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon building – let alone church – in Britain. It has been a place of Christian worship for something like 1300 years. It is also known that a monastery was founded on the site toward the end of
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Golden Cap is the highest point on the south coast, at 627ft (191m), with fabulous views all round – some say as far as Portland Bill to the east and even as far as Dartmoor to the west. It is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site,
Marsden Bay is part of a stunning limestone cliff coastline between South Shields and Sunderland. It is a favoured nesting place for seabirds, particularly cormorants, fulmars and kittiwakes, much frequented by families and dog-walkers and admired by ornithologists and geologists alike. There is a famous and historic cave bar and diner, Marsden Grotto, attached to
The John Rylands Library holds the special collections of the University of Manchester’s library. The library was built by Enriqueta Rylands, the widow of wealthy industrialist John Rylands, after his death in 1888. It is a fantastic neo-Gothic building, like something from a sinister movie, but beautiful inside. It was designed by Basil Champneys (with
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Carn Menyn is a cluster of rocky outcrops, or tors, in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. It is an atmospheric environment, slightly lonely, with excellent views inland as well as over the sea, and several prehistoric remains in the area – such as Foel Trygarn and Bedd Arthur. In addition to the slightly strange arrangement
