buildings

Digging for Britain (series 11)

Feb 4, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, art, battles, buildings, religion

Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, Wye

As another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
Leicester’s new Richard III Walking Trail….

Feb 2, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, genealogy, Science

Bosworth, Greyfriars, Henry VII, John Ashdown-Hill, Leicester, mtDNA, Philippa Langley, Richard III, Soar, statues, The Turret Gateway, Visitors Centre, walks

As this article Walking Leicester’s new Richard III trail – 530 years in the making | Leicester holidays | The Guardian says, the trail that Richard III left through Leicester has been nearly 5½ centuries in the making. It certainly wasn’t a part of his realm that had particular meaning for him during his…
Thomas Tresham – Lancastrian and Speaker of the Commons.

Jan 31, 2024

anniversaries, battles, buildings, law

attainder, Barnet, edmund lenthall, francis tresham, Gunpowder Plot, Henry VI, Henry VII, High Sheriffs, huntingdon castle, Jack Cade, John Earl of Oxford, jps, Lord Grey of Ruthin, Margaret of Anjou, mary zouche, MPs, Richard Duke of York, Second Battle of St. Albans, simon norwich, Sir Thomas Tresham, Sir William Tresham, Sir William Vaux, Tewkesbury, Tower of London, Towton

Thomas Tresham was born in about 1420. He was the son of William Tresham and Isabel Vaux. (Isabel Vaux was the great-aunt of that Sir William Vaux who was executed at Tewkesbury.) William Tresham was an important servant of Henry VI, which undoubtedly helped his son’s advancement. In 1443, father and son were appointed joint…
The Radcliffes of Radcliffe Tower (and elsewhere)

Jan 30, 2024

buildings, genealogy

Attleborough, earls of sussex, Manchester, Norfolk, Ordsall Hall, Radcliffe Tower, Radcliffes, Salford, Sir Richard Ratcliffe

Radcliffe Tower still survives, but only in part. The remnant is but a ruined stone tower, to which was once attached a substantial great hall and other apartments. The Tower was the home of the principal line of the Radcliffe family (Radcliffe of The Tower). There were several cadet branches and, needless to say, the…
The Dingleys of Cropthorne

Jan 27, 2024

anniversaries, battles, buildings, religion

Constance of York, cropthorne, Edward Dingley, Edward I, Edward III, elizabeth bigge, Evesham Abbey, Francis Dingley, Joan “Beaufort”, Joan of Acre, John of Gaunt, Katherine Swynford, Mary Neville, Ralph Earl of Westmorland, re-enactment, Saxon churches

While visiting Evesham for last year’s medieval re-enactment, I happened on the village of Cropthorne, with its large medieval church. I do a fair bit of church-crawling, and this was a fine specimen, built near the sites of a Saxon hunting lodge and containing a 9th century Saxon cross. It also had some interesting 17thc monuments to…
Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset and his siblings

Jan 26, 2024

anniversaries, battles, buildings, genealogy

Bamburgh Castle, Baron Howth, Dukes of Somerset, executions, First Battle of St. Albans, Hexham, james butler earl of ormond, John Earl of Ormond, John Marquess of Dorset, John Paston, Margaret Beaufort, Margaret FitzLewis, Second Battle of St. Albans, Sir Humphrey Stafford, Tewkesbury, Towton, Wakefield, william paston

It is difficult to keep track of the various ‘Somersets’ who pop up in the Wars of the Roses, and easy to confuse them. Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (1436-1464) was the third Duke of his line. He succeeded to the title on the death of his father at the first Battle of St.…
Phil Harding narrates for Wiltshire towns….

Jan 25, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings

apps, Channel Four, Phil Harding, technology, Time team, Wiltshire

Here’s all you need to know about this link, including that each episode features the marvellous Phil Harding, of Time Team fame. Oh arrr, Phil! Long may you reign! “….A new app which describes the history of Wiltshire towns has been launched today. “….Each town gets an audio introduction from a popular member of the…
No roads to or from Berkeley in Gloucestershire….?

Jan 24, 2024

anniversaries, Book Reviews, buildings, genealogy, travel

A38, barges, Berkeley Castle, berkeley pill, Bristol, david tandy, Edward III, Edward the Black Prince, Gloucester, Henry II, Henry III, isabellle de france, maps, Marshes, richard barber, roads, Severn Estuary

You all know the old saying “Curiosity killed the cat”. I’m one such cat and often see something funny or odd in the blandest of sentences. I just can’t help it. Well, this irrepressible curiosity has been pricked again. At the age of 10, in the summer of 1340, Edward of Woodstock, the young…
Sutton Hoo – the missing link?

Jan 23, 2024

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, religion, Science

burial mounds, conversion, National Lottery, Raedwald, Sutton Hoo, temples, Wuffings

The Wuffingas, Raedwald in particular, lived in an era when such royal dynasties transitioned from paganism to Christianity. Digging in detail at Suttton Hoo, this time by school children and assisted by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to build on the knowledge we already have, is carrying on and seems to have located a hybrid temple.…
Behind Stanley lines (2004)

Jan 20, 2024

anniversaries, buildings, religion

Chester, Chester Cathedral, Chester city walls, coach visits, Deva Stadium, Earls of Chester, Edward VIII, football, Liverpool, Love Lane, red light district, shops, Stanleys, The Rows

In that year, I visited the Roman city of Chester for the first weekend in March. It has a fantastic cathedral and the best British walls except those at York , together with modern shops arranged in “The Rows”, a very old red light district and a subsequently built Deva Stadium for football. It is…