buildings
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I’m afraid that I’m not a lover of Shakespeare’s works. I think the blame for this can be laid squarely at the feet of ‘O’ English Literature. I was bored rigid. But when it came to the much earlier Geoffrey Chaucer, which I didn’t read until after leaving school, I loved every word. Maybe if…
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St Lawrence’s church in Hampshire is, from the outside, a rather unassuming parish church with an unsightly stucco exterior. Inside, however, it has several very interesting historical features that make it well worth a visit. The church is Norman, with later additions from the 13th and 15th c. It contains an even earlier Saxon font,…
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Recently, John Halle’s house in Salisbury, a 15th century building and home to the Odeon Cinema, went up for auction. John Halle was a local merchant and a rather fractious fellow–he upset Edward IV and ended up cooling his heels in the Tower for a while, after having a major dispute with Richard Beauchamp, Bishop…
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We all know the story of Richard III apparently spending a night at the White Boar Inn in Leicester, on his way to his fate at Bosworth. We know of his bed, with its supposed hidden treasure, and that the inn prudently decided to rename itself the Blue Boar, to avoid Tudor wrath (of which…
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At first glance you’d think this article by Peter Hitchens of the Mail Online is going to be in praise of Tony Blair, especially when you also see the above photograph. But the former Prime Minister only comes into it to illustrate how at least one modern myth sprang up. The article goes on the…
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Christ Stapleton (the Deputy News Editor who identifies as He/Him) has written an article about “the run-up to Roses [2023]”. You can read about Roses 2023 here. Unfortunately, the first mention of Richard III describes him as “infamous”. Then we get: “….Richard schemed to have his brother’s two children proved illegitimate, which would allow him…
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Is it just me? Or does this house in Pirton, Worcestershire, which dates back to the Domesday Book and is described as Elizabethan, actually look merely Victorian/Edwardian? Ignore the black-and-white exterior, because even with the original more natural colours the house just does not look 16th/17th century, even though it is. To me it appears…
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… another Aldi site. This one is in Olney, Buckinghamshire, near Milton Keynes and was discovered by Oxford Archaeology. it is believed to be the remains of a villa and bath house.
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Was it really spring 2014 when the crown that John Ashdown-Hill had made for Richard III’s reinterment was put on display at Tewkesbury Abbey? All of nine years ago! Like many others I went to see it and happened to enter the abbey at a time when there was a lull in the arrivals. I…
