buildings
-
This enthralling programme has returned, but made a dubious claim in the third epsode. Apparently, Jack Ketch was so hopeless at swinging an axe in a straight line, you would be better off as a commoner if facing execution, because almost anyone could be reasonably competent at short drop hanging, where breaking the subject’s neck…
-
We all love a heroine…even if her exerts are in favour of her Lancastrian lover! 😲 The story of Blanche Heriot of Chertsey in Surrey is set in 1471, just after Edward IV has won back his throne. The lover in question, one Nicholas Audley, fought on the wrong side, was captured and sentenced…
-
… for encrypted documents to be found in the French archives, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. This time, the computerised decoding process revealed the missives to the French Ambassador to contain nouns and verbs in the feminine form, mentions of captivity and of Sir Francis Walsingham, leading the experts to deduce the sender to be…
-
Here is the urn in Westminster Abbey, purporting to contain the remains of the “Princes” as found in 1672, although we don’t know whether they were discovered a few decades earlier and reburied soon afterwards. We also don’t know how many individuals are in the urn and whether they are related, which species they are,…
-
The great fortresses built by Edward I to subdue the rebellious Welsh are all spectacular and have survived the centuries. Now they are considered beautiful examples of medieval workmanship and have become great tourist attractions, which isn’t really what old Longshanks ever intended! One of the finest of these fortresses is Caernarfon which is always…
-
Well, eye-watering prices are common enough when it comes to the sale of historic houses/estates, and Adlington Hall in Cheshire is no exception. The entire estate is up for £30 million but is divided into twenty-five lots. This is the first time in 700 years that the house—which began as a Saxon hunting lodge—has been…
