buildings
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Sell part of the Tower? Good heavens. The thing is, what price would the estate agent hope to place on the flat? I mean, it’s a setting that’s second to none! I imagine too that a few very influential personages from the past might pitch in to block (pun entirely intentional!) such a transaction.…
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Well, another hoard. OK, it was a while ago, but it’s still a hoard. I’m so jealous. I want to find something important from the past, especially the medieval past. However, I have to be satisfied with my bits of clap pipe and Victorian pottery, This article tells of gold coins of Edward III…
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Below is an interesting little snippet from the Calendar of Patent Rolls for 1382: You’ll find the original record here. And so Sheriff Hutton was born! Who would have thought that from such beginnings would rise one of the most important castles in Yorkshire? A plot on which to enclose a wall of stone and…
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The Bishop’s Palace in Salisbury is one of its oldest buildings…but it is not at all well known. Hidden behind tall walls and gates, with only faint glimpses of stonework through the trees planted in front of it, the Palace is better known today as ‘Salisbury Cathedral School.’ There is no access, other than for…
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We have written twice before about non-existent historical children somehow finding their way into works by a certain modern writer, who is often cited on Wikipedia and repeated by others. In these posts, we referred to “Joan of York”, ostensibly a sister of Richard III, together with those attributed to Henry IV and Mary de…
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This two part series was originally shown on 5Select during December 2021, presented by Tracy Borman from the Tower of London. It went beyond the cliched story of: the brewery in Putney, service to Wolsey, surviving him, the Dissolution, outmanoeuvring Anne Boleyn, setting up the Cleves “marriage” and being sent to the block to encounter…
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My latest target for research is the English garrison/bastion of Brest, on the coast of Brittany, specifically the final years of the 14th century before it was handed back to the Bretons. My interest had been aroused when reading Ducal Brittany 1364-1399, by Michael Jones. In it I learned of the practice of…
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Another handsome property with a Wars of the Roses connection has come on the market–Warblington Castle in Hampshire. Being a private home, it is little known outside the local area but it has strong connections with Richard Neville-Warwick the Kingmaker and his family. Although it had been a manor from at least Norman times, Warblington…
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On the BBC news channel recently there was an item about Pete Waterman (of Stock Aitkin and Waterman fame) and his beloved model railway, which is spectacular and will feature in an upcoming showing of Timeshift on BBC 4. The episode in question is in Series 12, episode 7 of 10, entitled “The…
