Science
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Well, I had heard before that medieval horses were much smaller than we imagine, and now it seems proof may may have been found. It’s a fact that for journeys medieval folk who could afford more than Shanks’ pony used small horses that could keep up a fast trot for a l-o-n-g time. They…
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It has been argued before, especially by the late John Ashdown-Hill, that Richard’s sleepless nights and so-called ghastly appearance before Bosworth were caused by the sweating sickness. It has also been more generally understood that it was Henry VII and his army of foreign invaders who brought and spread the disease, which was new to…
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Wandering around the net in search of one thing does, as we all know, often turn up something else entirely. I came upon this site which tells of a map from a period following the one in which we’re mainly interested, but I found it intriguing. It seems the present Blackwall Tunnel mightn’t be…
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Diana Rubino on the Legendary Ten Seconds
albums, Cecily Duchess of York, Devon, Diana Rubino, HMS Bellerophon, Ian Churchward, imaginary letters, John Challis, John Peel, Margaret of Burgundy, Mortimer History Society, Mortimers, Napoleonic wars, Pageant of Torbay, Richard III Society, Riviera FM, Sandra heath wilson, Scoliosis Association UK, The Legendary Ten Seconds, Wars of the Roses, Wigmore Abbey, WydevillesAs you will observe from their appearance on Diana Rubino’s blog , The Legendary Ten Seconds now have a book featuring information on some of their best-known songs about Richard III, his time and Devon, of course. My Review of The Legendary Ten Seconds for the Ricardian Register (magazine of the American branch) As a longtime…
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Not what you expect with a water bill!
Alice Roberts, Anglian Water, Cat Jarman, Cerne Abbas Giant, churches, digging for Britain, Hadrian’s Wall, HS2, ichtyosaur, industrialisation, Iron Age, Leicester, Norman architecture, Northern Ireland, Onyeka Nubia, Richmond Castle, Rochdale, Roman mosaic, Roman plumbing, Rutland, Rutland Water, Salisbury Plain, Stoke Mandeville, World War TwoI also received this from Anglia Water about the “Rutland Sea Dragon”, an ichtyosaur found near Rutland Water. It featured in episode four of Digging for Britain, the latest series of which was shown over two weeks in January. As ever, Alice Roberts was the main presenter, alongside Dr. Onyeka Nubia and Dr. Cat Jarman.…
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Michael Portillo’s Great Coastal Railway Journeys and Pembroke Castle
“Tudors”, Ancestry, BBC2, bigamy, Carmarthenshire, Catherine de Valois, denialists, Edmund “Tudor”, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Ednyfed Fychan, Edward IV, Glamorgan, Great Coastal Railway Journeys, Henry VI, Henry VII, Hywel Dda, Jasper “Tudor”, John Ashdown-Hill, legislation, Llewellyn ap Iorweth, Maredydd ap Tudor, Michael Portillo, Mortimers of Wigmore, Nathen Amin, Owain Tudor, Pembroke Castle, pre-contract, remarriage of royal stepmothers, Rhodri Dda, Richard III, Royal Marriage Secrets, stewards, TenbyI have enjoyed watching Michael Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys particularly the programmes that have shown him travelling along the coast of South Wales. He stopped off in places that I know well in Glamorgan, also in places that my ancestors hailed from in Carmarthenshire. However, one programme ended up in Pembroke and I must…
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“….Where and how did medieval mapmakers, apparently armed with no more than a compass, an hourglass and sets of sailing directions, develop stunningly accurate maps of southern Europe, the Black Sea and North African coastlines, as if they were looking down from a satellite, when no one had been higher than a treetop?…” I have…
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We’re inclined to view fully functioning prosthetic hands and so on as a modern invention. The fruits of our ever-advancing society. But we aren’t the originators. Of course, prosthetics go back a very long time, e.g. a wooden toe survives from Ancient Egypt, but the fully functioning part also goes back a fair way.…
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Like most other people, I once thought that Dog Days did indeed have something to do with dogs. I eventually learned that no, they acquired their name from Sirius, the Dog Star, which is at its brightest during certain weeks in summer. The Ancient Greeks (some sites credit the Romans, so you can…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 