travel
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It’s King Richard’s Faire time again across the Atlantic. Let’s face it, our American friends certainly know how to celebrate the fun and games of medieval England! Unfortunately for us on this side of the Pond, the heralds arrived a little late for us to take up the opening-day (Saturday, 30 August 2025) challenge. Not…
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This year, 2025, it was the ten-year anniversary of the reinterment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. My friend and I went to Leicester to experience some of the festivities and took the opportunity to visit Fotheringhay, about an hour’s drive from Leicester. This, of course, was the birthplace of Richard as well as the…
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A while ago, I had a day off and decided to spend it in Skipton. Being fond of castles since I was a child, I saw a picture of this one and I put it on my list. It was a nice day with spells of sun and a chilly air. As soon as I…
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St Cuthbert was one of Richard’s favoured saints, being associated with the north of England, but who was he? Cuthbert of Lindisfarne (c. 634/5 – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian church. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in Northumbria, today in northern…
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By Super Blue Channel Four’s occasional series about the lives of the Royal Family is back and this time it is focused upon Scotland. Dumfries House in Ayrshire is mentioned as is Glamis Castle, the home of their Bowes-Lyon ancestors, arguing that Scotland is where they feel most at home. Most of the hour was…
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Well, Hallowe’en is nigh, a time when we like to shiver and squeal, so here is a dark legend to set those shivers and squeals in motion. It happened at the end of the 14th/beginning of the 15th century among the dense trees of Nannau Park near Dolgelly/Dolgellau, the county town of Merionethshire (now Gwynedd).…
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… will be reading this from the American land mass and associated archipelago that now form two great continents. As late as the decade after Richard III’s untimely death, the great powers of Southern Europe were unaware of its existence. To the people of the “Old World”, Asia and Africa were known and Columbus‘ discoveries…
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This locomotive, 6015 King Richard III achieved a speed of 108 mph while hauling the Cornish Riviera Express on 29th September 1955. One of a large class of engines named after English kings, King Richard III was completed in June 1928 and withdrawn from service in September 1962. It therefore had a slightly longer ‘life’…
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Yet again the amazing coast of Dorset yields a historic discovery. Not prehistoric this time, but 13th century, in the form of a large sunken vessel with an interesting cargo. Discovered in Poole Bay in 2020 and granted protected status in 2022, the wreck is well preserved and is giving up its intriguing contents of…
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“….March 1486….Henry VII went on [his first] Progress….Elizabeth of York went with Henry on a progress to the north of England. They were accompanied by 200 bowmen. Henry wanted to show the north of England that he was secure in London which he hoped would put off any would be Yorkist pretender to the throne.…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 