travel
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“Walking Britain’s Lost Railways” is back, for a fourth series, starting in Yorkshire. As well as walking the former York to Hull route, Bell explains why the East Coast Main Line, as it now is, passes through York and not Leeds, although the latter is now more than four times larger. This situation, in which…
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“….Scholars at Yale University have just completed a comprehensive analysis of the Vinland Map , a cartographic representation of the northeastern North American coast that was supposedly created in the 15th century. Using the latest high-tech methods to examine the ink used to draw its markings, the Yale experts have conclusively proven the Vinland Map to…
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Wars of the Roses Delights in Suffolk
Battle of Bosworth, blue boar, Bury St. Edmunds, castles, Catherine Stafford, Cecily Neville, Clare, Clare Castle, Clare Priory, de la Pole family, de Vere star, Dunwich, Earls of Oxford, Edward I, Elizabeth of Suffolk, executions, Greyfriars, Hammes, Henry VII, Joan of Acre, John Ashdown-Hill, John Duke of Suffolk, John Earl of Lincoln, Knights Templar, Lavenham, Leicester cathedral, Lionel of Antwerp, Michael Earl of Suffolk, pubs, rosary, Sir john Wingfield, St. Andrew’s Wingfield, Stoke Field, Suffolk, tomb effigies, Violante Visconti, Wingfield, YorkistsAfter over a year, I have finally been able to go on another holiday in which to indulge in my passion of church and castle crawling. I haven’t spent much time in Suffolk before–it’s just a little too far–but there were some places I really wanted to visit, so off we went, braving a crazed…
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“….Cornburgh, originally from Cornwall and later of Gooshayes (Essex), was yeoman at the Lancastrian, Yorkist, and Tudor courts and a man of considerable power….” The above extract is from this article I confess I had never heard of Avery Cornburgh (died 1487) who was apparently a close friend of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk.…
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Why is it that a passing thought of adding detail to a minor description leads to one spending hours scouring the internet and book shelves trying to find the information? All I wanted to know is how a medieval bishop would have dressed to travel. Not in a war zone, just on the road from…
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Giving the Walbrook the Elbow….
College Hill, Dowgate, Downgate Street, Edward III, Edward IV, Elbow Lane, F.J. Furnivall, flow, Geoffrey Chaucer, Geoffrey Scrope, George Duke of Clarence, Henry I, John Nevill Lord Raby, John Stow, London, maps, Olde Hall, Richard of Warwick, River Walbrook, rivers, Roman era, sewage system, St Mary Overy, Thames StreetIn this article I wrote the following:- “….The Walbrook flowed quite swiftly [south] from its source, but on nearing the Thames the land flattened considerably, and the river seems to have indulged in a curve….” This curve or meander, when filled in and “improved” in the 15th century, for the river to flow more…
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Yet again, while searching for one thing I came upon another. A book called The Hamble River by H.W. Trinder, from which the above map is taken, seemed likely to contain the information I was seeking, i.e. Southampton and its immediate environs in the 14th century. Then, I read the following:- “….Receyved [probably to lay…
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Well, I can’t believe poinsettias, pretty as they are, ever featured in medieval European Christmas festivities! Any more than turkeys, roast potatoes, cranberries, chocolate and other such delights that are due entirely to the New World. The above picture is from this article about the pagan origins of Christmas, and for all its New World…
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The “awkward mediaeval cities” (2) : Northampton
artillery, Battle of Bosworth, Battle of Northampton, Bletchley, coaches, delapre Abbey, Dissolution of the Monasteries, DNA, Edward I, Eleanor of Castile, Fotheringhay, Francis Crick, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Northampton Castle, Oxford, Peterborough, rail journeys, Richard III, siege of Roxburgh, St. Albans, St. Thomas Becket, Stony Stratford, trials, Weston FavellAnother such is Northampton. Like Oxford, most (all in fact) of the trains run to or from London, although the latter will reconnect to Cambridge in a few years, with Milton Keynes and Northampton joining the line via Bletchley. Northampton is only currently accessible from East Anglia via London, Birmingham, or switching to a coach…
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Here is a Daily Telegraph review of Charles, Earl Spencer‘s book about the sinking of the White Ship in 1120. It includes a lot of hypotheses based upon the survival of William the Atheling, the tenager who was Henry I‘s only surviving legitimate son but was the most prominent casualty of this maritime incident, arguably…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 