travel
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Sometimes it’s hard for us to think of the small size of medieval ships. These brave vessels went to sea in all manner of weather, and crossed considerable distances from England to all parts of Europe. One of the swiftest and most manoeuverable was reckoned to be the caravel, which vessel Columbus used when he…
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Many sites are connected with Atlantis. So much so that the name is attached to “lost” towns and villages that are being searched for today. Among these is Ravenspur, which was in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It’s famous to medievalists for being where Henry IV (as Duke of Lancaster) landed in 1399 and Edward…
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This may not be from our period, but it’s remarkable nevertheless, if only for revealing just how well the most unlikely of treasures can survive under the sea. For over 300 years in this case. In 1724 the German vessel “Archangel Raphael” sank off the coast of the Gulf of Finland. She was supposedly on…
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… is another song by the Legendary Ten Seconds about the Salvation Army in Torquay. It is available to download as a further example of their music, although set rather more recently than usual.
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I know that I have written before about the tall black hat that is worn by Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, future Henry IV, in the illustrations of the deposition, death and funeral of his murdered cousin, Richard II. The illustrations are from Creton’s La Prinse et Mort du roy Richart. The hat has…
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Oh, the power of folklore. I was brought up in Cilfynydd, near Pontypridd. A mountain/very large hill rose behind the village and high on it was a spring which everyone called Paddy’s Well. I was told it got its name because St Patrick passed that way and drank from it. No doubt there are as…
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This locomotive ‘Fair Rosamund’ was the only one of its class to carry a name. It was, of course, named after Rosamund Clifford and usually worked on the Great Western Railway’s Woodstock branch, near Oxford. Rosamund Clifford (mistress of Henry II) came from Clifford Castle near Hay in the Marches. This castle was associated with…
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Recently I went on a little jaunt to visit some fine Welsh Castles. One of those happened to be Carew in Pembrokshire, an impressive limestone fortress overlooking Carew inlet, which is part of the Milford Haven Waterway. Built by the Norman Gerald of Windsor, the site stands on the lands of his wife, the…
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This is a seond revised edition of the original book which is about the songs I have written for my Richard III music project. It includes the lyrics for the songs which have been released on the albums which have been recorded as The Legendary Ten Seconds. The songs that I have written and recorded…
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The “awkward mediaeval cities” (3) : St. Alban’s
battlefields, blue plaque, Boudicca, Colchester, destruction, Edmund Duke of Somerset, Eleanor Crosses, Elizabeth I, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Humphrey of Gloucester, Jean II, John Ball, London, Luton, martyrs, museums, Northampton, Oxford, Poitiers, Roman Britain, Roman theatre, Second Battle of St. Albans, Skipton Building Society, St. Alban, St. Albans, St. Albans Cathedral, Thameslink, Verulam Park, Verulamium Roman Museum, Victoria Street, Wars of the Roses, Watford JunctionUnlike Northampton and Oxford, St. Alban’s (City) is on the Thameslink network and also has a branch line to Watford Junction. Accommodation can be expensive but the less historic Luton is surprisingly convenient as a base, being about fourteen minutes away on the same line and costing about five pounds for a day return. Turning right…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 