Normans
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SARUM LIGHTS–A COMMEMORATION
“Pillars of the Earth”, Battle of Bosworth, Buckingham rebellion, Ela Countess of Salisbury, Eleanor of Aquitaine, executions, Gothic architecture, Henry II, Henry III, Iron Age, Ken Follett, Lionel Woodville, Magna Carta, Margaret of Salisbury, Normans, Old Sarum, Richard III, Salisbury Cathedral, Sir John Cheney, stained glass, William Longspee2020 is the 800th Anniversary of the founding of Salisbury Cathedral. Before ‘New Salisbury’ came into existence, the town stood on the windy cone of Old Sarum, a huge iron-age hillfort with massive earthen ramparts. There was a particularly forbidding Norman castle on the height, with a windswept bridge over a deep moat–here, Henry II…
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London: 2000 years of history (channel 5)
Admiralty Arch, Aldwych, Alfred the Great, ampitheatres, Anderson shelters, Anglo-Saxons, Black Death, Blitz, Boudicca, bridges, Brunel, Channel Five, Charles Booth, Charles I, cholera, City of London, Commonwealth immigration, coronations, Covent Garden, Crossrail, Dan Jones, Docklands, Edward VII, Elizabeth I, Ethelred II, Euston, expansion, glass, Golden Hind, Great Fire of London, Great War, Green Belt, Guido Fawkes, GWR, Hampstead, Harold II, Henry III, Henry IV, Henry VIII, hills, industrialisation, Jack the Ripper, Joseph Bazalgette, Kent, Lamb Street Teenager, land reclaimed, Londinium, London, Londonburgh, Londonwich, Metroland, Metropolitan Line, MI5 building, Norman stone, Normans, Northern Line, Old London Bridge, Paddington, pottery, railways, rebellions, Richard II, Richard Whittington, Rob Bell, Roman walls, Romans, Royal Ordnance factories, Samuel Pepys, Savoy, Selfridges, sewage system, shipping containers, Shoreditch, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Francis Drake, Spanish ‘flu, Spitalfields, St. Paul’s, stone, Suffragettes, Suzannah Lipscomb, Thames, Thomas Wolsey, Tower of London, trials, Underground, Viking raids, War Office, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, White Tower, Whitechapel, Whitehall Palace, William I, William Wallace, ZeppelinsWho let Dan Jones out? At least, as in his last outing, he is accompanied both by a historian (Suzannah Lipscomb) and an engineer (Rob Bell), narrating and illustrating almost two millennia of the city’s past. In the first episode, we were taken through the walled city of “Londinium” being built and rebuilt after Boudicca’s…
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The Champernownes of Devon
Anne Boleyn, Chambercombe Manor, Champernownes, Courtenays, Crediton, Dartington Hall, Devon, Domesday Book, Dukes of Exeter, earls of devon, Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, executions, Exeter, explorers, ghosts, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, Henry Norris, Henry VIII, Ilfracombe, Jane, Normans, Polsoe, Powderham Castle, Redvers Buller, Sir Arthur Champernowne, Sir Edward Seymour, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, TotnesThe Champernownes (above), a Norman line whose alternative spellings include Chapman and Chamberlain, are surely Devon’s second family after the Courtenays of Powderham Castle, who hold the Earldom. From 1162, their (Domesday Book-cited) home was at Chambercombe Manor near Ilfracombe (middle right) but, by the early sixteenth century, this had passed to Henry Grey, Duke of…
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If you haven’t seen this before, it’s well worth watching. Very clever.
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“….Most of England’s monumental mounds are assumed to be Norman castle mottes built in the period immediately after the Conquest – but could some of them have much earlier origins? Jim Leary, Elaine Jamieson, and Phil Stastney report on a project that set out to investigate some of these mighty constructions….” There is information about…
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Here is an article about Sandal Castle, and Richard’s place in its history.
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If you are looking for a pleasant medieval weekend away you could do worse than staying at the manor house of St Pierre, near Chepstow in Wales. The deerpark may be a golf course now but there are still acres to walk, an ancient church, and a handsome twin-towered gatehouse surrounded by a courtyard. The…
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This EADT article explains how, with help from the writers Michael Linton and Charlie Haylock, together with the Mayor and themselves, have ensured that a metal replica of the tapestry will be on show in Woodbridge for two months:
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I had never looked into the English origins of George Washington’s family, although I did know that his ancestors were associated with Washington Old Hall, Washington, Tyne & Wear. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/washington-old-hall So I am surprised to discover that the family was also associated with other places, including Purleigh in Essex (http://www.kenmore.org/genealogy/washington/descendants.html) and Sulgrave Manor in…
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William the B … er, Conqueror
Anglo-Saxons, Battle, Battle Abbey, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, Canterbury, castles, Chepstow, chivalry, churches, Colchester Castle, Coronation, death, Domesday Book, executions, famine, Harold II, height, Henry I, Marc Morris, Matilda of Flanders, mediaeval buildings, Normans, Scotland, slavery, St. David’s, Tayside, Tower of London, usurpation, Wales, Waltheof, William I, William IIThis piece, by Marc Morris in History Extra, describes the events that followed the previous usurpation from France. A lot more violent, indeed, than the early reign of the first “Tudor”, although his son and grandchildren changed that …