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The Red Castle mentioned in The Adventures of Alianore Audley, is a real place, albeit not very much is left of it. It is in Hawkstone Park and was formerly one of the main residences of the Touchet/Audley family. The spelling of ‘Touchet’ varies enormously. Some members of the family used ‘Touchet’ while others used…
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Oh, is there no end to the groanworthiness of TV documentaries? I found myself watching Blowing-up History, series 8, episode 5, about the Tower of London. (My hand is cupped to my shell-like ear, and yes, I can hear your soaring chorus of groans!) You’re right, yet again it was Richard wot dunnit to…
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This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England
Aethelbald of Mercia, Aethelflaed, Alfred, Alfred Jewel, Alfred the Great, Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxons, Athelney, Athelstan, Cerne Abbas Giant, coins, Colchester, conversion, Ealdfrith, East Anglia, Edward the Elder, Gareth Williams, Guthrum, Ian Hislop, Ipswich, Janina Ramirez, Jarrow, Lindisfarne, Marc Morris, Mercia, monasteries, Northumbria, Offa, Offa’s Dyke, Oswald, Penda, Philip Wise, Picts, Radio 4, Raedwald, Roman Empire, Rule Britannia, Scotland, St. Athelwald, St. Dunstan, St. Eadwald, stained glass, stone, Sutton Hoo, Thomas Arne, Venerable Bede, Viking raids, Wales, Wearmouth, Wessex, Winchester, WuffingsThis is an excellent series on BBC4 about the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that eventually evolved to fill the vacuum left by departure of the Roman legions. In the first episode, Ian Hislop visits East Anglia, particularly Colchester, Ipswich and Sutton Hoo, viewing some coins with Philip Wise and hearing about the Wuffingas, apparently descended from a…
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The history of castles….
Beaumaris Castle, Belvoir Castle, castles, Charles VIII, defences, Durham Castle, Edward I, English Civil War, Episcopal palaces, gunpowder, Italian Wars, keeps, Knights Hospitaller, Krak des Chevaliers, motte and bailey, Normans, ruins, slighting, stone, Syria, tourism, Wales, Warkworth Castle, William I, Windsor CastleWe all love early castles. Well, we can love those from later ages, but they don’t have quite the same cachet as those wonderful old fortresses that always make us gasp when we see them. But how did they evolve? And why did they become obsolete except as tourist attractions and scenic splendours? This article…
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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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In life, Henry VII was renowned for fighting his battles from a deckchair, behind a pike wall with a telescope. Even some of his statues are behaving similarly now. The best example is, or was, in Exeter. It commemorated the two sieges of the city in 1497 when the two Cornish Rebellions were kept out…
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I was quite amazed to find out last week, when visiting Leicester Cathedral, that the small coat of arms that can be seen on the front part of the tomb was made by a skilled craftsman called Thomas Greenaway, who is one of only a handful of people who use the 16th Century craft of…
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