Suffolk
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One of the things about being awarded, or inheriting, a peerage or baronetcy in the Early Modern period was the necessity to keep up appearances. Great families would compete to have better servants than their contemporaries. Whilst employing a better butler or housekeeper would be a relatively inconspicuous maintenance issue, a designer or gardener could…
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Restoration commences on the de la Pole tomb in Wingfield Church….and I take a little detour to Wingfield Castle….
de la Poles, Edward IV, Elizabeth Mowbray, Elizabeth of Suffolk, French campaign, Harfleur, Henry V, Henry VII, John Duke of Suffolk, John Earl of Lincoln, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Michael Earl of Suffolk, ODNB, renovation, Richard Duke of York, Richard II, Richard III, Suffolk, Thomas Mowbray Earl of Norfolk, tombs, Wingfield Church, Wingfield ManorFor Ricardians the name de la Pole conjures thoughts of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. And maybe too of his father, John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, whose effigy lies at Wingfield Church in Suffolk with his duchess Elizabeth of York. She was a daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of…
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Nowadays Rendlesham (the Forest) is often regarded as the site of Britain’s Roswell, but that’s a very recent development because it’s also where “Archaeologists have uncovered a 1,400-year-old royal Hall of the first Kings of East Anglia in Suffolk, England.” The site was apparently first spotted from the air in 2015….but was first mentioned…
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Beautiful Collyweston….
architecture, Battle of Hastings, Ben Robinson, Cambridgeshire, Castle Acre, Clovelly, Cluniac Priories, Collyweston, cotton mills, Country Life, Cromfield, de Warenne, Derby, Devon, Dorset, fishing, Gainsthorpe, grubenhaus, Henry VII, industry, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lavenham, limestone, Lincolnshire, Milton Abbas, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Robin Hood’s Bay, Suffolk, Sutton-in-the-Isle, villages, West Stow, woolThe ten best villages in England are listed here and Collyweston in Northamptonshire makes the grade. I can only say that it does so entirely on its own merit and in spite of having once been the lair of Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.
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Now here is some exciting news. Time Team, formerly a Channel Four programme to 2014 but now digital, will be following up their 2015 visit to the Sutton Hoo mounds soon, on a digital platform. We don’t have a transmission date as yet …
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Have two lost islands been traced off the Welsh coast….?
Atlantis, Bermuda Triangle, Brutus, Cantre’r Gwaelod, Cardigan Bay, Conwy Bay, Cornwall, Dunwich, Edward IV, Gough Map, Henry IV, Hy-Brasil, Ireland, Iseult, islands, lost lands, Lyonesse, past maps, Ravenspur, Richard II, Scilly Isles, Seithenyn, South Devon, Suffolk, tristan, Trojans, Tyno Helig, WalesThe thought of lost/sunken lands has always fascinated me, beginning with the legendary land of Lyonesse, once believed to be off the coast of Cornwall, between Land’s End and the present Isles of Scilly. It features prominently in the story of Tristan and Iseult. And, like many such sunken lands, the bells of its…
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MacCullogh on Cromwell
BBC4, brewery, Christ Church Cathedral Oxford., Diarmaid MacCulloch, Dukes of Norfolk, executions, Gipping Chapel, Howards, Mowbrays, Norfolk, Oxford, Pickwicks, Putney, secretaries, St. Michael’s Church Framlingham, St. Nicholas’ Street Ipswich, Suffolk, Thetford Priory, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Wolsey, Wetherden, Wolsey’s Gate, Wolsey’s statueLast Monday, BBC repeated Sir Diarmaid MacCullogh‘s excellent documentary Henry VIII’s Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell, from 2013. Please watch it soon as you can it is only available until mid-January. Actually, excellent is rather an understatement as it is better than others you may see. In telling Cromwell‘s story from “the…
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We love to look at (and are proud of) our old medieval houses, and Lavenham in Suffolk is full of them! No wonder it draws in so many people, all intent upon seeing what England used to be like before the advent of modern building expansion. One of the most famous of the houses…
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Edward II’s nieces: The Clare Sisters
Anne Neville, Bannockburn, burials, Caerphilly Castle, Clare Castle, Clare Priory, Edward I, Edward II, Edward IV, Eleanor de Clare, Elizabeth de Clare, Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, George Duke of Clarence, Gilbert de Clare, Gilbert Earl of Gloucester, Hugh Despencer the Younger, Ireland, Isobel Neville, Joan of Acre, Kathryn Warner, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Margaret de Clare, Richard III, Suffolk, unofficial executions, Wales… and so to the dark green volume in Kathryn Warner‘s series about Edward II, his family, his associates and his era. This one details the lives of three sisters with seven husbands between them and a lot of interesting descendants, including Richard III (and siblings), his wife and his sisters-in-law. The eldest, Eleanor de…