Wales
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Well, Hallowe’en is nigh, a time when we like to shiver and squeal, so here is a dark legend to set those shivers and squeals in motion. It happened at the end of the 14th/beginning of the 15th century among the dense trees of Nannau Park near Dolgelly/Dolgellau, the county town of Merionethshire (now Gwynedd).…
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Never having been divorced I have no idea of exactly how fussy the law is when it comes to sharing property. Well, I know they still have to list things, but I certainly didn’t know what was expected in medieval times when a couple finally parted. I had reason to check upon what amounted to…
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Before I go any further, let me say that the above image is more or less the first view I had back in the 1970s of the Romano-British temple of Nodens, at Lydney Park near the town of Lydney in Gloucestershire. The temple is on a hillfort site on a bluff where the River Severn…
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Digging for Britain (series 11)
Alice Roberts, bags, bath houses, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chedworth, defences, digging for Britain, docks, dodecahedrons, Domesday Book, Dorset, Dover, Enfield, evacuation, Exeter Cathedral, flint tools, forty hall, Gloucester, Grampians, gun emplacement, Henry V, Hereford, Imber, Kent, Leicester cathedral, Lincoln, Lowther Castle, Marshes, mosaic tiles, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northampton, norton disney, nunneries, Owain Glyn Dwr, Platonic solids, postern gates, pubs, Roman Britain, roundhouses, Scotland, Septimus Severus, shoes, Smallhythe, Snodhill Castle, Strathclyde, Syston, timber, Tintern Abbey, trade, Trellau Park, Wales, Waterloo, William II, WW2 defences, WyeAs another year dawns, it must be time for another series of Britain’s archeological highlights, divided into five regions. This time, it started in the north with Carlisle Cricket Club hosting a dig associated with the bathhouse of the emperor Septimius Severus, a particularly steep part of the Grampians and Lowther Castle, a site that…
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So here we have one of Kathryn Warner‘s earlier books. It describes the life and career of Edward II’s third and final favourite – his marriage to Eleanor de Clare, his lawless activitities but also the degree to which they were exaggerated, leading to his “trial” and execution. We can recommend it highly as part…
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A review of The Mists of Middleham by Pauline Calkin. Reposted from the Richard III Society page. The Mists of Middleham – An Alianore Audley Novel by Brian Wainwright. Readers may remember Alianore Audley as the wise-cracking, no nonsense Yorkist Intelligence operative who gave us her first-hand account of the reigns of Edward IV…
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Henry Bolingbroke, of course, was not a tyrant. Not at all. It’s just that before he became king, he executed an earl and four knights, no doubt by mistake. He was neither king, high constable nor marshal, and anyway was a banished man. So he had no lawful authority whatever. But he was merely carrying…
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Over a weekend in mid-July 2023 there was an archaeological event at Powis Castle during which visitors could participate in The Festival of Archaeology, “….a national, annual programme of events which runs over two weeks. Events in the series include activities, talks, guided walks, exhibitions, excavations, activities and more. The theme for this year is…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 