Showing posts with the label England

Cosmati Pavement at Westminster Abbey

Apr 18, 2023

In May 2023, following the coronation of King Charles III and the Queen Consort, Camilla, at Westminster Abbey, the church’s historic Cosmat...

James Holman, The Blind Traveler

Apr 13, 2023

James Holman was a remarkable figure in the history of travel and exploration. Born in Exeter, England, in 1786, Holman lost his sight in hi...

Dorothy Lawrence: The Woman Who Posed as a Soldier to be a War Correspondent

Mar 29, 2023

The First World War was reported from an almost exclusively male perspective, because few female war correspondents were given access to the...

Edward Dando: The Celebrated Oyster Eater

Mar 21, 2023

There was time in 1820s London when the name of Edward Dando sent panic through the hearts of tavern and oyster shop owners. This young man,...

Jack Ketch’s Botched Executions

Mar 8, 2023

The job of an executioner in medieval England was detestable. Nobody invited them to their homes. They were not allowed to go to the church,...

Curfew Bell

Jan 20, 2023

Nearly every medieval house in Europe used to have an open hearth where a fire was kept going at all times to keep the occupants warm, and a...

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings: The Building That Changed The World’s Skyline

Jan 3, 2023

In 1797, an extraordinary building went up in Shropshire that would change the skylines of our cities forever. Described as “the grandfather...

Thomas Parr, The Man Who Lived to 152 Years

Nov 30, 2022

On 15 November 1635, Thomas Parr was laid to rest at a grave in old Westminster Abbey. Tradition insist that this man was born around the ye...

The Miraculous Resurrection of Anne Greene

Nov 21, 2022

Anne Greene is one of the reasons why some people used to have a morbid fear of premature burial . In December 1650, Anne Green, an English ...

Stompie The Tank

Nov 17, 2022

For the 1995 movie Richard III , director Richard Loncraine towed an old Soviet T-34 tank to the center of London and had it drive through a...