Who are the British? Do they really drink tea, eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and never leave home without an umbrella? Find out more about true Brits; past and present, myth and legend, fact and fiction.
St Bartholomew can be credited with leaving a great legacy to London: a fair where visitors could overindulge and get into fights, a hospital to patch them up, and the Priory of St Bartholomew to pray for their souls…
As the sun sets on 5th January, Twelfth Night arrives, marking the last day of Christmastide. In times past, this was the time for presents, revelry, merriment and feasting. At the centre of the celebrations was the Twelth Night Cake…
“Sir Isaac Newton told us why an apple falls down from the sky, and from this fact it is very plain, all other objects do the same”.
Scotland is a land of myths, ghosts, kelpies, spirits and the supernatural, The story of Robert Grierson of Lag, the 1st Baronet of Lag is one of the eeriest such tales. Robert Grierson is best known for his brutal treatment of the Presbyterian Scots of southwest Scotland during the “Killing Times” at the end of the seventeenth century…
The story of the Prince and the Pig is the story of a young prince named Bladud. Falling ill with leprosy during a trip to Greece, Bladud returned to England and working as a swineherd during which time he discovered a spring, the healing waters of which cured his leprosy. In gratitude, Bladud founded the town of Bath in 836BC/BCE…
Sir Christopher Wren is perhaps most famous for the buildings he designed after the Great Fire of London, including the iconic St Paul’s Cathedral.
The 1948 London Olympic Games became known as the “Austerity Olympics”. No one tried to hide the fact the games would be delivered on a shoe-string budget. They embraced it enthusiastically and with pride. All participating British athletes even had to provide their own shorts…
Forceps have saved many lives; it is unfortunate to think of how many people could have survived if greed, sexism and classism hadn’t prevented their widespread usage…
The aristocratic Lady Florence Dixie threw off the shackles of her Victorian upbringing and embraced a career as a war correspondent, feminist writer, traveller, campaigner – and first President of the British Ladies Football Club…
During the 1960s when US boffins were involved in some serious research into how to conquer space and deliver a man to the moon, 130 of the finest food scientists in ‘Good Ole Blighty’ were assembled for the Chorleywood Experiment…