Culture UK
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.
Boy, Prince Rupert’s Dog
Boy was a white hunting poodle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine during the English Civil War. Devoted to his master and considered a mascot, Boy accompanied the Prince everywhere, even onto the battlefield at Marston Moor…
Churchill and the Armoured Train Incident
The armoured train incident. The capture of Winston Churchill by Boer forces on November 15th 1899 during the Second Boer War…
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Writer and physician, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his books about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes…
School Dinners in the 1950s and 1960s
School dinners…love them or hate them they were an integral part of life for most children in the 1950s and 1960s…
Grace Darling
The daring and bravery of lighthouse keeper’s daughter Grace Darling made her a national heroine. On 7th September 1838, she and her father ventured out into a ferocious storm to rescue the survivors of the SS Forfarshire…
Michaelmas
Michaelmas day is celebrated on 29th September and is to do with St Michael and the coming of autumn…
Press Gangs
Britain’s ports and harbours were once menaced by the dreaded press gangs. Impressment, to give it its proper name, was the scourge of maritime communities across the British Isles and Britain’s North American colonies for 150 years from 1664–1830…
A 1950s/ 1960s Childhood
“It’s Friday, it’s Five to Five and it’s CRACKERJACK!”. Gob stoppers, The Dandy, the sixpenny rush and hiding behind the sofa from the Daleks: memories of childhood in the 1950s and 1960s…
Thunder and Lightning: Historically Frightening
Sixteenth century almanacs reveal the way in which weather and the calendar were used to predict death and disaster in the Tudor period…
Ashes to Ashes: How a Sporting Defeat Led to Major Social Change
It may seem odd to link together sport and the disposal of human remains, but in the latter half of the nineteenth century a growing campaign to legalise cremation was given a helping hand after a significant sporting defeat…