British History

The arrival of the railway heralded a new age more than almost any other technological development. But the idea of combining fixed paths with wheeled vehicles was much older than the great nineteenth century inventors and the age of steam. Christopher Woolmer opens his book Fire and Steam, a history of the railways, with this quite arresting story: “One of the least known facts about Louis XIV […]

Ahead of their time

It is now over four years since the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers heralded the credit crunch and the start of the one of the deepest global recessions in history. We are well versed in warning stores of booms, busts and bubbles. The South Sea Bubble and the Wall Street Crash are well known examples of speculative bubbles bursting with catastrophic effect. Less well known, but similarly […]

An asylum of railway lunatics

Vincent Hanna: Master William Pitt, the Even Younger, are you disappointed? Pitt the Even Younger: Yes I’m horrified. I smeared my opponents, bribed the press to be on my side, and threatened to torture the electorate if we lost. I fail to see what a more decent politician would have done. Blackadder the Third, Dish and Dishonesty What was Britain’s most famous rotten borough? Old Sarum? […]

The rotten part of the constitution

In the middle ages, heraldry was a potent and respected form of state propaganda and individual projection of power. A man (and it was almost invariably a man) could proclaim his status, his wealth, influence and pedigree in a seemingly simple blend of colours, shapes, beasts and designs. Heraldry was taken so seriously that it could signal a claim to a kingdom, the start of a […]

The shield that started the Hundred Years’ War

Christian pilgrimage was a well-established part of medieval life. Chaucer’s ‘Pilgrim’s Tales’ attest to the popularity of such a journey and the hugely differing backgrounds and social statuses of pilgrims. With the Ottomans in the ascendancy in the Holy Land and with travel in Europe arduous and, at times, dangerous, what options were available for English pilgrims? In the middle ages, travel abroad was not to […]

Half a trip to Rome, a third the trip to Jerusalem

Part 2: Central London’s lost department stores (a walking tour in two halves) The first post in this series focused on the stately and grand former heart of the Debenhams department store empire on Wigmore Street. It is not the only central London department store to have disappeared. Today, we look at the history and demise of some iconic names from across the heart of the […]

Dearly departed department stores

Few things were more powerful than a Victorian-era duke. They shaped empires, armies, estates and cities and had a particular interest in the development of the railway network. For some, this was manifested in vehement opposition. For others, it was a promise of further riches and easier access to pleasures in both the capital and countryside. Few peers have influenced the development of a railway quite […]

The Duke of Sutherland’s Railway

Part 1: Debenhams of Wigmore Street  Every year, millions of shoppers converge on London’s major department store. Selfridges, Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Liberty feature amongst the capital’s most visited tourist attractions. They are also serious commercial operations – Harrods turned over £651 million in 2012 alone. With the department store enjoying a new millennium renaissance, it is easy to forget that London has, over the past […]

Dearly departed department stores

The Campden Tunnel, two miles south of Mickleton, has been called the site of the ‘last pitched battle between two private armies on UK soil’. The ‘battle’ was between rival railway contractors and demonstrated both the fierce, belligerent loyalty of the navvies and their taste for fighting. Navies played a vital, if not critical role in the development of Britain’s roads, canals and railways. Navvies were […]

The Battle of Mickleton

Power and prestige in early modern Europe could turn with a rapidity that almost required belief in the divine for it all to make any sense. Titles, fortunes and crowns could be won or lost on the outcome of a single day’s fighting. The right marriage, the untimely death of an heir or the election of a new Pope could shift the balance of European power […]

This Day Came the King of Castile

The Prime Minister is the political leader of the country and at the apex of Britain’s power pyramid. Whilst in office, they benefit from the perks of the position – accommodation at Number 10 Downing Street and Chequers, a weekly audience with the Queen, chauffeur driven cars and close security protection. But what happens when they are turfed out of power? How are they rewarded for […]

Premier rewards

In a long and spectacular military and political career, Napoleon dominated most of Europe. Of all his enemies, only one remained permanently out of his grip – Britain. Napoleon couldn’t conquer England and was ultimately vanquished by a coalition of allies led by the British. This didn’t stop the defeated Emperor finally seeing the country that had beaten him with his own eyes. For two weeks […]

Napoleon’s English adventure

In the summer of 1550, Princess Mary and her continental supporters, the Imperial Habsburgs, hatched a plan to spirit the recusant princess out of an increasingly Protestant and intolerant state. Ships from the Imperial navy were kept at anchor off the coast of Maldon whilst sloops made their way up the Blackwater estuary to the Essex market town to rendezvous with Henry VIII’s eldest daughter. Had […]

The near escape of Princess Mary Tudor

The City of St Davids lies in the south-west corner of St Davids Peninsula surrounded by some of the most stunning Pembrokeshire coastlines and countryside. It is easily the UK’s smallest city by population: home to 1,797  in the 2001 census. The next smallest, St Asaph, is also a Welsh cathedral city but has nearly twice as many residents. Over the border, Wells is a bustling […]

Once in Saint David’s City

In 1919, the quickest way to get from London to Dublin was to take the train to Holyhead, sail across the Irish Sea and then take the train from Dun Laoghaire (then named Kingstown) to Dublin. The journey would take about 11 hours and, in a world where time was increasingly equated to money, this was too long for the frenetic Harry Selfridge. Faced with having […]

The pioneering Mr Selfridge

The proponents of High Speed 2, the planned railway connecting London with Birmingham and the north, face considerable public opposition. This is nothing compared to the nineteenth century when angry aristocrats tried everything to put the breaks on developments on or near their estates. From their first beginnings, railways have divided the public and attracted formidable opposition. The Earl of Darlington opposed the initial plans for […]

Noblesse oblige

War and reward have always gone together. The commanders of a victorious army could expect treasure, tribute, land, vassals and all the other riches of a conquered land. Many of the most successful commanders are motivated by loftier ideals than mere booty: justice, revenge, glory and a demonstration of manly virtues. But getting a reward, whether a chest of gold or a peerage, a castle or […]

Thy choicest gifts in store

If you are reading this in Britain or Northern Ireland, you might be carrying the heraldic badge of the heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms in your pocket, wallet or handbag; it is depicted on the back of the old two pence coin. But why is a trio of white feathers used to represent the Prince of Wales? The […]

The Prince of Wales’s feathers