Great British Railway Journeys


Over the summer images of Greenwich have been broadcast around the world. During the Olympic Games, Greenwich Park provided a stunning backdrop to the equestrian events. The towers of Canary Wharf made for a startlingly urban juxtaposition to the trees and grass of the park. Greenwich boasts many jewels such as the Royal Observatory, the Royal Naval College and Queen Anne’s House, but my favourite Greenwich […]

Weel done, Cutty-sark!


It is a vast structure, larger than the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, wider than Rome’s Parthenon and bigger than the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It is Britain’s biggest unsupported dome and was, for over two decades, the world’s biggest such structure. This nineteenth century wonder was built to create a roof over the middle of an eighteenth century octagonal building. So […]

The Derbyshire Dome – horses to hospital to hospitality



Have you ever been seized with a mad desire to see thirteen British counties in a single day? No? Just me? In another vaguely interesting section on the BBC’s Great British Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo visited Broadway Tower. This is a curious, three sided folly on the top of Broadway Hill. Broadway Hill is the second highest point in the Cotswolds, rising to 312 metres above sea level. […]

Counting the counties


Where is Western Europe’s largest onshore oil field? Perhaps secreted under one of Norway’s fjords, under one of the Shetland Islands or close to the vast coal fields of northern France and Belgium? Most people wouldn’t guess the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, but this is the home of 480 million barrels of recoverable reserves of crude oil. The oil field stretches east from Purbeck into […]

Wytch Farm is the richest of them all