The London and Birmingham Railway, opened in 1838, was the Victorian equivalent of HS2. In fact, it was far more transformative than its twenty-first century successor – horses, carts, carriages and canals gave way to steam powered locomotion at speeds that radically changed the British economy, society and people. This engineering wonder heralded the start of the modern age and was built in less than five […]
British History
Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of a flood so devastating it became known as the Great North Sea Flood (or, in Dutch, the Watersnoodramp – the flood disaster). On the night of 31 January 1953, a major storm caused the North Sea to overflow the surrounding low lying coastal areas and to surge upstream, devastating flood plains in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium. In total, 2,551 […]
The Great North Sea Flood
In the dark days following the declaration of war with Germany, plans devised in the 1930s to protect the country from the worst excesses of the expected air war were put into action. Children were evacuated from London and other major cities, gas masks were distributed and an air raid protection system was established. But it wasn’t only children who were evacuated at the outbreak of […]
Hide them in caves and cellars
My recent encounter with steam on the London Underground (see Tasting the past) made me wonder what the Victorians made of the new invention. In particular, what was it like for passengers on the platforms, in the stations and on the trains when a full timetable of steam belching locomotives was in action? The choice of words used to describe the early days of the Underground […]
An experience of Hades
On 9 January 1863, the first subterranean railway journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the newly completed Metropolitan Underground Railway. A clutch of shareholders, City worthies and assorted VIPs were taken on a ceremonial run and then feasted at a 600-person banquet at Farringdon station. Just over 150 years later, the historic event was recreated as steam powered engines returned to the tunnels to […]
Tasting the past
Vaguely Interesting Snippets | 10 January 2013 The UK’s state pension age would have to be 80 if it were to be restricted to the same percentage of people as received the original old age pensions provided in 1908, according to a study by Longevitas. Also vaguely interesting that the original pension age was set at 70 – fully two years more than will be reached […]
Today is the day that London Underground celebrates 150 years of operation. On 9 January 1863, the first underground journey took place between Paddington and Farringdon on the Metropolitan Railway. Regular passenger services started the next day, and Londoners have gone underground in their millions since then. But is the Metropolitan Line a true ‘underground’ line? And how did its northern most terminus end up just […]
London meets the Met
In August, I sang the praises of Andrew Martin’s book ‘Underground, Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube’. At the end of that post I promised a follow up covering the Americanisation of the lexicon of travel, Brunel and the war winning boots and state funerals on the Tube. Six months is no time at all in a blog, so here (finally) is the follow up! […]
Going underground II
This August marked the 400th anniversary of the Pendle witch trials. In August 1612, eight women and two men from Pendle were found guilty of the charge of murdering ten people by witchcraft. They were hung after a trial at the Lancaster Assizes. Four hundred years later, the Pendle witches continue to attract considerable attention, interest and debate and a decent tourist trade in East Lancashire. […]
Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
People are often accused of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’; but who is the unfortunate Peter who is being robbed to pay the rather more fortunate Paul in this common phrase? This week, two politicians have hit the headlines accusing the government of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. In America, the looming ‘fiscal cliff’ elicited the phrase from Virginia State Senator Adam Ebbin as he criticized […]
Robbing Peter to pay Paul
Where was Britain’s first formal seat of learning? The University of Oxford has the best claim to be the oldest university in the British Isles, beating the University of Cambridge by some two hundred years. But were both preceded by a monastic institution in Wales? Llantwit Major is a small town on the south Welsh coast, some 15 miles south-west of Cardiff. There are some remarkable […]
The Welsh college older than Oxford University
Queen Elizabeth I spoke, read and wrote in French, Flemish, Italian, Latin and Greek. She was a passionate reader of history and won widespread acclaim for her education and erudition. Was the Virgin Queen England’s most learned monarch? There is no doubt that Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen of England, benefited from a true Renaissance education. She was lucky to have three excellent and sympathetic tutors […]
Was Elizabeth I England’s cleverest monarch?
Covering an area of 55 football pitches and demarcated by 1,400 mature oak trees, the Hindwell Enclosure would have been an imposing monument and represented a powerful statement. Is this Welsh wonder one of Britain’s forgotten historic achievements? Is the Hindwell Enclosure Stonehenge on steroids? Despite a childhood filled with family holidays on Wales’s north coast and recent cycling trips to Pembrokeshire, I don’t know a […]
The Hindwell Enclosure – Stonehenge on steroids?
Where does Kings Cross get its name from? Is there a cross with royal connections? And should it be called King’s Cross or Kings Cross. Kings Cross (or King’s Cross – see the end of this article) is one of London’s best known areas. Once infamous as London’s main red light district, it has gone through a period of derelict cool (derelicte?) playing host to some […]
The next train to London Battle Bridge Station
If you ever felt slightly claustrophobic using a traditional BT telephone kiosk, this might be down to its unique architectural history – the design of the UK’s world famous red telephone boxes was inspired by a nineteenth century tomb. Only two graveyard memorials in London are Grade I listed – the grave of Karl Marx and Sir John Soane’s tomb. Sir John Soane’s tomb was erected […]
Calling from the grave
The red dragon against a green and white background is an unambiguous symbol of Wales. But how Welsh are these colours and how ancient is the design? I had always assumed that the Welsh Flag was an ancient design. The green and white stripes have a suitably Celtic feel and are completely alien to the vexillological tradition across the rest of the British Isles. England, Scotland, […]
The Red Dragon and the House of Tudor
French is one of the major sources of vocabulary in the English language. From the Norman invasion to nineteenth century European diplomacy, French words have percolated into English and have sometimes been swallowed whole with little or no attempt to Anglicize terms or phrases. One area of language is particularly heavily dependant on French loan words – the language of war. The impact of Norman dominance […]
The (French) language of war
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” – Winston Churchill to Josef Stalin Military history abounds with stories of bluff, deception and feints – lies seem to be the constant companion of military genius. Few operations, however, have been as comprehensively swaddled in so impenetrable a shroud of subterfuge as the Normandy landings of D-Day. A […]