The “awkward mediaeval cities” (3) : St. Alban’s

Unlike Northampton and Oxford, St. Alban’s (City) is on the Thameslink network and also has a branch line to Watford Junction. Accommodation can be expensive but the less historic Luton is surprisingly convenient as a base, being about fourteen minutes away on the same line and costing about five pounds for a day return. Turning right…

Were the English, Welsh, Irish and Scots once all Celts…?

  I haven’t read Sir Simon Jenkins’ book The Celts: A Sceptical History, and to be honest I don’t think I’m likely to. Like Jenkins, I too am half-Welsh and half-English, but I don’t fancy being descended from “sociable sailors”. What’s the old saying about sailors having a girl in every port? I should imagine…

The art that made us

This is another fascinating BBC2 series, illustrating English and British history through the evolution of our art. The eight one-hour episodes, narrated by David Threlfall (Men of the World), feature:The Roman and pre-Roman periods, Beowulf, the Norman conquest and the Bayeux Tapestry;     The Black Death, Wilton Diptych, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich,…

More coins found in Suffolk

Gaius Julius Caesar (left) may not have spent much time in Britain during his invasions of 55-54 BC, but his troops and their followers left rather a lot of evidence. Here, the East Anglian Daily Times details a hoard found in Ashbocking during 2019, consisting of 180 silver denarii and provisionally valued at £65,000.

Leaks, thistles and crosses of all kinds….

No, I haven’t made a boo-boo, the subject line of this article from Inside Wales Sport does indeed say “leaks”. A friend has wondered if this means Wales is a land in dire need of plumbers! This was a clear invitation to examine the rest of the article for further bloopers. I’ll start with England’s…

London’s Greatest Bridges (with Rob Bell)

The series began at London Bridge itself. From an engineering perspective, Bell explained that the wooden Claudian bridge was the first across the Thames , built on no fewer than twenty-nine artificial islands, making it very difficult to negotiate. It was replaced with a very similar stone unit by Henry II. The Haberdashers were very…

Two thousand years of Southwark Cathedral….

Southwark Cathedral, although only just across the Thames from St Paul’s and Westminster, has never received the same close attention of its rivals. At least, so it seems to me. Then, at the turn of the millenium, excavations began that led archaeologists back through time. A long time, because the cathedral’s beginnings stretch back over…

A little before Richard’s time …

Originally posted on Mid Anglia Group, Richard III Society:
… Ipswich had a Roman villa, which is now in the back garden of Tranmere Grove, a short road just north of the allotments railway line. Time Team came to visit it in 2004.

The prospect of an exciting new dig at York….!

The York Archaeological Society is hoping that an important new dig in the city is going to attract thousands of tourists. It will be an excavation into the city’s Roman history, and being outdoors will be an advantage in these times of Covid 19 restrictions. This can only be a good thing when so many…

“Bone Detectives” come to Ipswich …

… and other venues, with Tori Herridge and Raksha Dave. This Channel Four series, which consists of five episodes, begins at Stoke Quay on the town’s Waterfront where a long-forgotten (St. Augustine’s) burial ground was fully explored before some new buildings were constructed. Three bodies in particular were examined: 1) A wealthy man buried in…