The post Christmas history road trip begins.
On a stretch of Roman road.
Stokesay Castle. A manor house with military pretension more like.
Still. One of the best.
Bibury. So distractingly beautiful it makes you forget the Brexit clustastrophe
Ludlow Castle. An over mighty fortress for the over mighty Mortimers.
A medieval gate at Ludlow. Which manages, gloriously, to incorporate a pub. This pub was established the same year that George Washington first went west to kick the French out of the Ohio Country.
This bizarre building is Lodge Park and it's the only surviving 17th Century grandstand. It was built for spectators to watch a giant deer coursing event. It was later renovated into a house.
An almost untouched 1940s utility room.
A national treasure in Ludlow.
It is possible that the expression "up sticks and move" comes from the era of timber framed houses. Owners could dismantle them, pack up the frames and move on.
But it's also possible that like most things, it was made up in the 19th Century.
Can some very clever architectural historian show us all the different centuries of building in this frame?
I think Ive got 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th- looking forward to being corrected.
I show the kids the probable site of the Brunanburh battlefield, where Athelstan's spear-hordes slew a flock of kings and princes and where I once blew the horn of battle.
New Years sun on the Dee estuary. Close to one of Britain’s earliest identified Stone Age settlements, four millennia before Stonehenge was begun.
Chepstow Castle, one of the earliest surviving stone castles in Britain. Begun in 1067 by one of the Conqueror's relatives. Perched on cliffs towering over the River Wye, built on the land claimed by the princes of Glamorgan- this was an act of aggression.
Visited in a downpour. This was the driest shot. Kids required major post war reparations.
Also- this is the oldest part of the castle. There are recycled Roman tiles embedded in the structure.
Tintern Abbey. Thread stealer.
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