Perched on a hill above the lowlands of Romney Marsh, this medieval citadel rises up like a historic beacon at the confluence of three rivers. It has been a favourite destination for royalty and writers through the ages, as well as harbouring crimina

If one were to relax in the Cinnamon Drawing Room at Harewood House, one could begin to conjure up an image of the grand lives that were led in this famous house centuries ago. For starters the walls are sheathed in rich, cinnamon coloured damask tha

The Welsh estate of Dyffryn was built on coal. The Cory family had been quick to capitalise on the world’s increased demand for the black stuff at the height of the Industrial Revolution. John Cory took over the family business in 1882 and moved to D

How splendid it was to read the article about Wollaton Hall in issue 219. It is one of many places in Nottinghamshire I like to visit. I remember when they shot The Dark Knight Rises, the grounds where closed from the public while they stayed to shoo

“ he moor’s swollen waterbelly. ›T Swags and quivers, ready to burst at a step,” wrote Sylvia Plath’s husband and British poet laureate, Ted Hughes in his 1983 work Snipe. Although born in Yorkshire in 1930, Hughes lived in North Tawton, just north

Known as the “Walking Capital of Devon”, the traditional market town of Okehampton is certainly worth a stop-off on the first and third Saturdays of the month, when the local farmers’ market fills St James’ Chapel Square. From here, walkers can head

Sandwiched between Salisbury and Cranborne Chase to the west and Winchester and the South Downs to the east, Hampshire’s Test Valley is often overlooked as a destination. However, the district is home to countless outdoor pursuits and historic garden

Ask a Brit and an American to discuss sweet foods and you are entering into a world of confusion. Somewhere over the Atlantic the terms have become so twisted that the Oxford Dictionaries blog perhaps put it best when it reasoned: “A British biscuit

Lounging in a comfortable leather armchair sipping a flat white in the Gatehouse Coffee café, York might feel every inch a modern city. And it is. But step outside onto the castellated terrace, usually teeming with coffee aficionados and cheery touri

Kitchen gardens have been a staple of English country houses since medieval times. Land on these great estates was richly cultivated; freshly-grown produce would feed the residents and staff, while cut flowers would decorate the house. For the head g

Scott Lewis, Lulworth Coastguard Rescue I became a member of the Lulworth Coastguard Rescue team in 2005. I’d lived in the area for four years and when two young lads drowned in a local incident, I realised that if something happened to someone I kn

In 1799, a young man took on the running of a Scottish cotton mill business in the Clyde Valley in South Lanarkshire. Not content merely to manage the enterprise, he had decided “to commence the most important experiment for the happiness of the huma

The west of Scotland is known as the “Whisky Coast” – and with good reason. On its dark, bare islands and along its fertile green shorelines stand some of the most famous distilleries in Britain, which means some of the best whisky in the world is pr

A new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum is set to reveal how our collective impression of the Royal family has been shaped by official portraits over the last 500 years. Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits also brings together painti

For the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, “Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.” For Londoners, for centuries, the respite has come in the city’s many watering holes. Rimbaud glugged gin and absinthe at the Hibernia Arms in Old Compton Street a

Famed as a shopping district and entertainment hotspot in 21st-century London, Covent Garden has nevertheless changed more than almost any other part of the British capital. What began as an apple orchard in the 13th century would become the home of

On the Victoria Embankment, facing Westminster under the shadow of Big Ben, stands a bronze statue, or more accurately, a group of sculptures depicting two galloping horses pulling a chariot yet uncontrolled by any of the three women who rode within.

Initially scheduled for May of this year, HRH Princess Beatrice’s wedding to property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi eventually took place in private on 17 July at Windsor’s Royal Chapel of All Saints. She was back in Berkshire two months later for

Henry Alford was a little-known Victorian clergyman who grew up with his widowed father in Steeple Ashton, about 20 miles east of the Mendip Hills. He briefly taught at Cambridge, translated Homer’s Odyssey from the Ancient Greek and, in 1857, was ap

Charles Debussy was France’s great modernist musical composer, an aural accompaniment to the Impressionist art of Monet and Renoir. After scooping the Prix de Rome in his early 20s, he settled in Paris writing a series of sensual orchestral works and

This cathedral’s namesake city is famed for, well… Wells. Some four million gallons of water flows up from the main source that is now located inside the grounds of the Bishop’s Palace. Many archaeological digs have established that settlers arrived

When you imagine the Scottish Highlands, you might picture a bleak, windswept peat bog, several rocky peaks in the background, softened at the edges by low-hanging clouds, and perhaps a ginger, well-fringed Highland “hairy coo” in the fore. And while

In January 1684, when the River Thames froze and Londoners took to the ice on sleds and skates to enjoy the winter frost fair, the diarist John Evelyn was there to describe the scene. “There was likewise bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet pl

With iconic yet relatively accessible scenery, these Lochaber locations have hosted many memorable cinematic moments over the years Filming for the second and third Harry Potter films (2002 and 2004) took place in Glenfinnan, as pupils from Lochaber

As curator, I am responsible for the conservation of Stonehenge. This varies from ensuring tourists can take selfies without impacting the stones, to monitoring the microscopic lichens that grow on them. Stonehenge is unique. Every single stone has

Per pale Azure and Gules a Chevron Or cotised Argent between three Acorns slipped and leaved Or.” It may sound like a medieval spell, but this is, in fact, a “blazon” – a technical heraldic description, often combining elements of old French, Latin a

In the history of Britain’s rulers, there is an uncomfortable 11-year gap between the reigns of Charles I, which ended in 1649, and Charles II, which began in 1660. The reason for that gap – and for the discomfort – is that Charles I remains the only