Indholdsfortegnelse for August - September 2023 i Discover Britain

The Cotswolds epitomise what so many of our visitors love about Britain: cute tea shops, creaking wood-beamed pubs, crooked houses, cobbled lanes, and picturesque views abound. It’s the quintessential English idyll – the kind of place where you wouldn’t be surprised to find Miss Marple bothering the local bobby, or Downton Abbey’s Sybil and Branson having a clandestine meeting. And unlike some places where the reality doesn’t quite live up to the fantasy, in the Cotswolds it really does. Yes, the buildings really are that old and no, the views are not obscured by ugly modern additions – in some parts of the Cotswolds they haven’t built anything new in centuries. Are you intrigued by Britain’s peculiar traditions and pastimes? Then the Cotswolds is the place to be. Think cheese…

The year is 1545 and France has amassed a huge fleet bent on invasion along the southern coast of England. But this is the reign of King Henry VIII, stout of stature and spirit, who commands a powerful fleet which includes his beloved, formidably armed Mary Rose. The imminent Battle of the Solent, off the coast of Portsmouth, must keep the French at arm’s length. Henry VIII won the battle but lost his ship. Today, the tale of how the Mary Rose sank in minutes, of the lives that were lost, and how, 437 years later, the ship was recovered from the Solent seabed, is revealed at an outstanding visitor attraction within Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Launched in 1511, the Mary Rose swelled from a troop carrier to a fearsome, cannon-laden…

DISCOVER THE COTSWOLDS – THE STATELY HOME Situated within 270 acres of ancient deer park just six miles from Bath, in South Gloucestershire, Dyrham Park country house is a bold, Baroque emblem of the achievements and connections of King William III’s Secretary of State, William Blathwayt. Blathwayt’s life in central government in the late 17th and early 18th centuries coincided with sweeping political changes that underpinned many of the British systems we know today. He witnessed the Glorious Revolution, which saw the exile of King James II followed by the joint ascent of King William III and Queen Mary II to the throne in 1689 under rules of a new constitutional monarchy. Blathwayt’s work in the civil service saw him directly involved in the growth of state and the Empire,…

The remains of a community found buried in a long cairn on the outskirts of the Gloucestershire village of Hazleton, just nine miles from Cheltenham, have had their DNA extracted to create what is thought to be the world’s oldest family tree. Built around 3700BC, the cairn, first excavated in the 1970s, featured two opposing L-shaped chambers to the north and south of the main ‘spine’ of the linear structure, which contained the remains of 41 people who would have lived about 100 years after farming was introduced to Britain. Using modern DNA analysis to look at samples taken from the teeth and bones of 35 of those people, archaeologists were able to create a five-generation family tree that revealed that most of the people buried in the Hazleton North…

Do you dream of spending an afternoon in a quaint English village, complete with winding cobbled streets, thatched roofs, honeycomb-hued houses, and colourful rose gardens? The impossibly pretty Cotswolds village of Broadway, where golden buildings and horse chestnut trees line the attractive high street – a ‘broad way’ that once formed part of the stage-coach route from Worcester to London – ticks all those boxes. And, after an hour or two spent pottering around its antiques shops and independent boutiques, there’s no better place to refresh yourself than Tisanes Tearooms – a traditional English tea shop found on the lower high street, next to the war memorial. Occupying a 17th-century Cotswolds stone building, Tisanes is the kind of place you can imagine Jane Austen popping into on a visit to…

CUSTOMS Much like beach days in Britain, picnics don’t require a cloudless blue sky or guaranteed temperatures of over 25 degrees Celsius. No, all we really need is a hint of sunshine – even just a good bet of no rain – between the months of April and September and we’re good to go. As soon as we’ve deemed the conditions are right, that’s it, we spring into action: digging out our hampers from underneath the stairs, diligently wrapping parcels of food in napkins or kitchen roll or placing them in Tupperware, and searching the house high and low for the ultimate accessory: the picnic blanket. But how and when did the tradition of picnicking take hold in Britain, and what are the essential ingredients for the perfect picnic? Here,…

Crossword no 235 Solutions in next issue Across 6Dame _______ Hepworth, sculptor (7)8 Black and white wading bird, emblem of the RSPB (6)9 Deeside castle owned by the Irvine family for over 650 years (4)10 Renowned 18th-century highwayman (4,6)11 A church official who acts as attendant and caretaker (6)12 Devon river that joins the River Taw at Appledore (8)14 A small village just south of Ayr, birthplace of the poet Robert Burns (7)16 _______ Grahame, writer most famous for The Wind in the Willows (7)19 The third largest of the Channel Islands (8) 21 US currency _______ town in Clackmannanshire (6)22 A Scottish dance, resembling the reel, but slower (10)24 The assembly of riders and hounds for a hunt (4)25 Castle _______, renowned stately home in Yorkshire (6)26 District to…

Castle connections As a subscriber to your magazine of just over a year, I was wondering, has your magazine ever run any articles on Hay Castle or Hay-on-Wye Castle? I am 77 years old but when I was about 16 or 17 my mother received a cheque for her share of the inheritance from the sale of Hay Castle. That would have been about 1962-1963. I never knew how much it was (though I’ve always wondered.) Her mother was a Hay who married a McKeand and my mother’s maiden name was Mary Millicent McKeand. I don’t know if any of my mother’s brothers and sisters received cheques. I have not been able to get any information about the sale of the castle, such as when it was sold and to…

To meander the streets of Oxford is to walk in the footsteps of giants and geniuses. Stephen Hawking, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Tolkien, CS Lewis, TS Eliot and 43 prime ministers teeter at the tip of an iceberg of behemoths whose minds have been cultivated here. And there is always the simmering sense that, in this effervescent crucible of learning, the world’s next great wunderkind is being raised amid the ‘dreaming spires’ famously eulogised by poet, Matthew Arnold. But as Henry James, another towering mind, once wrote: “Oxford lends sweetness to labour and dignity to leisure.” And there is no finer way to spend a day than idling among the town’s many treasures, from its bastions of culture to its legendary pubs. Oxford sits about as far from the coast…

Blenheim Palace is an iconic landmark in the heart of Oxfordshire and one of the UK’s most magnificent stately homes. Located in Woodstock, this fantastic Baroque building stands beside enchanting lakes and wonderful gardens set within a beautifully landscaped parkland created by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the most famous garden designer of the 18th century. The palace has been the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough since Queen Anne gifted it to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as a reward for his victory over the French at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. The palace was also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill in 1874, and a tour of the house includes a look around the bedroom where the wartime prime minister was born. With a fascinating story that stretches…

Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire With a starring role as Hogwarts’ school corridors in the first two Harry Potter films, beautiful Gloucester Cathedral is world-renowned for its grand Gothic architecture, and with a history spanning 1,300 years, it is also one of South West England’s most important historic buildings. A must on any visit is the incredible fan vaulted ceiling in the great Cloister, believed to be the earliest example of this style in England. You can also view the burial place of King Edward II of England, and the site where Henry III had his first coronation (he had a second at Westminster Abbey) with a gilded iron ring in 1216, aged just nine years old. gloucestercathedral. org.uk Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire Kelmscott Manor was once the country retreat…