Indholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2021 i Discover Britain

Often when compiling a new issue, unexpected themes emerge and language has proved one of those threads here. We begin with arguably Britain’s greatest wordsmith, William Shakespeare, as we tour the area surrounding his Stratford-upon-Avon home in search of ruined castles, Tudor gardens and curiously-titled villages that sound as if they were named by the Bard himself (p10). Our former deputy editor Sally Hales has also written a fascinating piece about the campaign to preserve the Welsh language, underlining the cultural benefits while suggesting places to visit and find out more (p38). And finally, we’ve picked out 13 of the greatest speeches in British history from Oscar Wilde to Margaret Thatcher (p20), celebrating our nation’s history of excellence in eloquence. If you have a favourite historic speech that we missed…

Rightly regarded as “Shakespeare’s England”, there is far more to Warwickshire than literary connections William Shakespeare famously declared that all the world’s a stage, yet he spent much of his life treading the boards of a very small part of it. For while he may have established his famous Globe Theatre in London, and later gained worldwide acclaim, it was the small Midlands town of Stratford-upon-Avon that remained his beloved home throughout his brilliant life. He was born there on Henley Street – now the restored Shakespeare’s Birthplace attraction – in April 1564 and he died there 52 years later, around the corner at his New Place home on Chapel Street. Shakespeare was both baptised and buried at the town’s Holy Trinity Church, a grand 13th-century parish on the banks…

The Museum of the Home re-opened earlier this year. The home fascinates me because everyone can relate to the concept. It’s universally relevant but also deeply personal – it’s very democratic in that respect. My favourite aspect of the museum is Mina Salimi’s film, Shelf Life. It goes inside the homes of east London residents, and is a touching exploration of how the objects displayed in our homes tell the stories of our lives – our hopes and dreams, our loves and losses. I grew up in Edmonton in north London. I vividly remember my childhood home: all swirly orange-and-brown carpets and gold striped wallpapers. Crystal Palace Park in south London is underrated. The original Crystal Palace building moved to the site following the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in…

A stay with English Cottage Vacation is far more than your typical luxury cottage experience; it’s an “appanage”, a term that hosts Nathan and Laura Kurton use to define their new holiday concept’s special attributes. Well Cottage combines the simplicity of English rural life with superlative modern service This is a tailor-made, ultra-luxurious, completely private experience that comes with one all-inclusive price. To top it off, the level of care and attention to detail that you’ll experience elevates English Cottage Vacation above other luxury options. This is where the nation’s reputation for legendary elegance meets exceptional hospitality. English Cottage Vacation centres on Well Cottage, an 18th-century thatched gem that sleeps up to six guests. You’ll find it nestled in the quaint and characterful hamlet of Bedchester in rural Dorset. If…

The lights are returning to the West End. The last time all of London’s theatres closed was during the 11-year Interregnum period following the execution of Charles I. When his son, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660, he issued Letters Patent for the formation of two new acting companies, thus beginning Britain’s theatrical renaissance. One of those two groups, the King’s Company, was led by the witty dramatist, impresario and all-round rake, Thomas Killigrew. Within three years, Killigrew had opened a new theatre on a site near Covent Garden’s vegetable market that backed on to Drury Lane. Thus, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane can claim to be Britain’s oldest theatre – even if it has been rebuilt three times since. The current Drury Lane, a sturdy, no-nonsense…

In the late 13th century, most Britons spent their entire lives within a few miles’ radius of their own homes and a horse was about the extent of your transportation options. Such an understandably narrow world view makes the existence of the Hereford Mappa Mundi all the more remarkable. It is not only the largest surviving medieval map in the world, measuring more than five feet high, but it is also a beautiful time capsule of human understanding. The arrangement of the map speaks volumes for our limited knowledge of the world at that time. Though drawn around 1300, this mappa mundi took the form of a traditional “T and O” map as first devised by the Spanish cleric Isidore of Seville in the early 7th century. (Think of a…

Cornish connections Your article about St Ives [Issue 222] was of special interest for me due to my recent genealogical work. I have traced my maternal grandmother’s family (maiden name Hawking) back six generations, all living in St Ives. Although I have visited Britain over the years, I have never visited Cornwall, so your excellent article has resolved me to see St Ives in the near future. I found it of particular interest that St Ives [above] has a Tate gallery and that the city has a connection with Virginia Woolf. The details in the article, plus the excellent photography, make it very easy for me to envision a journey. David Wend, via email A tasty suggestion What a wonderful respite from all the traumatic occurrences going on in our…

1 ELIZABETH I on leadership (1588) When Elizabeth I accepted the Earl of Leicester’s invitation to inspect her troops at Tilbury Fort in Essex on 9 August 1588, she had no idea that the threat from which they were expected to defend the country had already crumbled. The Spanish Armada – a fleet of 130 ships transporting a Spanish Hapsburg army to invade England – had been vanquished 11 days earlier off the northern French coast. The Virgin Queen was unaware of that collapse and believed that a speech of sleeve-rolling defiance was required. “I know I have the body but of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,” she told the…

“I am the vice president of Plaid Cymru. I am a republican nationalist. You know my feelings about the office of the Prince of Wales,” says Aberystwyth University lecturer Tedi Millward in the third series of TV’s The Crown. This vehement rejection of a request to teach Welsh to the young Prince Charles ahead of his 1969 investiture as Prince of Wales reflected a real contemporary movement to protect Wales’s identity and culture – embodied in its language – which had gathered pace amid the rapid social change of the 1960s. Like many, Millward believed the Prince of Wales shouldn’t need to be taught the native language of the country over which he would preside. The British prime minister, Harold Wilson, fearful the investiture could become a focal point for…

Affectionately referred to as “The Ship of The Fens”, because it looks like a galleon rising above the wheat fields, Ely Cathedral grabs your attention unlike any other British church. One’s first impression comes at a distance – whether that’s arriving in the Cambridgeshire town by car, train, or even by boat down the River Ouse – across The Fens, the pancake-flat marshland that covers much of the East of England and seems to defy normal topographical rules. Rivers rise higher than roads here, due to the immense drainage engineering works undertaken by the 17th-century Dutch masters – of dykes, rather than diptychs. Genius surveyors like Cornelius Vermuyden and his later colleagues arrived from the Netherlands to help drain away all the water that once surrounded the town and gave…

The Romantic poets first championed the wide-open spaces of Britain’s Lake District and called for its preservation in the late 18th century. With the popularity of Grand Tours to continental Europe on the wane and city life increasingly uncomfortable, they eulogised wild landscapes, embracing the natural world to restore health. William Wordsworth, the poster boy for the nature-inspired poetry movement, led the lyrical charge, referring to the Lake District as “…a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy”. It wasn’t until 1951, however, that the Lake District was formally designated as a national park, becoming the UK’s second after the Peak District. It has subsequently evolved into a major destination for visitors from…

Black Boy Inn This Caernarfon hotel, restaurant and bar is one of the few remaining free houses owned by an independent family business in the UK. Built in 1522, it offers a warm Welsh welcome – often in Welsh. www.black-boy-inn.com Iolo Morganwg Heritage Walk Set around Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, this route takes in places linked to the poet Iolo Morganwg including the Physic Garden, St Quentin’s Castle, and the 12th-century Bear Hotel. www.visitthevale.com/walks/vale-trail-9 Nant Gwrtheyrn “The Nant” in Pwllheli is now home to the National Welsh Language and Heritage Centre and its residential language school offering a wide range of courses, as well as exhibitions on the language and life of Wales. www.nantgwrtheyrn.org National Eisteddfod of Wales Held every summer and alternating between north and south Wales,…

If you have Scottish ancestry, the chances are that you have your own clan tartan. The distinctive pattern of any given tartan, made by criss-crossing different coloured threads, is called a “sett”. These setts are often associated with clans and families, such as the popular Royal Stewart fabric. Others were bespoke setts, such as the Balmoral tartan designed by Prince Albert in 1853 and named after the royal family’s Deeside castle. Woven in Scotland since at least the 4th century AD, tartan became the main cloth worn by both Highlanders and Lowlanders. For many years, the setts they wore had no symbolic meaning and it is only more recently that links between specific tartans and clans has been established. Nevertheless, because the threads were coloured by dyes extracted from locally…

Why Windsor? Windsor has come to be defined by its castle, and the pageantry and royals that are associated with it – and justifiably so. Windsor Castle has stood on the same site, high on a hilltop overlooking the town, for 900 years and been home to an incredible 39 monarchs. It is often proclaimed the current Queen’s favourite official residence, and George V even renamed the royal family after it – transforming the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the more anglicised House of Windsor – in 1917. It is now the oldest royal residence in continuous use and the largest inhabited castle in the world. Built beside a beautiful stretch of the River Thames, the town stretches out below the castle, hedged in on its southern front by…

While the source of the Medway lies across the border in the High Weald of Sussex, this ambling river is a true icon of Kent. It bisects the county, passing by the elegant manor house of Penshurst Place and the bustling market towns of Tonbridge and Maidstone. The notion of the Medway as a dividing line stretches back more than 1,500 years, when the Saxons occupied the north-westerly portion of the county while the Jutes lived to the southeast. In fact, the split was so pronounced that people in the former were known as “Kentish Men” (or “Maids”), while those in the latter were the “Men (or Maids) of Kent” – an apparently significant distinction for those born in the county. The Medway had been a key focus for the…