Innehållsförteckning för April - May 2024 från Discover Britain

This issue, our travel special focuses on somewhere close to my heart: Yorkshire. I was at university in Yorkshire when I fell in love with my (now) husband, so it is still a very special place for us but I’m not the only one to have fallen for its charms. The city of York, which I was lucky enough to revisit for this issue’s city guide (p32) is one of Britain’s most popular tourist spots and even when its cobbled lanes are crammed with visitors, you can’t help but swoon at its timber-framed buildings or follow your nose to see where the aroma of fudge is coming from. Of course, when it comes to Yorkshire food, there are no shortage of contenders for favourite dish (Yorkshire puddings wins in my…

Salt-of-the earth locals, top-class produce and properly pulled pints of local ale; a visit to a Yorkshire pub is one of the best introductions to God’s Own Country. As the UK’s biggest county, Yorkshire is blessed with buzzy cities, jaw-dropping countryside, and some of England’s most important history and heritage. And while there are plenty of outstanding hotels competing for your attention, a Yorkshire inn is surely the best way to discover this majestic part of the world. Inns sit at the very heart of local communities, and with the great outdoors on their doorstep, in some of the county’s wildest and most idyllic sites, their prime position puts them head and shoulders above their competitors. Open fires, cosy oaken bar-rooms, and ancient properties offer an authentic window into British…

It’s blossom time on our farm in the Cotswolds. I’ve written previously that early summer, as the hay meadows unfurl into a rich palette of wildflower colours, is my favourite time of year on the farm. But spring is a close contender for stealing the limelight here. First to bloom on the farm is the blackthorn. It’s in many of the hedgerows but we also have a thicket of blackthorn that has self-seeded itself on the edge of our small woodland. There’s always the temptation to clear the thorn; it is encroaching on the adjacent limestone grassland after all. But the spring blossom that provides valuable early nectar for bees, not to mention the resulting sloes that are like little jewels in autumn, creates a dilemma: which takes precedence on…

ROYAL PALACES Child’s play at Windsor It’s long been one of the most popular exhibits at Windsor Castle, and now 100 years after it first went on display, new works have been commissioned for Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House’s much-loved Library. Built between 1921 and 1924 the incredible Edwardian-style Dolls’ House was a gift from the nation to Queen Mary after the First World War and is the largest and most famous Doll’s House in the world. It included incredible details such as running water, a fully strung miniature concert piano, working lifts, and electricity, as well as handwritten miniature books by esteemed writers of the day, including Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy, in the Library. Now, new works by authors such as Simon Armitage, Alan Bennett, and Malorie Blackman,…

Each evening at 9pm sharp in the Yorkshire city of Ripon, the on-duty hornblower calls the ‘watch’ by blowing a horn by each of the four corners of the Obelisk in the marketplace, before heading to the Mayor’s house to sound the horn especially for them. It’s a tradition that has taken place in much the same way since 886, making it the oldest daily ceremony in Britain. It all started when King Alfred the Great granted Ripon its first charter. An unplanned bestowal on the part of the king, it is said he improvised and gave the town a horn to represent the charter. The horn was then used by the town’s Wakeman, who was responsible for law and order in the town and blew it each night to…

DISCOVER YORKSHIRE – FOOD From artisan cheeses to Pontefract Cakes and Yorkshire pudding, there’s something for everyone in the county, so let’s tuck in. CHEESE People have been churning cheeses in the Yorkshire Dales for centuries; it’s thought that cheese-making here began with the Cistercian monks who arrived from Normandy and settled in the local abbeys during the 11th century. Over time, they passed on their techniques to the farmers of Swaledale and Wensleydale and a local industry was born. Shot to fame with the help of Wallace and Gromit, Wensleydale must be Yorkshire’s signature cheese. The village of Hawes is home to the Wensleydale Creamery, where this mild and creamy cheese with a honeyed aftertaste and a crumbly, flaky texture is still made to a time-honoured recipe. Watch the…

In August 1274 London rejoiced over the spectacular coronation of England’s warrior-king Edward I. Little could the ‘Hammer of the Scots’ have known in that moment of glory that just one month earlier – and with no such fanfare – a child had been born who would challenge his voracious territorial ambitions and free Scotland from English rule. Romantic stories abound about King Robert the Bruce, most recently given the Netflix epic treatment in Outlaw King (2018) with actor Chris Pine starring as the Scottish hero. But how did an apparent young hothead become Scotland’s saviour: emerging from controversies over murder and excommunication to be lauded a national icon? Born into an aristocratic, landed Scottish family 750 years ago on 11 July 1274, probably at Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, Robert…

“I’m satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.” So wrote Anne Brontë in the preface of the second edition of her second published novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Published in 1848, this novel is widely regarded as one of the first feminist novels. However, Anne has always been overlooked in favour of her sisters: Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre, and Emily, author of Wuthering Heights. Anne died less than a year after the publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, aged just 29. Sadly, she was dismissed by critics at the time as a “Brontë without genius.” Now, more than 175 years after her death, Anne Brontë is finally gaining the acclaim she deserves as a…

The Yorkshire Dialect Society was formed in 1897, out of the ashes of the Yorkshire committee of the English Dialect Society. The latter had decided to wind up after the culmination of work for the English Dialect Dictionary, which was edited by Yorkshire-born Joseph Wright. When you consider that over 170,000 words were included in the dictionary, it’s not hard to imagine the difficulty folk in the Victoria era and earlier, living in opposing ends of the country, would have had communicating. Some dialect words in Yorkshire are easily recognisable as similar to modern Nordic languages, which suggests that these words came with the Vikings who established a royal seat at York. Some examples are shown below. Every dialect and every language is the product of history, so when you…

The grand old Duke of York may have had 10,000 men but the grand old Duke of Portland went one better: he had 15,000 acres of England’s finest countryside to his name. Welbeck, in the heart of Sherwood Forest – the supposed home of Robin Hood – straddles the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire and was originally home to a monastery, founded in 1153 by Thomas de Cuckney. It was dissolved by King Henry VIII, as part of the Reformation, and passed through several owners before becoming the seat to a succession of Dukes of Portland, one of which — William Henry Cavendish Bentinck — served twice as Prime Minister. A truly magnificent estate, containing ancient woodlands, lakes, farmland, and a Grade II-listed historic park stocked with white deer, Welbeck…

Few cities in the world can rival London for the variety and vibrancy of its restaurant scene. From humble, family-owned pop-up cafés to Michelin-starred temples of fine dining, the British capital caters to all tastes and most budgets. One reason for its success is the way London absorbs and embraces the rich diversity of its residents and visitors, offering cuisines from every corner of the world. I’ve rounded up some of the best and most exciting restaurants the capital has to offer, including established classics alongside more recent openings that are getting Londoners’ tongues – and taste buds – wagging! Bacchanalia Bacchanalia, located just off Berkeley Square, is more than just a restaurant; it is a lavish and almost ludicrously over-the-top ‘feast for the senses’ that has become a talking…