Francis Drake & Birth of the British Empire

Sir Francis Drake and England’s Challenge to Spain’s Global Supremacy On the morning of December 13, 1577, Francis Drake, a pirate and former slaver, ordered his small fleet in Plymouth, England, to weigh anchor. Two of the most consequential figures of this era, Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth I, knew the expedition’s true purpose: to […]

Medieval British Village Life: The Definitive Guide for Seniors

Life in the Medieval British Village In a previous article, we looked at the icons of the British village–the pub and the cottage–and looked at their history and evolution from Roman and Norman times. In this article we will look at daily life in the British village during the medieval period–or the period spanning the […]

The Country House, Britain

The British Country House Cliveden House, Burghley House, Blenheim Palace: country houses have long stood as icons in the British landscape. From the Middle Ages until today, the historic houses have gone through various changes, evolving in styles from Jacobean, to Palladian, Baroque, Neoclassical, Neogothic, and more. All the while they have stood in various […]

John Constable

John Constable  English artist John Constable (1776-1837) is one of the greatest landscape painters of all time and one of the most important artists of the Romantic Tradition. Nature was his primary inspiration. Along with his rival J M W Turner, he created a new style that detailed nature as the focal point in the […]

Scientific Revolution, England

The Scientific Revolution in England The Scientific Revolution refers to drastic changes in scientific thought that occurred in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, marking the emergence of modern science. During this period, science…

Ely Cathedral, England

Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, located in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, is perhaps England’s most eccentric cathedral, outstanding architecturally for both its scale and stylistic details. Rising up from the flat, marshy fenland of East Anglia, it is often referred to as ‘The Ship of the Fens’. At a massive 66 metres tall and 164 […]

History of English Wool

History of English Wool Wool plays a significant role in England’s history and heritage. Sheep, along with Neolithic shepherds, first migrated to the British Isles around 6,000 years ago, and it didn’t take long before their wool was being extracted to make cloth. A thriving wool industry then existed under the Romans, and the wool […]

York Minster Cathedral: England’s Greatest Gothic Church

York Minster Cathedral: England’s Greatest Gothic Church York Minster is the largest Gothic cathedral by volume in England, its stone towers visible from almost anywhere in the city below. Built in stages from the 12th to 15th centuries, it houses the country’s finest medieval stained glass and its largest chapter house, standing on a site […]

London Coffee Houses

London Coffee Houses in the 17th and 18th Centuries In the late 1600s and early 1700s, there were as many as 3,000 coffee houses spread throughout London. These were popular public social places, where men of all strata of society could go to meet and talk to each other. All were welcome for the price […]

Winchester Cathedral, England

Winchester Cathedral, United Kingdom The magnificent cathedral in the city of Winchester, England, is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. And with an overall length of 170 m, it is the longest medieval cathedral in the world. Its rich, fascinating history spans more than 1000 years, having served as a site […]

History of English Cathedrals

England’s Cathedrals: From Medieval Times to the Modern Era In over 1400 years since the establishment of the first English cathedral, the Church of England has gained 43 cathedrals and lost about 15, while the Roman Catholic Church has acquired 19 and lost one. What survives is a remarkably varied collection, scattered unevenly around the […]

Durham Cathedral, England

Durham Cathedral The UNESCO World-heritage listed Durham Cathedral, located in Durham city, is a giant amongst English cathedrals. Standing proudly on a cliff over the River Wear, its central tower rises over 200 feet high for panoramic views of Durham and the surrounding landscape. Constructed between 1093 and 1133, the cathedral is the largest and […]

England’s Cathedrals

Chester Chester Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Chester, squeezed into the centre of the old city in Chester. According to legend, the site was originally a druidical temple, before it was…

William Morris’ Kelmscott Manor

Kelmscott Manor: ‘Heaven on Earth’ Described as ‘heaven on earth’, Kelmscott Manor was beloved by William Morris – the poet, author, architectural conservationist, and social reformer, widely regarded as the founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement. The limestone farmhouse in the English West Oxfordshire village of Kelmscott was Morris’ country home from 1871 […]

British Neoclassical Architecture & Decorative Arts

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism was a Western cultural movement in the 18th-19th centuries inspired by the art and culture of classical antiquity (Greece in the 8th to 4th Centuries BCE and Rome in the 5th to 1st Centuries BCE). The movement was most prominent in architecture and the visual arts, but also expressed itself in literature, theatre, […]

Wedgwood’s Etruria, England

The English entrepreneur and most significant potter of the 18th century, Mr Josiah Wedgwood, is famous for embracing Etruscan heritage in his designs. Urns, cameos, and vases all emerged from his kilns to be decorated with reclining figures, mythological characters, and classical garlands evoking the art of the Etruscan civilisation. Wedgwood believed he was not merely imitating ancient artworks but was intelligently updating the classical aesthetic, improving the antiques for the modern age.

18th Century London

London in the 18th Century The 18th century was a period of unimaginable change in England. The century witnessed not only the early stirrings of the Industrial Revolution, after the industrious revolution, but also a consumer revolution in which a new form of society emerged based on the mass consumption of a variety of goods […]

The Rise of Liverpool, UK

During the last three decades of the seventeenth century, however, Liverpool emerged as one of England’s leading ports. The port’s commercial rise began as a result of profitable trade with the Americas and the West Indies. Its merchant fleets subsequently carried salt, naval stores, wines, iron, and eventually slaves, dominating the transatlantic slave trade in the second half of the 18th century.

England’s Consumer Revolution

Rising disposable incomes, a growing supply of inexpensive goods, and social emulation combined to spark a ‘consumer revolution’ during the Georgian England period. From the late 1600s, a new form of society emerged based on the mass consumption of a variety of goods and products, a process which then intensified rapidly over the eighteenth century. People lived in grander houses than ever before, owned more domestic and personal goods, and boasted of their status in the display of luxury and semi-luxury goods.

Standing Stones of Britain and Europe

Standing Stones of Britain and Europe: A Guide to Megalithic Monuments “These great structures were built to enhance very special places on the earth’s surface, where a force or current works to make this expansion of consciousness more intense.” — Service A & Bradbery J, 1979, The Standing Stones of Europe: A Guide to Megalithic […]

Canals and the Industrial Revolution, UK

Despite the benefits of canals, they still had their issues. As not all areas were environmentally suited for them, they could not extend entirely across Britain. Instead, they were largely restricted to operating in the Midlands and North West England, with some major areas across the country such as Newcastle having relatively few. Neither were the canals all connected by an organized national network.