Two earthquakes shook London in early 1750. Then a third was predicted. Cue thousands of Londoners fleeing the city in panic, ...

Audrey Hepburn’s name evokes the glamour and elegance of the golden age of cinema in the 1950s. Yet her childhood and ...

Not far from Solihull town centre, there is a small group of trees that most people tend to ignore. Its name is Cut Throat Coppice. The trees are mostly oak, interspersed with silver birch, and ...

At the outbreak of the Second World War, around three quarters of Britain’s homes owned a radio, known as the “wireless”. It was a lifeline during the dark days of World War Two, entertaining and ...

In a 2002 poll by the BBC, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was voted the second greatest Briton of all time, after Winston Churchill. This prolific and gifted engineer designed railways (Great Western Railway ...

The legacy of Rhodri ap Merfyn, commonly known as Rhodri the Great (Rhodri Mawr in Welsh) reaches far beyond his lifetime. The ruler of Gwynedd, Rhodri was one of the earliest Welsh leaders to unite ...

Traditionally, the Christian festival of Shrovetide was a time to “shrive” or confess your sins, to eat and drink your fill before the abstinence of Lent, and to have a bit of fun. Left over bits of ...

Britain loves potatoes. And it’s not just me saying that, there are numbers to back that up! The average Brit eats over 100 kilos of spuds in various forms every year. But that hasn’t always been the ...

Lucozade! Many baby boomers will remember this sparkling, lurid-coloured drink when the glass bottle still came wrapped in crinkly cellophane. This iconic tonic only appeared when a child was ill in ...

Mary Tudor, favourite sister of King Henry VIII, was feted around Europe for her pale skin and good looks. Henry arranged for Mary’s marriage to the aging and gouty King Louis XII as part of a peace ...

Fergus I, or Fergus MacFerchard is the legendary founding ruler of Scotland, the “first king of Scotland”. He is said to have come to Scotland from Ireland about 330 B.C. to help the Scots repel ...

Mystery, legend and myth surround the Knights Templar, a religious military order of knighthood formed at the time of the Crusades and sworn to defend Christian holy sites in the Holy Land. One of ...