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 ...

In the crime-ridden underworld of Victorian London, dominated by violent men, a group of women were able to carve out a space for themselves; specialising in shoplifting, they soon became so prolific ...

England held its breath as the mighty Spanish Armada sailed up the English Channel. Invasion appeared imminent. Then Queen Elizabeth I is reputed to have made a rousing speech to her troops as they ...

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 Grand Tour was the utlimate Georgian / Victorian gap year experience. Expensive and glamourous, this was a rite of passage for rich aristocratic young men (and later, women) who travelled Europe, ...

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 ...

Arguably one of Britain’s most successful queen consorts, King George II’s wife, Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1683–1737) was a pioneer of intellectual enlightenment, a champion of modernity, ...

Radio Rentals, DER, Rediffusion, Granada, Visionhire, Martin Dawes and Thorn Television Rentals were all well-known names on the 1970s British High Street that have now all but disappeared. At its ...