Category: Architecture

Great Fires Of London & those who fought them

I’ve been crisscrossing the country so far this week so have got a little behind on my blog posts so please consider this an emergency posting! I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to create a few Youtube videos on two channels broadly related to my blogs and tours and writing and… Continue reading Great Fires Of London & those who fought them

The Worst Restorations Ever

The U.K. is covered in old buildings and ruins.  Deciding which to fully or partially restore, which to manage to prevent further degradation and which to let disintegrate away is a complicated process depending on the structures uniqueness and importance to history and the arts as well as expense. The rules are very strict and… Continue reading The Worst Restorations Ever

Rising like a Phoenix from the ashes.

At this time of year, my back garden so often looks like it has taken a real battering from months of incessant rain, sometimes snow and many weeks of seemingly constant gales or worse.   Sometimes a tree will blow over or even snap meaning our beloved garden has a gaping hole in it.  Of… Continue reading Rising like a Phoenix from the ashes.

Looking up at London

On Saturday I did one of my Jack The Ripper walks with a particularly brave and sporting Australian lady who wanted to combine an amazing history walk and a way to see a bit of London that most tourists wouldn’t go near. All this on Halloween! As I get there a little early I took… Continue reading Looking up at London

Alston Holiday -Day 2 Hexham and Hadrians Wall

For day two of our holiday we visited the lively little market town of Hexham, notable for amongst other things its magnificent Abbey Cathedral. People have worshipped on this site for nearly 1400 years.    On top of the moors and in my “home” county. Whitfield Church in an area known as Little Switerzland      Hexham Abbey  … Continue reading Alston Holiday -Day 2 Hexham and Hadrians Wall

A Trip To Norfolk, A Pilgrimage To Walsingham

Not many people have heard of Walsingham in the U.K. and even less people know of it overseas and yet around 900 years ago it would have been one of the most famous pilgrimage points in the known world.    Situated only 130 miles from London but even today much more isolated and harder to… Continue reading A Trip To Norfolk, A Pilgrimage To Walsingham

The mysterious Lud Church and the Green Knight

Lud Church isn’t even a church at all but actually a hard to find crevice in the Staffordshire countryside on the south-west fringes of the Peak District.  A narrow canyon in the ground over over 100 metres (328.1 ft) long and 18 metres (59.1 ft) deep.  It’s a foreboding place and long has it been this way… Continue reading The mysterious Lud Church and the Green Knight

The English Landscape Garden

Given that it’s Easter time, the traditional beginning to the summer season in the U.K., it means that I’m once again able to enjoy the countless country gardens around and about. Many have seen our gardens on various TV shows and movies and they set the image of what people around the world imagine Britain… Continue reading The English Landscape Garden

My First Guided Tour: Windsor Castle

Regular readers may be aware that over the last few months I have been working on setting up my own personal and private guided tours company.  It has been a long arduous but also frequently fun road setting up a company website, creating profiles on various guiding websites and creating and designing brochures, leaflets, business… Continue reading My First Guided Tour: Windsor Castle