Category: history

Posts predominantly history related.

The Quest for a relic from a journey of Discovery by Ernest Shackleton.

A few days ago I posted on the discovery of Endurance, a ship used by the legendary Ernest Shackleton during the last great Age of Discovery. Whilst it may be forever difficult to visit that vessel, there is a small part of the last ship that Shackleton sailed on that is easier to visit, if… Continue reading The Quest for a relic from a journey of Discovery by Ernest Shackleton.

Why Ukraine matters

I’m frequently staggered though not surprised as just how inept, short-sighted and self-serving the politicians of this world seem to be. 20 years after Putin destroyed Chechnya whose only crime was to be resource rich and not want to be ruled from Moscow any more; 14 years after Putin invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia… Continue reading Why Ukraine matters

Locked in an empty building with some Roman ruins at the Vine Street Wall

I always like to go exploring around London and am always on the lookout to make my tours better and just learn more in general. Over the years I have been afforded several opportunities to visit where no-one else goes, deep into church crypts that are only open once very few centuries, the homes of… Continue reading Locked in an empty building with some Roman ruins at the Vine Street Wall

Oakham Stocks – A quirky remnant of punishments from the Middle-Ages.

A few days ago I went to see a dear friend of mine in Oakham, a little market town in the once abolished and now restored count of Oakham. There are lots of good reasons to visit Oakham and its nearby Rutland Water lake but one of the things I enjoyed seeing the most apart… Continue reading Oakham Stocks – A quirky remnant of punishments from the Middle-Ages.

A wintery walk around Waltham Abbey

It’s often the case that one doesn’t visit the places on your doorstep and even as a guide in London, I sometimes only visited the most famous of places because I was being paid to. Just over a week ago in one of those freezing winter days where the weather doesn’t change for weeks on… Continue reading A wintery walk around Waltham Abbey

The Statue of King Alfred The Great that isn’t all it might appear.

Every where you go in London, it is hard to move without bumping into statues and the politics behind who is worthy of a statue, where it should be and how high a status it has in comparison to other figures especially in statue-dense areas are things that get the proponents and opponents quite worked… Continue reading The Statue of King Alfred The Great that isn’t all it might appear.

London’s Biggest Explosion. Silvertown 1917

Tomorrow will see the 105th anniversary of the biggest explosion that London has ever seen and considering all of the industry, terrorism and world wars then that is saying something. However as is often the way with these things, to a great extent it was an entirely avoidable disaster albeit with the mitigating circumstances of… Continue reading London’s Biggest Explosion. Silvertown 1917

Lady Florence Norman – The Scooter riding Suffragette

In London and many other cities, they are the either a much needed liberating ‘last-mile’ mode of transport or the latest bane on urban life. Scooters, particularly those standing e-scooters are loved by riders and seemingly hated by many others in equal measures. They seemed to appear almost overnight in 2019 or 2020 as if… Continue reading Lady Florence Norman – The Scooter riding Suffragette

The redemption of King Richard III and a new lead on the ‘Princes in the tower’

For a few centuries, King Richard III has been largely denigrated as perhaps the monarch without any merit whatsoever, even more so than bad King John… and that is saying something. He was ugly, he was deformed, he murdered his nephews. Even when we go to the toilet, some of us have a Richard III… Continue reading The redemption of King Richard III and a new lead on the ‘Princes in the tower’