The Battle of The Somme 100 Years On

Friday July 1st 2016 marks the centerniary of the commencement of The Battle Of The Somme.  It is fair to say that July 1st 1916 might possibly the most horrific day in British history and most likely in the top two or three anywhere given the dreadful events of the day. The Battle of The… Continue reading The Battle of The Somme 100 Years On

More photos from the old and the new

Today I finish my series of three posts looking at how particular locations have changed in appearance between some old photos that I found and which date from the 1880’s and 1890’s and how they look today using Google Steet view. Originally I was just interested to see if I could find the locations for… Continue reading More photos from the old and the new

Why does the Queen have 2 birthdays?

Today  Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 90th birthday.   Reaching 90 years of age is reason enough to celebrate for any of us but this is the second time the Queen has reached 90 as she also had a birthday back on 21st April which was the day she was actually born. In… Continue reading Why does the Queen have 2 birthdays?

The more things change – Photos of then and now

Following from my popular post earlier in the week  Then and now – How sights have changed in 130 years I have collated some more of the old colour photographs from the 1890s cataloging interesting sights around England and then using Google Streetview, attempted to replicate these views to see how things have changed. The first… Continue reading The more things change – Photos of then and now

Then and now – How sights have changed in 130 years

Last week the Daily Telegraph newspaper printed some old photos from across England and taken in the 1890’s but rare because they were in colour. The photos were created using the Photochrom technique pioneered by Photoglob Zürich AG, which sees colour manually added to black-and-white negatives. I thought it would be fun to see if… Continue reading Then and now – How sights have changed in 130 years

The Return of The Flying Scotsman

The Flying Scotsman is one of the most famous names in locomotion and with a history as grand as its reputation.  The Flying Scotsman is an express passenger train service that has run the 392 miles between London and Edinburgh since 1862 and which continues to this day.   Of course, a number of trains… Continue reading The Return of The Flying Scotsman

Sights from the moors

During our days out on holiday we spent quite a lot of time just driving around.  The weather was entirely perfect every day and we all enjoyed just being somewhere where there were no people and often no birds or animals either.  There aren’t many places in England where you an drive around for an… Continue reading Sights from the moors

Words we still use from Shakespeare!

This week marks both the death and supposed birth of the greatest writer of the English language, William Shakespeare.  He was born in 1564 and died in 1616 and whilst much about him is sometimes doubted such as his birthday, sexuality or even actual identity; what can’t be questioned is the fact that he gave… Continue reading Words we still use from Shakespeare!

2013 Annual Cheese-Rolling Race!

This past Bank-Holiday Monday saw the weird and wonderful calendar of oddball traditions and activities in Britain move to Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire.  Though the world media concentrates on sporting events such as Wimbledon, Badminton Horse Trials, Sailing, Formula 1 and The Open what most of us are interested in are much more low-key events… Continue reading 2013 Annual Cheese-Rolling Race!