Tabla de contenidos para February/March 2020 en Discover Britain

“One of the best parts of my job is bringing pivotal points in history to life” We care for over 400 sites, but I have recently been spending a lot of time at Boscobel House in Shropshire. Our most prized “object” is the Royal Oak, a descendent of the tree inside which a future Charles II hid to escape the Parliamentarians in 1651. It represents one of the best parts of my job: bringing pivotal points in this island’s history to life. We’re currently working on a complete re-representation of the house. Its role in the Civil Wars is only one snapshot in time and we want to tell more of its fascinating story by drawing from its other lives as a hunting lodge and a farmhouse. My favourite English…

Edinburgh is the official capital, yet Glasgow lays claim to be Scotland’s biggest and best city in many ways. The population is greater, the city centre more sprawling, and the arts scene more vibrant too. A recent European Commission report named Glasgow the UK’s top cultural and creative city, while UNESCO has designated it one of the world’s “Cities of Music”. Many major national institutions are based here, including the Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera and the National Theatre of Scotland. Local heroes such as designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh and art collective The Glasgow Boys further bolster the city’s reputation. Demand for their wares is high. Glasgow’s museums welcome more visitors than any other British city outside of London – and that is before the Burrell Collection completes a £66-million refurbishment…

It’s been raining and blowing and sunning all at once, all day, with the most incredible huge crowded brilliant skies,” the poet Ted Hughes once wrote from the corner of Yorkshire he called home. Those “brilliant skies” belonged to Calderdale, the southernmost of the Yorkshire Dales’ valleys, which sits in the heart of England’s largest county. It is a place bursting with both natural beauty and local pride in its rich culture and history. Set between the northern English cities of Manchester and Leeds, Calderdale is a series of towns and villages bound together by the picturesque hills, moors and valleys that surrounds them. It takes its name from the River Calder which runs through it: “Calder” means “swift stream” in Celtic. The area has long been a magnet for…

If there is one thing the British can be relied upon to do well it is pomp and pageantry. Trooping the Colour is among the finest such events in the calendar, as more than 1,400 soldiers and 200 horses execute a grand display of military precision. This inspection of the British and Commonwealth armies’ leading regiments actually takes place across three subsequent weekends, with the Major General’s Review and the Colonel’s Review (lead respectively by Major General CJ Ghika and Charles, the Prince of Wales) preceding the most prominent public event, a state ceremonial parade in the presence of Her Majesty which is now known as the Queen’s Birthday Parade. The Queen was born in April, yet Trooping the Colour takes place on her “official birthday” in June Queen Elizabeth…

Taking good care Each week I visit a charming 90-year-old friend in a care home and her greatest pleasure is talking about England where she was born in Kent and lived until she came to Australia as a young girl with her parents. Even though most of her life has been here, her loyalty to her homeland never wavers. Her joy is me reading Discover Britain to her and we discuss all the beautiful places featured in your excellent magazine. Days are re-lived as she tells me about her nights in air-raid shelters during the war, being “evaporated” and so on. I have learnt so much about Britain from her stories. In issue 211, we enjoyed the Dorset villages [above]. Thank you for giving me and an old lady so…

On 24 February 1855 an artist’s engraving was reproduced in the Illustrated London News that captured the public imagination. It showed Florence Nightingale, the “Lady with the Lamp”, tending to stricken soldiers of the Crimean War. Newspapers like The Times quickly took up the theme: “She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the sight of her… with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.” Songs and poems sang Florence’s praises as Nightingale-mania swept across the country. Yet the iconic Lady with the Lamp image was to overshadow so much else that Florence did in a long career that broke with social expectations, as she pioneered…

With its black-and-white, half-timbered Tudor frontage standing in stark contrast to the surrounding lush green Cheshire countryside, Little Moreton Hall is certainly distinctive. But what is particularly remarkable is that it’s still standing at all. For this 500-year-old house is buckling under the weight of its own stone-slabbed roof and a Long Gallery perched precariously atop it. Standing on marshland near the historic market town of Congleton, about 30 miles due south of Manchester, this curious building was built and owned for more than 400 years by successive generations of the Moreton family. However, the family were gentry, not aristocracy, and their societal standing went on to define both the design and the history of the house. Not much is known about the Moretons, as their acquired wealth means there…

These days the British Prime Minister (PM) is an almost presidential figure. Yet in the 18th century, the king or queen was sovereign and being PM was something of an insult. That all changed in 1721 when Robert Walpole, the new First Lord of the Treasury, became so important that the German-speaking King George I clearly relied on him. Walpole rebuffed those who accused him of being the “prime” minister, yet within a generation the concept had become a fact. Prime Ministers have tended to live well and many of their homes are now open to the public, providing a fascinating insight into how British politics has changed over the years. Robert Walpole Houghton Hall, Norfolk Sir Robert Walpole was a Whig politician and de facto Prime Minister for Kings…

Arbroath is a small, unassuming Angus town on the east coast of Scotland that is set to become a focal point for visitors in 2020. This year marks the 700th anniversary of a historic political document called the Declaration of Arbroath. It originated in 1320 when eight earls and around 40 nobles gathered in Arbroath Abbey to add their seal to a letter addressed to Pope John XXII in Avignon. The Declaration notably called for Scotland’s autonomy from England, with its own legitimate king, yet, as a political document, it was much more far reaching than that. In a time when people truly believed in God, heaven and hell, the Declaration was a plea to the Pope to lift the sentence of excommunication imposed on Robert the Bruce (or Robert…

Never believe everything you watch on TV. Whoever first said this old adage probably wasn’t thinking about season three of The Crown at the time, but it certainly applies. The popular Netflix TV historical drama series traces the life of Queen Elizabeth II from her marriage to Prince Phillip in 1947 through to the present day. So far, the first season took us up to Prince Margaret’s engagement in 1955, and the second season charts the Queen’s reaction to the Suez Crisis and the birth of Prince Edward. The third series covers the period 1964 to 1977 and hit our screens in November to rave reviews with Oscar -winning British actress Olivia Colman taking over the role of Her Majesty from Claire Foy. And while we’ll never know for sure…

1 Inverlochy Castle Inverness-shire Two miles from the ruins of the original 13th-century Inverlochy Castle lies this Victorian baronial mansion. In fact, this is not only a building constructed in the Victorian era, but also one that was given the royal seal of approval by the Queen herself. During an 1873 visit to her Balmoral estate, she spent a week sketching and painting here, claiming she had never seen “a lovelier or more romantic spot”. The 17 rooms have a cosy grandeur, combining waterfall showers and Egyptian cotton bed sheets. Meanwhile, Father-and-son team Albert and Michel Roux Jr cook up modern British meals with a French twist in three dining rooms decorated with gifts from the King of Norway. www.inverlochycastlehotel.com 2 Claridge’s London This grand British institution has humble origins,…

Blenheim Palace Queen Anne was a generous sort. To celebrate the military achievements of John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, who led the British army to victory over the French in the Battle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704, she went all out. Not only did she grant Churchill a considerable amount of land near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, but she also dedicated around £240,000 of funds to the building of a country home for him and his family. Of course, the 1st Duke is no longer the most famous Churchill to be associated with Britain’s only non-royal, non-episcopal palace. Our wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston was born at Blenheim in 1874, grew up here and eventually proposed to his future wife Clementine in the palace’s Temple of Diana summerhouse. The…

Bourton-on-the-Water There are five beautiful bridges in Bourton-onthe-Water, under which the River Windrush flows. The oldest, Mill Bridge, dates back to 1654, while the newest, Coronation Bridge, was built in 1953. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why this idyllic Gloucestershire village has been dubbed “the Venice of the Cotswolds”. But there’s more to it than this, including a delightful high street and some extraordinary buildings, including Bourton Manor, which is notable for its royal connections. King Charles I and his son were thought to have stayed here during the English Civil War in 1644; the royal household’s chaplain at that time was Thomas Temple, vicar of Bourton-on-the-Water. While the manor isn’t open to the public, we recommend staying at the The Mousetrap, a traditional 18th-century inn: think…