Culture UK
Who are the British? Do they really drink tea, eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and never leave home without an umbrella? Find out more about true Brits; past and present, myth and legend, fact and fiction.
A Short History of Medicine
In Britain, medicine has drastically changed over the last thousand years, from folk remedies in the early medieval period to the formation of the NHS in the 20th century…
William-Henry Ireland and the Great Shakespeare Hoax
William-Henry Ireland, the son of a London engraver and antiquarian, had dreams of becoming a writer. Instead, he created one of the greatest literary forgeries of the century, somehow managing to convince Georgian society that he had discovered an entire cache of unknown Shakespearean manuscripts…
From outlaw to royal physician – Dr John Forrest
From body snatching to royal physician: the changing fortunes of Dr John Forrest…
Elizabeth Fry
The “Angel of Prisons”. A Quaker minister, social reformer and mother of 11 children, Elizabeth Fry is perhaps best known for her work on behalf of the women and children in Newgate Prison in London. Some of the more specific requirements she concerned herself with after her numerous visits to the prison included ensuring that men and women would be separated, with female guards provided for the female inmates.
Blue Stockings Society
For an 18th century woman, her ‘place’ was to be fashionable, proficient in the social graces, and eloquent yet demure. Society did not deem it acceptable for a woman to be more educated than a man or to share her opinions….
Robert Watson-Watt
A plaque in a remote Warwickshire field reads… “On 26th February 1935 in the field opposite, Roberts Watson Watt and Arnold Wilkins showed for the first time in Britain that aircraft could be detected by bouncing radio waves off them. By 1939 there were 20 stations tracking aircraft at distances up to 100 miles. Later known as radar, it was this invention, more than any other, that saved the RAF from defeat in the 1940 Battle of Britain’…
The Anonymous Peter Puget
In a small graveyard in a tiny English village lies the tomb of Rear-Admiral Peter Puget. Virtually unknown in his homeland, this fine sailor rose from midshipman to Rear Admiral and gave his name to Puget Sound, Seattle in the USA…
Rise and Fall of the English Stately Home
The TV series and films about Downton Abbey have inspired us with visions of how life used to be in a grand country house in its heyday: the family, the staff and of course, the star of the show, the fabulous building itself…
Pioneers of Women’s Football
The triumph of the ‘Lionesses’ at the European Championship in July 2022 was celebrated throughout the country and seen as a watershed moment, specifically for women’s football, women’s sport and, in general, for equal rights. As Chloe Kelly raced around the Wembley pitch, pulling off her top in a wild celebration after scoring the winning goal against Germany she might have shouted: “Three cheers for Nettie J Honeyball!”
Gun Law
In the hot summer of 1901 the country mourned the death of Queen Victoria. However once the period of mourning was over, with the hot weather a new craze was born: cycling. Thousands of cyclists eager to escape the city spilled out into the countryside, taking with them the latest fashionable accessory, a product known as ‘The Cyclist’s Friend’; a scaled-down handgun…