Harewood House, a few miles north of Leeds, attracts many historically-minded visitors to enjoy the work of Adam, Chippendale and Capability Brown but to my mind the real treasures of Harewood lie elsewhere. After negotiating the payment booths take the path immediately on your right, leading to the redundant church...

The Isle of Wight Visiting Norwegians must be puzzled why so large and populous an island does not have bridge or tunnel access to the mainland. These have been proposed but wars have intervened and many local people like to preserve their difference from the mainland by resisting better connections...

Sarah Walters explores The River Don Engine - her favourite history place. The River Don Engine, though strictly an object, is almost big enough to be labelled as a place in its own right. It certainly needs its own high-ceilinged museum annex and it is in this room that I...

In the first of an occasional series Alf Wilkinson, HA CPD Manager, explores Mountfitchet Castle, in Essex - his favourite history place. As every schoolchild knows, William the Conqueror landed near Hastings in 1066, pursuing his claim to the throne of England. He was accompanied by the Pope's blessing, but...

Glasgow's George Square statues -‘Through the looking glass' History is often illumined by writers of genius but Glasgow did not produce a Zola, a Balzac, a Dickens or even an Arnold Bennet. We are, therefore, thrown back on looking at other manifestations of a powerful and wealthy city to augment...

History is nothing if not an exercise in informed imagination. On a country walk in Rutland arranged by a group of (non-historian) friends, I noted that the Ordnance Survey map showed our planned route, following a ridge of high ground separating the valleys of the meandering Gwash and Chater rivers,...

Situated north west of the Lake District, Silloth is a seaside resort, looking across the Solway Firth to Dumfries and Galloway. The origins of this settlement lie in medieval times because the monks of nearby Holme Cultram Abbey had established storage facilities there to receive and store the grain from...

Cromford Mill, one of the best known, and the Lumsdale Valley, one of the least known of the early industrial sites, are linked today by being managed by the Arkwright Society. They have also been the subject of a recent BBC1 programme in a series: ‘Britain's Hidden Heritage'. They are...

Despite its old name of Bolton-le-Moors, the history of Bolton is tied up with the Industrial Revolution. Its population grew from 17,000 inhabitants in 1801 to nearly 181,000 in 1911. It is well known that the damp climate of England's north west was perfectly suited to the textile industry, and...

This is a momentous occasion in the history of designation in England and we hope you find the List and the online application form a useful resource. The National Heritage List for England is an online database which brings together information on all nationally designated heritage assets in one place for...

It is at Newark that the River Trent turns northwards. Running parallel to the river are the Great North Road (now the A1) and the East Coast Mainline railway. The easily missed village of Norwell lies seven miles north of Newark and one and a half miles west of the...

East Yorkshire is a somewhat neglected area for touring. Yet, the villages in the chalk Wolds possess much charm and a lot of surprising history to reward those who would explore them. In my youth, I toured these villages many times both on foot and by bicycle. This route is...

This is more than one of our conventional ‘Out and About in Local History' items because Ken Rogers introduces us to a process whereby visual architectural and industrial history of Trowbridge has been saved from destruction; and then he gives us some clear guidance as to where to go and...

Where is Laxton? The village is in north Nottinghamshire, formerly called Lexington (Lexitune). The village is based around the Church of St Michael and, of course, its hostelry, the Dovecote Inn. Most of the farms are properties which are long and thin and they have "closes" which stretch back from...

The West Somerset Mineral Railway Project is run by a consortium of local and national partners under the leadership of the Exmoor National Park Authority.  It received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in December 2007 for a programme scheduled for completion at the end of 2009.    The project set...

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum's brand new History Centre is a treasure trove of information on the history of Coventry and its citizens from medieval times to the present .The huge range of original documents includes books, maps, newspapers, electoral registers and building plans. Photographs, oral history, microfilms and internet sources...

If you want to get up close to history, Liverpool's revolutionary Old Dock - the world's first commercial enclosed wet dock - is opening in May 2010 as the city's latest historic attraction, with free ticketed tours for schools and members of the public starting from Merseyside Maritime Museum. For...

Barton-upon-Humber is a small historic town situated on the south bank of the River Humber, in the old north Lincolnshire area of Lindsey. It is almost opposite the large city and port of Kingston-upon-Hull. The name is derived from ‘Beretun', which meant ‘Barley Town', a tribute to its importance in...

In the muddy corner of a field fringing Biddulph Moor in North Staffordshire, a small fenced enclosure surrounds Trent Head, ‘official' source of the River Trent (SJ905 579). In truth, any of a handful of springs that rise nearby might serve. Pilgrims are well advised to equip themselves with Wellington...

Ruined buildings shrouded in trees, masonry crumbling into the undergrowth. It sounds like the backdrop for an Indiana Jones movie, the sort of thing people trek across Central America or the wilds of Cambodia to find. But Britain has its own share of enigmatic relics. Three very different such historical...