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My Favourite History Place: The Red House
Historian feature
Tim Brasier tempts others to visit the iconic Arts and Crafts Red House, home to William and Jane Morris in Bexleyheath, London.
This is a favourite historical venue of mine because it is so accessible. We literally live around the corner from the Red House in its location of the London...
My Favourite History Place: The Red House
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My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
Historian feature
Richard Stone introduces us to a quiet neighbourhood in Bruges which has played its part in the development of women’s independence.
Close to the Minnewaterpark, on the fringe of the bustling historic centre of Bruges, with its medieval buildings and atmospheric cobbled streets, the Beguinage is a tranquil haven. Cross the...
My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
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My Favourite History Place: Maiden Castle
Historian feature
In the six years I have been on the editorial board of The Historian I have enjoyed reading about many historians’ favourite places so it is fitting that I write my last contribution about mine. Maiden Castle is the largest Celtic hill fort in southern Europe. I forget when I first...
My Favourite History Place: Maiden Castle
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Out and About in Upper Weardale
Historian feature
Tony Fox introduces us to two battlefields and the work of the Battlefields Trust.
Stanhope takes its name from the ‘stony valley’ in which it sits. It is the most significant town in beautiful Upper Weardale. Like many towns in this area Stanhope’s growth accelerated in the nineteenth century as...
Out and About in Upper Weardale
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My Favourite History Place: Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden
Historian feature
When I first visited Gladstone’s residential library in 1977 for a pre-university History degree reading week, I barely knew who Gladstone was. I had just come back from a holiday in Italy and the contrast between Florence and Hawarden, a Welsh border town, was startling. I came from the sunny remains...
My Favourite History Place: Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden
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Out and About in Haworth
Historian feature
Kimberley Braxton takes a tour of Brontë country, through Haworth and onto the iconic Yorkshire Moors that were central to Wuthering Heights.
Haworth is a place for walkers; even before you reach the breathtaking moors it is likely your legs will already be burning from climbing the steep Yorkshire terrain....
Out and About in Haworth
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My Favourite History Place: Petra
Historian feature
Ghislaine Headland-Vanni visits the ancient city of Petra, in Jordan.
When you hear the word ‘Petra’ what images does the word conjure up for you? Maybe you have visited and know it already; if not, then like me you may not fully comprehend its size. I naively thought I could...
My Favourite History Place: Petra
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Out and About: Kennington and the Elephant and Castle
Historian feature
The HA's very own Martin Hoare takes us on a tour of Kennington and Elephant and Castle, to some lesser-known gems that ought to be higher on the London tourist trail.
Over the years of working for the HA I’ve quite often used my lunch break to take walks around the areas...
Out and About: Kennington and the Elephant and Castle
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My Favourite History Place: Llanelly House and Saint Elli’s Church
Historian feature
There are so many delightful places of historical interest in Wales that it is very difficult to select just one or two as favourites but among contenders must be those visited by the Pontllanfraith Branch of the Gwent Historical Association in August 2018...
My Favourite History Place: Llanelly House and Saint Elli’s Church
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Out and About in Derry/Londonderry
Historian feature
Jenni Hyde was out and about in Derry in 2016 and describes how the sights of the city tell the story of a history which is so much more than just the legacy of the Troubles.
Out and About in Derry/Londonderry
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My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
Historian feature
Maggie Wilson whets our appetite for exploration of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile runs between the Castle and Holyrood Palace. In addition to these and other well-known sites such as St Giles Cathedral, John Knox’s house, the Canongate Tolbooth and Canongate Kirk, and stories of Deacon Brodie, David Hume, James Boswell, Robert Burns and, obviously,...
My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
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Terriers in India
Historian Article
Peter Stanley is working on the largely unexplored history of the thousands of British Territorial soldiers who served in India during the First World War using their letters and diaries. He is trying to discover what happened to these men when they returned to Britain. Did their service in India...
Terriers in India
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Out and About: Barging between Brindleys
Historian feature
Coventry canal basin ought to be a hive of activity. It is a collection of new and well-restored buildings around the terminal arms of the Coventry Canal and could be like thriving Gas Street Basin in neighbouring Birmingham, but it is on the wrong side of the inner ring road....
Out and About: Barging between Brindleys
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My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
Historian feature
Waterloo station may not be an obvious choice for a favourite history place. It is big. It is busy. It’s a place that people pass through rather than linger. Yet its story is interesting. If time permits, an hour spent exploring is a rewarding experience.
Passengers first used Waterloo in...
My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
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Out and About in Medieval Toulouse
Historian article
David Pearse takes us to the historic heart of France’s fourth-largest city.
Looking at the street plan
Bordering the River Garonne, medieval Toulouse extends as far as the Basilica of St Sernin but is concentrated in an area bounded approximately by the Jacobins’ Church to the north, St Etienne Cathedral...
Out and About in Medieval Toulouse
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My Favourite History Place - Nuneaton's Old Grammar School
Historian article
Near the centre of the largest town in Warwickshire, an oasis of calm encompasses the area of Nuneaton parish church, vicarage and Old Grammar School. Of the three buildings, the Old Grammar School may be the least impressive but its history is just as eventful. Nuneaton’s Boys’ Free Grammar School,...
My Favourite History Place - Nuneaton's Old Grammar School
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Out & About: On the Somme
Historian feature
Paula Kitching demonstrates how to interpret and understand the memorial features of the Somme landscape.
One hundred and five years ago, a piece entitled ‘Out and about on the Somme’ would have been a travel piece for would-be tourists to the French countryside. The rolling hills and valleys provide a...
Out & About: On the Somme
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My Favourite History Place - Poperinge
Historian feature
Poperinge is a cheerful place. It is a cheerfulness which defies its location yet resonates with its history. It is a small town just ten kilometres west of Ypres and all around is the debris and memorabilia of slaughter. Yet somehow Poperinge is a cheerful place. It is a community...
My Favourite History Place - Poperinge
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My Favourite History Place: Tivoli Theatre
Historian feature
The Tivoli Theatre opened on 24 August 1936 with Jean Adrienne in Father O’Flynn and Shirley Temple in Kid in Hollywood, with film star Jean Adrienne appearing in person. It was designed by Bournemouth-based architect E. de Wilde Holding. The front of the building was an existing Georgian-style building named Borough House. Inside the auditorium there...
My Favourite History Place: Tivoli Theatre
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Out and about in Tamworth
Historian feature
Trevor James introduces the wider context in which Tamworth’s history has developed.
Modern-day visitors to Tamworth immediately observe its very extensive out-of-town shopping areas and industrial estates and then, in stark parallel, notice that the signage is welcoming them to the capital of historic Mercia. Investigating this conundrum is the...
Out and about in Tamworth
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Out and About in Montreuil-sur-Mer
Historian feature
John Painter explores a strategically-important French boundary town, over which neighbouring powers have competed for over 1,200 years.
Montreuil in Picardy is one of the most interesting small towns in northern France and a good base for visiting the battlefields of Crécy and Agincourt as well as the Somme Western...
Out and About in Montreuil-sur-Mer
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My Favourite History Place - Magdeburg
Historian feature
Magdeburg (‘Magdeburg überascht') is situated on the banks of the River Elbe in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. First mentioned by Charlemagne in 805, Magdeburgtoday attracts much attention by being a major historic venue on the Straße der Romanik or Romanesque Route that has opened up a large number of...
My Favourite History Place - Magdeburg
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My Favourite History Place: Brixham
Historian feature
Paul Brunyee writes about a surprising link between Brixham in Devon, and Napoleon, and the impact the arrival of Napoleon in 1815 had on the townspeople.
The waters and cliffs of Brixham, on the south coast of England, have played small but significant parts in the long wars against France....
My Favourite History Place: Brixham
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Out and About in Runnymede
Historian feature
The Runnymede area is rich in historical associations. Nigel Saul looks at other places of interest near where King John gave his assent to the Charter in 1215.
The birthplace of our democratic heritage is a broad meadow on the banks of the lower Thames near the meeting-point between Surrey...
Out and About in Runnymede
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My Favourite History Place - Cambridge City Cemetary
Historian feature
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains memorials to our war dead in large and small numbers in cemeteries across the world, and here Glenn Hearnden presents us with a detailed and informative case-study of Cambridge City Cemetery.
Like many large towns and cities across the UK, there is a cemetery in...
My Favourite History Place - Cambridge City Cemetary
