Sticky Toffee Cartmel

Visitors to the Lake District can be crudely classified into two broad types: there are the fell walkers, climbers, canoeists, sailors and other outdoor enthusiasts, and then there are the gentler souls who follow the Wordsworth trail, who haunt tea shops, go on shopping crawls and crowd onto steam trains and lake cruises. And there’s nothing wrong with either of these types…

4 mins read

This England

Reaching For The Skies

Inspired by the brothers of an airman who was killed in a raid over Germany in 1944, a Lancaster bomber is being painstakingly restored as a memorial to his courage and sacrifice.

5 mins read

This England

Passchendaele

“…It was the last ball of the over. The blacksmith glared at the umpire…took another reef in his belt, shook out another inch in his braces, spat on his hand…grasped the ball tightly in his colossal palm and…marched off…over the brow of the hill. At last, after a long stillness, the ground shook, the grasses waved violently, small birds arose with shrill clamours…and the blacksmith, looking more like Venus Anadyomene than ever, came thundering over the crest…It was the charge of Von Bredow’s Dragoons at Gravelotte over again.”

6 mins read

This England

Elihu Burritt: An American's View Of Victorian England

It is always interesting to read what others think of us. In recent years we have had Bill Bryson giving us his thought-provoking views on England and the English, but a century and a half ago one of his compatriots did the same thing, albeit for a specific area of the country.

5 mins read

This England

Beautiful In Black And White

England’s landscape and landmarks as they have never been seen before

2 mins read

This England

Askrigg And The Yorkshire Dales

Looking for a holiday cottage for a quiet week in the Yorkshire Dales was proving a vexing experience.

7 mins read

This England

All The Fun Of The Fair

There is nothing quite like the joy of a brightly painted, brilliantly lit English fair with excited children grasping their candyfloss sticks and toffee apples, young men trying to win a prize at the darts stall and impress their girlfriends by handing them a giant cuddly toy and dads sportingly agreeing to take a turn on the big wheel even though they are still feeling the effects of a heavy lunch. Yes, we just love all the fun of the fair.

5 mins read

This England

The Secret Gardens of Sandwich

Whilst walking along the picturesque quayside in Sandwich, Kent, the visitor may encounter the beautiful Secret Gardens, tucked away behind part of the ancient town walls. The gardens surround the majestic Salutation manor house, designed and built by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1911-12. Lutyens designed many English country houses, and was renowned for his ability to ingeniously modify time-honoured architectural styles to meet the demands of his era. In Another Six English Towns (BBC Books, 1984), the English architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor wrote that Lutyens must surely be recognised as “the greatest English architect of the last hundred years at least”.

5 mins read

This England

Aspects Of English Towns

BUXTON — A Derbyshire Gem and an Opera Festival too!

6 mins read

This England

A Case of 'War Worry'

Centenary of the First World War

2 mins read

This England