"Eat, drink and be merry!" With roots in the Roman festival of Saturnalia, the Lord of Misrule was a festive, roll-reversal ...

We take single-sex public toilets for granted today. It is hard to believe that when public conveniences were first constructed, the vast majority of these toilets were just for men. Great Exhibition ...

Although lots of portraits exist of Elizabeth, she did not pose for many of them. Perhaps she was a little vain – if she disliked a particular picture she would have it destroyed. Her Secretary of ...

There have been many reincarnations of London Bridge since the original Roman crossing in AD50. The most famous and longstanding of these was the “Old” Medieval bridge, finished in 1209 during the ...

Millions of families throughout the UK suffered the loss of close family relatives in the Great War of 1914 -18. Losing one family member must have been truly devastating but try to image the grief of ...

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. ‘Winnie the Pooh’, by A.A. Milne The traditional English ...

Fox hunting has been occurring in different guises worldwide for hundreds of years. Indeed the practise of using dogs with a keen sense of smell to track prey has been traced back to ancient Egypt and ...

Unlike their invasion of England, the Norman penetration into Wales took place very gradually after 1066. The new king of England, William I (‘The Conqueror’) quickly secured his English kingdom by ...

Speakers’ Corner is one of Britain’s most famous places for public debate and discussion. It is often seen as a shining symbol of Britain’s entry into liberal democracy. The official story of the ...

Whilst the term “Christmas” first became part of the English language in the 11th century as an amalgamation of the Old English expression “Christes Maesse”, meaning “Festival of Christ”, the ...

Modern day visitors to Winchester can’t help but soak in the history as they wander through the ancient streets of this small city. Few however may realise that some of Winchester’s first settlers ...

The Highland Clearances remain a controversial period in Scotland’s history and are still talked of with great bitterness, particularly by those families who were dispossessed of their land and even, ...