The Romans founded Chester in the C1st AD. The city was the fortress of the 20th Legion. There are extensive Roman walls of local red sandstone. Outside the walls are the remains of the largest Roman amphitheatre in Britain. Storyhouse Today’s theatre lovers can also enjoy an indoor experience at Chester’s Storyhouse. The recently opened […]
The modern city of Hereford, on the boarder between England and Wales, is a treasure trove of historic buildings and artefacts. While the Old Market is an up-to-the-minute, and buzzing, shopping destination. Hereford Cathedral The see of Hereford dates from AD 676, and the present Cathedral from C11th-C12th. The columns and arches in the nave […]
Recent excavations at Warwick have found evidence of Neolithic people living in the area. Since then, it was a Saxon settlement, afforded protection to William the Conqueror and his army, and survived The Great Fire of 1694. The town boasts buildings from every period of the last thousand years, even though the Great Fire of […]
William FitzOsbern, cousin of William the Conqueror, founded the Castle, Priory, and Town at Chepstow. He was joint 2nd in command of the Normans in the Norman conquest of 1066. So afterward, William I made him Earl of Hereford. Chepstow Castle The priority for both the Conqueror and FitzOsbern was to secure the English-Welsh border. […]
Rochester is a very old city, within the walls of a Roman town where Watling Street crosses the river Medway. Later Anglo Saxons built Rochester Bridge which has ten timber spans across the Medway; a great achievement. Named landowners were responsible for the upkeep of piers or spans. Rochester Castle The first castle dates from […]
Great Yarmouth is one of the UK’s top seaside resorts with stunning beaches and a newly revived seafront. It has a fascinating maritime past with a wide range of period architecture. As the beautiful countryside around includes the famous Norfolk Broads, Great Yarmouth is hard to beat as a holiday base. Its coastal location, almost […]
Wareham Town Hall dressed for Britain in Bloom © H Randall Until the C14th, Wareham was a major port but the increasing size of ships and the silting of the river changed its role. It is now a riverside town lying between the rivers Piddle and Frome surrounded by walls dating from the Saxon period. […]
Lincoln sits on the site of a Roman fortress. The Romans grouped the local people together in great cities such as Lincoln (and York for example). Enclosed by great walls, the local people in the cities governed themselves but paid taxes to the Romans. Great roads linked the cities. The Roman road known as Ermine […]
Berwick-upon-Tweed, now an English town, changed from Scots to English and back thirteen times in the last 300 years. Three miles from the border with Scotland, Berwick had a violent past. The Border region once thrived on raids, and disorder was just a way of life. There were raids, pirates, sea battles and occasional truces. […]
