History

Ordnance Survey maps

As its name suggests, Britain’s mapping agency has its roots in military strategy: mapping the Scottish Highlands following rebellion in 1745.

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The Flannan Isle Lighthouse mystery

The Flannan Isle Lighthouse is on a remote Scottish island off the Outer Hebrides. In December 1900, all three lighthouse keepers vanished, and their fate remains a mystery to this day.

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The Clifton Rocks Railway - Bristol's lost funicular connection

The 1880s and 1890s were a great age for funicular railways in Britain. Some remain as icons like that in Lynton & Lynmouth in Devon, but not all were successful, even during their early years. The cliff railway in Clifton, Bristol was such a grand idea that failed to flourish.

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Piltdown Man - a very British hoax

In 1912, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed to have discovered the 'missing link' between ape and man. But 'the Piltdown Man' was a paleoanthropological fraud, in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human, though it took another 40 years to finally disprove the claim.

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Nonsuch - Henry VIII's greatest palace

Nonsuch Palace, near Ewell, Surrey, was the grandest of Henry VIII's building projects. So unbelievably elaborate were the plans that people said that "non such" had ever been seen, and the name stuck.

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Huntley & Palmers - Reading's famous biscuit makers

Huntley & Palmers was a leading British firm of biscuit makers, originally based in Reading. The company created one of the world's first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory.

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How Pluto got its name

Though the planet Pluto was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, the credit for naming the outermost planet* of the solar system goes to an eleven year-old girl in Oxford.

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How Whitechapel got its name

The name Whitechapel conjures up images of the impoverished East End of Jack the Ripper, rather than a gleaming little church. So how did this name come about? Is the white chapel still there?

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Lady Jane Grey - the Nine Days' Queen

Known as the Nine Days' Queen, Jane Grey was a teenage English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10th July until 19th July 1553.

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The Wars of the Roses - York v Lancaster

The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, represented by a red rose; and the House of York, represented by a white rose.

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The Pre-Raphaelites - artists gentle in nature

The Pre- Raphaelites, once known as The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, were a group of English artists, poets and art critics. They rejected the Royal Academy's classical view of art such as the promotion of Raphael, and rejected the Renaissance artists' emphasis on classical poses. Instead, they favoured realism and landscape painting.

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Lost treasure - did King John really lose the crown jewels in the Wash?

Medieval monarch King John was a hapless and hopeless king. He lost his lands in France, he lost the support of his barons, and he was even excommunicated from the church. And it does seem to be true that he lost some of the royal treasure in the Wash.

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The London Beer Flood of 1814

On 17th October 1814, a freak disaster claimed the lives of at least eight people in St Giles, London. A bizarre industrial accident resulted in the release of a beer tsunami onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road.

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How a Soho water pump was found to be the key to Cholera

On the 8th September 1854, the authorities removed the handle of the water pump in Broad Street in Soho, London - suspecting that infected water from it was causing an outbreak of deadly cholera. When this action proved effective in reducing the rates of the disease, it was finally understood that cholera spread through water not air.

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The first submarine - rowed along the Thames in 1624!

The first practical submarine was demonstrated in the Thames in the 1620s, the product of an ingenious Dutchman who caught the eye of King James I. Its power depended upon human effort in the form of underwater rowers.

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Ark Royal - enduring name of five prestigious Navy warships

The name HMS Ark Royal has been given to five Royal Navy ships over the centuries. Their high profile exploits in both war and peace have made this name one of the most famous in British naval history.

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The early days of writer H G Wells

By the early 1900s, writer H. G. Wells was leading an enviably bohemian life of critical and public literary success, wealth, fame, and adoring women - but his mother had originally lined up a career for him as a draper's assistant, which she considered a good, respectable career.

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The Ague - when Malaria brought fear to England

Malaria is now regarded as a tropical disease, but it was once endemic in England - known as 'the ague'. Its occurences brought fear and panic, as can be seen in this satirical print from 1788. It was not known at the time that mosquitoes were the vector of the disease.

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Operation Tiger - sacrifice on the sands

On the night of 27th April 1944 during World War Two, a terrible tragedy unfolded just off Slapton Sands on the coast of Devon. 946 American servicemen died during Operation Tiger, the rehearsals for the D-Day landing on Utah Beach in Normandy, France.

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Bryant & May - the match factory which sparked a strike

The Bryant & May match factory, located in Bow, was for a hundred years an important industry, employer and landmark in East London. The dangerous production processes led to it being the scene of a famous strike by the female workers in 1888 over their life-endangering working conditions.

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Tolpuddle Martyrs - an unexpected protest

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were six agricultural labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset, England, who, in 1834, were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The Tolpuddle Martyrs became a popular cause for the early union and workers' rights movements.

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The first British safari park - a roaring success at Longleat, Wiltshire

The very first drive-through safari park outside of Africa opened more that 50 years ago in the grounds of Longleat, a stately home in Wiltshire. The concept of safari parks was the brainchild of Jimmy Chipperfield (1912–1990), former director of Chipperfield's Circus.

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The Kinder Mass Trespass and the right to roam

It may seem surprising today, but it took over a century of campaigning to establish what became known as the 'right to roam', which gave ordinary people the chance to enjoy walks in the countryside on what would previously have been regarded as private land, to which access was denied. A key moment in this struggle was what became known as the Kinder Mass Trespass in Derbyshire in 1932.

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The Little Ice Age - when the Thames froze over

The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that meant more severe winters happened in Britain between 500 and 250 years ago. The climate occurred in the Northern Hemisphere from the 1400s to about 1850 after the Medieval Warm Period.

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The V Bombers - Britain's Cold War nuclear strike force

The "V bombers" were the Royal Air Force trio of aircraft types that, during the 1950s and 1960s, provided the United Kingdom's strategic 'nuclear deterrent' strike force, known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Main Force.

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The Scottish Colourists - early 20th-century artists

The Scottish Colourists were a group of four Scottish painters active in the first 30 years of the 20th century: Francis Cadell, John Duncan Fergusson, Leslie Hunter and Samuel Peploe.

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P&O Ferries - not all plain sailing

Originating in a once-proud British company dating back to 1822, P&O Ferries is now owned by a Dubai-based organisation, and its ships sailing out of British harbours are registered to ports in Cyprus, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and a handful of European countries. None are registered as British vessels.

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When Britain was hit by a hurricane - 15th October 1987

There aren't that many weather legends in Britain, but one in particular will never be forgotten by most of those who experienced it. On the 15th October 1987, a woman rang the BBC concerned that a hurricane was on the way. Her suggestion was casually dismissed by the weather presenter at the time, Michael Fish, who was forever reminded of his faux pas, as that very night, a violent extratropical cyclone occurred, with hurricane force winds.

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London's lost river Fleet

The urbanisation of London has meant that many original features of the landscape have been lost - with street names often the only reminder of their previous existence. One of these is the river Fleet, the largest of London’s lost subterranean rivers, which gave its name to the original home of the newspaper industry, Fleet Street.

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Franklin's tragic search for the Northwest Passage

Two well-equipped British ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus, left England in 1845 to search for the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic Ocean. But their expedition was ill-fated, and they were last seen in 1848, and all evidence of them vanished for nearly 170 years.

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The mysterious case of the disappearing swallows

The appearance of the swallow in the warmer months baffled naturalists for centuries. Where did they go in the winter? In the late 18th Century, naturalists in Britain became quite obsessed with the finding out the answer.

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The workhouse: a British institution

The workhouse has come to be popularly associated with Charles Dickens' portraits of poverty in Victorian England. However, public institutions to organise work for the worst off in society have a much longer history, and can be traced back to a Poor Law Act of 1388, immediately after the Black Death.

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The strange vanishing of Agatha Christie

In December 1926, crime novelist Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Berkshire. An unprecedented manhunt followed, with more than one thousand policemen looking for her - along with hundreds of civilians.

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Scrofula: The King's Evil

The disease scrofula is not heard of today, but appears in European history, first mentioned by Herodotus in 400 BC. It was also known as the "King's Evil" because many European monarchs claimed to be able to heal the disease by the power of their touch.

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The arrival of McDonalds in the UK

Hamburgers were a mere 15p, and cheeseburgers cost 21p at UK’s first ever McDonald’s which opened on 13th November 1974 in Powis Street, Woolwich, south east London. The branch is still going strong.

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The Seven Founding Fathers of the RHS

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is the world’s leading gardening charity. Its aim is to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and to make the UK a greener and more beautiful place. The Society currently has five national gardens, through which it promotes a love of gardening.

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The (almost) vanished great Forest of Middlesex

London's expansion over the last few centuries is legendary. Many station names on London's Underground hint at lost greenery, especially in the northern section of the Piccadilly Line - Finsbury Park, Wood Green, Bounds Green, Arnos Grove and Oakwood. So was there some great lost forest covering what is now north London?

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The British tomato and the glasshouse growing boom

The tomato was brought to Europe by explorers returning from South America in the sixteenth century. Now officially designated as a fruit, rather than a vegetable, it was initially regarded as pretty but poisonous, though soon became a significant crop. And for 70 years or so, it was the basis of a major industry in the Sussex seaside town of Worthing begun in Victorian times (see picture).

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Bank Holidays - thanks to Sir John Lubbock

It was not until 1871 that British Bank Holidays came into being. They were the result of efforts to give people more leisure time by banker-turned-politician Sir John Lubbock, the first Lord Avebury, who introduced the Bank Holidays Act in parliament. But the British concept has fallen behind a global trend, and now only one country in the world has fewer Bank Holidays than the UK.

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MI9 - assisting the great escapes of World War Two

We hear in Bond films and other stories about secret service organisation MI6, tasked with controlling British espionage abroad, and domestic espionage specialist MI5. But there were once other MI (Military Intelligence) secret service operators ...

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Battersea Dogs Home - a loving refuge for strays

The famous 'Temporary Home for Lost & Starving Dogs’ was established in 1860 by Ms. Mary Tealby and a committee of animal lovers, in Holloway, North London.

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The South Sea Bubble - the 18th-century business that burst

There is nothing particularly new about stock market turbulence, financial crashes and questionable speculative business propositions. One of the most famous in Britain was the South Sea Bubble of 1720, which caught out a great many investors including the genius scientist Sir Isaac Newton.

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The old gates of London

Names such as Aldgate and Moorgate, for areas of London, originate in the Roman and Medieval gates into the city, which were built into London's defensive wall.

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The Spanish Armada - a triumph for the English Queen

The Spanish Armada set sail in July 1588, with the mission of overthrowing the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, and restoring Catholic rule over England. Over 100 ships were gathered with around 30,000 men onboard. The English fleet, commanded by Sir Francis Drake, was prepared to meet the attack and eventually saw off the invasion with the loss of many Spanish vessels.

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The Crystal Palace - Victorian wonder which gave its name to a London suburb

The remarkable Victorian structure known as the Crystal Palace was built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London's Hyde Park.

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Wife auctions

Anyone who has read Thomas Hardy's novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge" will remember the pivotal early scene where a young labourer, unable to find farm work at an agricultural fair, gets drunk and auctions off his wife and baby. Did the "common folk" really sell their wives like cattle?

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The Iceni - East Anglian British tribe who fell foul of the Romans

The Iceni or Eceni were a tribe of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, in what became East Anglia. They were a significant power in eastern Britain during Claudius' conquest of Britain in AD 43, in which they initially allied with Rome - whose subsequent increasing influence resulted in a revolt in AD 47.

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The Princes in the Tower - victims of royal ambition

You've probably heard the story of the Princes in the Tower, two little boys who were imprisoned in the Tower of London at the end of the 15th century, and then vanished. But why were they imprisoned, and who were they? Perhaps predictably, they were victims of a royal power struggle.

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Piers Plowman - Medieval poetic masterpiece

Piers Plowman is a Middle English narrative poem written by William Langland between 1370-1390. It contains the first known reference to the tales of Robin Hood, and is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest works of English literature from its time - preceding and influencing Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

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Devil's Dyke - the Edwardian heyday of a South Downs beauty spot

Devil's Dyke is a beauty spot on the South Downs behind Brighton. It is still popular today with sightseers, paragliders and walkers, but was once an Edwardian pleasure park with cable cars, cliff railway, and funfair.

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The first railway tragedy - an inattentive politician

William Huskisson was a British politician and former Cabinet minister who had the misfortune to become the first casualty of the newly invented railway. He was run over by George Stephenson's locomotive 'Rocket' at the opening ceremony of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830.

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The Cancelled Christmas

In 1647 all Christmas celebrations were banned in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Shops were told to stay open, fun and games were outlawed, and festive food and drink was confiscated by the authorities. This did not go down well...

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Pteridomania – the Victorian Fern Madness

Social history is full of sudden fads. They seem to come from nowhere, and then they vanish again - possibly forever. One such was the Victorian obsession with ferns, which lasted about half a century.

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Fireworks in Britain

Almost everyone loves a good firework display, particularly during the darker months. The British have enjoyed these spectacles from at least the late 1400s.

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The London Necropolis Railway - the last journey

For 87 years, from 1854 until 1941, a bizarre train service - the London Necropolis Railway - ran an almost daily service from Waterloo Station carrying the dead out to Brookwood Cemetery, 23 miles south west from London in Surrey. It was the solution to a challenging problem - where to bury the bodies of those who had died.

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London's 1091 tornado - destroying a bridge, churches and 600 homes

London Bridge, as the well-known nursery rhyme attests, is prone to 'falling down'. Such an event indeed occurred on October 17th 1091, when the original wooden Bridge was one of the victims of the first documented tornado in British history.

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An infamous witch-hunt: the 1612 Pendle Witches Trial

The trial of the Pendle Witches is one of the most notorious witch trials of the 17th century. In 1612, twelve people in the Lancashire town were accused of witchcraft, with one dying in custody, and eleven going to trial. Ten were executed at Lancaster Castle.

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Lindow Man - 2,000 year-old body in the bog

Lindow Man, also known as Pete Marsh, is the preserved 2000-year-old body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire. The remains, estimated to have been deposited between 2 BC and 119 AD, were found in 1984 by commercial peat cutters.

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The first Christmas card

We owe so many of our Christmas traditions to the Victorians. Victoria's husband Albert gave us our Christmas trees, writer Charles Dickens emphasised food and family, and Christmas cards were the idea of Sir Henry Cole.

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The Old Chelsea Bun House - a royal treat

The Chelsea bun is a type of currant bun made of a rich yeast dough flavoured with lemon peel, cinnamon or mixed spice. It was first baked in London in the 18th century at the Old Chelsea Bun House, an establishment favoured by Hanoverian royalty.

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Pantomime - grand British tradition

Pantomime has its roots in 'Commedia dell'Arte', a 16th-century Italian entertainment which used dance, music, tumbling, acrobatics and featured a cast of mischievous stock characters.

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The Tudor Christmas

Christmas celebrations in the Tudor period were all about feasting and a break from the working routine. This period saw the arrival of the traditional turkey dinner.

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The First Eddystone Lighthouse

The first Eddystone lighthouse was built over three years from 1666 and was a wonderfully eccentric structure. It protected ships until it vanished along with its creator in a great storm in 1703.

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The Interdict - when the churches of medieval England and Wales went on strike

We imagine that Christianity was the bedrock of daily life in medieval Britain - in charge of the greatest occasions of life and death. Yet, during the reign of King John, the churches of England and Wales were officially closed to the citizens for over six years!

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The Quest for the Blue Poppy

The extraordinary Himalayan Blue Poppy is a popular garden plant in Britain. However, for a long time it was almost mythic, and it took several adventurous Britons to bring this plant home to grace our gardens.

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When London had wooden roads

The streets of London may never have been paved with gold, but they were paved for a while with wood! And, in a few places, still are ...

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Royal Funerals - from a pattern set by Queen Victoria

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II largely follows a pattern set by her more recent ancestors, from Queen Victoria to her own father.

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The Glaciarium - the first artificial ice rink

People have skated for pleasure outdoors for thousands of years, but the indoor rink is a much more recent phenomenon - first appearing in London in the 1840s - the amazing Glaciarium!

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St Edward's Crown - the Coronation Crown

The St Edward's Crown will be worn by King Charles III at his coronation ceremony. This most precious of the crown jewels is only used at coronations, and was last worn by the late Queen at her coronation.

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Coffin Ships and the Plimsoll Line

The life of a sailor was for most of British history a perilous one. But aside from the usual risks of shipwreck, disease, accident and mistreatment, the most dreaded fate was to find oneself working aboard a so-called "coffin ship" ...

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The first Valentine cards in Britain

The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is believed to be in a poem by Chaucer in 1382. Poems, tokens of love, and handmade cards followed through the ages until the arrival of printing brought the modern manufactured Valentine's card from the 1800s.

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Whitby jet - fit for a queen