Living History

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum in South Yorkshire houses the largest collection of preserved trolleybuses in the world - with its oldest dating from 1927.

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The green cabmen's shelters in London - still refreshing taxi drivers

In a fast-changing London street scene, there are a number of mysterious ancient-looking green huts still dotted around, including the one at Russell Square pictured above. These are refreshment kiosks created for cab drivers, and started appearing from 1875.

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The British Census

Every ten years since 1801 details of people living in the United Kingdom are collected by the government in order to gather demographic information, calculate resource allocation and monitor changes in the nation’s population.

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Wartime legacy - the Thames Estuary Sea Forts

Two incredible linked structures on stilts still stand eerily way out in the Thames Estuary, halfway between Essex and Kent, looking like something out of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Known as the Maunsell Army Sea Forts, they are actually a rusting reminder of the Second World War, and the nation's preparations to deter invasion.

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Winchester Great Hall - the nearest you'll get to King Arthur's Round Table

The legendary King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are a feature of English late-5th and early-6th century history. They were reputed to occupy the mythical kingdom of Camelot. In later times, various writers and leaders have embellished the story, and even created physical embodiments of it - one of which is an imitation of the iconic Round Table, now on display in the city of Winchester.

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A national institution - Marks & Spencer

Iconic British retailer Marks and Spencer began life more than 130 years ago, when Polish Jewish immigrant Michael Marks came to England, and began life as a pedlar. His humble start on a market stall in Leeds grew into one of the nation's most beloved brands.

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Birkenhead Park - the first municipal garden space

Birkenhead Park, in Merseyside, which opened in 1847, is generally acknowledged as being the first publicly-funded municipal park to be established in the world. American Frederick Law Olmsted was inspired by his subsequent visit to this park when he later designed Central Park in New York.

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Birmingham Canal Navigations - more miles of waterway than Venice

The city of Birmingham has 35 miles of canals, which is a longer network than that of Venice. A legacy of the area's unique industrial history, they're now enjoyed by walkers, cyclists, and narrowboat leisure users.

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Looking for Britain's biggest landowners

With a total area of approximately 61,414,400 acres (248,532 square kilometres, or 95,960 square miles), Britain would have enough land to provide each of its population with about 1 acre each. But land ownership is far from divided equally, and people sometimes ask who does it all mainly belong to? Is it the state? The Church? The Crown? Farmers? Private landowners? Or the National Trust?

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From London to Edinburgh - the A1, Britain's longest road

Britain's longest road, the A1, reflects the historic coaching route once used by mail coaches between London, York and Edinburgh. For much of its route the A1 follows various branches of what was then known as the Great North Road. The A1 is 410 miles (660km) long - making it the UK's longest numbered road, designated by the Ministry of Transport in 1921.

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Ullswater steamers - historic lakeland fleet dating from 1877

Ullswater Steamers is a boat company which provides leisure trips with a vintage fleet on Ullswater in the north-eastern part of the English Lake District. It is based in Glenridding, Cumbria. Founded in 1855, it currently operates five vessels between four locations on the lake, with the oldest boat, 'Lady of the Lake', dating back to 1877. She is believed to be the oldest working passenger vessel in the world.

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Travelling Fairs - a very British tradition

Travelling fairs are a British tradition, the majority tracing their ancestry back to charters and privileges granted in the Medieval period. They have provided a focus for local leisure activity on places like village greens for hundreds of years.

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The Museum of the Home - see interiors change through the ages

The Museum of the Home, based in Hoxton, London, has recently been redeveloped to allow more of its rich collection of domestic furnishings through British history to be displayed.

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Windmills in Britain

Windmills are known to have been used to grind corn in Britain for some 800 years, though they are believed to have originated in the Middle East. It is uncertain how their use spread to Britain, but it is thought the idea might have been brought back by the Crusaders, or that they were an adaptation of Roman water mills. They steadily became familiar structures within the UK.

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Pitstone, Britain's Oldest Windmill

In the north-east corner of a large field near the parish boundary of Ivinghoe and Pitstone in Buckinghamshire stands Pitstone Mill. It is thought to be the oldest surviving mill in the country, and belongs today to the National Trust.

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Rugby School - where the game of Rugby was invented?

Rugby School in Warwickshire was founded in 1567, making it one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Its alumni include a UK Prime Minister (Neville Chamberlain), as well as several bishops, poets and scientists.

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The Francis Trigge Chained Library

Founded in 1598, the Francis Trigge Library in Grantham, Lincolnshire is the oldest public library in England, and one of the last of the great medieval chained collections. It was founded by a local clergyman who was concerned about access to knowledge by the average citizen.

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Garden gnomes - dividing opinion since 1847

Garden gnomes - love them or loathe them. How did they become such a (often derided) feature of British gardens?

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The Old Operating Theatre Museum - enlightening but gruesome

The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret are a preserved medical building near London Bridge, offering visitors a glimpse into the brutality of surgery in an earlier era. It is the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe.

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Bridgnorth Cliff Railway - linking the top and bottom of a town

For over a century Bridgnorth Cliff Railway has been transporting the people of the Shropshire town up and down the 111 ft sandstone cliffs that separate the High Town from the Low Town, on the River Severn.

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Punch and Judy - much-loved traditional miniature theatre

Punch and Judy is a traditional British puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy, and a number of supporting characters. Enjoyed by generations of children, it has become a seaside favourite. The performance, run by a single puppeteer from a small booth or tent, consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other, who usually falls victim to Punch's slapstick.

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The Rudston Monolith - an entrenched Yorkshire mystery

The Rudston Monolith is the tallest ancient megalith in the United Kingdom, at over 25 feet tall. It stands in the churchyard in the village of Rudston, in Yorkshire. How it got there is a mystery ...

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Pillboxes - Britain's abandoned bunkers

There's plenty of military history to be found around Britain - often on your doorstep. Indeed, it is surprising how often, walking in the countryside or along the coast, you come across an abandoned concrete or brick structure of no current purpose or architectural merit. These are often pillboxes, reminders of the frightening days when the nation expected a Nazi invasion at any moment.

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The world's largest collection of tanks - in Dorset!

The Tank Museum in Bovington Camp, Dorset, is home to the largest collection of tanks - and the third largest collection of armoured vehicles - in the world. It notably includes the only working example of a German Tiger I tank, and the British World-War-One-made Mark I - the world's oldest surviving combat tank.

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Shoreham - Britain's oldest airport

Founded in 1910, Shoreham Airport, near Brighton, is the oldest airport in the UK and the oldest purpose-built commercial airport in the world still in operation.

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Lacock Abbey, the birthplace of photography

The pale gold stones of Lacock Abbey had already seen 600 years of human history when William Henry Fox Talbot took a photo of a small window there in 1835, creating the earliest surviving photographic negative.

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Waverley - the last paddle steamer in the world

The Waverley is the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world. Built in Glasgow in 1946, her original working life until 1973 was sailing from Craigendoran on the Firth of Clyde to Arrochar on Loch Long. She now operates passenger excursions around the British coast.

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Morris Dancing - a May-time tradition

Morris dancing, an English folk tradition particularly associated with May Day, is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins to musical accompaniment. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded.

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Fisherman's Friend - Fleetwood's famous throat lozenge

Fisherman's Friend, now a world-famous product, is based upon a liquid developed by pharmacist James Lofthouse in the Lancashire fishing town of Fleetwood in 1865. For the next 100 years, the brand was virtually unknown outside the fishing community.

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Easter Egg hunts

The custom of the Easter egg hunt has only been a feature of English Easters since the late 19th century. It actually has its origins in Germany, where, according to one tradition, they were invented by Martin Luther to give congregations a lesson about the discovery of the empty tomb.

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Norland Nannies

The fictional character of Mary Poppins, invented by P.L. Travers, typifies the quintessential British nanny. Though much has changed since the books were written the British Nanny most definitely did and does exist. Indeed she - and quite often these days he, seems to be thriving!

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Order of the Garter - no higher honour

The Order of the Garter was the first -and remains the most prestigious - British order of chivalry. It was started in about 1348 by Edward III, and initially included the monarch and 25 knights. Membership in the order was intended as a mark of royal favour and a reward for loyalty to the sovereign and for outstanding military service.

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Britain's oldest organ - at the magnificent Adlington Hall

Adlington Hall in Cheshire started life as a Saxon hunting lodge, and in the 14th century, it came into the Legh family who still own the hall today, and have added further impressive elements to the building over the following centuries. One of its most notable features is the oldest surving British pipe organ.

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Britain's oldest trees

Ancient trees can be considered as much a part of our heritage as stately homes, cathedrals and works of art. But they arguably don’t get the same protection. It is believed that there are hundreds of very old trees still living, and yet not recorded as significant and properly protected.

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Numbering Britain's road system - where would we be without it?

Historically UK roads were not numbered, but named. As traffic increased and became motorised, local authorities found it difficult to keep track of maintenance work and travellers had trouble finding their way around because road signs were inconsistent and often hard to see from a motor vehicle. In the early 20th century, it was decided a more systematic approach was needed - now exactly 100 years ago.

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The Mary Rose, Henry VIII's lost warship, raised in 1982

The Mary Rose - Henry VIII's flagship warship, was lost in the Solent in 1545. She was recovered in 1982 in a highly complex raising operation, and has been on display to the public since then at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard whilst undergoing restoration.

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The Brixton Windmill - remnant of a more pastoral time

Brixton Windmill, also known as Ashby's Mill, is an unusual survivor from another era. The 200-year-old structure occupies a small tranquil corner of urbanised south London, just off Brixton Hill. When it was built in 1816, this now densely populated inner London borough was still fields and market gardens.

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Metro-Land: railway suburbia immortalised by Betjeman

Metro-Land was a promotional name given to an area north-west of London, opened up by the construction in the early 20th century around the stations at the outer end of the Metropolitan Railway (later the Metropolitan Line) of the London Underground. Its significance was further reinforced by a 1973 BBC documentary film that was written and narrated by then Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman.

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The history of Cricket

Though it is now an international game, cricket is still largely seen as a quintessentially English pastime, a summer adornment to a village green. It can be traced back at least as far as 1300.

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Greensleeves - the classic English folk song

Greensleeves is a traditional English folk song, sometimes believed to have been composed by King Henry VIII in the 1530's, for his lover and future queen Anne Boleyn. However, the Italian style of composition reached England later, and so Greensleeves is more likely to be Elizabethan in origin.

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Running rings around London - the M25

The M25 (or London Orbital Motorway) is a major road encircling almost all of Greater London. It has become one of the most important roads in Britain, and one of the busiest. Construction began in 1973, and the final section was opened by the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986 (pictured). On opening it was the longest ring road in Europe, at 117 miles.

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The Tees Transporter Bridge - still hanging on

The Tees Transporter Bridge, also referred to as the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, was built to provide an innovative method of crossing the River Tees, at its lowest downstream point, and is the longest remaining such transporter in the world. It carries vehicles or people in a moving 'car', or 'gondola', suspended from the bridge, across the river in 90 seconds.

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The Eleanor Crosses - memorials to a lost queen

The name 'Charing Cross' in London derives from a medieval monument that was erected there to mark the loss of an English queen. The symbol was a medieval expression of love and grief, and in fact is one of 12 such crosses that commemorated Eleanor of Castile, the wife of King Edward I.

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Macclesfield's working Silk Mill Museum

Macclesfield became known as the 'silk town' by the 1850's, by which time silk-making had become the town's principal industry. Paradise Mill, an original silk mill, has since been redeveloped into a working silk museum.

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Faversham Brewery: Britain's oldest at over 300 years

Shepherd Neame claims to be Britain's oldest brewer, beers having been made at its brewery in Faversham, Kent, for over 300 years. Since forming in the 17th century, ownership of the brewery has passed in unbroken succession through five families. It produces some iconic ales, including Spitfire.

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HMS Trincomalee - Britain's oldest floating warship moored in Hartlepool

HMS Trincomalee is the second oldest floating ship in the world, and the centrepiece of the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Hartlepool.

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Mulled Wine - a winter warmer thanks to the Romans

Mulled wine is an ancient drink, dating back to the 2nd century, when the Romans, who were conquering countries in Northern Europe, took to warming up their wine to help them through the freezing winter months. It began to be adopted by the local populations including Britain. It is also known as glühwein in Germany and glögg in Sweden.

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Maundy Money - the Sovereign's Easter gift to the poor

Maundy Thursday is the traditional British designation of the Christian holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter. It commemorates the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, and is marked in Britain by the distribution of maundy money by the monarch to the deserving poor.

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The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses - an illuminating day out

The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses is based in the fishing port of Fraserburgh on the North-east corner of Aberdeenshire. The museum is in a purpose-built museum alongside the Kinnaird Head Lighthouse – the very first lighthouse on mainland Scotland .

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