Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2016 i Discover Britain

Canterbury Cathedral As the mother ship of the Church of England and famed as Britain’s first cathedral, it is difficult to overstate the significance of Canterbury. And yet, or perhaps because of the sanctity of the place, it lingers in the public imagination as the site of one of English history’s most famous murders. Today, a flickering candle and a contemporary altar in the northwest transept mark where Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed, on the apparent orders of King Henry II, in 1170. The murder made the site one of Europe’s most important pilgrimage centres, as described in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Yet the cathedral’s history began a long time before when Augustine, a monk sent by Pope Gregory, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary in AD…

Free travel 2 nights at The Savoy West End tickets Afternoon tea Free entry to stately homes 2 nights at a boutique hotel A chauffeur-driven tour 2 nights in a romantic cottage 1 night at The Sloane Club Our five-star, one-week holiday for two will be the trip of a lifetime as our winners visit many of Britain’s most iconic landmarks and receive celebrity-style red-carpet treatment along the way. Your fantastic holiday will start the moment you leave home because our prize includes the cost of your travel to London – whether you live 10 or 10,000 miles away from Britain’s attraction-packed capital city. Five-star London On arrival, our winner and his or her companion will be whisked to the heart of town to spend two nights in a Junior…

It was a saying of Lord Chatham that the parks were the lungs of London,” claimed Lord Windham in a speech in the House of Commons in 1808. The debate in question discussed the controversial encroachment of buildings upon Hyde Park – at the time, London’s parks were under threat from the western expansion of the city. The capital was growing rapidly and urbanisation was gobbling up the green spaces – villages, commons and fields – that surrounded it. Fortunately, however, there were those who were prepared to preserve the precious green spaces that survive to this day in the heart of the capital. The Royal Parks are Crown property, but in 1851 an act of parliament transferred management of the parks from the monarch to the government. This meant…

SUFFOLK Childhood rambling through the picturesque villages and rolling countryside of Suffolk produced two of England’s most famous painters: John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough, who spent their formative years in the southeastern county. Suffolk, meaning “southern folk”, was formed from the south part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia in the 5th century. This east coast haven has kept one foot in the past, producing numerous significant archaeological finds – you can trace English history from the Stone Age through to the present day in its sites, buildings and artefacts. The county came to prominence thanks to the wool trade in the 15th century. Successful local merchants built fine houses, grand guildhalls and towering churches. Unfortunately, Henry VIII’s continental wars disrupted trading, but the decline of Suffolk wool towns…

Meander through the huddle of streets around the town’s castle, with the River Wye sweeping past in the north, the Black Mountains in the south and the Brecon Beacons in the west, and you are sure to be charmed by Hay-on-Wye’s quaint beauty and historic charm. But spend a little more time ducking in and out of the wealth of quirky shops, tearooms, cosy pubs and, famously, huge number of secondhand and antiquarian booksellers, and you will soon be captured by the town’s other defining quality: its spirit of independence. Indeed, this small settlement with a population of around 1,500 claims the grand title of Independent Kingdom of Hay: Town of Books. A marcher market town, Hay sits between England and Wales – while most of the town is in…

“The impact of the Norman conquest on our country cannot be underestimated – it laid down the bedrock of English language and culture” If you had to name the most famous dates in British history, it’s not long before 1066 would come up, even if a recent survey suggested that under-35s were more familiar with Game Of Thrones than with their own past. More experienced readers might remember the year also lent itself to a book by the humorous writers WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman; 1066 And All That has remained a schoolboy favourite since its publication in 1930. It was nearly a millennium ago that the Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October, resulting in the death of the English king at the time, Harold, and the successful…

1 Barnsley House Gloucestershire Barnsley House was the Cotswold home of English garden designer Rosemary Verey, who began work on the gardens in the 1950s and went on to design many more, including the New York Botanical Gardens, as well as working for Prince Charles, Sir Elton John and Princess Michael of Kent. But Barnsley was her masterpiece: Verey took inspiration from large public gardens and adapted the ideas for smaller spaces. For example, her laburnum walk at Barnsley was inspired by the bigger version at Bodnant Garden in north Wales. Now a luxurious hotel, Barnsley’s rooms range from spectacular two-storey suites to a private garden retreat with an open fire. www.barnsleyhouse.com 2 The Peacock at Rowsley Derbyshire A stone’s throw away from Chatsworth House in the heart of the…

What could you possibly want that queer old place for?” King George V asked his son, the future Edward VIII, in 1929, adding gruffly, “Those damn weekends, I suppose.” The place in question was Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park; as to the king’s query, unfolding events in the 1930s would provide the answer. It was at Fort Belvedere that Edward’s relationship with a certain Mrs Simpson, a twice-married American divorcee, would blossom; and, indeed, it was in that same setting King Edward VIII would sign the Instrument of Abdication in December 1936, in the presence of his three brothers, including shy Bertie – the future George VI – whose story is told in the film The King’s Speech. Edward later claimed to have “created a home at the fort…

“It came to epitomise the ‘City gent’ – along with a pinstripe suit and a black umbrella” Picture Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, or the quintessential English gent on his way to work in the City. What are they wearing on their heads? The chances are you imagined them in that hard felt hat with a rounded crown and narrow brim known as the bowler or, in some circles, the Coke (pronounced “cook”). The bowler has travelled widely since its beginnings in London in 1849. Appropriated by everyone from cowboys in the American West to Quechua women in Bolivia, who were introduced to the hat by British railway workers in the 1920s, the iconic piece of headwear began with two men called – perhaps unsurprisingly – Edward Coke and Thomas Bowler.…

Visit Explore the atmospheric ruins of nearby Llanthony Priory (far right), an early 12th-century Augustinian church, once one of the great medieval buildings in Wales, which sits in a wild and beautiful setting far up the Vale of Ewyas in the Black Mountains (www.cadw.gov. wales). A couple of miles north is Capel-y-Ffin Monastery (www.capelmonastery.co.uk). Built in 1870 to restore monastic life to the Church of England, it was bought by stone carver and typeface designer Eric Gill in 1924, who created the eponymous typeface while living there. Two headstones by Gill can be found in the churchyard of St Mary The Virgin chapel (right), built in 1762. David Jones, the Welsh artist and poet, was also a regular visitor to this artistic enclave. Eat and drink The Three Tuns (www.three-tuns.com)…

If you had to name England’s greatest military hero, there are a few names that would spring to mind. Lord Nelson, of course. Francis Drake, perhaps. And, without doubt, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington: the man responsible for Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo – a clash of which he later said: “I never took so much trouble about any battle, and never was so near being beat.” It is therefore fitting the residence that Wellington bought to celebrate his victory, Apsley House, is one of the grandest houses in London. Boasting a collection of almost 3,000 paintings, sculptures and objets d’art, the house once known as “Number one, London” is fit, if not quite for a prince, then certainly for a man who was sufficiently loved…