Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2017 i Discover Britain

If our feature on Agatha Christie’s Devon has tempted you to explore the crime writer’s favourite holiday destination then look no further. Discover Britain has teamed up with Visit South Devon to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a luxurious trip for two to Dartmouth, South Devon. Our prize includes a two-night river-view stay at Dartmouth’s Royal Castle Hotel, as well as an exclusive after-hours tour of her former holiday home of Greenway, a complimentary high tea, and a pair of tickets to Greenway on the Dartmouth Steam Railway. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie’s novel, a visit to The Royal Castle Hotel is an unforgettable experience. It is perfectly situated at the heart of Dartmouth and enjoys spectacular views over the River Dart and Kingswear.…

Flowers weren’t the plan. Peter Green’s father worked as a fruit and veg trader in the old Covent Garden Market, and “he used to take me there when I was growing up. I loved the buzz – in the dead of night you had this hive of activity, right in the middle of London. I always intended to go into fruit and veg like my dad, but I started when I was 16 and couldn’t drive, so the flower market was the best option.” Covent Garden Market has changed sites since that time, and the 30 or so wholesale flower suppliers working here will enjoy new surroundings again this year. “It’s still the same in the important ways: the traditions, the people, the atmosphere,” believes Peter. He started his career…

“Longleat House encompasses centuries of social and architectural change and still surprises and innovates today” When it was recently mooted that the Glastonbury festival might move from its usual spot at Pilton’s Worthy Farm to Longleat, 21 miles away, in order to allow the farmland to recover from hordes of Wellington-booted revellers jumping all over it, the suggestion was met with disdain. Lord Bath was keen to see the festival uprooted, but plans were vetoed by his son Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth, on the grounds that it would be too muddy, too expensive and too restrictive to the everyday business of Longleat. Wags joked that the real reason was that the sounds and odours of a music festival would frighten the animals that can be seen on a safari around…

It was a frosty morning on 30 January 1649, as Charles I stepped outside the Banqueting House in London’s Whitehall. The king was to be executed on a charge of high treason “against the realm of England” and he wore two shirts lest he shiver and appear to be afraid. Plunged into uncharted territory, the whole country shivered instead. The idea of an all-powerful, unquestionable sovereign was dead. The Stuart period witnessed plague, fire, religious and political upheaval, civil wars, a short-lived republic and the restoration of the Crown – all within little more than a century. The shocking regicide of Charles I, midway through, marked a dark yet crucial step on the long road to constitutional monarchy. Everything had boded so well in 1603 as England’s Crown passed peacefully…

SMALL PACKAGES Guernsey, the second largest of the Channel Islands, has seen one of its favourite landmarks returned to its former glory. The ornate pebble, china and seashell embellished Little Chapel in St Andrew has reopened after extensive conservation work and structural repairs to its foundations. Believed to be the smallest consecrated chapel in the world, the tiny space – it measures just 9 feet long – is only big enough to fit eight people. Built to emulate the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes, the chapel today is actually the third version, built around 1923 by exiled French monk Brother Deodat (the previous two were demolished by him). Thanks to historic photographs from Guernsey archives, restorers were able to accurately re-apply original decoration, repair damaged crosses and restore the mosaic finish.…

To improve the appearance of their estates, some 18th-century landowners demolished the tumbledown cottages of their tenants and rebuilt them out of view of their country house. The results, intended to be replicated, were the first examples of so-called ‘model villages’. Examples include Oxfordshire’s Nuneham Courtenay and the picturesque Blaise Hamlet near Bristol. Later, during the Industrial Revolution, as factories, mills and mines replaced agriculture, philanthropic industrialists settled their workers in self-contained communities nearby. Many of today’s biggest British household brand names were associated with these villages including Hartley’s, Unilever, Cadbury, Rowntree and Colman’s. By the 20th century, with paternalism out of fashion, model villages returned to realising aesthetic visions, as at Portmeirion and Poundbury. PORT SUNLIGHT In 1888, William Hesketh Lever, founder of the consumer goods company Unilever, created…

1 Fowey Hall Cornwall A stately seaside locale with literary links, Fowey Hall was frequented by The Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Grahame back when it was a private residence (Toad Hall, the iconic home of the book’s dashing Mr Toad, is thought to be based upon it). The house was built on a bluff overlooking the Polperro Heritage Coast in 1899 by Sir Charles Hanson, a local businessman who would later become Lord Mayor of London. A hotel since 1968, it has largely retained the same layout downstairs with wood-panelled rooms and velvet sofas creating an intimate atmosphere. Interconnecting rooms also make this an ideal destination for larger young families. Whether you spend much time indoors is debatable though, thanks to that spectacular view from the hotel terrace.…

Agatha Christie knew better than anyone that a sprawling metropolis is no place for a murder mystery. “I specialise in murders of quiet, domestic interest,” explained the Queen of Crime, who remains to this day the best-selling novelist in history, with a billion copies sold in English and another billion in more than 100 foreign languages. Although her 100-plus novels, short story collections and plays feature a rich variety of locations, from trains and planes to boats or even deserts, it is rural Britain – specifically the English Riviera in South Devon, where some 20 books are set – with which she is most closely associated. There is something about a chocolate-box village, such as the fictional St Mary Mead, that lends itself particularly well to a murder mystery –…

PRISTINE SISTINE London’s answer to the Sistine Chapel is undergoing a two-year conservation project that will provide visitors to the Old Royal Naval College (ORNC) at Greenwich with a rare chance to get close to the vast ceiling of the Painted Hall. The ORNC was designed by St Paul’s Cathedral architect Sir Christopher Wren in 1694, and the walls and ceilings were painted in the early 18th century by the artist Sir James Thornhill. A 60-foot high observation deck has been installed to allow conservators easy access for cleaning the vaulted masterpiece and the public can access this now too via ticketed guided tours. www.ornc.org VIRTUAL VISIT If you’ve ever wanted to take a tour of the Houses of Parliament but have been unable to make the trip,…

As one of the world’s oldest cities, London has a rich history of food, flavour and famous stories – a bakery caused its biggest fire after all. Despite world wars, financial crises and the fickle tastes of diners, there is an illustrious list of London eateries that have managed to survive it all; restaurants where Charles Dickens and Charlie Chaplin could once be found eating supper, and where the rich and famous still choose to indulge today. Established in 1798, Rules in Covent Garden is touted as London’s oldest restaurant. Opened by Thomas Rule as an oyster bar in Maiden Lane, Rules quickly gained a cult following and was frequented by writers, politicians and actors such as Sir Laurence Olivier and Clark Gable. Epitomising the stylish luxuriousness of a bygone…

EXPLORE SOMERSET According to Arthurian legend, the mystical Isle of Avalon is where the wounded king was taken following the battle of Camlann. In 1190, optimistic monks claimed that they had uncovered King Arthur’s tomb in the Somerset town of Glastonbury, ensuring more than eight centuries of rumours and unproven claims that the Somerset Levels were in fact the Vale of Avalon. Cadbury Castle to the south was also reputedly the 6th-century site of the fabled Camelot too. Despite – or perhaps because of – such speculative claims, this picturesque southwest English county has regularly attracted visitors more attuned to all things mythical and mystical. While the county town of Taunton has Anglo-Saxon origins and a quaint centre dotted with Almshouses, there is far more to recommend beyond there. In…

Small Island by Little Train by Chris Arnot In 1995, Bill Bryson revitalised British travel writing with Notes from a Small Island, and journalist Chris Arnot taps into that same spirit of wonder and whimsy here. These eccentric stories of the enthusiasts behind our narrow-gauge steam trains helps sketch a rather vivid portrait of our small island. (AA Publishing, £16.99) The Greedy Queen – Eating with Victoria by Annie Gray The rapacious appetite of Queen Victoria is used as an unusual means to examine the changing tastes of her 64-year reign here. Interspersed with recipes for royal favourites such as Toad in the Hole and “Curry of Chickens”, the story that unfolds explores palatial kitchens, post-Albert eating habits and the wider implications for the Great British diet. (Profile Books, £16.99)…