Often referred to as the ‘Hungry Decade’, the 1840s was characterised by social unrest, military losses and economic hardship ...

General Charles Cornwallis is best known for his part in the British defeat at Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War ...

On 8th May 1945 the day had finally come, a day of celebration, commemoration and most importantly, victory. For this reason it became known as V.E. Day (Victory in Europe), finally bringing the ...

Not far from Solihull town centre, there is a small group of trees that most people tend to ignore. Its name is Cut Throat Coppice. The trees are mostly oak, interspersed with silver birch, and ...

In a 2002 poll by the BBC, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was voted the second greatest Briton of all time, after Winston Churchill. This prolific and gifted engineer designed railways (Great Western Railway ...

The Grand Tour was the utlimate Georgian / Victorian gap year experience. Expensive and glamourous, this was a rite of passage for rich aristocratic young men (and later, women) who travelled Europe, ...

Is William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ a patriotic expression of Englishness – or a parody of the nationalistic fervour of the Napoleonic War era? This poem is best known as the hymn “Jerusalem”, with music ...

Arguably one of Britain’s most successful queen consorts, King George II’s wife, Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1683–1737) was a pioneer of intellectual enlightenment, a champion of modernity, ...

Thomas Cromwell was a statesman who served as King Henry VIII’s chief minister and yielded extraordinary power, earning him great notoriety. The origin story of this great Tudor figure remains quite ...

In the turmoil of the Second World War, Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat, stood out as a remarkable figure. Described by Hitler as a “dangerous terrorist,” he was perceived as a feared threat. Winston ...

The “Bloody Code”, a grisly name to denote a dark history, was given to the series of laws which were enacted over several years from the seventeenth century onwards which mandated the death penalty ...

Lucozade! Many baby boomers will remember this sparkling, lurid-coloured drink when the glass bottle still came wrapped in crinkly cellophane. This iconic tonic only appeared when a child was ill in ...