TheGreenGuide: Great Britain

The Great British way of life is in a state of significant flux. Are Scotland (and Wales) about to go their own separate ways? Who now represents the working classes? Does anyone trust politicians or the financial institutions? And what does it mean to be British these days anyway?

Great Britain has long been a cosmopolitan place, shaped by the cultures and peoples that have arrived through invasion, migration, empire and trade, ever since rising sea levels separated the island from mainland Europe. Much of the white population is a hodgepodge of pre-Celtic, Celtic, Roman, Viking, Anglo-Saxon and Norman ancestry. More recent arrivals follow in the shadow of the dwindling memory of the British Empire and the United Kingdom’s continuing high profile in international affairs. Alongside increasing movement of citizens within the European Union, all of this ensures that Britain remains a place of change.

It is said that there are around 200 different languages spoken within these shores. Around 8–10 percent of the population is from ethnic minorities, but the concentration of immigrants varies enormously by region and by area. In wealthy rural and semi-rural parts of the country the population is overwhelmingly white, whereas many innercity suburbs of London and provincial cities such as Birmingham and Bradford have substantial communities of other ethnicity.

The United Kingdom has a long history of immigration, with large-scale European influxes in the 19C and early-20C. After the Second World War many West Indians were invited to help with the shortage of labour and they were followed around a decade later by immigrants from India and Pakistan. There has also been a steady stream of Chinese, most notably from the former colony of Hong Kong.

British society is far more integrated than it was 30 years ago, but it is still to some extent insular. Recent statistics indicate that social mobility is not as high as the government has previously hinted. However, the rigid class divisions of the past have relaxed considerably and equal opportunities continues to be a leading issue. This is perhaps best represented by the huge numbers of students of all classes and ethnicities that join the workforce each year from Britain’s government subsidised-universities.

Since the relaxing of laws on labour movement and the expansion of the European Union, more Europeans (particularly from eastern Europe) have made Britain their home. Poles in particular have arrived in large numbers and have been among the most successful at assimilating into the community, largely as a result of their value in the skilled manual labour market.

The recent conflicts and degree of polarisation between the Muslim and Christian worlds has exacerbated tensions in some areas of Great Britain, and in some instances radical Muslim clerics have been arrested or expelled from the country. However, the moderate majority, who now account for over 3 percent of the population, flourish in the UK.

Languages of Britain

The trend towards localisation and the current fascination with regional foods, crafts and community identity make this is as good a time as any to be a Welsh or Gaelic speaker. Conversely, speaking English is still de rigeur and for immigrants the main indicator of integration into British society.

ENGLISH

The English language owes its rich vocabulary to the many peoples who have settled in Great Britain or with whom the British have come into contact through overseas exploration and conquest. Old English’s origins are Anglo-Saxon and thus West Germanic, with a peppering of Old Norse (Viking). Middle English was Norman influenced, while Modern English continues to develop and adopt from other languages. In 1600 there were about 2 million English-speakers. The number is now nearer 400 million, including not only the population of countries such as Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America, but also of those where English is the only common and thus official second language.

Old English, Anglo-Saxon and Norman French

Old English, a Germanic dialect spoken in AD 400 from Jutland to northern France, was established in Britain by AD 800 and by the 16C had taken on the syntax and grammar of modern English. Although Norman French was made the official language after the Norman Conquest, Anglo-Saxon eventually gained precedence and Norman French survives principally in formal expressions used in law and royal protocol. It continued to be spoken in the Channel Islands long after it became obsolete in England.

Modern English

English is a very flexible language which has readily absorbed a considerable inheritance from Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman-French origins. Although the spoken language owes most to Anglo-Saxon, the written language shows the influence of Latin, which for many centuries formed the major study of the educated classes. Immigration over the past hundred years or so has brought many other languages into everyday use by sizeable communities in Britain. Yiddish-speaking Jews came from Russia in the 19C and early-20C and their German-speaking co-religionists fled from Nazi persecution in the 1930, while the Windrush Generation arrived from the Caribbean after World War II.

Today, Indians and Pakistanis make up the largest immigrant communities. Generations born here are often bilingual, speaking the mother tongue of their community and English with the local accent, peppering both languages with borrowed words. Visit Bradford, Southall (Outer London), Slough (near Windsor) and various other Asian-dominated communities around the country and you will find that English is very much the second, or perhaps even third language (albeit widely spoken).

In recent years, Poles have become the third largest foreign-born community after Irish and Indian born people in Britain and the Polish language is now the second most spoken language in England. Polish will no doubt play a significant role in the English lexicon.

CELTIC

Celtic-speakers were pushed westward by the invading Anglo-Saxons and their language was relegated to “second-class” status. Gaelic, as some of the various branches of the Celtic language are now known, is still spoken to some extent in Scotland and Ireland. Scottish Gaelic declined in status in Lowland Scotland during the medieval period, while the Highland Clearances and teaching of English led to its decline in the Highlands in the 18C–19C.

Welsh

In the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284, Edward I recognised Welsh as an official and legal language. After the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 Welsh nobles hopefully followed the Tudors to London but Henry VIII decreed that “no person shall hold office within the Realme, except they exercise the English speech”. The tradition of poetry and literature in the Welsh language, guarded by the bards and eisteddfodau, dates from Taliesin in the 7C. In 1588 the Bible was published in Welsh by Bishop Morgan and it was largely the willingness of the Church in Wales to preach in Welsh which saved the language from extinction. Reading in Welsh was encouraged by the Sunday School Movement, begun in Bala in 1789. The University of Wales was established in 1893. Teaching in Welsh was introduced in primary schools in 1939 and in secondary schools in 1956. Since 1982 Channel S4C has broadcast television in the Welsh language. Recent legislation has enhanced, even enshrined the language’s status in law, and the quality of its teaching has also improved enormously in recent years.

Scots Gaelic

In Scotland the Gaelic-speaking area, the Gàidhealtachd, is mostly confined to the Western Isles. The language, which was the mother tongue of 50 percent of the population in the 16C, is now spoken by less than 2 percent. The “Normanised” Kings of Scotland, especially David I (1124–53), introduced the Anglo-Norman language and later contact with the English court led to English becoming the language of the aristocracy. After the Union of 1603, the Statute of lona attempted to impose the teaching of English on the sons of the chiefs and in 1616 the Scottish Privy Council decreed – “that the Inglishe tongue be universallie plantit and the Scots language, one of cheif and principalle causis of the continewance of barbaritie and incivilitie amongst the inhabitantis of the Ilis and Heylandis, may be abolisheit and removeit”.

In 1777 a Gaelic Society was formed in London, the first of many all over the world, which maintain and encourage Gaelic language and literature. The percentage of Gaelic-speakers in Scotland is increasing slowly, particularly in Lowland areas.

Cornish

This branch of the Celtic languages was the only language of the Cornish peninsula until towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII. Although Dolly Pentreath, who was born in Mousehole in 1686 and died in December 1777, is claimed to be the last speaker of Cornish, there were no doubt other Cornish-speakers, none of whom would have outlived the 18C. Modern efforts to revive the language have had some success.

Manx

The language spoken in the Isle of Man was similar to the Gaelic of the Western Isles of Scotland but there has been no viable Manx-speaking community since the 1940s. The present Manx dialect of English shows much influence from Lancashire.

NORN

This Viking language, akin to Icelandic, survived in Orkney and Shetland until the 18C. It was the dominant tongue in Orkney until the Scottish-speaking Sinclairs became Earls of Orkney in 1379 and it remained the language of Shetland until well after the pledging of the Northern Isles to James III of Scotland in 1468–69. Modern dialects of both Shetland and Orkney still contain a sizeable body of words of Norn origin – types of wind and weather, flowers, plants and animals, seasons and holidays. A high percentage of place names throughout the islands are Norn.

Government

The Mother of Parliaments, famous for exporting its brand of democracy all over the world, most notably during the days of Empire, has in essence changed little over decades. These days however, decision making is more transparent in higher places and easier to influence at a local level.

DIVIDING A NATION

Great Britain is composed of England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The first three countries are part of the United Kingdom, which also includes Northern Ireland but not the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which have their own parliaments and are attached to the Crown.

MONARCHY

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, a form of government in which supreme power is nominally vested in the sovereign (the king or queen). The origins of monarchy lie in the seven English kingdoms of the 6C–9C – Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, Essex, Wessex, Sussex and Kent. Alfred the Great (871–899) began to establish effective rule, but it was Canute (Cnut), a Danish king, who achieved unification.

The coronation ceremony gave a priestly role to the anointed monarch, especially from the Norman Conquest (1066) onwards. The monarchy became hereditary only gradually. The Wars of the Roses, which dominated the 15C, were about dynastic rivalry and the Tudors gained much from their exploitation of the mystique of monarchy. Although the kingdoms of England and Scotland were united in 1603, the Parliaments were not united until the Act of Union in 1709. The stubborn character of the Stuarts and the insistence of Charles I on the “divine right” of kings was in part responsible for the Civil War and the king’s execution, which was followed by the Commonwealth (1649–60) under Oliver Cromwell, the only period during which the country was not a monarchy. At the Restoration (1660) the monarch’s powers were placed under considerable restraints which were increased at the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the accession of William of Orange.

The Iast vain attempt made by the Stuarts to regain the crown was crushed in the Jacobite risings in 1715 and 1745.

During the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) the monarch’s right in relation to ministers was defined as “the right to be consulted, to encourage and to warn”, although Victoria clung tenaciously to her supervision of the Empire.

MONARCHY IN MODERNITY

In 1997 the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a car accident in Paris, was the culmination of a series of events (divorces, scandals, revelations) that had rocked the Royal Family and caused the British public to seriously question their validity. However, by the time the Queen celebrated her jubilee year in 2002 most of Britain had regained some sense of loyalty to the institution. But the question of succession remains. Prince Charles treads a fine line between traditionalist and moderniser with a common touch, but his age, and marriage to former lover and divorcee Camilla Parker Bowles, makes many prefer his elder son, Prince William, whose popularity was endorsed by his marriage to Kate Middleton in 2011 and the birth of their son George in 2013.

UK PARLIAMENT

The United Kingdom has no written constitution. The present situation has been achieved by the enactment of new laws at key points in history. The document known as Magna Carta was sealed by a reluctant King John at Runnymede (near Windsor) on 15 June 1215. Clause 39 guarantees every free man security from illegal interference in his person or his property. Since the reign of Henry VII (or perhaps even earlier) “Habeas Corpus” has been used to protect people against arbitrary arrest by requiring the appearance in court of the accused within a specified period.

The supreme legislature in the United Kingdom is Parliament, which consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Medieval Parliaments were mainly meetings between the king and his lords. The Commons were rarely summoned and had no regular meeting place nor even the right of free speech until the 16C. Between 1430 and 1832 the right to vote was restricted to those possessing a freehold worth 40 shillings. The Reform Act of 1867 enfranchised all borough householders; county householders were included in 1884. In 1918 the franchise was granted to all men over 21 and women over 30; in 1928 the vote was extended to women over 21. Today all over the age of 18 are entitled to vote provided they have entered their names on the electoral roll. Since 1949 the Parliamentary constituencies have been organised on the principle that each should contain about 65,000 voters, which produces 659 Members of the House of Commons.

The member elected to represent a constituency is the candidate who receives the largest number of votes. The government is formed by the party that wins the greatest number of seats. The House of Lords, at whose meetings the sovereign was always present until the reign of Henry VI, consists of the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and barons). Under the crown, the country is governed by laws which are enacted by the Legislature – the two Houses of Parliament – and enforced by the Judiciary – the courts of the land.

DEVOLUTION

Each of the three “smaller nations” has its own parliament or assembly. The Northern Ireland Assembly was created in 1973 from the old Northern Ireland Parliament (with its legislative powers withdrawn); in 1997 Scotland regained its Parliament, previously dissolved in 1707; in 2006 Wales set up its own Senedd (Parliament). The latter two can pass their own laws though matters related to national security, foreign policy and economic policy are always handled by Westminster. The largest and most powerful of the three is Scotland, whose current government, the Scottish Nationalist Party, aims to detach itself from Westminster and eventually break away from the UK completely. As a starting point for the latter, in a referendum on 18 September 2014, the pro-Independence Scottish government plans to ask residents in Scotland ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

While legislation and matters of state have always been the prerogative of Westminster, between 1994 and 2011, England was divided into 11 regions (North East, North West, East Midlands etc) each with its own government. With the abolition of these bodies the political picture has become more complex and infinitely more fragmented with an emphasis on localism. Each of Greater London’s 33 boroughs administers its own regulations, while matters that affect London as a whole are dealt with by the London Assembly, headed by the Mayor. Outside of London, the country is mostly divided into parishes that elect councillors to a county council, district council or non-metropolitan who are responsible for local education and infrastructure services plus strategic planning within a county.

Economy

The worst of the 2008 Recession is hopefully now behind the UK, but analysts are still scratching their heads as to which sectors will lead the UK recovery, though it seems London’s global status will inevitably drive the change.

AGRICULTURE AND FISHING

Until the 18C, the economy of Great Britain was largely agricultural. In the 18C a combination of social and economic conditions led to landowners devoting their wealth and attention to improving land and methods of cultivation, giving rise to the Agricultural Revolution. Rapid population growth made it necessary to increase domestic agricultural productivity, as this was before the days of extensive overseas trade of consumables. Land enclosure became increasingly widespread, with even common land being suppressed by Acts of Parliament, landowners arguing that the system of enclosure was better for raising livestock, a more profitable form of agriculture than arable farming. Landowners enlarged their estates by taking over land abandoned by people leaving the countryside for the town, or emigrating to the New World, and developed a system based on maximising profit by introducing many efficient new farming methods. Milestones in this evolution include the use of fertiliser, abandoning the practice of leaving land to lie fallow every three years, and the introduction of new crop varieties (root crops for fodder and cultivated pasture) which in turn fostered the development of stock raising and increasing selectivity.

Nowadays, the average size of a British farm is around 170 acres/69ha, one of the highest figures in Europe. Agriculture, mechanised as much as possible, employs only 2.3 percent of the workforce. The practice of mixed farming, combining stock raising and crop farming, means that modern Britain meets its domestic needs in milk, eggs and potatoes, and almost totally in meat (with a national flock of about 29 million head, the United Kingdom is ninth in the world for farming sheep). The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy has hit British farmers hard, the imposition of quotas forcing them to cut production of milk and adopt less intensive farming methods.

The fishing industry, once a mainstay of the island’s economy, has declined considerably mainly because of modifications to national fishing boundaries and their attendant fishing rights. Arrangements drawn up for the Anglo-Irish zone and the approved quotas mean the annual catch for UK vessels is around 630,000 tons, which has not succeeded in arresting the decline of once-great fishing ports such as Kingston-upon-Hull or Grimsby after the departure of the canning factories.

ENERGY SOURCES

Coal was mined well before the 18C (Newcastle was exporting 33,000 tons of coal per year as early as the mid-16C), but became a large-scale industry only after the invention of the steam engine. Since the industry’s heyday in the early 20C, production has been dropping steadily, despite a brief revival in the 1950s. Nowadays, in the wake of sweeping pit closures, in which deposits were exhausted or where it was felt extraction was no longer profitable, production has dropped significantly.

In 2005 total UK production was 20 million tons, mainly concentrated in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. In 2012 it fell to an all-time low of 18.7 million tons. Production figures have not been helped by the fact that the high cost of exploiting most mines means that Britain can import coal more cheaply from countries such as Australia, nor by competition from oil and gas. In the 1960s prospecting in the North Sea gave rise to sufficiently promising results for the countries bordering the sea to reach an agreement, under the Continental Shelf Act of 1964, on zones for extracting natural gas. Thanks to deposits along the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts, Britain is the world’s fifth-largest producer however, domestic demand is so great that gas has to be imported from Norway. Further north, off Scotland and the Shetland Islands, oil deposits give Great Britain dwindling independence in the energy sector, with total crude oil production at 42 million tons in 2012, down from 124 million tons in 1998.

Like the majority of developed countries, the United Kingdom converts a large proportion of its primary energy sources into electricity. About 70 percent of the electricity currently produced is thermal in origin (the Drax power station in Yorkshire is the most powerful in Europe). Hydroelectricity is negligible, as the relatively flat relief makes it impossible to build any sizeable hydroelectric power stations (only existing stations are in Scotland and Wales).

Nuclear energy, which has evolved since the construction of the experimental reactor at Calder Hall inaugurated in 1956, is now produced by nine nuclear power stations, all of which are to be found on the coast so that they can be cooled adequately. More recently, the wind has been harnessed to produce energy with massive turbines appearing all over the country.

INDUSTRY

In the second half of the 18C, hot on the heels of the Agricultural Revolution, capital began to flow from the land into industry, with new industrialists using the money from their family’s success as cultivators of the land to set up factories, mills and businesses.

The presence of iron ore in Yorkshire, the Midlands and Scotland gave rise to the iron and steel industry (Tsee Ironbridge Gorge Museum) which at its peak in the 19C was one of the industries at the core of the country’s economy. However, by the beginning of the 20C the mineral deposits were exhausted, and Great Britain found itself importing ore from abroad, effectively bringing about the decline of its own inland iron and steel regions (Durham, the Midlands) in favour of those located on the coast (Teesside) and in South Wales (Port Talbot, Newport). In 2011 UK steel production was 9.4 million tons per year (in the 1970s it was nearly 28 million). Metal processing industries have equally suffered gravely in the face of competition from abroad.

There are few remaining large UK shipyards operating in the commercial sector, although a large naval shipbuilding programme for the Royal Navy, replacing old aircraft carriers, promises some continuity for the naval yards of Portsmouth, Plymouth, the Clyde, Barrow and Rosyth.

Britain’s car industry once led Europe, with production levels of 2.3 million vehicles in the mid-1960s. It included some prestigious national companies, such as Triumph, Rover, Jaguar, Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Industrial disputes gave rise to a management crisis, however, culminating in nationalisation (British Leyland in 1975) and privatisation. In 2012, the UK’s automotive industry ranked fourteenth in the world by production quantity, reflecting the massive increase in car production in other countries like China, Japan, South Korea and India. Japanese firms like Honda, Nissan and Toyota have assembly plants in the UK. VW owns Bentley, Ford owns Aston Martin, while BMW holds a corral of largely defunct British brands, but does produce the Mini (Oxfordshire) and Rolls-Royce cars (Chichester). As of 2008, Tata, an Indian car manufacturer, owns Jaguar Land Rover.

Great Britain has contributed to the rapid evolution of the electronics and computer industries. Foreign companies such as Honeywell, Burroughs, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Mitsubishi have set up business in Scotland, providing a much-needed economic impetus in place of the region’s defunct traditional industries. In 2009 the government placed much emphasis on Digital Britain as one of the pillars of the plan to beat the recession, with continuing investment in communications and bolstering of creative industries.

Great Britain developed a flourishing textile industry, thanks to its large numbers of resident sheep and the ground-breaking inventions of the Industrial Revolution, and maintained its position as world leader until the mid-20C. Yorkshire, with Bradford as capital, was home to 80 percent of wool production. Lancashire, with Manchester as its centre, specialised in cotton.

However, this national industry has declined, overtaken by artificial fibres, illustrating the preponderant role that the chemical industry now plays in Great Britain’s economy. Some of Britain’s largest industrial groups are chemical based. The largest British chemicals firm is British Petroleum (BP), and two other giants in the field of petrochemicals are supported by an Anglo-Dutch financial association: Shell and Unilever.

TRADE

Great Britain imports more primary materials than it exports. Services, particularly insurance, banking and business services, account for the largest proportion of GDP, while industry, particularly heavy industry, continues to decline in importance. A reduction in trade with North America has been offset by an increase in volume of trade with European Union member-states, now half of British exports.

Settlement markets, marine and air insurance brokers (Lloyd’s, the world’s leading marine risk insurers), life insurance, bank loans, deposits and other financial services combine to make the City of London the world’s foremost financial centre. The huge profits generated by this business sector and the interest from investments abroad guarantee the United Kingdom’s income.

COPING WITH CRISIS

Great Britain was the first European country to emerge from the economic crisis of the late-1980s/early-1990s; and during the second half of the decade and the early part of the Millennium continued to outperform its neighbours and most other world economies in employment, inflation and other economic indicators. The credit freeze resulting from the debt crisis in 2007–08 placed the UK back in recession. In response, the government launched a controversial austerity programme, with large cutbacks in public spending, combined with quantitative easing (the creation, if not physical printing, of new money). The opposition claim that the strategy is not working, vindicated by the “double-dip recession” (when GDP shrank after a quarter or two of positive growth) and pointing out that the disposable income of most people has declined dramatically over the last few years. In 2013 the government at last had favourable figures to show, with the UK economy growing 0.8 percent in the third quarter, its fastest rate in three years, due largely to banking, telecoms, computing and government spending. However, prices continue to rise.

Traditional Festivities

Many rural traditions have declined owing to population mobility, the building over of land once dedicated to festivals and the adoption of new farming methods. On the other hand the popularity of outdoor activities, particularly those connected with sport and horses, has led to many of them evolving into fashionable events in the social calendar.

MORRIS DANCING

The origins of Morris dancing are uncertain. According to some the word Morris derives from Moorish. The dancers are traditionally men, dressed in white shirts and trousers, with bells tied below the knee and sometimes colourful hats. Dancers knock stout sticks and wave handkerchiefs as they dance.

THE MAYPOLE

Until the 17C many parishes had permanent maypoles, pagan fertility symbols belonging to a spring festival, tacitly accepted and tamed by the Christian Church. In 1644, however, under the Puritans, the Maypole was banned throughout England but returned at the Restoration (1660), marking both May Day and Oak Apple Day, anniversary of Charles II’s entry into London.

PANCAKE DAY

Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding the first day of Lent, is the occasion for cooking, tossing and eating sweet pancakes, which are served with sugar and lemon juice. Pancake races are also held in which competitors toss a pancake while running.

CHEESE ROLLING

Parish of Brockworth, Gloucestershire. A Whit Monday/Spring Bank Holiday festival. A cheese is rolled down a steep slope, with the youth of the village and other nutters allowed to chase after it at the count of three. Injury frequently occurs, but the tradition somehow survives in this generally risk-averse culture.

THE FURRY DANCE

Helston. The sole remaining example of a communal spring festival dance in Britain, this dance has taken place in Helston, Cornwall, for centuries, on 8 May, feast day of St Michael the Archangel, patron saint of the church.

WELL DRESSING

Christianity forbade the worship of water spirits but many wells were simply ‘purged’ and re-dedicated to the Blessed Virgin or one of the saints. In Derbyshire the custom of decking wells or springs with flowers still continues, under the auspices of the Church. Large pictures are formed on boards covered with clay, the design being picked out in flowers, pebbles, shells or any natural object; manufactured materials are not used. It is said that the most famous well dressing, at Tissington, began in its present form either after a prolonged drought in 1615 when only the wells of Tissington continued to give water or in thanksgiving for deliverance from the Black Death (1348–49).

EISTEDDFODAU

Wales is famous for its international cultural festivals offering song, music and dance (Builth Wells, Llangollen). Many contestants perform in costumes.

HIGHLAND GAMES

The games, which originated in 11C contests in the arts of war, are held in Scotland between June and September. The heavy events include putting the shot, throwing the hammer and tossing the caber, complemented by pipe bands.

Gourmet Guide to Great Britain

Great Britain provides a cosmopolitan choice of food but also has a rich tradition of regional dishes, all using local fish, game, fruit and dairy products to best advantage. Some of the treats listed below can be hard to find and rarely appear on restaurant menus. You may need to enlist the services of local specialists, such as independent butchers, food shops or farmers‘ markets in order to track them down.

MODERN BRITISH CUISINE

Modern cuisine in the UK has never been in better health, fed by a revitalised respect for quality produce and cooking. Immigration and increased foreign travel has resulted in a broadening of general tastes, meaning that there are few cuisines that cannot be found in Britain these days. London boasts just about every style of kitchen in the world, and the big cities, while nowhere near as comprehensive, now offer an increasingly global choice of restaurants alongside the old favourites of French, Italian, ‘Indian’ (probably Bangladeshi), Thai and Chinese.

British taste buds have been tantalised for over five decades by TV chefs from Fanny Craddock in the 1960s to the likes of today’s celebrity superchefs: Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Heston Blumenthal. The latter generation, with their carefully contrived images (respectively – swearing Scotsman on a rescue mission; pukka London lad saving the nation from school dinner horrors; and mad molecular gastronomic scientist) have helped to energise British cooking. Every year has a new hit TV series, from Masterchef and The Taste to The Great British Bake Off. The latter ensures that eggs, baking powder and whatever other ingredients, the contestants, or grand dame Mary Berry, prescribes, are greedily snapped up from the supermarket shelves the day after.

Borough Market, Southwark

SURREY, KENT AND SUSSEX

TSee pp190–215.

Kent is known as The Garden Of England, largely on account of its orchards and hop gardens. Hops are used to flavour beer and were traditionally dried in conical shaped oast houses on farms. Today most hops are dried industrially but the oast houses remain a distinctive part of the Kent landscape. Not surprisingly Kent is famous for its brewing heritage and boasts Britain’s oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame, located in Faversham. They have been rolling out the barrels since 1698 and are open to visitors for tours (www.shepherdneame.co.uk/brewery/tours). Also at Faversham is Brogdale Farm (www.brogdalecollections.co.uk), home to the National Fruit Collection, including many varieties of apples and pears, plums and cherries, soft fruits, quinces, and more. Orchard tours (Apr–Oct) and regular food festivals are staged.

Biddenden Vineyard is Kent’s oldest commercial vineyard, est. 1969. In addition to still table wines and sparkling wines they also produce traditional Kentish ciders and farm-pressed apple juices (open for tours, www.biddendenvineyards.com). Chapel Down, at Tenterden (www.englishwinesgroup.com) is one of England’s leading premium wine producers; apparently Chapel Down was served at Buckingham Palace as part of the 2012 Royal Wedding celebration. They are open for guided tours, have a very good wine and food store (showcasing local suppliers), and a restaurant.

Whitstable is famous for its oysters. You can get them anywhere in town; the most famous restaurant and oyster bar is Wheelers, est 1856. In late July the town stages its oyster festival www.whitstableoysterfestival.com

In Canterbury, the Goods Shed (http://thegoodsshed.co.uk), a beautifully converted Victorian warehouse next to Canterbury West train station, houses a daily Farmers Market (closed Mon), food hall, a small diner and an excellent restaurant. It includes a butcher, a “bottle shop” (featuring the largest number of British bottled beers in the South East), a cheesemaker with around 40 artisanal varieties, and much more.

The county’s major regional event is the Kent Food & Drink Festival (third weekend Sept, www.canterbury.co.uk) It’s not often that you think about beer and Surrey at the same time, but a tour around the Hog’s Back Brewery (www.hogsback.co.uk) set in 18C farm buildings between Guildford and Farnham, may well change all that. Brewing since 1992 and supplying all over the county and beyond, the tours are humorous, informative and intoxicatingly generous with the sampling of their excellent ales (as well as an excellent cider and lager).

Denbies English Vineyard (open for tours, www.denbies.co.uk) in Dorking, Surrey is the UK’s largest vineyard and produces sparkling and table wines. In Sussex, Lurgashall Winery (www.lurgashall.co.uk) enjoys a picturesque location and produces English liqueurs, meads and county wines. Its visitor centre and small museum is housed in 17C and 19C century farm buildings.

Surrey’s largest farmer’s market, at Guildford, attracts over 60 stallholders (first Tue month except Jan). Shoreham-by-Sea (second Sat of month) is home to the largest Farmers’ Market in Sussex, also with around 60 stallholders. Based in the heart of the fashionable North Laine district, Brighton Farm Market (www.brightonfarmmarket.co.uk) is open Tuesday to Saturday and every second and fourth Sunday, with around 25 to 30 food stalls each Saturday.

One of Britain’s most unusual food festivals, the West Dean Chilli Fiesta, is held in West Dean Gardens Sussex, (first weekend Aug, www.westdean.org.uk/Events) showcasing over 300 chillies and their multiple uses, from chilli beer and ice cream to some of the hottest sauces known to man. Beer and cider tents sooth overheated palates.

HAMPSHIRE, DORSET, WILTSHIRE

TSee pp216–251

In Hampshire, the delightful Georgian town of Alresford (“Arlsford”), together with the beautiful adjacent village of Old Alreford, near Winchester, is known for it watercress, with the steam trains of the Mid-Hants Railway’s famous Watercress Line (www.watercressline.co.uk) passing alongside beds where the green peppery salad plant is grown. There is an Annual Watercress Festival (www.watercressfestival.org) on the middle Sunday in May.

On the south coast between Southampton and Portsmouth, Wickham Vineyards (open for tours, www.wickhamvineyard.co.uk) produces award-winning wines.

Winchester stages the largest – and also recently voted the best – farmers’ market in the country (second and last Sun of month, also some Sats, www.visitwinchester.co.uk) with around 95 local producers showcasing local Hampshire food and drink.

Dorset is the beginning of the West Country, famous for its cider (see Somerset, below). Dorset also puts its apples to good use in the delicious and ubiquitous Dorset Apple Cake (best served warm with cream). The county is also known for Dorset Blue cheese, and its close relative, Blue Vinny. Try the latter in Puddletown, near Dorchester, at The Blue Vinny Restaurant (www.thebluevinny.co.uk).

Hall & Woodhouse (www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk), best known for their Badger beers, offers brewery tours from their visitor centre in Blandford St Mary, near Wimborne.

Wiltshire has a long history of pig-keeping and is famous for its high quality, traditionally cured pork and bacon, and particularly its ham. In fact its town, Swindon, derives its name from ‘swine down’ or ‘pig hill‘ after the herds of pigs that used to graze there. The perfect accompaniment to Wiltshire ham is Wiltshire Tracklements (www.tracklements.co.uk), producing some of the country’s finest mustards, chutneys, relishes and other meat accompaniments. Wash it down with a pint of the nationally acclaimed 6X Bitter from Wadworth Brewery (www.wadworth.co.uk) at Devizes. The brewery’s giant shire horses still can be seen pulling the dray (traditional delivery wagon) around the streets of the old market town, and brewery tours from the visitor centre (Mon–Sat).

Lardy Cake is a well-known traditional Wiltshire confection, made of lard or butter, dough, sugar and dried fruit. It has a delicious toffee taste and is highly fattening.

Bacon Fraise is a 15C agricultural worker’s breakfast dish, consisting of fried bacon, which is then covered with batter and then cooked in the oven. It’s worth a try, if you can find it. More easy to track down, in traditional butcher’s shops or at farmers’ markets, is Devizes Pie, which contains pork accompanied by lamb, veal, tongue and vegetables.

In the 18C, Wiltshire cheese was popular throughout the United Kingdom, but demand for milk in London led Wiltshire’s dairy farmers to abandon production. Thankfully, North Wiltshire Cheese Loaf can now be bought at specialist shops and local farmers’ markets.

The Isle of Wight’s most unusual foodstuffs come from The Garlic Farm at Newchurch, (www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk). In addition to fresh bulbs, smoked garlic, garlic bread, pickles and relishes etc, they also do garlic beer and garlic ice cream. You can taste some of them at their own café-restaurant. The Isle of Wight Garlic Festival (mid/late Aug, www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/garlicfestival.aspx) attracts around 25,000 visitors each year.

CHILTERNS, OXFORDSHIRE, COTSWOLDS

TSee pp252–277

Oxford’s Victorian Covered Market (www.oxford-coveredmarket.co.uk), trading since 1774, is foodie heaven, chock-a-block with butchers, fresh fruit and vegetable stalls, fishmongers, cookie makers, chocolatiers and bakers, mixed with retail shops and small cafés, all under one roof. Pick up a jar of Frank Cooper’s Oxford marmalade from here; made in Oxford between 1874 and 1967, it is supposedly a favourite of HM the Queen. Captain Scott took a jar to the Arctic on his fateful final mission in 1912 and it was found, perfectly preserved, along with the remains of the expedition, in 1980. Frank Cooper was a grocer and you can see the building where he came up with the recipe on the High Street in Oxford at number 83, although it has long since changed hands.

Oxford sausages, sometimes know as Oxford Skates, are traditionally skinless, semi-circular and made of a combination of veal and pork. Oxford’s covered market is a good place to find them, as well as Oxford Blue Cheese, which was created in the 1990s and has won many awards. Oxford sauce would be a perfect accompaniment to Oxford sausages, being similar to Cumberland sauce, but it is no longer widely used. Oxford’s butchers have long been associated with its colleges, and so there are some unique cuts of meat hewn here, including Oxford John, a lamb steak from the leg, and Oxford brawn, which is made from the meat of a pig’s head. You can find these in the market.

Lovers of traditional desserts should try a Banbury Cake, which is made from puff pastry, currants and rosewater. Oxford has a number of stodgy puddings to its name. Oxford Pudding is made of apricots, cream, eggs and puff pastry; New College Pudding is similar to a steamed pudding and is made of suet and currants; Spiced Oxford Cake is a type of fruitcake; while Hollygog Pudding is a mess of treacle and crumbly dough, best served with custard.

Hook Norton brewery has been operating from the small village of Hook Norton (between Chipping Norton and Banbury) for over 150 years (tours Mon–Sat; www.hooky.co.uk). The brewery’s shire horses can be seen delivering in the streets of Hook Norton village.

Brakspear beers have been brewed in Oxfordshire since the early-18C. When the original Henley Brewery closed in 2002 (now occupied by the Hotel du Vin), the Wychwood Brewery in Witney took over brewing the beers, and moved several large pieces of historic brewing kit to their home in Witney (tours Sat–Sun afternoons; www.brakspear-beers.co.uk).

Brightwell vineyard, beside the Thames, near Wallingford is the region’s largest wine producer (sales and tastings; Fri–Sun pm, tours by appointment; brightwellvineyard.co.uk).

Gloucestershire is known for its semi-hard Gloucester cheese, made from the milk of Gloucestershire breed cows farmed within the county. It always comes in rounds – with Double Gloucester aged for a longer period. It can be found all over, but for a wide choice of traditional cheeses – both local and beyond – from an expert cheesemonger, visit the House of Cheese, Tetbury (www.houseofcheese.co.uk).

Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork, which comes from a black-spotted pedigree breed of pigs, has recently become a protected name under EU regulations and is prized for its tenderness and juiciness. Aylesbury has a long history of “ducking” and the free-range Aylesbury duck is famous for its taste.

BRISTOL, BATH AND SOMERSET

TSee pp278–299

Bristol’s association with chocolate goes back to 1847 when Joseph Fry invented eating chocolate as we know it today, moulding solid chocolate in his Bristol shop (until then chocolate was just a drink). The last chocolate maker in the city is Guilbert’s (www.guilberts.com), hand-making chocolates here since 1910. The Bristol Chocolate Festival (end Mar) at Harbourside celebrates the city’s heritage.

The Victorian market buildings on Corn Street are the daily home of St Nicholas Market (www.stnicholasmarketbristol.co.uk), a bastion of both local and global cuisine. The emphasis is on local food every Wednesday at the Bristol Farmer’s Market, and on the first Sunday of the month for the Slow Food Market.

Bath is famous for the Bath Bun, a rich egg-and-sugar brioche invented by Dr William Oliver (1695–1764). Try one at Sally Lunn’s (www.sallylunns.co.uk). He also invented the Bath Oliver biscuit, usually eaten with cheese. In 1997 Bath hosted Britain first modern day farmers’ market. It is still held at Green Park Station (www.bathfarmersmarket.co.uk).

Someset is “where the cider apples grow”. Good places to see and taste are Sheppy’s Cider Farm, Shop and Museum (www.sheppyscider.com); Perry’s Cider (www.perryscider.co.uk); The Somerset Distillery (www.ciderbrandy.co.uk); Pennard Organic Wines & Cider & Avalon Vineyard (www.avalonvineyard.co.uk). The term ‘scrumpy’ refers to the still (non-sparkling) stronger/more alcoholic types of cider.

Somerset is also the birthplace of Cheddar cheese. The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company (www.cheddargorgecheeseco.co.uk) are the only cheese makers left in Cheddar. Visit them to see how traditional cheddar is still made.

DEVON AND CORNWALL

TSee pp300–335

Cornwall’s most famous food is the ubiquitous Cornish pasty, a D-shaped shortcrust pastry case, traditionally enclosing potato, swede, onion and steak/beef. It is said that the top edge was crimped into a “handle” (which would be thrown away) so that tin miners could safely eat the pasty without touching it with their arsenic-tainted fingers. Highly rated traditional pasty shops include The Lizard Pasty Shop (www.annspasties.co.uk) at Helston.

The pilchard (an adult sardine) was once the mainstay of the Cornish fishing industry, In 1871 nearly 16,000 ton were caught, but by the end of the 20C it had declined to a mere 6 ton per annum, and the image of pilchards was that of a tinned food of last resort. In 2003, however, the humble pilchard was reborn as the fashionable “Cornish sardine” and sales have come on recently in leaps and bounds. Cornwall’s fish champion is TV chef Rick Stein (www.rickstein.com), who has elevated Padstow (Tsee North Cornwall Coast, p327) into a shrine for fish and seafood gourmets. Mackerel, the main catch of St Ives, is widespread throughout Cornwall, and is also sold potted. You can hire a boat and line and catch your own, at several places, with no experience.

Clotted cream is associated with both Devon and Cornwall. Rich and thick, it is made by indirectly heating full-cream cow’s milk (using steam or a water bath) and then leaving it to cool slowly. It is an indispensable part of a “cream tea” (scones, jam and cream, served with tea). Another sweet Cornish treat is the saffron cake or bun. Although traditionally associated with Easter, it is widely available all year.

Devon’s rich milk is still being used to create a variety of Devon cheeses. Devon Blue comes from Totnes, while Beenleigh Blue is made from ewes milk from the River Dart area and Harbourne Blue is made from the milk of goats that graze on Dartmoor. Other Devon cheeses of note include Curworthy, Sharpham, Tyning and Belstone. The Victorian market in Barnstaple is a good place to pick up all of the above. Devon’s pear orchards used to supply the fair in Barnstaple, hence the origins of the Barnstaple Fair Pears dessert.

Laverbread is a traditional Welsh baked good that has long been popular in North Devon; its key ingredient is seaweed, laver, collected from the beach.

The traditional drink of Devon and Cornwall is cider (Tsee also Somerset). You can see how it is made at Healey’s Cornish Cyder Farm, (www.thecornishcyderfarm.co.uk) near Truro. Wine making also takes place in the Southwest. Vineyards open for tours include: Yearlstone (www.yearlstone.co.uk) at Bickleigh, Devon; Sharpham (www.sharpham.com) at Totnes, Devon, who also boast a creamery producing superb cheeses; Camel Valley, near Bodmin, Cornwall (www.camelvalley.com), whose sparkling wines have won top international prizes in recent years. South Devon is one of the best places in the West Country both for eating out in general and for local produce; South Devon crab is said to be one of the finest varieties of crab in the world. In a beautiful setting, the Dartmouth Food Festival (late Oct; www.dartmouthfoodfestival.com) is a very high-quality major annual event.

The largest food festival in the region is Flavourfest, held in Plymouth, with 100 stalls attracting around 150,000 people (mid-Aug; www.plymouth.gov.uk). Plymouth is famous for gin; its Black Friars Distillery is the oldest working gin distillery in England (www.plymouthgin.com), making Plymouth Gin since 1793.

EAST ANGLIA

TSee pp336–357

Norfolk’s most famous foods are Cromer crabs and Norfolk Black Turkeys. Less readily available is the local speciality of dumplings, mussels in cider and mustard. During the summer, samphire, ‘poor man’s asparagus’, grows wild along the salt marshes and is eaten with melted butter.

Suffolk is known for its apple juice and cider, while on the coast they serve a spicy shrimp pie, cooked with wine, mace and cloves in a puff pastry case.

From Essex comes sausages and bacon, while Colchester is famous for its oysters (both native and Rock Oysters) and its more affordable cockles.

Local foodies beat a path to 3At3 Delicatessen and Café (www.3at3deli.com), which takes its name not only from its address (3 Three Cups Walk), but also the three counties, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, from which their produce is sourced. It is also ideally located opposite the cathedral.

In Essex the top one-stop destination for fine food and groceries is The Food Company (www.thefoodcompany.co.uk) just outside Colchester. They also have a restaurant onsite that runs the gamut from local oysters to Mauritian Theme Nights, with all meal ingredients available in store to purchase and try at home. In the centre of Colchester, Gunton’s (www.guntons.co.uk), founded 1936, is a delightful traditional grocer/deli selling hand roasted coffee, hand packed teas, well over 100 different cheeses, their own home cooked gammon, and much more.

Jimmy’s Farm, near Ipswich (http://jimmysfarm.com) is not only a farm shop and restaurant but a family attraction with nature trails and regular events. Its butchers is one of the best in England; home to the Rare Breed Essex Pig, it has gained numerous awards for its sausages. Jimmy himself is something of a celebrity having starred in several TV programmes and has a range of (free range) food products to his name, also on sale in local supermarkets.

In summer, it’s worth the diversion down to the farm (also near Ipswich) to sample the Fruit Cream Ices at Alder Tree (www.alder-tree.co.uk). A mix of the highest quality sorbet and full-bodied ice cream, their Damson flavour, or Tayberry and Toffee Apple may tempt.

EAST MIDLANDS

TSee pp358–373

The small market town of Melton Mowbray boasts the title of “UK Rural Capital of Food” and is synonymous with Melton Mowbray Pork Pies. These hand-made pies are encased in a rich hot-water crust pastry, then traditionally baked without using a supporting tin or hoop, which gives the pie its classic bow-sided shape. Natural bone-stock jelly is added to the pie after baking to enhance the natural uncured (and slightly spiced) pork flavour. They are generally eaten cold as a snack. The oldest pork pie bakery in the country, Dickinson & Morris (www.porkpie.co.uk) have been baking at Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in the centre of the town since 1851 (production has recently moved to an out-of-town factory).

Melton Mowbray is also home to one of the six producers of Stilton cheese (www.stiltoncheese.com), which by law can only be produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. Colston Bassett is another of the six accredited places, and its creamery has a small shop selling Colston Bassett Stilton, though it is not open to the public for tours. Another well known local cheese is Red Leicester, a hard cows’ milk cheese made in a similar way as Cheddar, but with a moister, crumblier texture and a milder flavour. It is coloured with a vegetable dye called annatto, which gives the distinctive orange appearance.

The Melton Mowbray Food Festival showcases the food of the East Midlands (first weekend Oct, http://meltonmowbrayfoodfestival.co.uk).

Near Melton Mowbray, at Old Dalby, is the Belvoir (pronounced “beaver”) Brewery (tours daily, www.belvoirbrewery.co.uk). Lincolnshire is historically associated with the Lincolnshire sausage, available nationwide, which has a distinctive sage flavour. The area’s best artisan cheese is Lincolnshire Poacher (www.lincolnshirepoachercheese.com). You can find it in The Cheese Society Shop & Café (www.thecheesesociety.co.uk), in the city centre, and at The Cheese Shop, at Louth (www.thecheeseshoplouth.co.uk), east of Lincoln, which in 2011, won the Daily Telegraph “Best Small Food Shop in Britain” award. Salt pork filled with herbs, otherwise known as stuffed chine, is a speciality of Lincolnshire. A chine is a square cut of meat cut from between the shoulderblades. The county is also a producer of haslet, (pronounced ‘hacelet’). This traditional pork meat loaf is seasoned with sage.

Lincolnshire plum bread is made with dried fruit (sultanas and currants rather than plums) - it’s worth finding a good baker for a better version than that sold in supermarkets.

Samphire is relatively widely available in Lincolnshire, where it grows on the marshland. Grantham Gingerbread is also well-known here, which has a hard crust, slightly gooey interior and strong ginger flavour.

Lincolnshire’s best known brewery is Bateman’s (www.bateman.co.uk, daily tours). Based in Wainfleet, south west of Skegness, they have been in business since 1874. IPA and Nut Brown are a couple of its well-known beers.

Held during the first week of October, Nottingham Goose Fair (www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk) dates back to the 13C, making it perhaps the oldest in the country. Today it is just a funfair, but nevertheless, roast goose remains a popular dish in Nottingham. Bramley cooking apples originate in Nottingham and there’s no way better to eat them than baked in a Nottingham Batter Pudding.

WEST MIDLANDS AND PEAKS

TSee pp374–405

The charming market town of Ludlow, in Shropshire, is known as the provincial food and drink capital of England, thanks to its abundance of high quality independent food specialists in all sectors of the market. There are too many good local food shops to mention here but Wall’s butchers (www.wallsbutchers.co.uk), Price’s bakery (www.pricesthebakers.co.uk); and the Mousetrap (see below) are particularly worth a visit.

Just out of town the award-winning Ludlow Food Centre (www.ludlowfoodcentre.co.uk) is a one-stop foodie heaven that brings together local farming, food production and retailing. You can watch much of the food preparation through large windows around the edge of the store as you shop. Its butchery sources meat from the Centre’s own estate, its bakery uses local flour, it has a deli – which sells Shropshire Fidget Pie, made with gammon, cooking apples, onions and potatoes – plus a jam and pickle kitchen and a cafe/restaurant where you can sample their own homemade pasta and pastries.

The highlight of the food year is the Ludlow Food Festival (Sept; www.foodfestival.co.uk) featuring over 180 exhibitors and producers from Ludlow and the Marches (England–Wales border country). The Ludlow Spring Festival (May www.springevent.org.uk) is a beery celebration including over 180 draught real ales and 60 food producers. A weekly Farmers’ Market (www.localtoludlow.org.uk) takes place the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

Herefordshire has a proud, near 200-year old reputation for the quality of its beef, and the Hereford bull is a symbol of the town. The county is also renowned for cider making (www.ciderroute.co.uk) and Weston’s Cider (www.westons-cider.co.uk), in Much Marcle, offer daily tours. Visit too The Cider Museum in Hereford (Tsee p384). Much less traditional is one of the county’s more recent success stories, a premium vodka, made from potato and apple, at Chase Distillery (www.chasedistillery.co.uk), near Ledbury. Voted best vodka in the world 2010, it is on sale nationwide; stockists include the Ludlow Food Centre (see above). Chase also produce liqueurs, gin, marmalade vodka and an apple vodka. Find out more on one of their tours.

You can watch Little Herefordshire Cheese being made at Pleck Farm, Monkland, west of Leominster (www.monklandcheesedairy.co.uk); its shop also stocks a range of other British farm cheeses, and has a rustic café too. Look Mousetrap Cheese (www.mousetrapcheese.co.uk) who have shops in Leominster, Ludlow and Hereford.

Bakewell, in Derbyshire, has given its name to the now ubiquitous commercially produced shortcrust pastry, jam and almond Bakewell Tart. Two shops in Bakewell offer what they both claim is the original recipe. The Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House (www.bakewelltartshop.co.uk) sells a Bakewell Tart, while the (more historic) Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop (www.bakewellpuddingshop.co.uk) – which has a café/restaurant attached – bakes and sells Bakewell Pudding.

Pork scratchings are a popular pub snack in this region. These salted, crisp pieces of cooked pig skin are sold in small plastic bags.

Coventry used to be known for its Coventry Godcakes, which have a triangular shape in reference to the Holy Trinity. Now revived, you can get them at Esquires coffee house, at the city’s Transport Museum.

Recently Birmingham has become famous for its many restaurants serving Balti cuisine (www.balti-birmingham.co.uk); the balti is the steel wok-like pan, traditionally heated over a gas flame. The cuisine may have originated from the Pakistani Kashmir but is frequently said to have been invented in Birmingham.

THE NORTHWEST

TSee pp406–427

Liverpudlians are traditionally known as “Scousers”, a term that is thought to come from the food, scouse (derived from the German Lebskaus, or Scandinavian lapskaus/lobscouse), which was originally a thrifty leftovers stew of mutton/lamb and vegetables, sometimes served with a sharp vinegary beetroot or red cabbage. It’s increasingly hard to find; try local pubs, Maggie May’s Café on Bold Street, or the Malmaison Hotel.

The best restaurants to find local specialities on the menu in Liverpool are The London Carriage Works (www.thelondoncarriageworks.co.uk) and Delifonseca (www.delifonseca.co.uk). Malmaison Hotel (www.malmaison.com) is also good. The former is not only one of the city’s finest places to eat, but a fierce champion of local producers. Delifonseca is more casual, though still serving seriously good food in its restaurants, each of which shares the same roof as the deli in its two city branches. On the cheeseboard, look out for Lancashire (Mrs Kirkham’s is a popular make) and Cheshire cheeses. Both offer blue mould varieties; Garstang Blue from Lancashire, and Blue Cheshire. Two of the best regional cheese shops are The Cheese Shop (116 Northgate Street; Chester: www.chestercheeseshop.co.uk) who stock over 150 different British cheeses, and the Liverpool Cheese Company Ltd (www.liverpoolcheesecompany.co.uk), based in an old Grade-II-listed-dairy in picturesque Woolton Village, Liverpool.

On the Wirral Peninsula, Claremont Farm (www.claremontfarm.co.uk) is famous for its asparagus (in season from late May to August) and is regarded as “the good food hub of the Wirral” with a farm shop, and food events staged year-round including the Wirral Food and Drink Festival (first weekend May; www.wirralfoodfestival.co.uk).

Liverpool city centre hosts five farmers’ markets each month, (http://liverpool.gov.uk). The Wirral Farmers’ Market (www.wirralfarmersmarket.co.uk) in New Ferry is always popular with over 30 stalls. The biggest city event of the year is the Food and Drink Festival (early Sept; www.liverpoolfoodanddrinkfestival.co.uk).

Manchester hosts the biggest food festival in the Northwest, lasting 10 days (early–mid-Oct; http://foodanddrinkfestival.com). The city’s best retail showcase for local produce is the Unicorn (www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk) deli-grocery at Chorlton, South Manchester, run on a co-operative basis.

For a brewery tour visit Robinson’s in Stockport (www.robinsonsvisitorscentre.co.uk), who have been brewing in the area since 1838. Also just outside Manchester is Eccles, birthplace of the famous raisin-filled puff pastry Eccles Cake, delicious eaten warm. The nearest version of the long-gone original is probably the Real Lancashire brand (www.lancashireecclescakes.co.uk).

Other regional specialities to look out for are: Lancashire hotpot, lamb/mutton, vegetables and onions, topped with sliced potatoes and slow-cooked in the oven; potted shrimps from Southport; Goosnargh corn-fed chicken and duck, from Goosenargh, near Preston.

The Hollies Farm Shops (www.theholliesfarmshop.co.uk), at Little Budworth, Tarporley, near Chester, and Lower Stretton, near Warrington (halfway between Chester and Manchester) have been described as the “Harrods Food Hall(s) of the North”, crammed with locally sourced, traditionally produced foods. Both shops have café/restaurants which feature local produce. You can also dine very well at both locations.

CUMBRIA AND THE LAKES

TSee pp428–441

Two places that promote all things Cumbrian in their comprehensive food halls, and offer café-restaurants to taste there and then, are Cranstons (www.cranstons.net) and the Rheged Centre (www.rheged.com), both near Penrith. Cranstons is the larger of the two, has the greater pedigree (est 1914), and are master butchers.

The region’s most famous meat product is the traditional Cumberland Sausage (Cumberland was absorbed into Cumbria in 1974). This long, chunky, textured, peppery pork sausage is characterised by its formation into a rope-like coil, as opposed to being divided into “links”. It can be found everywhere in the region, and beyond, but for some of the very best try Cranstons (Tsee above), and Higginson’s butchers, Grange-over-Sands. To accompany your Cumberland sausage, try Cumberland sauce (Tsee below).

In restaurants look out for Morecambe Salt Marsh Lamb and Cumbrian Mutton, the latter championed by Prince Charles and taken up by many top chefs. In basic terms, mutton is meat from sheep that are older than lambs, though even its aficionados cannot agree on the exact definition.

Cumbria’s fells and moors are well suited to sheep farming, with hardy breeds chosen to weather out the colder months.

On the coast look for Solway Oysters, cockles, scallops (the smaller flavourful “Queenies” from the Isle of Man are best) and potted shrimps in butter from Morecambe Bay. Manx kippers are another Isle of Man speciality. Char is a tasty lake fish from Coniston, Windermere and Wast Water.

Thornby Moor Dairy (www.thornbymoordairy.co.uk) at Thursby make artisan cheese entirely by hand in open vats, including traditional, cloth-bound Cumberland Cheese. The cheesemaking room can be seen through a gallery window and the shop assistant will explain the process to visitors.

The perfect accompaniment to both local cheese and meats is the comprehensive range of traditional preserves, relishes, pickles and chutneys sold by The Hawkshead Relish Company (www.hawksheadrelish.com) from their shop in Hawkshead. These include Damson Ketchup, made from local Westmorland damsons, and old-fashioned Cumberland Sauce, once famous nationwide. This rich pungent pouring sauce is traditionally made with a mixture of redcurrants, damson wine, oranges and lemons, redcurrant jelly, Dijon mustard, port and ground ginger. Regional sweet treats include the widely available Kendal Mintcake and the much more exclusive Grasmere Gingerbread, sold only in Grasmere (Tsee p432). A relative newcomer to the local food scene is Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding (www.cartmelvillageshop.co.uk), hand baked in (and sold from) the kitchen of Cartmel Village Shop.

If you want to see how traditional Cumbrian real ale is brewed, Jennings Brewery (www.jenningsbrewery.co.uk) at Cockermouth, on its current site since 1874, is open for tours.

YORKSHIRE

TSee pp442–471

Yorkshire is synonymous with the famous Yorkshire pudding (batter), which originated here, and is the staple accompaniment to roast beef. Like the Yorkshire pudding, the term York ham is unprotected, and has been copied worldwide by vastly inferior products. You can try the real thing, however, from Ye Olde Pie & Sausage Shoppe (www.yorksausageshop.co.uk) in The Shambles.

From the Yorkshire Dales comes the county’s most famous cheese, crumbly Wensleydale from Hawes. At the Wensleydale Creamery (www.wensleydale.co.uk) you can see how it is made and visit their museum, shop, café and restaurant. Artisan cheesemakers, Shepherds Purse (www.shepherdspurse.co.uk) produce a wide range of local cheeses including blue varieties.

Two excellent delicatessens in York that champion local producers are The Hairy Fig Deli and Café (http://thehairyfig.co.uk) in Fossgate, and Henshelwoods Delicatessen (www.deliyork.co.uk) on Newgate Market. Elsewhere, Castle Howard boasts the award-winning Farm Shop.

Sweet local treats such as Yorkshire parkin, a rich, dark loaf made with black treacle, oatmeal and ground ginger; fat rascals, which are fruit scones made with almonds, vine fruit, cherries and citrus peel; and Yorkshire curd tart, a sweet pastry base covered in a layer of lemon curd and filled with fresh curd cheese, nutmeg and currants; are all best sampled at Betty’s Tea Rooms (www.bettys.co.uk). You can keep it local with a cup of Yorkshire tea by Taylor’s of Harrogate. Betty’s is a Yorkshire food institution in its own right. Alongside their beautiful original café in Harrogate (est 1919) are two more café-tearooms in York and three other branches in the county.

Haver bread, sometimes known as clapbread, is made from fermented oatmeal and milk. Old Peculiar Cake, made with Yorkshire-brewed Theakston’s Old Peculiar Ale (Tsee below) is just one of the many rich fruit cakes baked in the area. They occasionally take their names from towns such as Ripon and Batley. If you are offered ‘High Tea’ at dinnertime in Yorkshire, this is not simply ‘afternoon tea’ but a meal, followed by cakes and tea!

Whitby is a picturesque resort that has retained its fishing fleet, and its Magpie Café (www.magpiecafe.co.uk) is reckoned by many to serve the best fish and chips (eat-in or take-away) in Britain. Its sit-down menu offers specialities such as Lindisfarne oysters, Whitby crab and Whitby kippers. The last can be bought exclusively from the rustic shop and smokehouse of Fortune Kippers (www.fortuneskippers.co.uk) who have been trading, nestled below Whitby Abbey ruins, since 1872.

Fish and chips is a popular dish nationwide, but Yorkshire has many of the best fish and chip shops in the country, with the original Harry Ramsden shop and restaurant at Guisley often cited as the ‘world’s most famous’. It now trades as the Wetherby Whaler.

Yorkshire has a wide choice of beers. The perfect place to see them being made is the village of Masham, which has two small traditional breweries, Theakston (www.theakstons.co.uk) and the Black Sheep Brewery (www.blacksheepbrewery.com), the latter started in 1992 by Paul Theakston. Both offer tours (Tsee p453). For ale, tea, deli-and-dairy, fish-and-chips and Wensleydale trails visit www.yorkshire.com/delicious.

Bilberries grow in the wild in Yorkshire and you may find them served up in pies, crumbles and pancakes, among other desserts.

York Food and Drink Festival (www.yorkfoodfestival.com) takes places across the city in late September, with a smaller two-day event early June.

NORTHEAST

TSee pp472–491

Northumberland beef and lamb are renowned for their quality. In restaurants, look out for breeds of lamb such as Hexham Blackface, and Cheviot, and beef breeds such as Gallaway, and Welsh Black. Alnwick Stew is a traditional winter dish (not easy to find these days), of gammon or ham, with layers of sliced onion, and potatoes, flavoured with mustard and bay leaf.

Pan Haggerty, popular throughout Northumberland, is traditionally served from the pan, its thin sliced potato and onions cooked with a layer of cheese. Its name is perhaps derived from the French hachis, meaning sliced. Celery cheese is worth trying, as is Whitley Goose, which has nothing to do with any sort of bird; it’s a dish of onions, cheddar, butter and cream. One of the most famous dishes of the region is Pease Pudding, which has its origins in Medieval times. It’s a boiled vegetable dish similar to mushy peas, consisting of split yellow peas, salt and spices, cooked with bacon or a ham joint.

The freshest fish in the region are landed at North Shields Fish Quay, and go, among other places, to Colmans of South Shields (http://colmansfishandchips.com), voted the best fish and chip shop in England in 2011. Family-owned and operated since 1926 you can eat here or take-away.

The small coastal village of Craster is famous for Craster Kippers. L.Robson & Sons (www.kipper.co.uk) prepare traditional oak-smoked kippers and salmon in their original 130-year old smokehouses. You can’t see inside but you can buy direct or enjoy their products in the company’s own Craster Seafood Restaurant on site. There is an even older smokehouse, dating back to 1843, at The Fishermans Kitchen in Seahouses. Now run by Swallowfish (www.swallowfish.co.uk) visitors can buy kippers and all kinds of fish and seafood, both fresh and smoked. Historic photos and objects are on display in the shop. Other seafood delicacies of the region include potted salmon and baked herrings.

The holy island of Lindisfarne has been famous for its oysters, tended by the monks, since around the 14C. The monks, long gone, also introduced mead, a sweet wine made with fermented grape juice, honey and herbs, and fortified with fine spirits. You can taste and buy at St Aidan’s Winery (http://lindisfarne-mead.co.uk) who also make and sell Lindisfarne English fruit wines and liqueurs.

Honey lovers can also visit Chain Bridge Honey Farm (www.chainbridgehoney.co.uk) on the border in Berwick Upon Tweed. This is the largest natural producer of comb honey in the country, with a visitor centre and café (the latter inside a double-decker bus!).

The region’s most famous drink is Newcastle Brown Ale; synonymous with the city it was brewed in from 1927 until 2010 when production moved to Tadcaster, Yorkshire. It has a sweet, nutty taste, somewhere between a bitter and a classic sweet brown ale. You’ll find it in every bar.

EAT! NewcastleGateshead (late Aug–early Sept, www.eatnewcastlegateshead.com), is a quirky, imaginative food festival, which includes street-food markets, a beer and chilli festival and a huge range of events.

SCOTLAND

TSee pp492–557

Start the day with two Scottish icons, porridge (with salt or sugar) and rich dark Dundee Maramalade on hot buttered toast. The same city is also famous for its rich fruit Dundee Cake.

With thousands of miles of coastline, famous lochs and fishing rivers, there’s never a shortage of seafood. Scottish Salmon is most famous, best fresh, but also excellent when smoked. Other smoked fish dishes include: Cullan Skink soup, made with smoked haddock; Arbroath smokies (smoked haddock); kippers (split, salted, smoked herring); the Scottish-Indian former Raj curried breakfast treat of kedgeree, combining smoked haddock with rice and hard-boiled eggs. The East Neuk (Fife) shoreline is famous for its shellfish and Partan bree is a tasty crab soup from north eastern Scotland.

Scottish beef, particularly Aberdeen Angus, and lamb are renowned year-round. In the game season look for venison and red grouse. Served all year round (though most famously on Burns’ Night) Haggis is made from sheep’s pluck (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach, though sausage skin is now the norm. It always comes with swede (the Scots refer to this as turnip or ‘neeps’) and is traditionally accompanied by a wee dram of whisky. Mutton (sheep) pies are made with hot water pastry.

Sweet treats inlude Atholl Brose, made with oatmeal, honey, cream and whiskey; add some fresh Scottish raspberries and you have Cranachan. Oatmeal bannocks (flat breads) may be spread with local honey, and yes you really can get deep-fried Mars Bars, though not everywhere; if you have a super sweet tooth try the chip shops in Stonehaven or Glasgow. More wholesome is the ubiquitous Scottish shortbread.

Good delis to look out for are Peckham’s (www.peckhams.co.uk) in Glasgow and Edinburgh while Valvona & Crolla (www.valvonacrolla.co.uk) is an Edinburgh institution. Gordon & MacPhail in Elgin (www.gordonandmacphail.com) claims the world’s most extensive range of whiskies, while Royal Mile Whiskies (www.royalmilewhiskies.com) in Edinburgh is another of the world’s great specialist whisky merchants. True disciples will want to follow the Malt Whisky Trail (www.visitscotland.com), taking in classic distilleries like Glenfiddich and Glenlivet.

WALES

TSee pp558–587

Although not as famous as Scottish cuisine, Welsh food boasts some distinctive dishes. Its most ubiquitous meat is lamb, traditionally roasted (or grilled in chops and steaks) and eaten with mint sauce or redcurrant jelly. Welsh honey lamb is a delicious dish, cooked in cider, with thyme and garlic, basted with honey. Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in mutton (produced from an older sheep) with a gamier taste than sweet young lamb, which is less than a year old.

Another tradition meat dish is faggots, rich balls of mixed meat and offal, bound with oatmeal, cooked in a rich gravy and traditionally served with mashed potatoes and mushy peas.

The humble leek, a member of the onion family, and an official emblem of Wales, appears in many dishes.

The Principality’s most famous cheese is the light and crumbly Caerphilly – ideal for Welsh Rarebit, a snack of cheese mixed with beer (or milk) and mustard, cooked until creamy, poured on toast, then browned under a grill.

A speciality of the Gower is the local sea trout – sewin – perhaps stuffed with herbs before being cooked. It might be accompanied by laverbread, which is actually a type of seaweed. This is also a traditional breakfast accompaniment.

Bara brith (Welsh tea bread) is a rich cake bread, full of dried fruits and citrus peel. Another tea-time treat are Welsh cakes, a griddle scone flavoured with spice and dried fruit, baked on a flat iron, best served warm, with butter, and sprinkled with sugar.

For a list of some of the best places to try all these specialities. head to www.visitwales.com.

British Booze

With the decline, if not the demise, of the great British pub, drinkers are switching from quantity to quality. “Boutique breweries” have proliferated in recent years and have thrived. Wine is now a staple for many Brits, the majority imported, though British wine is now also excellent.

BEER

Beers in Britain can be divided into two principal types: ales and lagers which differ principally in their respective warm and cool fermentations. Beer is served in kegs or casks.

Keg beer is filtered, pasteurised and chilled and then packed into pressurised containers from which it gets its name.

Cask beer or “real ale” is neither filtered, pasteurised nor chilled and is served from casks using simple pumps. It is considered to be a more flavoursome and natural beer.

Bitter is the traditional beer in England and Wales. Most are a ruddy brown colour with a slightly bitter taste imparted by hops. Some bitters are quite fruity in taste and the higher the alcoholic content the sweeter the brew.

Mild is normally only found in Wales, the West Midlands and the Northwest of England. The name refers to the hop character as it is a gentle, sweetish and full-flavoured beer. It is generally lower in alcohol and darker in colour than bitter, caused by the addition of caramel or by using dark malt.

Stout can be either dry, as brewed in Ireland (Guinness is the standard bearer) with a pronounced roast flavour with plenty of hoppy bitterness, or sweet. The latter, sweetened with sugar before being bottled, are now rare.

In addition there are pale ales (like bitter), brown ales (sweet, like mild) and old ales (sweet and strong) and barley wine, a very sweet, very strong beer.

In Scotland, draught beers are often sold as 60/- (shillings), 70/-, 80/- or even 90/-. This is a reference to the now-defunct shilling, which indicated the barrel tax in the late-1800s calculated on alcoholic strength. The 60/- and 90/- brews are now rare. Alternatively, the beers may be referred to as light, heavy or export which refers to the body and strength.

CIDER

Cider has been brewed from apples in Great Britain since Celtic times. Only bitter apples are used for “real” West Country cider, which is dry in taste, flat (non-sparkling) and high in alcoholic content. A sparkling cider is produced by a secondary fermentation.

Glenfiddich Distillery, Dufftown, Grampians, Scotland

WHISKY (WHISKEY)

The term whisky is derived from the Gaelic for “water of life”. Scotch whisky can only be produced in Scotland, by the distillation of malted and unmalted barley, maize, rye, and mixtures of two or more of these.

Malt whisky is produced only from malted barley traditionally dried over peat fires. A single malt whisky comes from one single distillery and has not been blended with whiskies from other distilleries. The whisky is matured in oak, ideally sherry casks, for at least three years, which affects both its colour and its flavour. All malts have a more distinctive aroma and more intense flavour than grain whiskies and each distillery will produce a completely individual whisky. There are approximately 100 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. Grain whisky is made from a mixture of any malted or unmalted cereal such as maize or wheat and is distilled in the Coffey, or patent still, by a continuous process. It matures more quickly than malt whisky. Very little grain whisky is ever drunk unblended.

Blended whisky is a mix of more than one malt whisky or a mix of malt and grain whiskies to produce a soft, smooth and consistent drink. There are over 2,000 such blends, which form the vast majority of Scottish whisky production.

Deluxe whiskies are special because of the ages and qualities of the malts and grain whiskies used in them. They usually include a higher proportion of malts than in most blends.

Irish whiskey (note the spelling with an e) is traditionally made from cereals, distilled three times and matured for at least seven years.

WINE

Britain’s wine industry has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years and there are now several high-quality small vineyards, mostly in the south of the country. The best are: Camel Valley, Cornwall; Three Choirs, Gloucestershire; Nyetimber, West Sussex; Ridgeview, East Sussex; Denbies, Surrey; and Chapel Down, Kent. Unfortunately, although the quality of these wines match their overseas competitors, the British climate and cost of land does not allow producers to reap economies of scale (total production represents only 1 per cent of British wine consumption), so they are always dearer than their foreign equivalents.

Only the more expensive restaurants tend to stock English wines and in pubs you will rarely see English wines from the grape (sweet English fruit wines are sometimes available). Specialist wine retailers and of course the vineyards themselves are a good place to pick up a bottle or two.

British History

Britain’s tangible ancient history goes back some 5000 years, with relics such as Stonehenge and Skara Brae offering tantalising glimpses of the nation’s prehistoric roots. The foundations for Modern Britain were laid from late-medieval times to the 20C, when it became a major player on the world stage in both European and World affairs, from wars and royal intermarriages to Victorian Empire. The fact that Britain has not been invaded for nearly 1000 years happily means much of its ancient way of life, from customs and traditions, to the actual countryside and a significant number of buildings – from castles and palaces to villages and humble houses – are many centuries old. Moreover, many of its structures (in some case whole villages) are not just intact, but accessible to visitors. The conservation and heritage industry in the UK is one of the best in the world and does an excellent job of interpreting the country’s long and colourful past.

 Origins, Celts and Romans

 Early Medieval Britain

 Late Medieval Britain

 Absolute Monarchy

 British Empire

 20th to 21st Century

 Scientific Progress

Hadrian’s Wall, Cuddy’s Crags near Housesteads Roman Fort.

©Martyn Unsworth/iStockphoto.com

Origins, Celts and Romans

Great Britain is positioned at the western edge of Europe, from which it has received successive waves of immigrants who have merged their cultures, languages, beliefs and energies to create an island race which has explored, traded with, dominated and settled other lands all over the world.

FIRST SETTLERS

Some 8,000 years ago, Britain, until then part of the greater European land mass, became detached from continental Europe by the rise in sea level caused by retreating glaciers. Around 5,000 BC the first agricultural peoples arrived and began to transform the landscape into the pattern much as we see today. Having satisfied their survival needs, between 4,000 BC and 1,800 BC they began grander, more spiritually inclined projects such as the construction of Stonehenge and other stone alignments. Around 700 BC saw the arrival of the “Beaker” people, who brought a knowledge of metalworking and the Aryan roots of the English language – words such as father, mother, sister and brother.

CELTS

Also around 700 BC Celtic settlers arrived. The Celts brought their language, their chariots, the use of coinage and a love of finery, gold and ornaments. Iron swords gave them an ascendancy in battle over the native Britons, estimated at around a million, who were pushed westwards. By 100 BC their lifestyle and customs were well established in Britain. However, the different groups of Celts had only a dialect in common and their lack of any idea of “nationhood” made them vulnerable to the might of Rome.

ROMANS

The Romans had no strategic interest in the offshore island of Britannia but the lure of corn, gold, iron, slaves and hunting dogs was enough to entice them to invade. By AD 70 much of the north and Wales had been subdued and 50 or more towns had been established, linked by a network of roads. Rome gave Britain its law and extended the use of coinage into a recognised system, essential to trade in an “urban” society. In 313 Christianity was established as the official religion. The Roman conquest of Caledonia was never fully accomplished although there were two main periods of occupation. The initial one (c.80–c.100), which started with Julius Agricola’s push northwards, is notable for the victory at Mons Graupius (somewhere in the Northeast). The second period followed the death in AD138 of the Emperor Hadrian (builder of the wall). By the end of the 4C Roman power was waning.

55 BC		Julius Caesar lands in Britain
AD 42		Roman invasion of Britain under the Emperor Claudius
61		Revolt of the Iceni under Queen Boadicea
122		Beginning of the construction of Hadrian’s Wall
410		Roman legions withdrawn from Britain following the sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth

Early Medieval Britain

With the withdrawal of the Romans, Britain fell into disrepair but its Anglo-Saxon roots were already in place. The nation began to form from these Germanic tribes alongside Danes, Vikings, Celts and early Britons.

ANGLO-SAXONS AND VIKINGS

Saxons, in the form of Germanic mercenaries, had manned many of the shore forts of Britain before the final withdrawal of regular Roman troops in AD 410. As pay became scarce, the mercenaries seized tracts of good farming land and settled permanently. Angle (from Angeln, Germany), Saxon (lower Saxony) and Jute (lower Jutland) invasions cemented their position in the 5C. These warring tribes gradually formed cohesive kingdoms, gaining territories through wars with old Briton states, eventually claiming between them an area roughly equivalent to present-day England. These kingdoms traded as far afield as Russia and Constantinople and were constantly engaged in power struggles between themselves. When St Augustine arrived in Kent in 597, he found that Christianity was already established at the court of King Ethelbert of Kent, whose wife Queen Bertha was a Christian princess. Until the Synod of Whitby in AD 664 the practices of the Roman Church existed side by side with those of the Celtic Church, which had a different way of calculating the date of Easter and a strong and distinctive monastic tradition.

King of Wessex (West Saxons) in the south of Great Britain from 871, Alfred the Great became the dominant ruler in England. Of all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, that of Wessex was the only one able to repel invasion by the Great Danish Army (a united army of formerly uncoordinated bands of Vikings), which was defeated at the Battle of Edington in 878. However, the Vikings signed a treaty with Alfred that allowed them to retain control of their conquered lands – most of northern and eastern England. Alfred then set about establishing a navy, a standing army, a network of fortified towns known as burhs, and a system of taxation and conscription to supply them. Edward the Elder succeeded his father Alred the Great in 899, reclaiming control of all of Mercia, East Anglia and Essex from the Vikings. By 918, all of the Danes south of the Humber had submitted to him. His successor Athelstan conquered the last remaining Viking kingdom, York, making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of all of England. Athelstan also invaded Scotland in 934, forcing King Constantine of Scotland to submit to him. On Athelstan’s death, King Olaf Guthfrithson of Dublin invaded Northumbria and occupied York, later moving on the rest of the English kingdoms. Athelstan’s successor, Edmund I, (ruled 939–946) eventually managed to reclaim vassalage over Mercia, the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw and the Danish Kingdom of East Anglia. Edmund established a policy of safe borders through treaties with King Malcolm I of Scotland and the Norse-Gael Uí Ímair dynasty, whose members from the mid-9th century ruled much of Northern England, the Irish Sea region, the Kingdom of Dublin and the western coast of Scotland.

Depiction of Augustine preaching before King Ethelbert

449		First waves of Angles, Saxons and Jutes land in Britain; Hengist and Horsa land at Ebbsfleet in East Kent
597		Augustine, sent by Pope Gregory to convert the British to Christianity, founds a Benedictine monastery in Canterbury
851		Viking raiders winter regularly in Britain and become settlers
871-99		Reign of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, who contains the united Viking invasion in 878

THE ROAD TO 1066

Edmund I of England’s successor, Eadred, ruled from 946–955, engaging in further attrition with Viking interests in Northumbria and York, notably with the former King of Norway, ‘Eric Bloodaxe‘, who had two short-lived terms as King of Northumbria. By 952, Eadred had finally removed the threat of a Northumbrian king, replacing him with earls. Eadred’s successor, Eadwig, faced conflicts with his family, his thegns and the church, leading to the split of his kingdom, so that his brother Edgar ruled Northumbria and Mercia, while Eadwig retained Wessex. His short rule was followed by that of his brother, Edgar I (ruled 959–975), under whom the Kingdom of England was reunited and all the kings of Britain pledged their allegiance. However, from Edgar’s death in 975 until the Norman Conquest, there was not a single succession to the throne that was not contested. It was the beginning of the end for the Anglo-Saxon kings.

King of England from 975–978, Edward the Martyr, oversaw a brief reign during which civil war almost broke out within his kingdom and his earls rose to greater political power, essentially ruling the kingdom for him. After his half-brother’s murder, Ethelred ‘the Unready’ became king at just ten years old, granting further power to the earls. During Ethelred’s disastrous reign (978–1013 and 1014–1016), England was attacked by the Danes. In 1013 Swein, King of Denmark, invaded and briefly became king while Ethelred fled to Normandy in 1013. He returned in 1014 on Swein’s death to reclaim the throne. Ethelred’s son and heir, Edmund ‘Ironside’, resisted another Danish invasion in 1016 led by Cnut the Great. He fought five battles against the Danes, but lost the Battle of Assandun, after which Cnut eventually claimed the English throne, becoming King of England (1016–1035) and later, Denmark (1018–1035). On his death, the English throne passed to his son Harold Harefoot (ruled 1035–1040), while that of Denmark passed to Harthacnut (1035–1042) – though Harold’s death once again reunited the crowns under his brother’s rule (1040–1042).

On Harthacnut’s death, Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred and his Norman wife, Emma, became king of England, though Magnus I of Norway succeeded to the Danish throne and extended his claim over England. Edward, who spent much of his childhood in exile in Normandy, gave land and positions to Normans. Edward gained popular approval as a devout saintly character, but suffered from rebellious and powerful earls, in particular the Godwins of Wessex. To guard the southeast shoreline against invasion and pillage, Edward established the enduring maritime federation known as the Cinque Ports (Five Ports), in which Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe and Hastings grouped together to supply ships and men for defence.

As part of his claim to the English throne, his great-nephew, Duke William of Normandy, is said to have made Harold, son of Earl Godwin, swear an oath to help William succeed on Edward’s death. On 5 January 1066, days after the consecration of his abbey church at Westminster, Edward died, Harold took the throne and the stage was set for a Norman invasion, while the threat of Magnus I of Norway’s claim, and that of his successor Harold Hardrada, still loomed large.

Broch tower, dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD, Mousa Broch, Scotland

911		Kingdom of Normandy founded by Rollo, a Viking
1016-35		Reign of Canute (Cnut), first Danish King of England
1042-66		Reign of Edward the Confessor

EARLY MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND AND WALES

The Anglo-Saxon invasions forced the indigenous Britons to take refuge in the wilds of Cornwall, Wales, and beyond Hadrian’s Wall in southwest Scotland. It was at Whithorn that the Romano-Briton St Ninian established the first Christian community in the late-4C. Over the next centuries, Christianity gained footing. In the 8C and 9C the first Norse raiders arrived. These were followed by peaceful settlers who occupied the Western Isles. The kingdoms of the Picts and Scots merged, under the Scot Kenneth MacAlpine, to form Alba, the territory north of the Forth and Clyde that later became known as Scotia, while the western fringes remained under Norse sway. Territorial conflicts with the English and the Norsemen marked the next two centuries.

The character of modern Wales was first formed by the Romans, who pushed the Britons west into the area now known as Wales. It was then a number of kingdoms, rarely united by any one ruler. Mercia (corresponding to today’s Midlands) became the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom and built Offa’s Dyke as the Welsh border.

Late Medieval Britain

The Norman Conquest solidified England’s feudal system from 1066 onwards. In the following centuries, dynastic struggles were to plague Britain and the continent.

NORMANS

The Normans were descendants of Norsemen, Vikings, who had settled in northern France in 876. Following the death of Edward the Confessor, Duke William of Normandy, accompanied by some 5,000 knights and followers, invaded England and defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the last time the country was successfully invaded. Duke William, better known as William the Conqueror imposed a strong central authority on a group of kingdoms that ranked among the richest in western Europe. By the time of the Domesday Survey only a handful of English names feature amongst the list of “tenants in chief”, revealing a massive shift in ownership of land, and only one of 16 bishops was an Englishman; by 1200 almost every Anglo-Saxon cathedral and abbey, reminders for the vanquished English of their great past, had been demolished and replaced by Norman works. Forty years after the conquest, however, English soldiers fought for an English-born king, Henry I, in his French territories.

1066		Harold Godwinson repels the army of Harold Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. He then marches south to confront the Norman invasion at the Battle of Hastings under Duke William of Normandy. Harold is killed and William is crowned on Christmas Day in Westminster Abbey
1086		Domesday Survey made by William I to reassess the value of property throughout England for taxation purposes
1100-35		Reign of Henry I, whose marriage to Matilda of Scots unites the Norman and Saxon royal houses
1135-54		Reign of Stephen. Henry of Anjou acknowledged as heir to the throne by the Treaty of Winchester

PLANTAGENETS

Henry II, Count of Anjou, married Eleanor, whose dowry brought Aquitaine and Poitou to the English Crown. His dispute over the relative rights of Church and State with Thomas Becket, whom he himself had appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury, led to Becket’s murder. Henry’s reign deserves to be remembered for the restoration of order in a ravaged country, the institution of legal reforms, which included the establishment of the jury, the system of assize courts and coroners’ courts, two reforms of the coinage and the granting of many town charters. He also encouraged the expansion of sheep farming as English wool was of high quality; the heavy duties levied on its export contributed to England’s prosperity.

WELSH MARCHER CASTLES

Although the English kings and Welsh leaders had fought for centuries it was Edward I who led the first true conquest of Wales in 1277, securing the lands with his famous castles, at Harlech, Caernarfon, Conwy, Beaumaris and elsewhere. Between 1276 and 1296 17 castles were built or re-fortified by Edward I to consolidate English power in North Wales. The four best-preserved fortresses that once patrolled the North Welsh borders (or Marches) are Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris. They are among the most remarkable group of medieval monuments to be seen in Europe.

The four major castles were the work of the greatest military architect of the day, Master James of St George, brought by Edward from Savoy. Most were built to be supplied from the sea, as land travel in Snowdonia was impossible for Edward’s forces. Square towers were replaced by round, which were less vulnerable to undermining; concentric defences, the inner overlooking outer, made their appearance. The garrisons of these massive stone fortifications were small – only some 30 men-at-arms plus a few cavalry and crossbowmen. Planned walled towns, similar to the “bastides” of southern France, housed the settlers, who helped hold the territory. Documents detailing the conscription of labour from all over England, the costs of timber, stone, transport, a wall, a turret, even a latrine, can still be read.

The despotic manner of ruling and of raising revenue adopted by Henry’s son, King John, caused the barons to unite and force the king to sign Magna Carta, which guaranteed every man freedom from illegal interference with his person or property and the basis of much subsequent English legislation.

The ineffectual reign of John’s son, Henry III, was marked by baronial opposition and internal strife. He was forced to call the first “parliament” in 1264.

His son, Edward I, a typical Plantagenet, fair haired, tall and energetic, was for much of his reign at war with France and Wales and Scotland; on the last two he imposed English administration and justice. During his reign the constitutional importance of Parliament increased; his Model Parliament of 1295 included representatives from shire, city and borough.

His son, Edward II, cared for little other than his own pleasure and his reign saw the effective loss of all that his father had won. His wife, Isabel of France, humiliated by her husband’s conduct, invaded and deposed Edward.

1154		Accession of Henry II, Count of Anjou (Plantagenet)
1170		Murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
1189		Henry II defeated in battle by his son Richard
1189-99		Reign of Richard I (the Lionheart)
1199-1216		Reign of King John. Most of Normandy, Maine, Anjou and Brittany lost
1215		John forced to sign Magna Carta by the barons
1216-72		Reign of Henry III
1271-1307		Reign of Edward I
1296-98		North of England ravaged by Scots under William Wallace; defeated at Falkirk and executed in 1305
1307-27		Reign of Edward II
1314		Edward II defeated at Bannockburn by Robert I, King of Scotland
1327		Edward II murdered at Berkeley Castle
1327-77		Reign of Edward III
1328		Robert I recognised as king of an independent Scotland

HUNDRED YEARS WAR (1337–1453)

The son of Edward II, Edward III, sought reconciliation with the barons and pursued an enlightened trade policy. He reorganised the Navy and led England into the Hundred Years War, claiming not only Aquitaine but the throne of France. In 1348 the Black Death plague reached England and the labour force was reduced by one-third. The throne passed from Edward III to his grandson, Richard II, with his uncle, John of Gaunt, acting as regent. In time Richard quarrelled with the barons. John of Gaunt was exiled together with his son Henry Bolingbroke, who returned to recover his father’s confiscated estates, deposed Richard and became king.

Henry IV was threatened with rebellion by the Welsh and the Percys, Earls of Northumberland, and with invasion from France.

Henry V resumed the Hundred Years War and English claims to the French throne. On his death his infant son was crowned Henry VI in 1429 in Westminster Abbey and in 1431 in Notre Dame in Paris.

1337		Beginning of the Hundred Years War with France
1348		The Black Death
1377-99		Reign of Richard II
1381		Peasants’ Revolt, in part provoked by the government’s attempt to control wages
1398		Richard II deposed by Henry Bolingbroke
1399-1413		Reign of Henry IV
1400		Death of Richard II
1413-22		Reign of Henry V
1415		English defeat French at Battle of Agincourt
1420		Treaty of Troyes makes Henry V heir to the French throne
1422-61		Reign of Henry VI with Duke of Gloucester and Duke of Lancaster as regents
1453		Hundred Years War ends

WARS OF THE ROSES

The regency created by the deposing of Edward II fostered the counter-claims of York and Lancaster to develop into the Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrians (Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI), represented by the red rose of Lancaster, claimed the throne by direct male descent from John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III. The Yorkists (Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III), represented by the white rose of York, were descended from Lionel, Edward’s third son, but in the female line. The dispute ended when Elizabeth of York married Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian.

Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, known as the Little Princes in the Tower, were imprisoned by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Their claim to the throne was deemed illegitimate by Parliament. Gloucester was proclaimed Richard III and the princes were probably murdered at the Tower of London.

1455-87		Wars of the Roses, over 30 years of sporadic fighting and periods of armed peace, between the houses of Lancaster and York, rival claimants to the throne
1461-83		Reign of Edward IV
1465		Henry VI captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London
1470		Restoration of Henry VI by Warwick and flight of Edward
1471		Murder of Henry VI and Prince Edward by Edward IV following his victory at Tewkesbury
1483		Reign of Edward V ending in his and his brother’s imprisonment in the Tower of London
1483-85		Reign of Richard III
1485		Battle of Bosworth Field: Richard defeated and killed by Henry Tudor

LATE MEDIEVAL SCOTLAND

Under the influence of Queen Margaret, and during the reigns of her sons – in particular Edgar, Alexander I and David I – the Celtic kingdom of Scotland took on a feudal character as towns grew and royal charters were granted. Monastic life flourished as religious communities from France set up sister houses throughout Scotland. In 1098 King Edgar, son of Malcolm III (Canmore), ceded the islands to Norway. Alexander II (1214–49) attempted to curb Norse rule but it was his son Alexander III (1249–86) who, following the Battle of Largs, returned the Western Isles to Scotland. Relations with England remained tense.

On the death in 1290 of Alexander III’s granddaughter, the direct heir to the throne, Edward I installed John Balliol as king (and his vassal). However, following Balliol’s 1295 treaty with the French, Edward set out for the north on the first of several “pacification” campaigns and thus started a long period of intermittent warfare.

The years of struggle for independence from English overlordship helped forge national identity and heroes. William Wallace led early resistance, achieving a famous victory at Stirling Bridge (1297). However, he was captured in 1305 and taken to London where he was executed. The next to rally opposition was Robert the Bruce (1274–1329), grandson of one of the original Competitors and therefore with a legitimate claim to the throne. Following the killing of John Comyn, the son of another Competitor, and the representative of the Balliol line, Bruce had himself crowned at Scone in 1306. Slowly he forced the submission of the varying fiefs and his victory at Bannockburn (1314) was crucial in achieving independence. Although now independent, royal authority in Scotland was undermined by feuds and intrigue as bloody power struggles broke out among the clan chiefs. The monarchy prevailed, however, and the powerful Albany and Douglas clans were subdued in the 15C. The Scots also supported France in its rivalry with England and the first of many “auld alliances” were forged. In 1424 James I took the reins of power. His son James II succeeded in 1437 following the assassination of his father at Perth. In 1460 James II was killed at the siege of Roxburgh Castle and James III became king.

Absolute Monarchy

The Renaissance period witnessed growing conflicts between royalty and other institutions (notably the Church and Parliament). The Tudors in the 16C and the Stuarts in the 17C were the embodiment of absolute monarchy. This period was also all about the struggle between the Catholic, Protestant and Anglican churches and communities.

TUDORS

Henry VII ruled shrewdly and his control of finances restored order and a healthy Treasury after the Wars of the Roses. His son, Henry VIII, was a “Renaissance Man”, an accomplished musician, linguist, scholar and soldier. He was an autocratic monarch of capricious temper and elastic conscience, who achieved union with Ireland and Wales and greatly strengthened the Navy. Thomas Wolsey, appointed Chancellor in 1515, fell from favour for failing to obtain papal approval for Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon; his palace at Hampton Court was confiscated by the king. The Dissolution of the Monasteries caused the greatest redistribution of land in England since the Norman Conquest. Wool, much of which had been exported raw in the previous century, was now nearly all made into cloth at home.

The popularity of Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was undermined by her insistence on marrying Philip II of Spain, who was a Roman Catholic, the burning of 300 alleged heretics, and war with France, which resulted in the loss of Calais, England’s last possession in continental Europe.

Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, restored a moderate Anglicanism, though potential Roman Catholic conspiracies to supplant her were ruthlessly suppressed. She sought to avoid the needless expense of war by diplomacy and a network of informers controlled by her Secretaries, Cecil and Walsingham. Opposition to Elizabeth as queen focused on Mary Queen of Scots and looked to Spain for assistance. The long struggle against Spain, mostly fought out at sea, culminated in the launch of the Spanish Armada, the final and unsuccessful attempt by Spain to conquer England and re-establish the Roman Catholic faith; its defeat was the greatest military victory of Elizabeth I’s reign. Elizabeth I presided over a period of exploration and enterprise, a flowering of national culture and the arts; most of William Shakespeare’s greatest plays were produced between 1592 and 1616.

16C tower house where Mary Queen of Scots stayed in 1566, now Mary Queen of Scots Visitor Centre, Jedburgh, Scotland

QUEEN OF SCOTS

In 1513 the accession of James IV of Scotland followed his father, James III’s death at the Battle of Sauchieburn. James IV was also to die in war, at Flodden in 1513. His son, James V, died at Falkland Palace in 1542, leaving his queen, Mary of Guise, and their daughter Mary, who assumed the title Queen of Scots. However, when the Scots refused an alliance between the young Mary and Henry VIII’s son, Edward, English troops invaded, in what was known as The Rough Wooing. Meanwhile a growing French influence at court was resented by the nobility and the Reformation, fired up by John Knox’s sermons, gained ground; monastic houses were destroyed and Catholicism was banned. During the short tragic reign (1561–67) of Mary Queen of Scots, conspiracies and violence were rife and personal scandal finally turned the populace to rebellion. Her flight to England, after her abdication in favour of her infant son, ended in imprisonment and execution by Elizabeth I.

1485-1509		Reign of Henry VII
1509-47		Reign of Henry VIII
1513		Defeat and death of James IV of Scotland at Flodden
1535		Execution of Sir Thomas More, Chancellor, for refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy, acknowledging Henry VIII as head of the Church in place of the Pope
1536-39		Dissolution of the Monasteries. Excommunication of Henry VIII
1547-53		Reign of Edward VI
1553-58		Reign of Mary I; Roman Catholicism re-established
1558-1603		Reign of Elizabeth I
1567-1625		Reign of James VI, King of the Scots
1580		Circumnavigation of the world by Francis Drake
1587		Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
1588		Defeat of the Spanish Armada

STUARTS

Elizabeth I was succeeded by James I of England (and VI of Scotland). The Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy of Roman Catholics who attempted to assassinate James in Parliament, despite his willingness to extend to them a measure of toleration.

Charles I inherited his father’s belief in an absolute monarchy – the “divine right of kings” – and attempted to rule without Parliament from 1626 to 1640. Moreover, his marriage to a Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria of France, was unpopular with the people. When he was finally forced to recall Parliament, the Members of the House responded by condemning his adviser, the Earl of Strafford, to death for treason, refusing to grant the king money until he discussed their grievances, and they passed a Bill preventing any future dissolution of Parliament without their consent. When in 1642 Charles I attempted to arrest five members of Parliament he sowed the final seeds for the coming conflict.

THE COVENANTERS

James VI united the crowns of Scotland and England under one monarch, following the childless death of his cousin, Elizabeth I of England. In the 17C James VI attempted to achieve control of the Church through bishops appointed by the crown. His son, Charles I, aroused further strong Presbyterian opposition in Scotland with the forced introduction of the Scottish Prayer Book. In 1638 the National Covenant was drawn up, which pledged Scottish defiance of the religious policy of Charles I. In 1644 led by Montrose, the Covenanters were victorious against England, but defeat came at the Battle of Philiphaugh (1645) and Montrose was forced into exile. After the death of Charles I, Cromwell finished off the Covenanters’ army.

1603-25		Reign of James I (also James VI of Scotland)
1605		Gunpowder Plot intended to assassinate the king in Parliament
1620		Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America
1625-49		Reign of Charles I
1626		Dissolution of Parliament by the king

THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR

The English Civil War broke out in August 1642. Charles I established his headquarters in Oxford but the balance was tilted against him by Scots support for the Parliamentarians. The North was lost after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644 and, following the formation of the New Model Army by Cromwell and Fairfax and its victory at Naseby in 1645, the Royalists surrendered at Oxford the following year. The king surrendered to the Scots who handed him over to Parliament in 1647. A compromise was attempted but Charles wavered. He played off one faction in Parliament against another and sought finance and troops from abroad. In 1648 the war resumed. The Scots to whom Charles promised a Presbyterian England in return for their help, invaded England but were defeated in August at Preston and Charles I was captured. The army demanded his death.

Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished and replaced by a Council of State of 40 members. Attempts by the “Rump” Parliament to turn itself into a permanent non-elected body caused Cromwell to dissolve it and form the Protectorate in 1653, in which he, as Lord Protector, ruled by decree. He was accepted by the majority of a war-weary population but, on his death in 1658, the lack of a competent successor provoked negotiations which led to the Restoration of the Monarchy.

1649		Trial and execution of the king
1649		Beginning of the Commonwealth. England is ruled not by a monarch but by Oliver Cromwell, a commoner
1651		Coronation at Scone of Charles II. He is defeated at the Battle of Worcester and flees to France.

MONMOUTH REBELLION

The death of Charles II – and the prospect of a new line of openly Catholic monarchs with the accession of his brother James VII – inspired the ill-fated Monmouth rebellion in Scotland, led by Charles II’s illegitimate son. In 1689 the Protestant Mary and William were invited to rule. Viscount Dundee rallied the Jacobites (those faithful to King James VII) but after an initial victory at Killiecrankie the Highland army was crushed at Dunkeld. In 1707 the Crowns of England and Scotland were joined together in the Act of Union.

THE RESTORATION

The Restoration in May 1660 ended 10 years of Puritan restriction and opened a period of optimism and a flourishing of theatre, painting and the arts. In the Declaration of Breda Charles II appeared to promise something for almost every political faction. The Navigation Acts, specifying that English goods must be carried in English ships, did much to develop commerce.

In 1685, just after the death of Charles II, his illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, led a rebellion against James II that was brutally repressed. This and the introduction of pro-Catholic policies, two Declarations of Indulgence in 1687 and 1688, the trial and acquittal of the Seven Bishops and the birth of a son James, who became the “Old Pretender”, all intensified fears of a Roman Catholic succession. Disaffected politicians approached William of Orange, married to Mary, James’ daughter, and offered him the throne.

1660-85		Reign of Charles II
1665		Great Plague kills more than 68,000 Londoners
1666		Great Fire of London destroys 80 percent of the city
1672		Declaration of Indulgence relaxing penal laws against Roman Catholics and other dissenters
1672-74		War against the Dutch
1673		Test Act excluding Roman Catholics and other non-conformists from civil office
1677		Marriage of Charles II’s niece, Mary, to William of Orange
1679		Habeas Corpus Act reinforcing existing powers protecting individuals against arbitrary imprisonment
1685-88		Reign of James II
1685		Monmouth Rebellion – unsuccessful attempt to claim the throne by the Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II
1687		Dissolution of Parliament by James II

THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION

William III landed in England in 1688. In 1689 he was crowned with his wife Mary as his queen. Jacobite supporters of the exiled James II were decisively defeated in both Ireland and Scotland and much of William’s reign was devoted, with the Grand Alliance he formed with Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and the German states, to obstructing the territorial ambitions of Louis XIV of France.

Crown offered to William and Mary, engraved by H Bourne after EM Ward

Queen Anne, staunch Protestant and supporter of the Glorious Revolution (1688), which deposed her father, James II, also strove to reduce the power and influence of France in Europe and to ensure a Protestant succession to the throne. Marlborough’s victory at Blenheim and his successes in the Low Countries achieved much of the first aim. After 18 pregnancies and the death of her last surviving child in 1701, Anne agreed to the Act of Settlement providing for the throne to pass to Sophia, Electress of Hanover, grand daughter of James I, or to her heirs.

The “Whigs” were the members of the political party which had invited William to take the throne. They formed powerful juntas during the reigns of William and Anne and ensured the Hanoverian succession. In the 1860s they became the Liberal Party. The “Tories” accepted the Glorious Revolution but became associated with Jacobite feelings and were out of favour until the new Tory party, under Pitt the Younger, took office in 1783. They developed into the Conservative Party under Peel in 1834.

The Jacobites, supporters of the Stuart claim to the throne, made two attempts to dethrone the Hanoverian George I. James II’s son, the “Old Pretender”, led the first Jacobite rising in 1715 and his eldest son, Charles Edward Stuart, “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, the “Young Pretender”, led a similar rising in 1745, which ended in 1746 at Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil. He died in exile in 1788 and his younger brother died childless in 1807.

1688		William of Orange invited to England Exile of James II to France
1689-94		Reign of William III and Mary II
1689		Defeat of Scottish Jacobites at Killiecrankie. Londonderry besieged by James II; Grand Alliance between England, Austria, the Netherlands and German states in war against France
1690		Battle of the Boyne and defeat of James II and the Irish Jacobites
1694-1702		Reign of William III following the death of Mary II
1694		Triennial Act sees Parliament meet at least once every three years and sit for a maximum three years
1694 & 1695		Bank of England founded, then Bank of Scotland
1702-14		Reign of Queen Anne

British Empire

With the battles between Parliament and the monarchy concluded, maritime supremacy established and industrial output exploding, Britain focused on international trade and colonisation.

HANOVERIANS

By the time George I ascended the throne in 1714, the United Kingdom was already a European economic and naval power which had played a major part in weakening the influence of France in Europe.

George II is notable for being the last monarch to command his forces personally in battle, at Dettingen in 1743 in the war of the Austrian Succession. He was succeeded by his grandson, the unfortunate George III, prone to bouts of apparent madness (possibly due to porphyria or arsenic poisoning). He was unable to reverse the trend towards constitutional monarchy but he did try to exercise the right of a king to govern. This caused great unpopularity, and he was forced to acknowledge the reality of party politics. Foreign policy was dominated by the king’s determination to suppress the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, which arose from the threat posed by the Revolution in France to established European powers.

George IV had supported the Whig cause in opposition to his father’s Tory advisers and was much influenced by the politician Charles James Fox.

William IV was 65 when he succeeded his unpopular brother. Dissatisfaction with Parliamentary representation was near to causing revolutionary radicals to join forces with the mob.

1704		English capture Gibraltar; victory at Blenheim
1707		Act of Union joins English and Scottish Parliament
1714-27		Reign of George I
1715		Jacobite rebellion, led by James Edward Stuart
1727-60		Reign of George II
1745		Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, which ended at Culloden in 1746
1752		Gregorian Calendar adopted
1756		Beginning of the Seven Years War. Ministry formed by Pitt the Elder
1757		Recapture of Calcutta. Battle of Plassey won by Clive
1759		Defeat of the French army by General Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham, Quebec
1760-1820		Reign of George III
1760		Conquest of Canada
1763		Seven Years War ended in the Treaty of Paris
1773		Boston Tea Party protest against forced imports of East India Company tea into the American colonies
1776		American Declaration of Independence; The Wealth of Nations published by Adam Smith
1781		British surrender at Yorktown
1793		War against Revolutionary France
1799		First levy of income tax to finance the war
1805		Naval victory at Trafalgar and death of Nelson
1807		Abolition of the slave trade within the British Empire

HIGHLAND CLEARANCES

The Jacobite uprising of 1745 was led by Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720–88). His Highland Army won an initial victory at Prestonpans but he was defeated at Culloden in 1746 and fled into exile. The aftermath was tragic for the Highlands. Highlanders were disarmed, their national dress proscribed and chieftains deprived of their rights. Eviction and loss of the traditional way of life ensued; this period became known as the Highland Clearances and was complete by around 1860. Mass emigration followed for the many who faced abject poverty.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Vast social changes occurred as the labour force moved from the land into town; overcrowding often bred unrest between worker and employer. The Napoleonic Wars both stimulated this industrialism and aggravated the unrest but by the mid-19C it was clear that in Britain industrial revolution would not be followed by political revolution.

From around 1790 onwards, Scotland was becoming one of the commercial and industrial powerhouses of the British Empire, with flourishing textile, coal mining, engineering, railway construction and steel industries. Most famously, Glasgow and the Clyde became a major shipbuilding centre and Glasgow became “Second City of the Empire” after London. Up until the First World War fishing was also a major economic activity.

In the late-18C the Industrial Revolution transformed South Wales. The presence of iron ore, limestone and large coal deposits in southeast Wales meant that this region was ideal for the establishment of iron and steel works and coal mines. By 1830, Britain was the largest iron producer in the world, and South Wales alone accounted for 40 percent of this output. Cardiff was soon among the most important coal ports in the world and Swansea among the most important steel ports. The iron and steel industry was not to last, however, as ore was exhausted and other countries took advantage of the new technologies. By the end of the 19C, iron production was in decline and coal was king in South Wales.

1731		Agriculture revolutionised by the invention of the horse hoe and seed drill by Jethro Tull
1733		Invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay
1769		Patents issued for Watt’s steam engine and Arkwright’s water frame
1781		Watt’s steam engine for rotary motion patented
1787		Invention of the power Ioom by Cartwright
1825		Opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway. Completion of the Menai Bridge by Telford
1833		Factory Act abolishes child labour
1834		Tolpuddle Martyrs transported to Australia for forming an agriculture Trade Union
1851		Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park
1856		Invention of the Bessemer process of steel making in industrial quantities

THE VICTORIAN ERA

As William IV’s two daughters had died as infants, he was succeeded on his death by his niece, Victoria. Queen Victoria, the last monarch of the House of Hanover, was only 18 when she came to the throne. She went on to become Britain’s longest-reigning sovereign and to give her name to an illustrious age. Her husband, the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg, was her closest adviser until his premature death in 1861. He persuaded her that the crown should not be aligned with any political party – a principle that has endured. He was the instigator of the Great Exhibition, which took place between May and October in 1851. It contained exhibits from all nations and was a proud declaration of the high point of the Industrial Revolution, celebrating the inventiveness, technical achievement and prosperity which are the hallmarks of the Victorian Age. Victoria’s son, Edward VII, who was excluded from royal duties and responsibilities until 1892, greatly increased the prestige of the monarchy by his own charm and by reviving royal public ceremonial.

1812-14		Anglo-American War ended by Treaty of Ghent
1815		Battle of Waterloo; defeat of Napoleon; Congress of Vienna
1820-30		Reign of George IV
1823		Reform of criminal law and prisons by Peel
1829		Catholic Emancipation Act. Formation of the Metropolitan Police
1830-37		Reign of William IV
1832		First Parliamentary Reform Act
1837-1901		Reign of Queen Victoria
1840		Marriage of Victoria to Prince Albert. Introduction of the penny post
1842		Chartist movement campaigns for Parliamentary reform
1846		Repeal of the Corn Laws
1848		Cholera epidemic. Public Health Act
1854-56		Crimean War, ends with the Treaty of Paris
1857		Indian Mutiny
1858		Government of India transferred from the East India Company to the Crown
1861		Death of Prince Albert
1863		Opening of the first underground railway in London, the Metropolitan Railway
1871		Bank holidays introduced
1876		Victoria made Empress of India. Elementary education made obligatory
1884		Invention of the steam turbine by Parsons
1888		Local Government Act establishing county councils and county boroughs
1895		First Motor Show in London
1899–1902		Boer War ends in the Peace of Vereeniging, leading to union of South Africa (1910)

20th to 21st Century

Following the two world wars Great Britain took its place at the top table of the free world. Today, Britain’s military powers may have diminished, but its status remains and it is still a key player in world politics.

WORLD AT WAR

WORLD WAR I AND INTER-WAR YEARS

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914 plunged Europe (and beyond) into a futile stalemate war in which a million British troops died and many millions more lost their lives. Meanwhile in Ireland a desire for independence had also reached crisis point and in Easter 1916 an uprising in Dublin was ruthlessly put down by British troops.

A significant after-effect of the First World War in Great Britain was a loosening of class structure. The “lions led by donkeys” were now much less likely to follow orders in peacetime and the Labour Party made great strides, coming to power for the first time (albeit in a Liberal coalition) in 1923. Across the water in Ireland the independence movement was continuing and in 1921 an Irish Free State was created. It led to the Irish Civil War, which ended in 1923.

In Britain the General Strike of 1926 underlined the country’s growing restlessness and this unrest worsened in the 1930s, as the worldwide economy slumped into the Great Depression.

1910-36		Reign of George V
1914-18		First World War
1914		Formation of Kitchener’s “Volunteer Army”
1916		Easter Rising in Dublin
1917		Name of the Royal Family changed to Windsor by George V
1918		Women over 30 granted vote
1919		Treaty of Versailles
1921		Creation of the Irish Free State
1924		British Empire Exhibition
1926		General Strike
1928		Women over 21 granted vote
1931		The Depression – many people out of work
1936		Accession and abdication of Edward VIII
1936-52		Reign of George VI

WORLD WAR II

A policy of appeasement was taken towards the growing ambitions of Adolf Hitler, characterised by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938, who returned from a meeting with the Führer and delivered the now-infamous words ‘I believe it is peace in our time’. When it became clear, however, in 1939, with the invasion of Poland, that war was the only option for Britain, the country found itself seriously unprepared. By mid-1940 Britain was isolated and prepared to be invaded by Hitler’s army from across the Channel.

The evacuation of troops at Dunkirk was the nadir. The tide, however, was about to turn. In May Winston Churchill became prime minister and the Battle of Britain had halted the Luftwaffe‘s ambitions. This led to the Blitz over London and other major cities, in the autumn and winter of 1940–41. In 1941 the United States entered the war and the Germans became disastrously entrenched on the Eastern Front in Russia. By 1944 the German armies were in retreat and the Normandy (D-Day) Landings spearheaded the liberation of Europe.

1900		Labour Party formed
1901-10		Reign of Edward VII
1903		Women’s suffrage movement started by Mrs Pankhurst
1905		First motor buses in London
1939-45		Second World War
1940		Winston Churchill becomes prime minister
1940		Evacuation of Dunkirk; Battle of Britain
1944		Normandy landings

POST-WAR BRITAIN

The years following the Second World War marked the end of the British Empire. In most cases this was a peaceful transition. India achieved independence in 1947 and within the next 10 years virtually all of Britain’s overseas dependencies followed suit, changing into the British Commonwealth, an informal non-political union which fosters economic cooperation and best practices between member nations.

After 1945 key industries were nationalised and the Welfare State was born with the National Health Service, improved pensions and benefits.

Elizabeth II, who succeeded to the throne in 1952, has done much to strengthen the role of monarchy both at home and abroad and even following the royalty‘s recent troubled years the Queen remains enormously popular within and outside Great Britain.

The austere 1950s were succeeded by the “Swinging Sixties“, a period of cultural upheaval and optimism which saw the rise of youth culture, London become the epicentre of the fashion universe, and, of course, The Beatles.

The decade ended badly in Northern Ireland where violent disputes, known as The Troubles, flared up between Protestant and Catholic organisations. Despite the efforts of the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary, over the next 29 years some 3,700 people were to lose their lives, many in indiscriminate bombings.

As traditional heavy industries went into decline or moved to other parts of the world, Scotland’s economy waned badly. However, in the late-1970s, the discovery and exploitation of North Sea oil and natural gas in the fields around the Shetland Isles proved a massive boon to Scotland in general and to the Highlands and Islands in particular. In the last three decades the Scottish economy has moved to a technology and service base, as the oil runs out. Today it is estimated that around 80 percent of all Scotland’s employees work in services, a sector which enjoyed significant growth until 2008 and the slump of 2009.

1947		Independence and partition of India. Nationalisation of railways and road transport
1950–1953		Korean War
1952		Accession of Elizabeth II
1958		Treaty of Rome - European Economic Community/EEC (now the European Union/EU)
1959		Discovery of North Sea oil
1965		Death of Sir Winston Churchill
1969		Beginning of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland
1973		United Kingdom becomes a founding member of the EEC

THATCHER AND THE CONSERVATIVE YEARS

By contrast with the upbeat 1960s the 1970s was a decade of industrial slump and strife. Against this background, in 1979, Margaret Thatcher, Britain‘s first ever female party leader (of the Conservatives) also became Britain‘s first ever female prime minister. She went on to become the most charismatic leader since Winston Churchill but her ideology, which came to be known as Thatcherism – deeply in favour of individualism over collectivism and capitalism over social responsibility – polarised the country. The bitter year-long miners‘ strike of 1984–85 and subsequent pit closures and massive job losses were the most obvious sign of this. Yet while Britain‘s industrial base declined other sectors of the economy (mostly services) boomed. Thatcher went on to win three general elections and while she was reviled by many, some look back fondly on her strong style of leadership.

1979		Margaret Thatcher elected first woman Prime Minister (serves until 1991)
1982		Falklands War
1990–1991		Gulf War
1992–1995		Bosnian War

CLOSURE OF THE PITS

The coal industry reached its zenith in the 1920s with over a quarter of a million miners working in over 600 coalfields providing one-third of the world’s coal. Exhaustion of the seams, under-investment in the pits, and the recession of the 1930s meant that only half of these were still operating by the outbreak of the Second World War. Pit closures became an acrimonious political issue in the 1980s and resulted in the bitter and ultimately disastrous miners’ strike of 1984–85. Today every pit of any reasonable size and every foundry has gone. Despite the gloom of the recent past, Wales in the 21C looks forward to a brighter future with its own Parliament, a renewed interest in the language, national identity and massive urban regeneration projects at Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli and Ebbw Vale.

NEW LABOUR

Although Britain had joined the European (Economic) Union in 1973, European policy issues had remained mostly on the back burner. In the post-Thatcher years, however, these, alongside other issues like the immensely unpopular poll tax, led to the unravelling of the Conservatives. John Major gave the Tories another term after Thatcher stepped down, but by 1997 the reformed centrist media-savvy Labour party, reborn as New Labour under Tony Blair, had taken centre stage. His dynamic, reformist and optimistic brand of politics earned him a massive majority in Parliament, with policies that moved away from traditional labour values in favour of The City, big business and closer links with Europe. The creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, which were both ratified in 1997, marked a new stage in the relationships between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom though most of the real power has remained firmly rooted in Whitehall and Westminster.

The decade ended under a shadow as Tony Blair’s reign gave way to the failure of Gordon Brown’s premiership, dogged by the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing crime, human rights and privacy issues, and the beginning of a serious recession.

1997		Election of a Labour Government, led by Tony Blair.
1998		Good Friday Agreement, referendum and meeting of Northern Ireland Assembly
1999		Opening of Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly
2001–present		Afghanistan War (Coalition forces set to withdraw in 2014)
2002		Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
2003		Iraq War
2005		Terrorist bombs explode in London killing 52 people
2007		Gordon Brown becomes the new prime minister
2008		UK economy enters recession. Troops withdrawn from Iraq.
2009		Last surviving British soldier of WWI dies.

COALITION, DEVOLUTION & THE ROAD TO REFERENDUM

Although the Scottish Parliament was abolished in 1707 there had been calls for Scottish devolution, if not quite full independence, since the mid-18C. In 1999 the Scottish Parliament was reinstated, and in 2005 moved to their new permanent residence at the foot of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The Parliament has responsibility over wide areas of Scottish affairs, even though in theory at least, Westminster retains powers to amend or even abolish it. A referendum for full Scottish independence will take place in September 2014.

2010 - The Labour government are routed but, with no clear majority for the other parties the first coalition government in the UK since the Second World War sees the Conservatives and Liberal Democats (Lib Dems) sharing power.

2011 - Cracks begin to appear in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition. The thorny issue of Britain’s EU involvement is reignited as PM David Cameron defies the European Union by refusing to enter a treaty to save the euro.

2012 - Britain stages a hugely successful Olympic Games.

2013 - Prince George is born to Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.

Scientific Progress

Between 1760 and 1850 the Industrial Revolution turned Britain into the world’s first industrial nation. Power-driven machines replaced human muscle and factory production replaced cottage industry. New methods and new machines supplied expanding markets and growing demand.

POWER

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen designed the first practical piston and steam engine and his idea was later much improved by James Watt. Such engines were needed to pump water and to raise men and ore from mines and soon replaced waterwheels as the power source for the cotton factories which sprang up in Lancashire. Then Richard Trevithick (1771–1833), Cornish tin miner, designed a boiler with the fire box inside which he showed to George Stephenson (1781–1848) and his son, Robert (1803–59). This became the basis of the early “locomotives”. Without abundant coal, however, sufficient iron could never have been produced for all the new machines. By 1880, 154 million tons of coal were being transported across Britain. Cast iron had been produced by Shropshire ironmaster Abraham Darby in Coalbrookdale in 1709 and was used for the cylinders of early steam engines and for bridges and aqueducts. Wrought iron with greater tensile strength was developed in the 1790s, allowing more accurate and stronger machine parts, railway lines and bridging materials. In 1856 Sir Henry Bessemer devised a system in which compressed air is blown through the molten metal, burning off impurities and producing a stronger steel.

TRANSPORT

Thomas Telford (17571834) built roads and bridges for the use of stagecoaches and broad-wheeled wagons transporting people and goods. However, these were often impassable in winter so cheap transport for bulk goods was also provided by over 4,000mi/6,400km of canals, pioneered by James Brindley (1716–72). Eventually heavy goods and long-distance passenger traffic passed to the railways. Engineered by George Stephenson (of in 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway was the first passenger-carrying public steam railway in the world, by 1835 the railway had become the vital element of the Industrial Revolution – swift, efficient and cheap transport for raw materials and finished goods. The success of Stephenson’s Rocket proved the feasibility of locomotives. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59), Chief Engineer to the Great Western Railway, designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge and also the first successful trans-Atlantic steamship, the Great Western, in 1837.

William Henry Morris – Lord Nuffield, the most influential of British car manufacturers, began with bicycles and made his first car in 1913. He is probably best remembered for his 1959 “Mini”. John Boyd Dunlop started with bicycles too. In 1888 this Scottish veterinary surgeon invented the first pneumatic tyre. It was John Loudon McAdam, an Ayrshire engineer, who devised the “Tarmacadam” surfacing for roads. More recently Christopher Cockerell patented a design for the first hovercraft in 1955.

AVIATION

The names of Charles Rolls and Henry Royce will always be associated with the grand cars they pioneered although their contribution to aviation is arguably even greater. A Rolls-Royce engine powered Sir Frank Whittle’s Gloster E28/29, the first jet aircraft, and the De Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial passenger-carrying jet airliner, which made its maiden flight in 1949. British aerospace designers worked with their French counterparts in the development of Concorde, the world’s first supersonic airliner.

SCIENCE

In 1660 Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) founded the Royal Society; it was granted a Charter by Charles II in 1662 “to promote discussion, particularly in the physical sciences”. Robert Boyle and Sir Christopher Wren were founder members and Sir Isaac Newton was its president from 1703 to 1727. Michael Faraday was appointed assistant to Sir Humphrey Davy, inventor of the miners’ Safety Lamp, in 1812. It was Faraday’s work with electromagnetism which led to the development of the electric dynamo and motor. An early form of computer, the “difference engine” was invented by Charles Babbage in 1833 and can be seen in the library of King’s College, Cambridge. Edmond Halley, friend of Newton, became Astronomer Royal in 1720. He is best remembered for the comet named after him, and for correctly predicting its 76-year cycle and return in 1758.

In 1925, a Scottish engineer, John Logie Baird, produced a live, moving, greyscale television image from reflected light in his rooms in Soho, London. He went on to demonstrate the world’s first colour transmission in July 1928 though it took nearly another four decades before most of the general public were able to watch colour TV.

During the 1930s, Robert Watson Watt (a descendant of James Watt) argued that radio waves could be bounced off an aircraft as it travelled, in order to determine its exact position. He proved the technology worked, and so RADAR was born. Immediately this played a vital part in the defence of the country during the Battle of Britain and later came to revolutionise travel.

The radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, set up by Sir Bernard Lovell in 1955, is still one of the largest in the world and contributes to our widening knowledge of our Universe. In 1968 Antony Hewish, a British astronomer at Cambridge, first discovered pulsars, cosmic sources of light or radio energy. In 1988 Professor Stephen Hawking studied black holes and wrote his seminal treatise, A Brief History of Time.

Portsmouth dockyard

MEDICINE

It was William Harvey, physician to James I and Charles I, who discovered the circulation of the blood. More recent British achievements in medicine have been those of Dr Jacob Bell who, with Dr Simpson from Edinburgh, introduced chloroform anaesthesia, which met with public approval after Queen Victoria used it during the birth of Prince Leopold in 1853. Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the effects of penicillin in killing bacteria in 1928. The “double-helix” structure of DNA (de-oxy-ribo-nucleic acid) – the major component of chromosomes which carry genetic information and control inheritance of characteristics – was proposed by Francis Crick working at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, with his American colleague, James Watson, in 1953. The cloning of Dolly the sheep, in 1996, by the Roslin Institute in Scotland marked a new era in genetic engineering.

NATURAL HISTORY

John Tradescant and son were gardeners to Charles I and planted the first physic (medicinal plant) garden in 1628, leading to the remarkable Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673, open to the public today. James Hutton (1726–97) wrote a treatise entitled A Theory of the Earth (1785), which forms the basis of modern geology.

Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), botanist and explorer, accompanied James Cook’s expedition round the world in Endeavour (1768–71) and collected many previously unknown plants. Together with the biologist Thomas Huxley (1825–95), they supported the pioneering research of Charles Darwin (1809–1882), the father of the theory of evolution outlined in his famous work, On the Origin of Species, which had a great impact on the study of natural sciences.

EXPLORATION

Maritime exploration spurred on by the enquiring spirit of the 16C led to the discovery of new worlds. Following the voyages of Portuguese explorers, John Cabot, a Genoese settled in Bristol, discovered Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Rivalry between England and Spain and other European nations in search of trade, as well as scientific advances in navigational aids and improvements in ship construction, led to an explosion of maritime exploration. English mariners included: John Hawkins (1532–95), who introduced tobacco and sweet potatoes to England; Sir Francis Drake (c1540–96), the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world; Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618), who discovered Virginia; Martin Frobisher, who explored the North Atlantic and discovered Baffin Island (1574). Hudson Bay in Canada is named after the explorer Henry Hudson (1610). Captain James Cook (1728–79) explored the Pacific, and charted the coasts of Australia and New Zealand and surveyed the Newfoundland coast.

Other famous explorers include Mungo Park (1771–1806), who explored West Africa and attempted to trace the course of the Niger River; David Livingstone (1813–73), a doctor and missionary who campaigned against the slave trade and was the first to cross the African mainland from east to west and discovered the Victoria Falls and Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi); Alexander Mackenzie (1755–1820), the first man to cross the American continent by land (1783); and John McDouall Stuart (1815–66), who explored the Australian desert.

Britain’s Art and Culture

Britain’s culture, art, architecture and fashions are famous throughout most of the world. The early settlers took a New England to the USA and at the height of Empire (in the 1920s), British culture would be exported to – and to some degree imposed on – almost a quarter of the Earth. Today, British architects and designers still play a very prominent role, in fields as far apart as fashion and construction, while the UK, invariably led by London, is a tolerant melting pot of so many different styles and ethnicities that it continues to innovate and export many of its best ideas and icons.

 Roman to Romanesque

 Gothic

 Military Architecture

 Classicism

 19th–20th Century

 Parks and Gardens

 Vernacular Architecture

 Architectural Terms

 Sculpture

 Painting

 Music

 Literature

 Books

 Films

Tourists waiting to enter the Tower of London

Roman to Romanesque

The Romans were Britain’s first great builders and innovators. Their style eventually gave way to the Romanesque, from around 1000 through to the 12C, characterised by heavy vaulted arched church architecture, still prevalent in many of Britain’s cathedrals.

ROMAN

Pre-Roman, Iron Age architecture is best observed in impressive hillforts such as at Maidenhead and in Scottish brochs. The Roman invasion began in Kent; Richborough Castle was part of the Roman system of coastal defences, a series of forts in the southeast under the control of the “Count of the Saxon Shore”. Their capital was St Albans, linked by military roads to other major settlements in Bath, Chester, Lincoln and York. London was a trading post near a river crossing on the Thames.

Examples of domestic Roman architecture in Britain are the theatre at St Albans and the ruined villas at Chedworth, Fishbourne, Bignor and Brading with their mosaics. Their greatest military enterprise was Hadrian’s Wall, a defensive wall reinforced by military camps stretching from Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth (73mi/117km) to guard the northern boundary of the Empire.

PRE-ROMANESQUE

Few buildings survive from this period, AD c.650 to the Norman Conquest. Much Saxon work, in timber, was destroyed in Viking raids. All Saints, Brixworth (c.680) in Northamptonshire makes use of Roman brick and the apse was surrounded by an external ring-crypt, a feature first found in St Peter’s in Rome (c.590). All Saints, at Earl’s Barton nearby, has a late Saxon tower. Saxon crypts survive at Hexham, Repton and Ripon.

ROMANESQUE (NORMAN)

These bold, massive buildings continued to be erected until after the death of Henry II in 1189 and nowhere else in Europe is there such a richness or variation of Norman work, nor such an abundance of surviving examples. In English cathedrals, the naves tend to be much longer than on the continent, for example Ely (13 bays) and Norwich (14); the eastern end was usually shorter. Durham Cathedral, begun in 1093, where the whole interior is one Romanesque scheme, is a fine example of Norman work in Britain, though externally only the lower parts of the tower and nave and the choir show true Romanesque work. Its stone vaulting, completed in 1133, survives in its original form. Southwell Minster has a west front c.1130, with later Perpendicular windows. The eastern end of Norwich Cathedral is tri-apsidal. Its spire and clerestory are later Gothic, but the remainder is Norman. Rochester, Gloucester, Peterborough, Lincoln, Exeter, Hereford, St Albans, and the abbey churches of Tewkesbury and Waltham, are all part of England’s heritage of Norman work.

Every county has parish churches with a Norman nave or tower, west doorway, or south porch or chancel arch. Iffley Church, Oxfordshire, west front (c.1170), St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire (c.1140) with Scandinavian influence in the carving, and St Nicholas, Barfreston, Kent, are just some of the hundreds well worth visiting.

Most secular buildings are fortified. The White Tower, the keep of the Tower of London, was the first work (1080) of William the Conqueror. Rochester Castle c.1130, though ruined, gives an impression of living conditions, while Chepstow Castle (1067) is one of the earliest secular stone buildings in Britain.

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Gothic

The Gothic style evolved in northern France; the Abbey of St Denis outside Paris is the earliest example. Gothic designs resulted in larger and higher buildings, flooded with light. Heavy columns were replaced by slimmer clustered column shafts; towers became taller and more slender. In England Gothic architecture remained in use much longer than elsewhere in Europe, as it evolved through four phases and retained its distinctive character.

TRANSITIONAL (1145–89)

Transitional buildings have both pointed and round arches, especially in windows and vaults. Ripon Cathedral (1181) is a good example but the most outstanding is the choir of Canterbury Cathedral.

EARLY ENGLISH (C.1190–1307)

Distinctive features are the ribbed vaults, narrow pointed arches and lancet windows. Salisbury Cathedral, built between 1220 and 1258, is the only English cathedral to have been built virtually in one operation, hence in a single style. See also Wells, the façades of Peterborough and Ripon, much of Lichfield, and the Abbeys of Tintern and Fountains, and Bolton Priory.

DECORATED (C.1280–1377)

Ely Cathedral, with its octagon and lantern (1323–30), was one of the early experiments in new spatial form and lighting. Other examples include the west façades of Exeter and York.

PERPENDICULAR

The last – and longest – phase of Gothic architecture in Britain is uniquely English in style. There is an emphasis on vertical lines but the principal features are panelled decoration all over the building, an increase in window area and the consequent development – very much later than in France – of the flying buttress. Fan-vault roofing, a peculiarly English design, can best be seen in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge (1146–1515), Eton College Chapel (1441) and St George’s Chapel, Windsor (1475–1509).

Winchester Cathedral

Contemporary with the fan vault, and equally English, was the development of the timber roof. Tie and collar designs from the 13C and 14C developed into more complex 15C and 16C hammerbeam roofs over churches and guildhalls, of which Westminster Hall (Hugh Herland, c.1395) is an example. Others are the Great Hall at Hampton Court (1535) and Rufford Old Hall, near Ormskirk, Lancashire (1505). England also has a wealth of medieval timber-framed houses, built in areas where stone was scarce – Rufford Old Hall, the Guildhall at Lavenham and the Feathers Hotel in Ludlow.

TUDOR–JACOBEAN

This period began with the accession of Henry VII in 1485 and covers the transition from Gothic to Classicism. Tudor Gothic, both ecclesiastical and secular, can be seen in Bath Abbey and the brick-built Hampton Court Palace. From 1550 to 1620 building was largely domestic, for a thriving middle class and a wealthy aristocracy. Longleat House (1550–80) in Wiltshire, Montacute House (1588–1601) in Somerset, and Bess of Hardwick’s Hardwick Hall (1591–97) in Derbyshire are outstanding examples. The courtyard layout of medieval days was abandoned for the E- or H-shaped plan, a central rectangular block with projecting wings. The Long Gallery – used for exercise on winter days – became a feature of all the great houses of the Elizabethan period.

Salisbury Cathedral

Half-timbered houses were built in areas where stone was scarce – Little Moreton Hall (1559) in Cheshire and Speke Hall, near Liverpool, begun in 1490 and still being added to in 1612. The staircase began to assume an importance in the design of Elizabethan houses and by Jacobean times had become, in many houses, the focus of the whole interior – Ham, Hatfield, Knole and Audley End.

The architectural ideas of the Renaissance were brought to England by Inigo Jones (1573–1652). His two most outstanding public buildings are the Banqueting Hall (1619–22) in London and the Queen’s House (1616–35) in Greenwich.

He also rebuilt part of Wilton House (1647–53) in Wiltshire, where his adherence to Classical proportions is evident in the “double cube” room. Architects in England who had never seen an ancient Classical building based their work on “Pattern Books” published by Renaissance designers.

TUDOR FORTS

In 1538, faced with the threat of invasion to re-establish the Pope’s authority, Henry VIII began to construct a chain of forts and batteries to prevent an enemy invasion fleet from making use of the principal anchorages, landing places and ports.

The first forts built in 1539-40 – Deal, Walmer and Dover in Kent, Calshot and Hurst, overlooking Southampton Water and The Solent, and St Mawes and Pendennis in Cornwall – were squat with thick walls and rounded parapets. In most a central circular keep was surrounded by lower round bastions or enclosed by a circular curtain wall. They were designed to be defended by cannon mounted on carriages and sited on several tiers of platforms to compensate for the limited vertical traverse of each cannon. Lateral traverse was limited only by the splay of the gun ports.

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Military Architecture

Britain is famous for its variety and quantity of often superbly preserved castles, which pepper the landscape from Cornwall to northern Scotland, and so vividly mark the Conquest of Wales.

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Classicism

Though Classicism was introduced by Inigo Jones, it was in the reign of Charles I (1625–49) that the style really began to make its mark on the English scene.

The dominant figure of Classicism was Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723). After the Great Fire of London, he was responsible for 53 churches and the new St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and a new wing for Hampton Court Palace, which harmonises well with the Tudor brickwork. The Sheldonian Theatre (1669) at Oxford, and the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (1676–84) are two of his best-known works outside London. Sir John Vanbrugh (1664–1726), soldier and playwright, who turned architect in 1699, was one of the chief exponents of the Baroque in England; his masterpieces, produced in collaboration with Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736), are Castle Howard, Blenheim Palace and Seaton Delaval. Hawksmoor, under a commission of 1711, designed six London churches. St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London survives to shows his style.

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

Baroque architecture brought fantasy and movement to the Classical order but found little favour in England. It was replaced in the 1720s with Palladianism, also a foreign “implant” but one with a symmetry which was eagerly adapted by architects such as Colen Campbell (Houghton Hall) and William Kent (Holkham Hall). Palladian houses were set carefully in landscaped parks – many by Lancelot ”Capability“ Brown – a far cry from the formality of French and Italian gardens of the period. He designed over 170 parks, remodelling the great estate parks of the English gentry to resemble an ordered version of nature.

Robert Adam (1728-92), son of a Scottish architect, returned from the Grand Tour, having absorbed the principles of ancient architecture and learnt much neoclassical theory. He and his brothers set up in practice in London in 1758, introducing a lighter, more decorative style than the Palladian work then in vogue. Most of Adam’s buildings are domestic and he also had great flair as an interior designer.

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19th to 20th Century

The 19C was predominantly an age of stylistic revivals. The Industrial Revolution and the movement of people into towns stimulated the construction of factories and mills and housing. Iron and glass played a part in the mass-production of these buildings. At first individual craftsmanship was evident in mouldings, decoration and furniture but by 1900 much of this had vanished.

John Nash (1752–1835), builder of many terraces round Regent’s Park and down Regent Street in London, also designed the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Sir John Soane (1753–1837), probably the last of the original designers, is represented by his house at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, now the Sir John Soane Museum.

From 1840 the trend was towards the Gothic Revival which reached its height between 1855 and 1885. Sir Charles Barry (1795–1860) rebuilt the Palace of Westminster after the 1834 fire. Alfred Waterhouse (1830–1905) designed the Natural History Museum and built Manchester Town Hall.

The 19C was also the Railway Age. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–59), Chief Engineer to the Great Western Railway in 1833, also designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Thomas Telford (1757–1834) built roads, bridges and canals throughout the country. He was responsible for the London–Holyhead road and for the bridge (1826), which carries it over the Menai Strait. In the 20C Art Nouveau had little influence on architecture but there was passing interest in interior decoration, fabrics and stained glass in the new style. Reinforced concrete was the main structural development.

Between the wars, the outstanding figure was Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944), who adapted Classicism to the needs of the day, in civic and housing design as well as ecclesiastical. His was the genius behind New Delhi in India and he also designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall and Hampstead Garden Suburb in London. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880–1960), grandson of Sir George, the 19C architect, built the last great cathedral in the Gothic style, the red sandstone Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool. He also set the pattern for power stations with his 1929 design for Battersea Power Station.

”Urban planning” was not a 20C idea. Haussmann redesigned much of Paris in the 1860s and the Italian Renaissance painter Martini has left us his picture, painted in 1475, of The Ideal City. In Britain, Welwyn Garden City, built near St Albans in 1920, was one of the first New Towns, an extension of the Garden Suburb concept. The planned layout of streets, cul-de-sacs and closes, romantically named and lined with semi-detached and detached houses, was copied across the country after the 1939–45 war, in an attempt to check the “urban sprawl” in London, Lancashire, the Clyde Valley and South Wales. The 1946 New Towns Act provided for 28 such New Towns; Harlow New Town by Gibberd was built in 1947, Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, in the 1950s and Milton Keynes in rural Buckinghamshire in the 1970s. As costs escalated and concern grew over the decay of city centres, the building of new towns was halted. Pedestrian zones and the banishing of traffic have helped to conserve both the fabric and spirit of established town and city centres. Poundbury village in Dorchester, Dorset (1993–94), which stresses the importance of architecture on a human scale and is sponsored by the Prince of Wales, represents the latest trend in urban planning.

Outstanding among examples of 20C architecture is Sir Basil Spence’s Coventry Cathedral (1956–62), remarkable in itself and in the way it blends with the older buildings around it. The imaginative circular design of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (consecrated 1967) was the work of Sir Frederick Gibberd. In the secular sphere, education – established and new universities – and the arts provided good opportunities for pioneering work: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, East Anglia, Norman Foster 1991; Downing College library, Cambridge, Quinlan Terry 1987; St John College Garden Quad, Oxford, 1993.

Custom-built galleries were designed for the Sainsbury Collection (1970s) at Norwich (Norman Foster), Burrell’s donation in Glasgow (B Gasson) and the Tate Gallery at St Ives (1993, Evans and Shalev).

Other areas which have provided great scope for exciting modern architecture over the last few years are sports venues – the new Wembley Stadium and Lord’s Cricket Ground stand (Michael Hopkins); opera houses – Glyndebourne and Covent Garden, Royal Opera House refurbishment and extension; London office developments – Lloyd’s Building, Canary Wharf, Broadgate, The Ark, Swiss Re Tower (“The Gherkin”) and City Hall. Major commissions (bridges, community and other projects) approved by the Millennium Commission heralded an explosion of original design for the turn of the century. Many of these are now popular visitor attractions: the Eden Project, Cornwall; Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh; the Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales; in Manchester, The Lowry, The Imperial War Museum of the North and Urbis; in Glasgow, the Glasgow Science Centre and The Armadillo. All break new ground in structural and materials technology.

Millennium Bridge over the Thames and Tate Modern, London

The most controversial projects have been the reviled Millennium Dome, London, and the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.

The Parliament building was finally completed in 2004, three years late and ten times over-budget. The Dome was a commercial failure for many years and only recently (under its new guise as the O2 Arena) has found great success as a concert venue.

The regeneration of derelict industrial sites and obsolete docks has met with considerable success in Liverpool, Cardiff and particularly the massive London Dockland scheme of the 1990s (still ongoing).

The conservation and reuse of existing industrial buildings is most apparent in two huge and stunning art galleries at opposite ends of the country: Tate Modern; in London (formerly a power station): the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead (formerly a flour mill).

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Parks and Gardens

The British, and particularly the English are obsessed with their gardens, whether tending their own patch or visiting grander designs.

A keen appreciation of country life and the pleasures of nature goes back to the Middle Ages when Royal Forests covered much of the land and every person of consequence had a deer park. It was in the 18C, however, that the face of lowland Britain was transformed in pursuit of the aesthetic ideals of the country’s “greatest original contribution to the arts”, the English Landscape Movement. Ruthlessly sweeping away the grand avenues, parterres and topiary of the previous century, the grandees and lesser gentry of the Georgian age, aided by professionals like Lancelot “Capability” Brown (1716–83) and Humphry Repton (1752–1818), swept away the boundaries separating house, garden and surrounding countryside to make ambitious compositions fusing buildings and statuary, lawns and woodland, lakes and rivers into a picturesque vision of idealised nature. The movement embraced the Ideal Theory of Art, where everyday objects were seen as imperfect copies of universal ideas, for the artist to perfect. As well as their grander creations (Blenheim, Stourhead), there are many lesser achievements in landscaping that have bequeathed a passion for horticulture. Britain has a wonderful heritage of gardens, many of which are open to visitors. Owing to the vagaries of the climate, particularly the closeness of the Gulf Stream, conditions have proved favourable to many of the plant collections brought back from all over the world, particularly in the 18C and 19C. The chief name in garden design in the late-19C and early-20C was Gertrude Jekyll (Knebworth and Broughton Castle), who often worked in collaboration with the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Plant trials and serious horticultural study are conducted at Kew Gardens in London, at Wisley in Surrey, the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, at Harlow Carr and the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh (17C) and Glasgow. A few of the earliest medicinal gardens are still in existence, such as the Botanic Gardens (1621) in Oxford and the Chelsea Physic Garden (1673) in London.

A Museum of Garden History occupies Lambeth parish church and graveyard, where John Tradescant, gardener to King Charles I, is buried. Examples of the early knot garden have been created here and at Hampton Court. Formal gardens with geometric layout can be seen at Hampton Court, Ham House and Pitmedden.

The most prevalent style is the famous English Landscape, promoted by Capability Brown and Humphry Repton – Stourhead and Castle Howard.

The art of topiary is practised at Levens Hall and Earlshall in Scotland. The vogue for follies, usually an artificial ruin at the end of a vista, produced Studley Royal, which achieves its climax with a view of the ruins of Fountains Abbey. Less contrived gardens incorporate natural features, such as Glendurgan, which occupies a deep coastal combe.

Gardens range from the most southerly, Tresco Abbey Gardens in the Scilly Isles, created and maintained since 1834 by successive generations of the same family, to the most northerly, Inverewe in Wester Ross, where, despite the northern latitude, the gardens are frost-free, owing to the warm North Atlantic Drift. Sissinghurst and Crathes Castle are examples of themed gardens, where the enclosures are distinguished by colour, season or plant species.

Vernacular Architecture

The idealised British dwelling may still be the thatched cottage by the village green but this is increasingly at odds with modern Britain where city folks inhabit anonymous boxes with little or no sense of community.

From the end of the medieval period, relative peace meant that security was no longer paramount and the fortified castle gave way to the rural residence designed as a setting for artistic patronage, culture, the social round, field sports and farm management; each generation of the rich and powerful seeking to establish or consolidate its status by building or rebuilding in accord with architectural fashion.

It is, however, the everyday architecture of the British cottage, farmhouse and barn that expresses most strongly the individuality of particular places. The range of materials used is enormous. Every type of stone has been quarried and shaped, from the most intractable of Scottish and Cornish granites to the crumbling chalk of the south. Limestones are often exploited to wonderful effect, as in the Cotswolds or the Yorkshire Wolds. Where stone is lacking, timber is used as in the cruck-built cottages of Herefordshire and the elaborate half-timbered houses of much of the Midlands, or as “weather-boarding” cladding in the Southeast. In the claylands, most villages once had their own brickfield, producing distinctive tiles as well as bricks, while reedbeds provided thatch for roofing.

Building forms vary too: from the solid timber frame of a Kentish Tudor house to the humble one-roomed dwelling of a crofter in northwest Scotland. Scotland is also notable as the home of Scottish-Baronial architecture, a form of Gothic-Revival, influenced by late-Medieval castles and tower houses.

Settlement patterns are also almost infinitely varied: a few cottages and farms may be loosely grouped to form a hamlet; elsewhere, true villages may predominate, street villages accompanying a road for part of its way, others clustering sociably around the green. Modern town planning is much less community based, with densely packed estates, many lacking in any social or shopping facilities. Instead these are found in out-of-town complexes.

Thatched cottage, Stratford upon Avon

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Architectural Terms

If you don’t know your flying buttresses from your clerestory or your machicolations from your narthex, fear not – help is at hand…

Aisle – lateral divisions running parallel with the nave in medieval churches and other buildings.

Ambulatory – passage between the choir and apse of a church.

Apse – rounded or polygonal end of a church.

Arcade – a series of arches, resting on piers or columns.

Architrave – the beam, or lowest portion of the entablature, extending from column to column. Also used as the moulded frame around the head and side of a window or door opening.

Baldachin – canopy supported by pillars set over an altar, throne or tomb

Baptistery – building, separate from the church, containing the font.

Barbican – outwork of a medieval castle, often with a tower, defending a gate or bridge.

Barrel vaulting – continuous arched vault of semicircular section.

Battlements – parapet of medieval fortifications, with a walkway for archers or crossbowmen.

Broach spire – octagonal spire rising from a square tower without parapets.

Buttress – vertical mass of masonry built against a wall, so strengthening it and resisting the outward pressure of a vaulted roof.

Capital – crowning feature of a column or pillar.

Chancel – part of the church set aside for clergy and choir, to the east of the nave.

Chantry chapel – endowed for religious services for the soul of the founder.

Chapter house – place of assembly for the governing body of a monastery or cathedral. In medieval England, often multi-sided, with vaulting supported on a central pillar.

Chevron – Norman decoration of zigzag mouldings used around windows and doorways.

Choir – western part of the chancel, used by the choir, immediately east of the screen separating nave and chancel.

Clerestory – upper storey of the nave of a church, generally pierced by a row of windows.

Corbel – stone bracket, often richly carved, projecting from a wall to support roof beams, the ribs of a vault, a statue or an oriel window.

Cornice – crowning projection, the upper part of the entablature in Classical architecture. Also used for the projecting decoration around the ceiling of a room.

Crossing – central area of a cruciform church, where the transepts cross the nave and choir. A tower is often set above this space.

Crypt – underground chamber beneath a church, used as place of burial or charnel-houses. They often also housed the bones or relics of a saint or martyr

Cupola – hemispherical roof.

Drum – vertical walling supporting a dome, sometimes with windows.

Embrasure – the space between two merlons, on a battlement, through which archers could fire, whil protected by the merlons.

Entablature – in Classical architecture, the entire portion above the columns, comprising architrave, frieze and cornice.

Fan vaulting – system of vaulting peculiar to English Perpendicular architecture, all ribs having the same curve, resembling the framework of a fan.

Finial – top or finishing portion of a pinnacle, gable, bench end or other feature.

Fluting – narrow concave channelling cut vertically on a shaft or column.

Flying buttress – external arch springing over the roof of an aisle and supporting the clerestory wall, counteracting the thrust of the nave vault.

Frieze – central division of the entablature – horizontal decorative design.

Gable – triangular end section of a wall of a building, enclosed by the line of the roof.

Hammerbeam roof – late Gothic form of roof construction with no tie-beam. Wooden arches rest on corbels and beams bracketed to the walls and eaves.

Harling – wall plastered with roughcast. Often painted or with colour incorporated.

Jamb – upright side of a window or door opening.

Keep – inner tower and strongest part of a medieval fortress.

Keystone – central, wedge-shaped stone which locks an arch together.

Lancet – Early English (13C) sharp-pointed arch.

Lantern – glazed construction, for ventilation and light, often surmounting a dome.

Lierne – short intermediate rib in Gothic vaulting.

Loggia – open-sided gallery or arcade.

Machicolation – in medieval military architecture, a row of openings below a projecting parapet through which missiles could be rained down on the enemy.

Misericord – tip-up seat in choir stalls, with a small projection on the underside, to support a person having to stand through a long service. Often fancifully and grotesquely carved.

Mullions – vertical ribs dividing a window into a number of lights.

Narthex – western portico at the entrance to early Christian churches.

Nave – central main body of a church, west of the choir, into which lay persons were admitted, chancel and choir being reserved for the priests.

Ogee – arch used in late Gothic period, combining convex and concave curve, ending in a point.

Oriel – window projecting from a wall on corbels.

Pediment – triangular termination above the entablature, in Classical architecture sometimes “broken” in Renaissance designs.

Pilaster – rectangular pillar, projecting from the wall.

Rose window – circular window with mullions converging like the spokes of a wheel.

Screen – partition, often richly carved, separating nave from choir and chancel.

Spandrel – triangular space between the curves of arches and the frame in which they are set.

Squinch – arch placed diagonally across the internal corner angles of a square tower, converting the square into an octagonal form.

Tierceron – secondary rib in Gothic vaulting.

Transept – arms of a cruciform church set at right angles to nave and choir.

Transom – horizontal cross-bar or division of a window.

Tympanum – space between the flat lintel and the arch of a doorway.

Undercroft – vaulted chamber partly or wholly below ground, in a medieval building.

Volute – spiral scroll used at the corners of lonic, Corinthian and Composite capitals.

Choir, Canterbury Cathedral

Sculpture

Despite having a glorious past, in statuary at least, sculpture has rarely occupied a place in the heart of the British public. Modern artists are trying to redress the issue with some startling new works.

The idea of erecting statues, in stone and bronze – introduced largely by the Romans – fell into disuse in Britain in the Dark Ages. Gradually, however, pagan influences and Celtic scroll-work were put to Christian service, in standing crosses and in church decoration. Massive carving in Norman churches gave way to glorious tracery, windows, ribs and vaults in Early English and Perpendicular churches and cathedrals, complemented by carved wooden misericords, bench ends, altar screens and font covers. Impressive statuary such as that on the west front of Wells Cathedral has survived Reformation and Puritan depredations, to give an idea of the skills of early craftsmen.

First Classical and then Baroque memorials began to grace both cathedrals and churches in the flowering of British sculpture which took place between 1720 and 1840. In the Victorian age in many towns and cities statues were erected to the memory of industrialists and benefactors, municipal worthies and military heroes. There are also some very fine sculpted memorials executed in commemoration of those who died in battle. In the 20C British sculpture has been enlivened by the sometimes controversial works of Jacob Epstein and also of Henry Moore, whose technique of “natural carving” allowed the grain and shape of the material to dictate the final form. Barbara Hepworth, who settled in St Ives in 1943, Reg Butler and Kenneth Armitage are among other famous modern sculptors.

Monumental sculptures by Jacob Epstein, Eric Gill, Frank Dobson, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Eduardo Paolozzi among others set the standard for public art in cities, by the sea and in the countryside. Spectacular modern schemes – Broadgate in London, Herne Bay Sculpture Park, Brighton seafront, sculpture at Goodwood near Chichester, Stour Valley Art Project, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Gateshead Riverside Sculpture Park, the Northern Arts Project, Glenrothes in Scotland – have inspired major artists to create large-scale outdoor sculptures and promote interest in art in a wider public.

The most popular sculptor of recent times has been Antony Gormley whose Angel of the North (1998) (Tsee p481) has become a modern icon for the North East and follows his much admired Another Place (1997) in which 100 cast iron figures look out to sea on Crosby Beach, near Liverpool.

Into the 21C scene the trend is a break with the past as many artists (Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Cornelia Parker, Tracey Emin, Alison Wilding, Stephen Hughes, Tony Cragg, Rachel Whiteread among others) invent new idioms, such as in Kapoor’s twisted ArcelorMittal Orbit.

The British Museum, London

Painting

British art has thrown up many inspired and distinctive talents throughout the centuries: from Hogarth to Blake, Turner to Mackintosh, Spencer to Hockney, and latterly Bacon and Banksy.

EARLY ART

The Celtic peoples loved rhythm and curvilinear scroll patterns, which they used in jewellery and later in manuscripts. The Romans brought their wall paintings and mosaics and both later inspired the didactic medieval church murals, which are some of Britain’s earliest paintings. Surviving painting from the Saxon and medieval periods consists largely of exquisite work on illuminated manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels from Holy Island, though the drawings of Matthew Paris are notable departures from this stylised work. One of the earliest surviving English paintings is the Wilton Diptych (c.1400), now in the National Gallery.

16C–18C

British artists never enjoyed that scale of patronage given to European artists by absolute monarchs and the Papacy. Much early portraiture, other than the Holbein pictures of Henry VIII and his court, tend to be flat and stiff but the art of the miniature flourished at the court of Elizabeth, where Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver created their masterpieces, capturing both the likeness and something of the spirit of the sitters.

The Dutchman Sir Anthony van Dyck, knighted by Charles I, enjoyed his patronage and was the first to record the atmosphere of the Stuart Court, in full-size paintings, before the Civil War. Canaletto, a Venetian, enjoyed some aristocratic support in the 1740s, as did Sir Peter Lely and Godfrey Kneller, both of German origin, who worked in England for long enough to be considered founders of the English portrait painting school. William Hogarth, English born and bred, famous for his vivid commentaries on the life of his day, started the idea of public exhibitions of painting, leading ultimately to the founding in 1768 of the Royal Academy. Sir Joshua Reynolds, its first president, and his contemporary, Thomas Gainsborough, raised the status of English painting, especially portraiture, though it was still much influenced by Dutch and Italian example. Richard Wilson, a founder of the Royal Academy, was much inspired by the French masters, Claude and Poussin, and founded the English school of landscape painting, a fashion which developed in England and spread to include marine scenes as well as country houses and estates.

19C TRENDS

The visionary William Blake heralded the dawn of English Romanticism. Portraiture by Sir Thomas Lawrence and the works of Sir Henry Raeburn in Scotland added Romanticism to the traditions of Reynolds.

John Crome founded the Norwich School in 1803, a regional treatment of landscape painting which was uniquely English. It was continued after his death by John Sell Cotman. John Constable and Joseph M W Turner carried this tradition and its studies of the effects of ever-changing light into the 19C. From 1840 to 1850 Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s group, the Pre-Raphaelites and Sir Edward Burne-Jones, made a short-lived return to primitive values and religious and moral subjects. Their designs inspired Art Nouveau, best expressed by the work of William Morris (Tas seen in the Morris Room in London’s V&A p174) and particularly Charles Rennie Mackintosh whose work is still so prevalent and loved in his native city, Glasgow.

Detail of Marriage A-la-Mode: 1, The Marriage Settlement (c.1743) by William Hogarth, The National Gallery

Photo Art Media/HIP/Scala, Florence

Alfred Sisley, born in Paris of English parents, was an Impressionist whose sense of colour and tone owed much to the founder of the movement, Claude Monet, with whom he painted en plein air in France. The Camden Town Group, around Walter Sickert, returned to the realism of the Post-Impressionists, whose work Roger Fry had exhibited in 1911 and the next 20 years saw many short-lived and loose “movements” such as the Bloomsbury Group. Augustus John was known for his fashionable portraits in an almost Impressionist style.

20–21C

Artists influenced by the horrors of what they had witnessed during the World Wars include Paul Nash and Sir Stanley Spencer. Nash’s landscapes are infused with symbolism described the killing fields of the First World War. He was also a pioneer of modernism in Britain, promoting the European styles of abstraction and surrealism in the 1920s and 1930s. Although similarly traumatised by his experiences, Spencer took a gentler route, painting biblical scenes in familiar British settings, mostly in his home village of Cookham (Tsee p259). Graham Sutherland, a Second World War official artist, also specialised in religious themes. He is most famous for his huge tapestry of Christ in Coventry Cathedral (Tsee p381). In the 1950s Ben Nicholson was the major abstract artist. The optimistic 1960s brought Pop Art: Peter Blake, David Hockney, Bridget Riley (“Op Art”), while the portraits and figures of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud show a much darker outlook.

Contemporary artists who have won acclaim include Gilbert and George, Paula Rego, Beryl Cooke, Ken Currie, Adrian Wizniewski, Stephen Conroy, Peter Howson, Lisa Milroy, Richard Wentworth, Julian Opie and Damien Hirst. Hirst himself was partially responsible for founding The Young British Artists group (Angela Bulloch, Michael Landy, Gary Hume, etc.) in the late 1980s. Their work is still championed by the Saatchi Gallery, though many YBAs have now been assimilated into the mainstream. Banksy, the satirical street artist from Bristol, famous since the 1990s, continues to poke fun at the Establishment and remains in the headlines, reportedly selling original prints in New York Central Park in 2013 for just $60 each. Grayson Perry is an interesting 21C newcomer working in several media.

Music

Britain has been world famous for its music ever since the 1960s, but its musical heritage goes back an awful lot further.

POLYPHONY TO COMPOSITION

As with painting and sculpture, early and medieval English music was largely inspired by religion. The Chapel Royal – an institution, not a building – has fostered English music since 1135. Thomas Tallis (c.1505–85), organist at Waltham Abbey near London (until it was dissolved) and later at Queen Elizabeth’s Chapel Royal, can be credited with beginning the particularly rich tradition of church music for which England is famous. He arranged the harmony for the plainsong responses of Merbecke’s English church service (Festal Responses in four and five parts), which are still widely in use and also arranged a setting of the Canticles in Dorian Mode and composed numerous anthems, Latin mass settings, lamentations and motets, of which his most famous is the magnificent Spem in Alium for forty voices, and of course his equally famous Canon (c.1567). Together with William Byrd (1542/3–1623), himself a prolific composer of high-quality church music with whom Tallis was joint organist at the Chapel Royal, he was granted a monopoly on music printing in England (1575).

By the early 17C, madrigals, originally an Italian form, with amorous or satirical themes, were being produced in large numbers by English composers, such as Byrd and John Dowland (1562–1626), a talented lute player. Folk music dating back much further accompanied the country dance, which survives today as the Morris Dance. Composers such as Byrd and Thomas Morley (1557–1602), who wrote settings for several of Shakespeare’s plays, spread music into the theatre. John Bull (1562–1628), a skilled performer and composer for the virginals, ranks for many as one of the founders of the English keyboard repertoire. He is also sometimes linked with the original tune for God Save the Queen. Ben Jonson (1573–1637) and Henry Lawes (1596–1662) among others were leading exponents of the masque, which became popular in the 17C, combining music, dance and pageantry.

Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625), organist of the Chapel Royal under James I and one of the finest keyboard players of his day, wrote quantities of superb church music, madrigals and music for viols and virginals. Henry Purcell (1659–95), considered the greatest British composer of his generation (and by some of all time), wrote much splendid church music, stage music (opera Dido and Æneas), music for State occasions and harpsichord and chamber music.

MUSIC APPLIED TO DRAMA

Chamber music (music not intended for church, theatre or public concert room) truly came into its own in the 18C, which also saw great strides taken in the development of English opera and the emergence of a new form, the oratorio, under the German-English composer George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), perhaps its greatest exponent. His vast output included more than 40 operas, 20 or so oratorios, cantatas, sacred music, and numerous orchestral, choral and instrumental works. In 1719–28 the Royal Academy of Music was founded as an operatic organisation linked with Handel. The following century (1822) it became an educational institution, later to be joined by the Royal College of Music (1883) and the Royal School of Church Music (1927).

POST-ROMANTICISM AND THE MODERN AGE

The composer Thomas Arne (1710–78) set to music the words of James Thomson, Rule Britannia, in a masque for Alfred, Prince of Wales in 1740. The late-18C to early-19C was rather a fallow period for Britain in terms of musical composition, although the Romantic movement that swept through Europe made itself felt in other arts such as literature (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott), and Romantic song cycles were fashionable with the British public in the 19C.

The next British composer of note was Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934), the first to win international acclaim in almost 200 years. His love of the English countryside (he lived near the Malvern Hills) shaped his music, which is infused with an Englishness that captures the spirit of a nation in its heyday as a world power. Works such as The Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius placed him on the world stage, and his many orchestral works exhibit the composer’s masterly orchestration (Symphonies in A flat and E flat, Cello Concerto). Frederick Delius (1862–1934), championed by the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, composed orchestral variations, rhapsodies, concerti and a variety of other orchestral and choral works stamped with his very individual, chromatic approach to harmony. The compositions of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) were influenced by his study of English folk songs and Tudor church music; throughout his life he took an active interest in popular movements in music. Gustav Holst (1874–1934), prevented from becoming a concert pianist by neuritis in his hand, studied music at the Royal College of Music under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924), an Irish composer of church music and choral works. Holst, an ardent socialist, influenced by his love of the works of Grieg and Wagner as well as a certain innate mysticism, produced his most famous work, the seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets, in 1914–16.

Sir William Walton (1902–83) rose to fame with his instrumental settings of poems by Edith Sitwell (Façade, 1923) and went on to compose symphonies, concerti, opera, the biblical cantata Belshazzar’s Feast and film music (Laurence Olivier’s Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III). Sir Michael Tippett (1905–98) won recognition with his oratorio A Child of Our Time, reflecting the unrest of the 1930s and 40s, and went on to produce a rich and varied output, including operas (The Midsummer Marriage, King Priam), symphonies and other orchestral works in which he exhibits formidable powers of imagination and invention, combining inspiration from earlier sources such as Purcell with his interest in popular modern music such as blues and jazz.

Sir Benjamin Britten (1913–76) studied under John Ireland (1879–1962) at the Royal College of Music and after a couple of years in the USA returned to England where he produced mainly vocal or choral works (one exception being his Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, or Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra), notably the operas Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Ceremony of Carols and the immensely moving War Requiem. John Tavener (b.1944), whose haunting Song for Athene ended the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales, at Westminster Abbey in September 1997, draws the inspiration for his predominantly religious music from his Russian Orthodox faith.

Still popular since their inception by Sir Henry Wood (1869–1944) in 1895 are the Promenade Concerts, which are held at the Royal Albert Hall every summer (mid-July–mid-September). The chorus Jerusalem sung as an unofficial anthem at the end of each season of Promenade concerts is perhaps the best-known work of Sir Hubert Parry (1848–1918). Conductors and composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir Neville Mariner, Sir John Eliot Gardner, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, Christopher Hogwood and Andrew Davies ensure the continuation of healthy and creative British music.

Eisteddfods in Wales and Mods in Scotland carry on a tradition of the Celtic bards. Festivals, such as the Three Choirs at Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester cathedrals and – in completely different spheres – opera productions at Glyndebourne and the English National Opera contribute to the aim of maintaining public interest in live classical music. However, Glyndebourne remains the reserve of the rich, while opera is usually targeted at the wealthy middle and upper classes.

Coda

On a lighter note, the meeting in 1875 of Sir William Gilbert (1836–1911) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) produced an enduring and well-loved English musical tradition in the form of “Gilbert and Sullivan” operas, staged by Richard D’Oyly Carte. Musical comedy, an English development of the European operetta, was born in the 1890s at the Gaiety Theatre in London, with shows like The Gaiety Girl.

Another typically British institution, the music hall, also became popular – variety entertainment with the audience being able to eat and drink while watching the performance. Two names, Ivor Novello (1893–1951) and Sir Noël Coward (1899–1973), will always be associated with British musical comedy between the world wars. The tradition of British musicals has since been continued most notably by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber (b.1948).

POP AND ROCK

British pop music began in the 1950s with early pioneers being Lonnie Donegan with his skiffle sound and a very youthful Cliff Richard doing his best to be the British Elvis Presley. It was The Beatles, however, who did more than any band to bring the new genre of “popular music” to the fore. Their first chart hit was in 1962 and they broke up in 1970. During that short but explosive period of creativity, they spawned a whole “Liverpool Sound”. Their influence, not only on British but also on world pop and rock music, was incalculable, and reverberates around concert halls and in recording studios even today. The Beatles’ most famous contemporaries are the equally iconic Rolling Stones (from London), still touring and recording today.

The 1960s closed to the sound of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin – heavyweights, who were to rule the burgeoning rock music scene for much of the decade until the advent of punk rock in 1977, led most (in) famously by the Sex Pistols.

The 1980s saw the dance and club scene take off and the rise of Manchester bands such as The Smiths, Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. The decade is best remembered for its frothy pop and pop-soul sounds, however, typified by Wham (featuring George Michael), Culture Club (Boy George) and Simply Red (Mick Hucknall).

The 1990s was the era of Britpop, most famously Blur and Oasis; both quintessentially English bands drawing heavily on 1960s influences. It was also the decade of ‘boybands’ (Take That, Westlife, Blue) and ‘girlbands’ (The Spice Girls, All Saints), a vocals-only genre which continues to defy critical disdain and sells millions of albums well into the 21C. It is now headed by One Direction.

The first decade of the new Millennium was notable (many would say notably depressing) for television talent shows such as Pop Idol, which was replaced by The X Factor ‘manufacturing’ some of Britain’s cheesiest pop stars, with occasional bright spots such as Will Young and Leona Lewis. Meanwhile, bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead maintained credible mainstream British rock.

Notable recent successes include: Adele, who in 2011 became the first artist to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK; Mumford & Sons whose unlikely style of “Nu Folk” has been as hugely popular in the US as in the UK; and the Arctic Monkeys, with their own brand of streetwise indie rock.

Literature

British literature has a prominent place on the bookshelves of the world, from the plays of Shakespeare to the adventures of Harry Potter.

MIDDLE AGES

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340–1400), the first great English poet, was influential in the evolution of “standard” English from cruder medieval dialects. The language of the Canterbury Tales is consequently as recognisable to us today as are Chaucer’s vividly etched characters. William Langland (c1330–1400) in the Vision of Piers Plowman, and Sir Thomas Malory (d. 471) in Le Morte D’Arthur also brought a new depth and expressiveness to literature.

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE AND THE ELIZABETHAN AGE

The sonnet was introduced and blank verse became the regular measure of English dramatic and epic poetry. The supreme achievement of this dynamic, expansive period was in the theatre. Ambitious dramatic forms developed by the fiery Christopher Marlowe (1564–94) were perfected by the genius of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), the greatest dramatist and poet of this or any age. His monumental 37 plays appealed to all classes. Ben Jonson (1572–1637) created the English comedy of humours.

17C

John Donne (1572–1631), courtier, soldier and latterly Dean of St Paul’s, was the most important of the Metaphysical poets whose “witty conceits” were concerned with the interaction between soul and body, sensuality and spirit. John Milton (1608–74), after Shakespeare arguably England’s greatest poet, was also a powerful pamphleteer for the Puritan cause. He overcame blindness and political disappointment to write his epic masterpiece Paradise Lost, concerning the Judeo-Christian story of the Fall of Man, in 1667.

Puritan control was responsible for closing the theatres for nearly 20 years until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Restoration drama primarily reflected the licentiousness of the Court by the use of broad satire, farce, wit and bawdy comedy.

In prose, the language of the Bible exerted a strong influence, most notably in the work of John Bunyan (1628–88), whose Pilgrim’s Progress was more widely read than any book in English except the Bible itself. The diaries of John Evelyn (1620–1706) and Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) detailed the minutiae of everyday life at the time.

18C

The early development of the novel is probably best exemplified in the work of Daniel Defoe (1660–1731). While his Journal of the Plague Year is a lively but primarily factual piece of journalism, Robinson Crusoe, though it utilises similar reporting techniques, is entirely fiction. Defoe’s style was imitated and developed by Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), Henry Fielding (1707–54) and Laurence Sterne (1713–68).

The rise of the novel, the newspaper) and the expansion of a newly literate middle class were part of the Age of Reason. Alexander Pope (1688–1744), the finest satirical poet of the time, was matched in both poetry and prose by Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), famous for the incisive political and social satire of Gulliver’s Travels. The era was dominated, however, by the influence of Samuel Johnson (1709–84), the subject of Boswell’s famous biography and author of the first English Dictionary in 1755.

19C

The French Revolution was a primary inspiration for the Romantic movement, which stressed intensity of emotion and freedom of expression. This rebellious spirit was epitomised in the life of Lord Byron (1788–1824) though perhaps a better representative of Romantic poetry is William Wordsworth (1770–1850), whose best poems reflect his belief that intense joy could arise from deep harmony with Nature. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) wrote more directly of the power of joy as a reforming influence, while the intense, lyrical verse of John Keats (1795–1821) stressed the power of beauty. Though lyricism, nature and the exotic continued to attract Victorian poets such as Robert Browning (1812–89), faith in joy and the senses waned and the verse of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1902) is noble but sombre.

The novel, meanwhile, had continued to develop in range and appeal from the carefully structured domestic comedies of Jane Austen (1775–1817) to the more popular, if less deep, historical novels of her contemporary, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Popular too were Scott’s Victorian successors, William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63), Anthony Trollope (1815–82) and, above all, Charles Dickens (1812–70), whose sentimental but funny and sometimes despairing vision of city life in the Industrial Revolution struck a sharp chord with the reading public. Mary Ann Evans (1819–80), under the pseudonym George Eliot, wrote realistic works about the problems of the provincial middle class. The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816–55) and Emily (1818–48), took inspiration from their upbringing on the wild moors of Yorkshire to write their respective masterpieces, Jane Eyre (1846) and Wuthering Heights (1847). Most important of the writers of the century is Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), whose novels express a passion for man’s tragic involvement in Nature and estrangement from it.

Influenced by the new drama in Europe, George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) brought a new purpose and seriousness to the English theatre which had, for nearly two centuries, failed to find a clear direction. The witty comedies of Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) were less profound but equally well crafted. They reflected the aims of the Decadent movement, which stressed flagrantly amoral beauty – a direct reaction against Victorian moral earnestness.

20–21C

The early modern masters of the novel – Henry James (1843–1916), Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) and E M Forster (1879–1970) – were still working in a recognisably Victorian tradition. The Dubliner James Joyce (1882–1941) used the stream-of-consciousness technique in the highly experimental Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). This insistent excavation of personal experience is also found in the very different novels of Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) and of D H Lawrence (1885–1930), who challenged the taboos of class and sex, particularly in his novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Concurrent with the serious “literary” novel, there developed a growing market for lighter fiction – entertainments – to serve the needs of an increasingly literate public; from the adventure novels of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) and the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) to the spy thrillers of John Le Carré and Len Deighton in our own time. George Orwell’s (1903–50) dark political novels (Animal Farm, 1984) condemned the evils of communism.

Throughout the century there have been a number of important and stylish writers – less iconoclastic than their more innovative peers – who have continued to work with more traditional subjects and themes. The novelists Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), Evelyn Waugh (1903–66), and Graham Greene (1904–91) achieved considerable critical as well as commercial success, while Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) and J B Priestley (1894–1984) triumphed equally as playwrights and novelists.

The novel has, in all its forms, become the dominant vehicle of literary expression in the modern age. Eminent contemporary writers include Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time); Paul Scott ((1920–78) The Raj Quartet and Staying On); Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers), Lawrence Durrell (Alexandria Quartet (1957); William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954) and Rites of Passage (1980), studies of human behaviour, Iris Murdoch ((1919–99) Under the Net and The Sea, The Sea, which deal with complex psychological issues), John Fowles’ haunting stories (The French Lieutenant’s Woman and The Magus). Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook), Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca and Jamaica Inn) and Olivia Manning (The Balkan Trilogy) are also distinguished authors.

Among the new generation of writers who have won acclaim are Martin Amis (London Fields and The Information), Julian Barnes (The History of the World in 10½ Chapters), J G Ballard (The Empire of the Sun, Crash and Cocaine Nights), Angela Carter (Wise Children and The Magic Toyshop), A S Byatt (Possession), Anita Brookner (Hotel du Lac), Beryl Bainbridge (Every Man for Himself), Jeanette Winterson (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit), Graham Swift (Last Orders), Pat Barker (Regeneration Trilogy), Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting).

The English-language tradition is also enriched by writers from the Commonwealth and other countries who bring different perceptions: V S Naipaul, Caryl Phillips from the Caribbean, Nadine Gordimer, André Brink, J M Coetzee, Ben Okri from Africa; Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally, J G Ballard from Australia, Keri Hume from New Zealand, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Arundhati Roy from the Indian subcontinent and Kazuo Ishiguro from Japan.

During the 1990s J K Rowling almost single-handedly revived the children’s adventure story (in the process becoming richer than the Queen and a dollar billionaire) and introduced a new generation of children to reading with her record-breaking Harry Potter series. In 2012 she broke the mould by writing The Casual Vacancy, a million-selling adult novel under the pen-name of Robert Galbraith.

The previous year’s erotic romance, Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James surpassed Harry Potter as the fastest selling paperback of all time, with the trilogy going on to sell over 90 million copies worldwide in 2012 and 2013.

POETRY

Comparatively speaking, this is muchless widely read than in previous times. The Romantic decadence of the early-20C was swept aside by the Modernist poets Ezra Pound (1885–1972) and T S Eliot (1888–1965), whose The Waste Land (1922) is a dense and highly literary meditation on the situation of modern man. Less dramatically modern but equally influential was the slightly earlier poetry of Thomas Hardy and W B Yeats (1865–1939). The poets of the First World War, particularly Wilfred Owen (1893–1918) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), voiced their horror of mass warfare. W H Auden (1907–73) led a prominent group of intellectual left-wing poets in the 1920s and the exuberant imagery and lyrical rhetoric of Dylan Thomas (1914–53) caught the public’s imagination. Only John Betjeman (1906–84), has achieved comparable popularity in recent times. Philip Larkin (1922–91) was the leading figure of the Movement group; the tone and form of his poetry expressing melancholic sensibilities in reaction to the romantic excesses of the 1940s. Poet Laureate Ted Hughes (1930–98), known for his violent and symbolic nature poems, is one of the most influential contemporary poets alongside Tom Paulin, Andrew Motion, Roger McGough, Benjamin Zephaniah, Carol Ann Duffy, Wendy Cope and Helen Dunmore.

Books

It would be impossible to recommend a comprehensive reading list for your trip. Instead we concentrate on some favourites from the last two decades, plus a few evergreens that capture the flavour and atmosphere of Britain past and present.

Reference/Biography

A Brief History of British Kings & Queens - Mike Ashley (2002). A useful and insightful biography of all the country’s rulers.

Travel

Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson (1995: 2001). Amusing account of Bryson’s first trip to Britain and its many foibles.

Fiction

Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (1838). Dickens’ most famous work is a strident social commentary on a grim and unforgiving London, albeit with a happy ending. Also see: Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friend.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (1891). This tragedy of class consciousness and sexual double standards paints an indelible picture of England’s fading rural West Country. Also see: Far from the Madding Crowd.

Brighton Rock - Graham Greene (1938). Violence and gang war are the themes of this murder thriller set in the 1930s in Brighton.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (1938). A brooding dark romantic novel set on the Cornish coast. Also see: Jamaica Inn (1936).

Cider With Rosie - Laurie Lee (1959). A tale of childhood in rural Gloucerstershire after the First World War. The trilogy continues with As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991).

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie -Muriel Spark (1961). Education, pupil control, love and betrayal in 1930s Edinburgh.

Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin (1987). The first of the 18 Inspector Rebus novels, mostly based in and around Edinburgh, by Britain’s top-selling crime author.

The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi (1990). A darkly comic romp through the lives, hopes and fears of young Asians in the London of the 1980s.

Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby (1992). Hornby specialises in the modern British male, in this case, an autobiographical obsession with football and specifically Arsenal Football Club. Also see: High Fidelity.

England England - Julian Barnes (2000). A satire on the country’s obsession with heritage featuring a “theme park England” on the Isle of Wight.

White Teeth - Zadie Smith (2000). Multiculturalism in modern North London with three families – white, Indian and mixed.

Atonement - Ian McEwan (2001). A tragic-romantic family saga spanning 1935 to the present day (Tsee opposite).

Brick Lane - Monica Ali (2003) London’s multi-cultural issues centring around the Bengali community in the East End.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) This romantic tragic “quasi sci-fi” novel is set in a boarding school in a dystopian alterative 1990s England.

Films

Britain has always been one of the great filmmaking nations, in quality if not quantity, and often turns the camera on its own characteristics and foibles. Here is a modern day selection.

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

A romantic comedy drama set in the 1990s following the lives and loves of a group of friends set around the title events.

Trainspotting (1996). The mean (non-tourist) streets of Edinburgh is the setting for this disturbing story about disaffected youths turning to heroin.

The Full Monty (1997). Six unemployed steel workers from Sheffield form an unlikely male striptease act in this comedy drama set in the post-industrial North of England.

Billy Elliot (1999). An inspiring and sometimes gritty tale set in a northern England mining town during the Miners Strikes of 1984 where a young boy discovers his talent for ballet.

Bend it Like Beckham (2002). Heart-warming comedy-drama involving women’s football and culture-clash in the Asian community in 1990s suburban London

Calendar Girls (2003). Based on a true story, a group of mature Women’s Institute ladies in North Yorkshire decide to raise funds for charity by posing nude for a calendar and in the process become internationally famous.

Pride and Prejudice (2005). Beautiful costume drama adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, set in an idyllic Georgian England.

The Queen (2006). Concerning the intriguing interaction between Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

Atonement (2007). A 13-year-old irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit in this haunting romantic drama. Beautifully shot, very atmospheric.

This Is England (2008). Racism, xenophobia and class warfare via the violent teen movements of the early-1980s. Not for the fainthearted.

An Education (2009). This tender coming-of-age story about a teenage girl evokes the spirit of 1960s London and the suburbs.

Sherlock Holmes (2009). Movies about London’s most famous detective come and go, but this action-packed blockbuster starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law puts all the right pieces into place. If you like this you’ll also enjoy its sequel, A Game of Shadows (2011)

The King’s Speech (2010). The unlikely true tale of the fascinating relationship between King George VI and his unorthodox speech therapist.

Woman in Black (2012). A long-running British stage horror yarn, given the classic Hammer Films treatment, starring Daniel Radcliffe.

Posh (2014). A fictionalised account of the infamous Bullingdon Club, a hedonistic exclusive Oxford undergraduate dining society formerly patronised by leading members of the current political elite, including the Prime Minister.

Nature

The picture-postcard image of rural Britain is usually that of gently rolling hills where sheep graze, a wisp of smoke emerges from a distant cottage and where little has changed since the 1950s, or indeed the 1850s. This domesticated idyll still holds true in many places but also belies the great variety and drama of completely natural wild landscapes to be found elsewhere. Much of Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains, the less commercialised Lake District, the Peaks and the Scottish Highlands remain untamed, while the Cairngorms is still largely wilderness. There are lonely moors in north and south west England, and in Scotland small offshore islands are colonised by tens of thousands of seabirds, seals and puffins. Indeed, Scotland’s Northern Isles are closer in every sense to the Faroe Islands and Norway than to most of the British mainland.

 ‘Green and Pleasant Land’

Yorkshire Dales National Park

‘Green and Pleasant Land’

The exceptionally diverse geological foundation of Britain has given rise to landscapes of great variety, a natural heritage enhanced by a continuous human presence over several millennia which has shaped and reshaped the material to form the present uniquely rich pattern of fields and fells, woods and parks, villages and farmsteads. Celebrated in literature and art, this densely textured landscape, usually domesticated but with its wilder beauties too, has become a kind of national emblem, lived in lovingly and vigorously defended against change by its inhabitants.

LANDSCAPE

The country can be broadly divided into Upland and Lowland Britain. The former, generally of older, harder material, comprises much of the North and Southwest of England and virtually the whole of Wales and Scotland.

As well as rolling, open moorlands, where the eye ranges freely over vast expanses of coarse grass, bracken or heather, there are mountain chains, modest in elevation but exhibiting most of the features of much higher and more extensive systems, attracting serious climbers as well as walkers. To the south and east the gentler relief of Lowland Britain is mostly composed of less resistant material. Much is “scarp and vale” country where undulating chalk and limestone hills terminate in steep escarpments commanding grand panoramas over broad clay vales.

Most of the course of the Earth’s history can be traced in these landscapes. From the unimaginably distant Pre-Cambrian, more than 600 million years ago, came the Torridonian sandstone and Lewisian gneiss of northwest Scotland as well as the compact, isolated uplands of Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire and the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. The violent volcanic activity of Ordovician times left the shales and slates of Snowdonia and the Lake District. Extreme pressure from the Southeast in the Caledonian mountain-building period produced the northeast/southwest “grain” of ridges and valleys so evident in much of Wales and Scotland. Most of the abundant reserves of coal originated in the tropical vegetation of Carboniferous times. Except for the extreme south, the whole country was affected by the action of the often immensely thick ice sheets of the series of Ice Ages. The characteristically sculpted forms of the high mountains testify to the great power of the glaciers as they advanced and retreated, eroding and transporting vast quantities of material, much of which was spread over the lowlands by the mighty ancestors of today’s rivers. As the last of the ice melted, the sea level rose, the land bridge joining Britain to the continent of Europe was flooded, and a truncated Thames, hitherto a tributary of the Rhine, acquired its own outlet to the sea.

DOMESTICATION

The taming and settling of the landscape can be traced back to the 5th millennium BC when Neolithic farmers began to clear the wildwood, the dense forests which had spread northwards in the wake of the retreating ice. The imprint of each succeeding age may be traced, not only in the obvious features of prehistoric stone circles, burial mounds and hill-forts, the planned network of Roman roads or the countless medieval churches, but also in the everyday fabric of the working countryside, where a track may first have been trodden in the Bronze Age or a hedge planted by Saxon settlers.

The many-layered landscape is now characterised by enclosure, a web of fields bounded by hedges in the lowlands, by drystone walls in the uplands and by dykes in areas reclaimed from the sea. Small fields with irregular boundaries are likely to be ancient in origin; a regular chequerboard of hawthorn hedges is the result of agricultural “improvement” in the 18C and 19C.

In spite of conditions which are ideal for tree growth, only eight percent of the land surface is wooded. About half of this consists of recent coniferous plantations, mostly in the uplands. In many parts of the lowlands, the lack of great forests is compensated for by an abundance of small woods and by the countless individual trees growing in parks and gardens, and above all, in the hedgerows.

Standing out from this orderly pattern are the “commons”, rough open tracts of grass and scrub. Once the villager’s source of fodder, food and game, they now provide fresh air and exercise for both town and country people.

The country is well watered. The abundant rainfall, carried off the hills by a multitude of streams, feeds the rivers which, though of no great length, often end in splendid estuaries which bring salt water and the feel of the sea far inland.

The irregular outline of the country and the complex geology combine to form a long and varied coastline. Where the mountains meet the sea there is exceptionally fine coastal scenery, such as the spectacular chalk-white cliffs near Dover, symbol of English insularity. Many of the better stretches of sand and shingle have been appropriated by seaside resorts but there are some quieter beaches as well as remote marshlands and lonely sand dunes.

FAUNA

Britain’s largest native mammal is the red deer. The stag, with full antlers, known in Scotland as the Monarch of the Glen, is a splendid sight. Roe, fallow and sika deer proliferate in some areas.

The most unusual British bird is the Puffin, found just offshore of North Devon (Lundy), in Pembrokeshire, and in various locations in Scotland and its islands. Most impressive however is the sight of around 150,000 gannets at Bass Rock, North Berwick; or the great flocks in St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides, home to almost a million seabirds.

Many kinds of whales and dolphins are frequently seen off Scotland and the outer islands, plus in Pembrokeshire, Cornwall and Dorset. Seals are also common in Scotland, as well as at Cardigan Bay, Northeast England, Lincolnshire, and Blakeney Point, Norfolk.