medieval

Sweyn Forkbeard and the Mill on the Floss. Ignored by the tourists, Gainsborough is a market town in the north west corner of Lincolnshire. It is a pleasant small town with a lot going for it. It has a long history and was one of the capital cities of Anglo-Saxon Mercia. Sweyn Forkbeard and...

Banbury is an attractive market town in the Oxfordshire countryside made famous by the medieval nursery rhyme "Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross". Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, To see a fine lady upon a white horse; Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, And she shall have music...

Shakespeare and lots more. Stratford upon Avon is on nearly every tourist’s tick list because of the Shakespeare connection, with millions of visitors who want to visit the place where Shakespeare was born and see his grave. It is hard to avoid the Shakespeare influence and the shops exploit it...

One of the things I find fascinating about Europe and especially Italy are the castles. Real Castles! I take every opportunity in our travels to visit them whenever possible. Our small mountain village does not have a castle but that does not mean you will not find them in our home region of...

Background I remember looking down onto Leeds Castle from the A20 on days out in the late 1950s and thinking that it was every child’s dream of what a medieval castle should look like. The castle was privately owned and very shut. Now it is run by a charitable trust and is a popular conference...

Sant'Antimo Abbey (Abbazia di Sant’Antimo) is a 12th century Romanesque church, part of a former Benedictine monastery built in the 9th century. The church includes some of the 9th century buildings. The church has carvings of animals on the portal and inside on top of the columns (some carvings...

Hever Castle is on the tick list of many visitors to England as it was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and where she was wooed by Henry VIII. As a bonus, for those wanting to stay in a castle, there is also a range of accommodation to stay in. It is everyone’s dream of as perfect medieval...

Ortigia is the historically rich island area of Siracusa in Sicily. It was founded by the Greeks and is the site of a beautiful romantic myth of antiquity, that of the nymph Arethusa and her lover Alpheus. Their union is celebrated in the Fountain of Arethusa, noteworthy because of its fresh...