Month: October 2018
The Spinning Jenny
The 8-spindle ‘spinning jenny’ for spinning wool or cotton was invented by James Hargreaves (1720-78) of Lancashire in 1764 and it was […]
Read More
An MP’s oath of allegiance
A Member of Parliament (MP) has powers given by the monarchy. Therefore, an MP represents all the people living in his or […]
Read More
Rights on becoming 16 years old
A young person acquires some legal rights at age 16. These are not the full rights of an adult, but they are […]
Read More
“UK” or “Britain” or … ?
The UK, Great Britain, the British Isles, England… these are not just different names for the same landmass! The differences are illustrated […]
Read MoreThe UK, Great Britain, the British Isles, England… these are not just different names for the same landmass! The differences are illustrated below:-
- The British Isles refers to all of the islands, including the country of Ireland.
- The United Kingdom‘s full name is ‘the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ and its abbreviation is ‘the UK’.
- Great Britain comprises England, Wales and Scotland (not Northern Ireland) and ‘Great’ is often omitted informally.
- England is the largest by size and population of the four constituent nations of the UK.
If this seems confusing for you non-Brits, be assured that even many of those born and raised here are not entirely sure of their own geography! Sad but true.
(Top image: pixabay.com)
The CILIP Carnegie medal
“Words are mastered by meeting them, not by avoiding them.” This was Geraldine McCaughrean’s advice to publishers who favour children’s books with […]
Read More
Samuel Pepys’s diary
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was born and lived most of his life in London and began writing his famous diary every day from […]
Read More
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (1818-48) was part of a tragic but creative family in Yorkshire which produced what are now regarded as […]
Read More
Emily Jane Brontë (1818-48) was part of a tragic but creative family in Yorkshire which produced what are now regarded as classic English literary works. Her own was called ‘Wuthering Heights‘ (1847), a story of vengeance, death, love and cruelty and it challenged Victorian ideas about class. Without the normal morality lesson, it was panned by critics at the time.
Emily herself died of tuberculosis aged only 30, just a year after the book was first published. The featured image is of Haworth House, the parsonage where she and her family lived and all but the youngest, Anne, died. Although Emily and her siblings loved the moors near their home, the district did not have good sanitation and the water supply was polluted, sadly.
Indeed, in the industrial town of Haworth at that time, life expectancy was a mere 19-25 years, but Emily’s Irish father, Patrick (1777-1861, original surname Brunty), had been given a job for life there so did not consider moving away. He outlived all his family ~ his wife, his son and his five daughters, of whom Emily was the fourth.
(Top image: DS Pugh at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Betting & gambling
Betting and gambling are legal activities in the UK. Betting shops, bingo halls, casinos, the National Lottery and online betting games are […]
Read More
The Divine Right of Kings
The Divine Right of Kings was a theory that the monarchy was appointed by a divine being, or God, making the monarch’s […]
Read More
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was born in London and spent most of her life in Surrey. The arts of all kinds filled her […]
Read More
The English Civil War
The English Civil War took place in the middle of the 17th century and was a struggle between different religions for dominance, […]
Read MoreThe English Civil War took place in the middle of the 17th century and was a struggle between different religions for dominance, along with a struggle between the monarchy and Parliament.
“Across the country as a whole, it was religion which ultimately divided the two parties. Puritans everywhere supported the Parliament, more conservative protestants – together with the few Catholics – supported the King.” (Stoyle, bbc.co.uk/history, 2011)
Parliament’s army, known as the ‘Roundheads’, eventually defeated the King’s forces, called the ‘Cavaliers’, and King Charles I (1600-49) was publicly executed for treason in 1649. This was delayed a few hours while Parliament hurriedly put through a Bill to stop his son (Charles II (1630-85)) from immediately inheriting the throne. However, Oliver Cromwell‘s Republic eventually failed, the monarchy was reinstated in 1660 with the return of King Charles II to the throne in a period called ‘The Restoration‘.
There are several re-enactment societies who commemorate various battles of the Civil War on the anniversary dates. The photograph above shows one such society re-enacting the siege of Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire which took place in the autumn of 1643.
(Top image: Dave Hitchborne at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)