Fêtes, fairs and fayres
Medieval fairs were travelling or occasional marketplaces for traders, with a few refreshment stalls on the periphery.…
The right of peaceful assembly
Large crowds are desirable for a ticketed or invitation event or meeting, but the right of peaceful…
English billiards
Cleopatra: “Let it alone. Let’s to billiards. Come, Charmian.” ~ from Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (1606) This…
Hymns
Most people know the joy of communal singing and a church, with its acoustic qualities, provides an…
The Civil Service
Members of Parliament can be regarded as the front-end, public-facing partners of His/Her Majesty’s Home Civil Service (HCS),…
Magistrates’ Courts
There remain around 200 operational UK Magistrates’ Courts (called Justice of the Peace (JP) Courts in Scotland)…
The symphonium and the concertina
Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-75) from Gloucestershire is best known for the ‘Wheatstone bridge’, a device for measuring…
The Jarrow March
The 1929 ‘Wall Street Crash’ over in the USA had repercussions in the UK which put a…
Edinburgh
Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, complements the surrounding geological heights with its own towering architecture. The…
Working men’s clubs
In 1862 Henry Solly (1813-1903), a Presbyterian clergyman from London, founded the Working Men’s Club & Institute…
Received Pronunciation
The relatively modern concept of ‘standard English’ has become known as Received Pronunciation (RP) or even ‘BBC…
Capt. Henry J. Round, ‘the tame wizard’
Staffordshire-born Henry Joseph Round (1881-1966) lived and breathed engineering and was affectionately nicknamed ‘the tame wizard’ by…