Blackpool is a seaside resort on the Irish Sea coast of England. It’s known for Blackpool Pleasure Beach, an old-school amusement park with vintage wooden roller coasters. Built in 1894, the landmark Blackpool Tower houses a circus, a glass viewing platform and the Tower Ballroom, where dancers twirl to the music of a Wurlitzer organ. Blackpool Illuminations is an annual light show along the Promenade.
Tag Archives: England
Walking Tour: Piccadilly In London, England (4K)
Piccadilly is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl’s Court, Heathrow Airport and the M4 motorway westward.
Country Estates: Elton Hall In Peterborough, UK
Elton Hall, near Peterborough, is a house of many faces. It is formal and Classical on the approach, yet reveals on inspection a complex architectural history stretching back to the Middle Ages. All this with gardens that extend and frame it with a kind of painterly stillness. Inside, the house has one of the best private art collections in the East of England.
As it survives today, the house bears the stamp of important changes undertaken from 1857 by Granville Proby, the 3rd Earl of Carysfort, which is remarkable, given that he was 74 when he inherited the estate in 1855. He had grown up on the family’s Glenart estates in Co Wicklow, Ireland, fought at the Battles of the Nile and Trafalgar asa naval officer and later rose to the rank of Admiral. What inspired him to undertake this work is not now clear, but it may have been the poor condition of the building.
The architect he chose was Henry Ashton, a pupil of Smirke who served as an assistant to Sir Jeffry Wyatville from 1828 during the latter’s transformation of Windsor Castle (and who edited Wyatville’s posthumously published Illustrations Of Windsor Castle, 1841). It must have been through Windsor that Ashton caught the eye of the anglophile Willem II (Prince of Orange until 1840), who commissioned him, in 1838, to design a summer palace at the Hague. Nothing came of the project.
Views: British Steam Yacht Gondola In Lake District
Set sail over Coniston Water with the National Trust in this behind-the-scenes video of Steam Yacht Gondola, one of the only steam-running gondolas remaining in the Lake District. In this video, find out about the work that goes into every voyage, and hear the stories of the gondola from the boat’s Manager, Julian. He’ll show you how he stokes the fire and what he and the team do to prepare the gondola before setting out for a journey. You’ll also hear about the traditional methods that are still used to this day to dock the boat. The history of Steam Yacht Gondola reaches as far back as the Victorian period, and to step aboard is to step back in time. Sir James Ramsden, Director of the Furness Railway Company, saw an opportunity to bring a pleasure cruise to Coniston Water after being inspired by a trip to Venice in 1850. Out of his vision, Steam Yacht Gondola was borne.
English Country Estates: Yarner House – Dartmoor
Yarner House and the adjoining Yarner Wood, a 365-acre block of ancient woodland managed by Natural England as part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve, were both once part of the manor of Bovey Tracey granted by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Mowbray, Bishop of Coutances.
On de Mowbray’s death in 1093, his nephew, Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, inherited, but later defied the king, which led to the seizure of his estates in 1095.
Over time, ownership of the Bovey Tracey estates reverted to the Crown as favourites came and went, until, in the 16th century, a succession of costly wars left Tudor monarchs strapped for cash.
Elizabeth I began to sell off Crown properties and, in 1578, the Yarner estate was bought by Gregory Sprint, a canny lawyer with good Court connections, who swiftly resold it at a profit.
Read more at Country Life Magazine
Cotswolds Walks: Shipton -Under-Wychwood (Video)
Shipton-under-Wychwood is an English village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about 4 miles north of Burford, Oxfordshire. The village is one of three named after the ancient forest of Wychwood.
Country Estates: Albury Park Mansion In Surrey Hills, Southeast England
Towering amongst the stunning parkland setting in the Surrey Hills Area of Natural Beauty is Albury Park Mansion, a magnificent estate that dates back a century — it’s mentioned in the Domesday Book — and which has had a great house at its heart since the early 17th century.
The house has evolved over the years, and as it stands now bears the fingerprints of one of the great 19th century architects, Augustus Pugin, who remodelled it for Henry Drummond in the 19th century.
St Paul’s Church, located within the estate grounds, was used as the setting for Four Weddings and a Funeral, during the famous wedding scene between Carrie, played by Andie MacDowell, and Hamish, Corin Redgrave. Episodes of the television series Midsomer Murders have also filmed in the house and grounds on the estate.
Walking Tour: Oxford – Southern England
Oxford, a city in central southern England, revolves around its prestigious university, established in the 12th century. The architecture of its 38 colleges in the city’s medieval center led poet Matthew Arnold to nickname it the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’. University College and Magdalen College are off the High Street, which runs from Carfax Tower (with city views) to the Botanic Garden on the River Cherwell.
Village View: Clerkenwell In Northern London
‘Clerkenwell was right outside the London city walls, but close enough to it, so was ideal for monasteries. With four or five in the area, people came to serve them, shops opened and you had quite a nice little village.’
A medieval well lies hidden inside a brick office block on Farringdon Lane. It may look a little more than a hole in the ground, but it’s from there that Clerkenwell came to life.
‘The parish clerks from the City of London would come to perform plays and read from the Bible and, because they gathered around this particular well, it became known as the well of the Clerks,’ explains Mark Aston, local-history manager for Islington Council, under which authority Clerkenwell falls. ‘It’s not only water that sprung from it, but Clerkenwell’s name itself.’
Political Analysis: Green Investment Bottlenecks, English Voters, Theaters
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: how green bottlenecks threaten the clean energy business, meet the voters that are turning former Labour strongholds Conservative in England (9:45) and, as curtains rise again, the theatre is set to look very different (16:55).
Boomers Daily 