This changes everything: history makers

Is there a bit of England you are passionate about and why? Looking at the new Historic England publication, A History of England in 100 Places, is a wonderful way to explore. Words by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Recommended: new book from Historic England.

Growing up in a rural corner of east Hertfordshire has left me with a sentimental longing for an undulating patchwork of wheat and barley fields criss-crossed by footpaths and bridleways. In the valleys are small rivers, though another county might write them off as streams. On the top of long slow inclines are mixed hornbeam woods and they're there in the valleys too. Thinking back to the 1970s (when the golf course hadn't been built) I can see again the gamekeeper, who lived next door. He was both hero - whistling his young pheasants up for corn - and agent of horror, hanging his most recent kill on the animal gibbet in a very dark part of home wood. But thanks to him I learnt how to whistle, and confidently ID any larder of dead moles, kestrel, vixen, stoats. Two valleys away there were sheep - you could hear them bleating on the wind, In the opposite direction there were smaller turfed fields and several dairy herds.

Wandering the hedgerows you could have been in the 19th century, or 18th maybe. It wasn't hard to move far further back in time and imagine the Romans' kilns on the valley the other side of Caley Wood, as so many bit of pottery turned up in the autumn plough. Nearby was an old beamed farm house with a tower that the gentry used to watch the hunt where a 20th century bit of redecorating helped uncover Tudor wall paintings.

Another neighbour found a Saxon arrow head on his plot, then brought it to the pub for everyone to see.

Mine was an outdoors childhood in a very small corner of England which many generations have clearly lived in and loved. It's amazing how certain places just tug at your heart.

As an adult I've opted to live in London, because the city is far easier to get around and easier to find paid work. But holidays have mostly been spent exploring Britain, thinking as much about who used to live there back in the day, as what's on offer to enjoy now. That's why I love this new publication by Historic England, A History of England in 100 Places, which cherry picks 100 fascinating places where "irreplaceable" history has happened. Not so much the growing up, more the changes that move life forward.

In all 4,000 people nominated a swathe of the places they love best and then 10 experts  (TV history gurus/celebs including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Mary Beard) whittled down a short list. Lists are meant to spark conversation, but for once this isn't a bucket list of places you must see, which would obviously include Stonehenge and Windsor Castle (as the book does). Instead it's picking out places where momentous things happened which changed the way we live.

At the book launch guests could also look around the
V&A sculpture court. An amazing place for a party.

At the very glam launch party - held in the V&A - one of English Heritage's researchers told me his favourite entry was the Brown Firth research laboratories in Sheffield where stainless steel was accidentally invented. Key note speaker included Tristtam Hunt, the former Labour MP, who now runs the V&A. He was shameless in loving the Middleport potteries entry from his old constituency in Stoke-on-Trent.

I was fascinated by the story of the Euston Arch (the entrance to Euston station) which was pulled down in an act of vandalism in 1961, and is now rubble in a bit of River Lea infill. But it was a wake up call to conservationists about the need to organise better.

And because it's a people's choice, there are chapters which retell the things that working people have had to endure, instead of the super rich. That's how I found out that sad-looking, boarded up Farfield Inn was blasted by the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864, a failed reservoir which killed 240+ people and flattened 600 houses. Ultimately this changed the way reservoirs were built and began a debate about corporate responsibility, but it's not yet a well-known story. 

Also find out about the first railway bridge, built in 1825 for Stockton & Darlington railway which was founded to serve the coal industry. Skerne Bridge is just  a single stone arch in the centre of Darlington, but it's so beloved by locals that they nominated it for every single category.

I sense that this book is going to work hard in my family. It will sit on the kitchen table and be something we argue over deciding on which places to visit, ideally without crowds. Virtual travel is always fun, but I think this book's focus on people and place may even inspire us to actually go to see what the fuss is about. All in all a perfect book with its mix of tourism, English heritage and populist vote. My only regret is that Hertfordshire gets such poor coverage - it's really a beautiful county with more stories in the landscape than even the Brothers Grimm could recall.

• A History of England in 100 Places (Historic England, £20) by Philip Wilkinson

Margate gets its mojo back

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here are some thoughts on art, sand, chips and shells at Margate. This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs).  

Margate isn't the only seaside place to slip out of fashion.

Spain's Torremilinos was all the rage in the 1960s (Monty Python mocked it as the Costa del Sol's home of spam and chips); there was Paxos in Greece as the place for your bit of fun in the sun during the 1970s. Where did you go in the 1980s (Kenya?) or 1990s (if Thai backpacking try Alex Garland's The Beach) or 2000s (Croatia) - all subject to tourist trends.

But when the visitors move on towns - even countries - can suffer horribly too. That's what Margate was finding. With it's lovely sandy beach it had been the perfect Victorian resort. Plenty of East Enders - and other Londoners - were still happily visiting in the 1950s and enjoying the famous funfair, Dreamland (closed since 2003). But each year things seemed to go a little more downhill. In the 2001 census it was a place of high unemployment, and even now as you walk around it's very obvious the B&Bs are filled with social tenants, not holidaymakers.

Have you been?
But suddenly Margate's THE place to visit again. In 2012 the new Turner Contemporary exhibition was opened which offers a Tate-art experience (white walls, small labels, a caf downstairs), and expansive sea views out to the Isle of Thanet windfarm. The first exhibition is fabulous - as it should be for JMW Turner had strong links with Margate.

Tie that exhibition to a really friendly place, a super fast train across Kent to St Pancras and the knowledge that this is the town where Tracey Emin grew up and you have plenty of reasons for taking a trip.

Nell, 11, just wanted a day trip featuring ice cream and chips (both eaten on the beach). I also wanted a beach that allows dogs to tear around (until 1 May) and Pete suspected we'd all love Turner and the Shell grotto. Turned out he also found a pub to watch West Ham beat Bolton 4-0 too. What's not to love about a quickie to Margate?

Where in the world?
However, it turns out you can't be anywhere else when you're in Margate. I tried, but it is a uniquely British experience. However the Shell Grotto offers a fantastic puzzle - who could have built an underground temple decorated with 4 million shells without anyone noticing? Despite English Heritage listing it as a Grade 1 site, theories are varied. Although my instinct says this is obviously a Victorian fake (my dad didn't do end of pier exhibitions for nothing you know!) it's fun to hope that it is really a Phoenician temple built in the second half of the first century. These traders (busy trading tin from Cornwall and on to the Continent lived in an area roughly where the Lebanon is now.  For examination of the evidence see Patricia Jane Marsh's booklet The Enigma of the Margate Shell Grotto.

Over to you
What do you think is fun to do in Margate? Or which UK seaside towns offer a little taste of the places other travellers like to visit via planes?

The joy of Essex

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Take a mini break to Colchester for culture, oysters, history and views that are often Italinate (even in a damp mid-winter). This post is by Nicola Baird 

Colchester is a market town with a big history. As Camulodunum (translation - fortress of Camulos [a Celtic god of war]) it was once the capital of Britain. It was a vast Roman colony and even now the materials used in the Norman castle give you the impression you are mid Mediterranean, maybe Florence with the warm terracotta tiles on the castle's narrow bricked towers and the strange white elephant watertower, known locally as Jumbo. It's the history that is exciting though: it was viciously destroyed by Boudica and her Celtic allies (who also destroyed London and St Albans); fought over in the Civil War, and has more traditions about oysters than you can serve up with Lee and Perrins....

Despite all these stories it’s not a traditional place to head for a wedding anniversary weekend. Strange because it surely compares with Lille or Bath or Winchester. Indeed the staggered reaction from a friend who used to live there, and my aunt who is based in Essex - but does her best to avoid Colchester - suggested I might regret letting Pete pick the venue. But that's the point of Aroundbritainnoplane, getting to know the UK better.

Turns out that Colchester offers an astonishing history trail (and thanks to the choice of B&B and restaurant Pete and I had a lot of fun too). The Norman castle is the biggest in Britain - because it was built on foundations made by the Romans. The foundations are 3,000 years old, and when the Normans arrived these were already 1,000 years old. When I think about the subsidence in the two Victorian homes I’ve lived in this seems puzzlingly brilliant engineering.

We took a taxi from the station to Trinity Street where we were staying in a house once owned by John Wilbye, the man who invented madrigals in the late 16th century. I always ask taxi drivers the three best things about the place where they work, often with interesting results. The woman we’d picked was an utter down.”There’s nothing good here. It’s just cold. There’s shopping, but I don’t like that, except in Williams & Griffin (a department store run by Fenwick).” When pushed she admitted there were some pubs, but these were occupied by squaddies and students so we wouldn’t want to go there… Well we did, the Purple Dog was fine, and most pubs seem to offer real ale.

Within 100 metres of exiting the taxi – she couldn’t drive to the front door because of the excellent pedestrianised shopping lanes (sort of like Brighton) off the High Street a lady in Tudor garments had invited us to watch a Tudor dance being performed in the CO1 community centre run by a charity that finds things for teenagers to do. Irresistible, and though Tudor dances are reasonably staid, it was fun watching a performance of Ding Dong Merrily on High (originally a dance) and the anachronistic doubletake of spotting a Tudor dancer sit out with mobile and a mug of latte. Could spots like this have inspired Damon Albarn from Blur?

Top 5 highlights of Colchester (other than the zoo)

1. Colchester Castle – stunning Roman collection which is labelled for maximum enjoyment for anyone who knows Essex or interested in Boudica. It costs £6 to enter but offers at least an hour of displays. You can also book a £2.50 tour of the Roman foundations of the Temple of Claudius which Boudica destroyed (along with 20,000 people) and go on to the castle ramparts for a 360 degree view across today's town. 
2. FREE A walk that takes in the old Roman wall by the Hole in the Wall pub and a vast red-brick retired Victorian water tower known as Jumbo. Then head the other way and find the Old Seige House which looks Tudor but has many red painted bullet marks on its inside and outside walls – marks from the conflict between Cromwell’s troops and the Royalists. Finish off with a patrol of the incredible new arts centre, Firstsite. In fact Firstsite might be a reason to go to Colchester - it's as good as The Baltic up in Newcastle upon Tyne.
3. There are some nice parks, including the castle gardens which also has the FREE toy museum beside it, all a few strides from the shopping streets. Look carefully between and in stores and you’ll see Roman memories everywhere. We ate a good dinner (with frighteningly speedy service) at the Lemon Tree which boasts a massive Roman wall between the dining rooms.
4. A place to get curious about: allegedly Humpty Dumpty was a canon parked at St Mary in the Wall during the Civil War conflict (find it near the Mercury theatre). And there's the Dutch Quarter where in 1806 Jane Taylor is claimed to have dreamt up Twinkle Twinkle Little Star... and it's old name, Camulodunum may have been the basis for the nursery rhyme Old King Cole. As for the TOWIE craze back in Brentwood (and the nation's sitting rooms), well I could see no evidence other than a canvas tote in a super tacky shop that boasted "I've been vajazzled".
5. Pick the right Sunday in December (11 Dec 2011) and then you can enjoy the Christmas market which has the high street closed to traffic. 

More info about things to do in Colchester here. More info about Colchester at wikipedia here (including references in two Dr Who episodes, Moll Flanders and 1984!)

Bah humbug

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell are enjoying travelling the world without hiking up their carbon footprint. This post is from Nicola

We are all sweet on Yorkshire and have already managed to visit for a weekend this January. Our friends’ house was a bit parky (you could see your breath in all the upstairs rooms and it was pretty chilly downstairs too before the fires were lit). But it helped us realize how tough people had to be before central heating, and how much warmer our home has become thanks to tackling the draughts.

Over the weekend we soon realised that you need to keep busy - ideally outside - in order to stay warm. I cycled miles to keep my blood circulating, and the kids rode ponies too (well Wurzel, see below) for added adrenalin we had a close encounter with a hedge trimmer...

Maybe only visitors feel the cold up North? The 13 and 9 year old who live there didn't seem to think it was that chilly and rarely wore more than a T and a sweatshirt.

I should have bought them all thermals, instead for a treat I let the younger kids all choose a monster bag of sweets. In the pic at the top Nell, 7; Lola, 10 and Ned, 9 show off their swag.

You don’t have to go to Masham (also the home of the Black Sheep Brewery) in North Yorkshire to get your hands on their aniseed balls, fudge, flying saucers, traffic light lollies and other favourites. You can also log on here for old-fashioned sweetie choices.