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6 Poems to Ponder on National Poetry Day

From William Wordsworth to Stevie Smith, generations of English poets have been inspired by place.Read more

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17 October 2017

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Listed Libraries of the North

Libraries have played in an integral part in our literary history. Often housed in grand public buildings, libraries face considerable pressures as heritageRead more

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11 October 2017

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6 Evocative Literary Locations

Many authors and the characters they created have lived in and loved England, evoking streetscapes, landscapes and buildings throughout their work.Read more

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This small chapel was built in 1889 to serve the r

This small chapel was built in 1889 to serve the rural community at Brompton-by-Sawden.

It's an early work by English architect Temple Lushington Moore, who went on to become one of the country's leading church architects of the Edwardian period. He was responsible for building 38 new churches in England, nearly all of which are listed.

Despite its small size, the Chapel of Rest displays a number of features that are characteristic of Moore’s designs, including the use of asymmetry, the subtle variations in stonework and the impression that the building has evolved over centuries, even though it is less than 150 years old.

📍 The Chapel of Rest, Brompton-By-Sawdon, North Yorkshire

📷 Historic England Archive

As 'The Dig' – a new film about the pre-war disc

As 'The Dig' – a new film about the pre-war discoveries at Sutton Hoo – hits @netflixuk, we're looking at that amazing site (and others) that tell us so much about the culture, beliefs and society of Anglo-Saxon England.

The discoveries at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk completely overturned the previous notion of ‘primitive’ Saxons. Here was a collection of eclectic and beautiful objects from a society with a complex artistic culture and (at least at the elite level) wide international connections.

The objects were brought together in an elaborate burial requiring effort and organisation to commemorate a powerful person.

Who that person was is still open to interpretation, but most experts suggest that it was Raedwald (or Redwald), a King of East Anglia with a claim to be a ‘Bretwalda’ or ‘wide ruler’ with influence over other kingdoms, who died around 616-627 AD.

Raedwald also had a foot in both the Pagan and Christian camps, which may explain the mix of symbolism in the objects.

⬆️ Discover 5️⃣ sites that tell the story of early Anglo-Saxon England via the link in our bio.

🖼️ Reconstruction illustration depicting the burial ceremony of an Anglo-Saxon King and his possessions in the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, by Peter Dunn. Historic England Archive

Originally constructed in 1888 for the Dairy Suppl

Originally constructed in 1888 for the Dairy Supply Company, 30 Coptic Street and 35 Little Russell Street were once the place of manufacture of the iconic milk churn.

It's here that they made 17 gallon galvanised iron containers, designed for transporting milk by rail.

The buildings still pay homage to their days as the headquarters of the first major manufacturer of dairy equipment, with its original signage, made of Portland stone, still intact. The exterior features ornate brick decoration which advertised the Dairy Supply Company Limited.

Far from its original use, 30 Coptic Street was sold to @pizzaexpress in 1965, becoming the franchise’s second restaurant. Likewise, 35 Little Russell Street has until recently been used for housing @thecartoonmuseum.

📍 30 Coptic Street and 35 Little Russell Street, London

📷 Historic England Archive

For centuries the River Thames had been used as a

For centuries the River Thames had been used as a dumping ground for the capital’s waste and as the population grew, so did the problem.

The hot summer of 1858 resulted in an episode known as ‘The Great Stink’. Even the Houses of Parliament, recently rebuilt beside the great river, was not exempt. When attempts to mask the smell didn’t work, there was talk of moving parliament away from its expensive new home in Westminster.

Responsibility for realising the scheme fell upon the shoulders of Joseph Bazalgette, Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works. He and his team constructed a series of interconnecting sewers which carried the effluent eastwards and out to the Thames Estuary.

⬆️ Find out more via the link in our bio.

📍 The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) prior to the embankment of the Thames, Westminster 1860s

📷 Historic England Archive, Photographer: Valentine Blanchard

Cabmen's shelters are rare survivors of an ornamen

Cabmen's shelters are rare survivors of an ornamental building type very specific to the operation of hansom cabs in London.

The Northumberland Avenue cabmen’s shelter was built in 1915 by the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund, based on Maximilian Clarke’s original design of 1882.

It's one of 13 examples to survive in London – the majority of these are listed. It represents one of the few relics of the horse age to remain in use, albeit now for taxi drivers.

The internal fittings are predominantly modern, as is common amongst the remaining London cabmen’s shelters. However, the original open-plan kitchen and cabmen’s mess remains, as does the original roof structure beneath the suspended ceiling.

📍 Cabmen's Shelter, Northumberland Avenue, London

📷 Historic England Archive

Known as the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Move

Known as the cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement, St Andrew’s Church in Roker is famed for its majestic limestone exterior and exquisite interior.

Inside is a stunning wall and ceiling mural which depicts the creation of the cosmos.

📍 Church of St Andrew, Talbot Road, Sunderland

📷 Historic England Archive

‘Prefabs’ were temporary homes built in the fa

‘Prefabs’ were temporary homes built in the factory at the close of the Second World War.

They were built to rehouse those who had lost their homes during the Blitz or servicemen coming back from the war and their young families. More than 156,000 were built in no time all over the country in 1946 and 1947.

People loved prefabs so much that they fought to save them, with some succeeding. Today, 17 are listed in Birmingham and six in Catford, South London.

📍 Sunnyhill Prefabs, Stroud, Gloucestershire 📅 1996

📷 Crown Copyright. Historic England Archive

Roman Emperor Hadrian was born on this day in AD 7

Roman Emperor Hadrian was born on this day in AD 76.

Stretching 73 miles from Wallsend in North Tyneside to Bowness-on-Solway, Hadrian's Wall was built in AD 122. The structure took six years to complete and formed the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

There were 80 small forts – known as milecastles – placed at regular intervals along the wall and 17 larger forts, which housed garrisons of Roman soldiers, responsible for defending the Roman Empire from the tribes to the north.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, large sections of Hadrian’s Wall still snake though the Northumberland countryside and the remains of some of the forts are still visible.

[Photo description: Hadrian's Wall. The path along Hotbank Crags at dawn, with Greenlee Lough in the distance]

Gasworks once brought light and warmth to homes ac

Gasworks once brought light and warmth to homes across England. They are at once contentious and evocative, loved and loathed by sections of society.

Built in 1879, Gasholder No. 13 on Old Kent Road in London is one of the most technologically and structurally innovative gasholders ever built.

It inspired the development of helical or geodesic structures, a form later seen in airframes for aeroplanes and the Gherkin skyscraper.

📍 Number 13 Old Kent Road Gasholder, Old Kent Road, Lambeth, London

📷 Historic England Archive

Cecil Shadbolt took some of the earliest surviving

Cecil Shadbolt took some of the earliest surviving aerial images of England.

Our Archive holds the collection of Victorian glass lantern slides taken by Shadbolt between 1882-1892. The images were miraculously found at a car boot sale!

Swipe through and see some of these spectacular images 👉

1️⃣ Cecil Shadbolt (left) and 'Captain' William Dale (right) posed in the basket of a gas balloon. Shadbolt's camera can be seen, attached to the side of the basket

2️⃣ A hand-coloured decorative title slide for Cecil Victor Shadbolt's lecture 'Balloons and Ballooning, Upward and Onward'

3️⃣ A crowd posed in front of a partially-inflated balloon. Cecil Shadbolt is pictured standing third from the right, wearing a bowler hat

4️⃣ An aerial view taken from 4000 feet looking north-east across Woolwich Common, showing the Royal Artillery Barracks and Royal Albert Dock

⬆️ Explore the collection via the link in our bio.

Hidden beneath London's streets lie 2,000 kilometr

Hidden beneath London's streets lie 2,000 kilometres of brick tunnels that take raw sewage direct from our homes, along with 130 kilometres of interconnecting main sewers the size of railway tunnels.

Much was engineered in the middle of the 19th century and includes magnificent cathedral-like sewage pumping stations.

📍 Crossness Pumping Station, Belvedere Road, Thamesmead, London

📷 Historic England Archive

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many to

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many towns had groups of small rented gardens around the town centre, used to grow a mixture of productive and ornamental plants.

Stoney Road Allotments (also known as Park Gardens) was created outside the walls of the medieval city of Coventry.

19th-century maps of Coventry suggest that there was once a large number of garden sites surrounding the city, but only the Stoney Road site survives today.

The Coventry gardens provided land for workers in the city's traditional industries such as silk weaving and watch-making, who tended to live in crowded conditions within the medieval city walls.

[Photo description: General view of a summerhouse in the gothic style amidst the allotment with a golden retriever dog. End description.]

📍 Stoney Road Allotments, Stoney Road, Coventry

📷 Historic England Archive

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham claims to

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham claims to be the oldest inn in England, with its establishment stated as 1189.

The word 'trip' formerly meant stopping point on a journey, suggesting the inn was originally used by travellers, pilgrims and crusaders on the epic journey to Jerusalem. The inn is built beside and into the sandstone rock upon which Nottingham Castle stands.

Among the curiosities inside the inn is a wooden chair which is said to increase the sitting woman’s chances of becoming pregnant, and a model galleon in a glass case, which is cursed so that anyone who has dusted it has met a mysterious death.

📍 Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham

📷 Historic England Archive

St George’s Garrison Church in Woolwich was buil

St George’s Garrison Church in Woolwich was built between 1862 and 1863.

The interior was richly decorated with mosaics thought to be based on those in the Roman and Byzantine monuments in Ravenna, Italy.

On 13 July 1944, it was mostly destroyed by a V2 flying bomb, causing a fire and gutting much of the interior.

The surviving mosaics were probably made in Venice in the workshop of Antonio Salviati, and installed by London based contractors, Burke & Co.

📍 St George's Royal Garrison Church, Grand Depot Road, Woolwich, London

📷 Historic England Archive

Opened in 1869, Clevedon Pier was built to receive

Opened in 1869, Clevedon Pier was built to receive paddle steamer passengers from Devon and Wales.

A spectacular vestige of a Victorian seaside resort, it was constructed using Barlow rail tracks.

It is the only accessible Grade I listed pier in the country and was described by the poet John Betjemen as 'the most beautiful pier in England'.

[Photo description: General view looking over Clevedon Pier, taken from the shore in the south-east. End description.]

📍 Clevedon Pier, Clevedon, North Somerset

📷 Historic England Archive

The fishing industry in Newlyn on the south coast

The fishing industry in Newlyn on the south coast of Cornwall expanded in the 1880s, resulting in the construction of a new harbour and two piers.

In the early 20th century, the south pier was extended to give better protection to the harbour and a tidal observatory was built at its north end.

Over the next 100 years, the observatory contributed key tidal data to studies in oceanography, geology and climate change.

📍 Tidal Observatory, Newlyn, Cornwall

📷 Historic England Archive

The church of St Mary in Dunstable was built in 19

The church of St Mary in Dunstable was built in 1962-1964 to the design of innovative English architect Desmond Williams.

It's an early example of the impact of the Liturgical Movement on church design with its highly unusual blue and white ceiling following the form of a medieval fan vault. This type of ceiling also has a practical function to stop reverberation around the church.

📍 Roman Catholic Church of St Mary, Dunstable

📷 Historic England Archive

Built around 1750, Canary Cottage at Knarr Farm ne

Built around 1750, Canary Cottage at Knarr Farm near Thorney, Peterborough is a rare surviving example of a mid-18th century fenland cottage and is thought to have been built shortly after the drainage of the local fens.

A characterful local landmark, the cottage’s distinctive yellow door and windows were painted in the early 20th century by the Dixon-Spain family who owned a number of different farms in the area. They used a colour coding scheme to identify their buildings and machinery.

The cottage has been home to many generations of farm workers and has witnessed more than 250 years of agricultural development.

[Photo description: A small white cottage with yellow door and window frames and a thatched roof set in a field with no path or road leading to it. End description.]

📍 Knarr Farm, Canary Cottage, Thorney, Peterborough

📷 Historic England Archive

The Nursemaids’ Tunnel is one of the earliest su

The Nursemaids’ Tunnel is one of the earliest surviving pedestrian subways in London.

It was built in 1821 after local residents petitioned for a tunnel under the New Road (now Marylebone Road) to link Park Crescent from the south to the gardens in Park Square.

The busy road was considered dangerous, especially to children who were often taken to the park by a nursemaid.

The tunnel demonstrates a high degree of survival of its original fabric, even retaining iron hooks and chains embedded in the walls, thought to be fixtures for oil lamps from the original lighting scheme.

[Photo description: General view of the entrance to the pedestrian tunnel from the south. End description.]

📍 The Nursemaid's Tunnel, Marylebone Road, City of Westminster, London

📷 Historic England Archive

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