The Friends organise a rota of more than 100 volunteer ‘watchers’ to keep the churches open. They put on lectures, tours, and special events, while encouraging others to make use of the buildings.…
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the telephone kiosk.…
What is it about the members of the Mortimer family, powerful and ambitious lords of the March, that attracts people to the Mortimer History Society (MHS)?…
Placename experts say that Saline (pronounced to rhyme with the Estonian capital Tallinn) means ‘little barn’ – probably a place of collection and storage for tribute due to the Scottish king.…
Church Recorders work in groups of 10-15 people, supported by a skilled photographer. They research and document the memorials, stonework, flooring, woodwork, metalwork, windows, textiles, paintings, organ, books, and historical records.…
Now approaching her 200th anniversary, HMS Unicorn is the third oldest ship still afloat in the entire world.…
Historic England’s latest book is an architectural history of England’s Co-operative Movement.…
If you aspire to owning a Lutyens house and have very deep pockets, the Trust’s property column will alert you to houses for sale.…
Fed up with being locked down? You could do worse than escape for an hour into the brightly lit and colourful world of the fair, courtesy of the richly illustrated website of the Fairground Heritage Trust (FHT). Browsing the ‘Learning’ pages, you will be reminded that fairs have a long…
Was it by coincidence that the formation of the Art Deco Society UK (ADSUK) in 2019 coincided with the publication of Art Deco Britain: buildings of the interwar years by Elain Harwood, Historic England’s 20th-century architecture specialist? Elain argues that we should do more to celebrate our art deco buildings…
In October 2020, a public inquiry was under way to consider whether planning consent should be given for the conversion of London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry into a ‘boutique’ hotel. An alternative proposal has been developed by those who wish to see Britain’s oldest single-purpose industrial building – where Big Ben,…
The Reverend Francis (Frank) Kilvert (1840-1879) died as a result of peritonitis at the age of 38, days after returning from his honeymoon in Scotland. Although greatly mourned by his widow, family, and parishioners, he would nevertheless have been an obscure figure but for the publication 60 years after his…
The Royal Mail (see Sherds, p.64) no longer regards county names as part of your postal address, a fact that the Association of British Counties – set up ‘to promote awareness of the continuing importance of the 92 historic (or traditional) counties of the United Kingdom’ – regards as a…
Britain has literally thousands of voluntary heritage societies dedicated to diverse causes. In this series we profile some of the least known and most dedicated. This month, we take a look at……