Post-Medieval & Industrial

ABOVE Northampton Museum & Art Gallery’s new shoe displays feature footwear both ancient and modern as well as a boot made for an elephant and (immediately to the right) the giant Doc Martens ‘worn’ by Elton John in Tommy.

Northampton Museum & Art Gallery

Following a £6.7 million transformation, Northampton Museum & Art Gallery has reopened to the public, with new galleries showcasing the town’s history – particularly its proud shoemaking heritage. Carly Hilts visited to find out more.

Excavating Scotland’s earliest railway

A community project excavating Scotland’s first railway has uncovered three 18th-century phases of timber construction layered on top of each other. The unprecedented discovery was made in East Lothian by the 1722 Waggonway Project, and has been described by railway…

Secrets of scotch

Archaeologists from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) are discovering the secrets of Speyside malt at the old site of The Glenlivet Distillery in Upper Drumin (pictured right), as part of the ‘Pioneering Spirit’ project, a partnership between NTS and…

Above Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, in a 1637 engraving by Claude Mellan.

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637)

It is hard to disagree with the astronomers. They clearly felt that naming a single lunar crater after Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1935 was insufficient and, in 1993, honoured him again, this time with an asteroid. But astronomy is…

Above Peter Paul Rubens, The Discovery of the Infant Erichthonius. Oil on canvas, c.1616. Liechtenstein: The Princely Collections, Vaduz Vienna. Size: 217.8 x 317.3cm

The Triumph of Rubens

One of the most accomplished painters of the 17th century, Peter Paul Rubens had a deep interest in the ancient world, expressed through the power of the paintbrush, but also the written word. Lucia Marchini speaks to Anne Woollett to find out more about the artist’s engagement with Greece and Rome – from discussing cameos to staging spectacular triumphal processions.

Above The modern façade of the Humboldt Forum, designed by Frank Stella. right Inside the foyer of the Forum, with the ‘Cosmograph’, a tall digital display for information.

Berlin’s Humboldt Forum: building power

Berlin’s ambitious cultural project the Humboldt Forum opened its doors to the public this summer. Exhibition spaces, museum collections, and presentations of scientific research are brought together in a partially rebuilt Baroque palace that once stood on the site. As Alfred Hagemann tells Lucia Marchini, this spot – and the buildings on it – has long occupied a prominent place in public discourse.

1200px Stowe Park Buckinghamshire

This week: Lakes

Lancelot 'Capability' Brown is the towering genius of English garden architecture. Born in Northumberland in c.1715-16, this low-born son of a land agent and a chambermaid would go on to design groundbreaking naturalistic schemes of enduring beauty and enormous sophistication for many of the country's grandest country houses – from Chatsworth to Compton Verney and from Alnwick Castle to Blenheim Palace.

Below At Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, ‘Capability’ Brown used an enlarged version of a bridge dam to mark the changes in level between two bodies of water. To the visitor crossing the bridge, it looks as if the water flows naturally from one side to the other, whereas the flow from one to the other is controlled by a sluice gate. below right The conduits and sluices that were integral to 18th century dams are prone to silting and are difficult to repair, so many dams of that period have since been modified to incorporate an open spillway, lined with stone. A by pass channel, or leat, could also be used to divert water from the lake to the river on the downstream side of the dam.

Looking at lakes as ornaments in the landscape

For a visitor to a late 18th-century country seat, the most striking feature of the landscape, apart from the house, would have been the lake. For that reason, it is all the more surprising these bodies of water have had such little attention from garden historians and archaeologists. Perhaps that is because it is assumed that they are natural, and that the house site was chosen to overlook the water, whereas the opposite is usually the case, as Chris Catling now reports.

England’s Seaside Heritage from the Air

Britain has a rich maritime history, a key part of which involves seaside resorts. This book showcases a collection of black-and-white photographs taken by Aerofilms Ltd between 1920 and 1953, illustrating scenes across England and the Isle of Wight. Each…

Vikings of the Sunrise

Originating in the remote past on the island of Taiwan, these Austronesian-speaking people were ultimately to settle from Malagasy to Rapa Nui, Easter Island. But did they go even further, and reach the Americas before Columbus?

Opposite This aerial view of the Gorseddau quarry shows how much infrastructure was needed to extract, work, and transport the stone. The stepped quarry at the centre is flanked on either side by a series of working platforms where slate blocks were turned into roofing slates. The four terraces to the left are connected by inclined planes, down which the worked slate was carried on rails on wedge shaped carriages. Waste stone was taken by tramway along each terrace to be tipped off the edge, creating the characteristic lobe shapes fanning out from the terraces.

Appreciating the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales

On 28 July, UNESCO added the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales to its list of World Heritage sites, which currently number 1,154. Chris Catling reports on the reasons for this inscription and marvels at the human ingenuity that has left us with a remarkable landscape combining natural and man-made features – fully worthy of being included in the top tier of all heritage sites in the world.

Above The Long Man of Wilmington hill figure in East Sussex. Today, the giant is outlined using white painted concrete blocks, and it is known to have been picked out in bricks during the late 19th century, but do its origins lie in the Tudor period?

The Long Man of Wilmington

The origins of the imposing East Sussex hill figure known as the Long Man of Wilmington have long posed a mystery for archaeologists. Rodney Castleden discusses recent research suggesting a Tudor date for the monument – and a possible political message.

Brickmaking: history and heritage

It is always interesting to find a new book about bricks. Often ignored, these little marvels need to be celebrated, and, for this reviewer at least, there can never be too many opportunities to do so. The ability to manufacture…

Jacobites Quiz

The Jacobites were supporters of which Catholic king of England, Scotland and Ireland, deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688?

BELOW Although much of Structure 1’s stone had been robbed out for later building projects, its paved floor remained largely intact, suggesting that this surface had been overgrown and hidden at the time of the recycling.

This week: Glencoe

Tragically, massacres have been a regular feature of human conflict – and locations as varied as Amritsar and Srebrenica, Rwanda and Guatemala, Malmedy and My Lai have all earned their places in the annals of infamy. But while examples of indiscriminate mass killing may sadly be relatively commonplace, each has its own uniquely terrible story – the appalling product of time, place and a particular set of circumstances.