Discover Britain June/July 2022

CROWNING GLORY EXTRAVAGANT ROYAL CORONATIONS

HISTORY • HERITAGE • TRAVEL

Regency romance Bridgerton & Jane Austen tours in the beautiful city of Bath

WIN a luxury seaside break in Devon

Jam-packed SCOTTISH PRODUCERS PRESERVING FLAVOURS

Beatrix Potter

Castle Howard The lady of the house invites us in

FROM LONDON WRITER TO CUMBRIAN FARMER

National Treasures

SUTTON HOO & THE STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD

Midsummer revelry

QUIRKY TRADITIONS AND PAGAN RITUALS

JUN/JULY 2022 £4.95

www.discoverbritainmag.com

KELMSCOTT MANOR

The inspirational home of William Morris

VISIT THE COTSWOLDS RETREAT OF VICTORIAN DESIGNER WILLIAM MORRIS VISITING HOURS (APRIL - OCTOBER) Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays 11am to 5pm After two years conservation and improvement works, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others, the Manor is open to visitors once again.

Explore William Morris’s “Heaven on Earth” and view the iconic collection of artwork and objects owned and designed by the Father of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Discover why the Cotswold home became an inspiration for him and his family and explore the gardens, enjoy homemade food from our licensed tearoom and visit our gift shop.

One of the 100 Irreplaceable sites A History of England in 100 Places (Historic England)

For more information and to buy tickets online visit

WWW.KELMSCOTTMANOR.ORG.UK Kelmscott Manor is owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London (registered charity 207237).

Address: Kelmscott Manor, Kelmscott, Lechlade GL7 3HJ | Tel: 01367 252486 | Email: admin@kelmscottmanor.org.uk Follow us on Facebook: @KelmscottManorCotswolds, Instagram or Twitter: @kelmscottmanor

EDITORIAL

Welcome!

CROWNING GLORY EXTRAVAGANT ROYAL CORONATIONS

HISTORY • HERITAGE • TRAVEL

Regency romance Bridgerton & Jane Austen tours in the beautiful city of Bath

WIN

a luxury seaside

break in Devon

Jam-packed SCOTTISH PRODUCERS PRESERVING FLAVOURS

Beatrix Potter

Castle Howard The lady of the house invites us in

FROM LONDON WRITER TO CUMBRIAN FARMER

National Treasures

SUTTON HOO & THE STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD

Midsummer revelry

QUIRKY TRADITIONS AND PAGAN RITUALS

DB Cover 228_final.indd 1

JUN/JULY 2022 £4.95

www.discoverbritainmag.com

27/04/2022 10:48

© COLIN HAWKINS/2006. COVER: ISTOCK/CHRIS DORNEY/IAN DAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMY

On the cover: The Georgian Pulteney Bridge in the historic city of Bath, Somerset.

Inset: Queen Elizabeth I

Discover Britain is published by The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ, UK Tel: 020 7349 3700 Email: editorial@discoverbritainmag.com Editor Sally Coffey Assistant Editor Henrietta Easton Art Editor Clare White

ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Catherine Chapman Business Development Elizabeth Kenyon Senior Sales Executive Melissa Arancio

As a Londoner you might think I’d be accustomed to beautiful Georgian architecture – blasé about it even. However, as a recent trip to Bath proved, I’m not above taking tourist photos, and the Royal Crescent is still every bit as impressive to me as Grosvenor Square, which it impersonates in TV’s Bridgerton.

There are lots of other locations throughout the pretty southwest city that feature on screen – in both the Regency-set smash hit show and a forthcoming adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion – and you can take an armchair tour of them with us on page 14.

One Georgian building that has a cameo in Bridgerton that I’m yet to see in real-life is Castle Howard – a magnificent stately home, just outside York. This baroque masterpiece is beautiful both inside and out, as you can see in our article on page 30, in which writer Eleanor Doughty gets the inside scoop on life inside the big house from the chatelaine, Vicky Howard.

Sometimes my work and home life collide and this issue, I took the kids to the V&A to see the new exhibition on Beatrix Potter.

Read about her extraordinary life and achievements, which go far beyond writing and drawing, on page 60.

Other pieces you won’t want to miss this issue include Clemmie de la Poer Beresford’s excellent piece on some of the most memorable royal celebrations in history, on page 24, and Adrian Mourby’s look back at how the longest days of summer have been marked in Britain for millennia. Both make for enlightening reading. Enjoy!

PUBLISHING Chairman Paul Dobson Managing Director James Dobson Publisher Simon Temlett Chief Financial Officer Vicki Gavin EA to Chairman Sarah Porter Subs Marketing Manager Bret Weekes Group Digital Manager Ben Iskander

PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY William Gibbons Ltd. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES USA – US $39.75, Canada – US $49.75 Australia & New Zealand – Aus $79.99 UK – £36, Rest of World – £42 (all six issues) www.subscription.co.uk/chelsea/solo BACK ISSUES £4.95 each plus P&P. Call 020 7349 3700 or visit www.chelseamagazines.com/shop

SUBSCRIPTIONS

www.subscription.co.uk/chelsea/solo (Please have to hand your subscription number, found on your latest issue address sheet) USA: Tel: 866-926-0261 (toll free) Email: dsbcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com http://britsubs.com/discoverbritain Discover Britain, PO Box 37518, Boone, IA 50037-0518 Canada: Tel: 866-926-0261 (toll free) Email: dsbcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com http://britsubs.com/discoverbritain Discover Britain, 1415 Janette Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N8X 1Z1, Canada Australia & New Zealand: Tel: +61 (0)2 8296 5491 Email: discoverbritain@subscription.co.uk www.chelseamagazines.com/5MMCWEB7 Discover Britain, GPO Box 1282, Sydney, NSW 2001 UK & Rest of World: Tel: +44 (0) 1858 438 834 Email: discoverbritain@subscription.co.uk www.subscription.co.uk/chelsea/solo Discover Britain, CDS Global, Sovereign Park, Market Harborough LE16 9EF, England

Sally Coffey, Editor

PUBLISHING OFFICE

Discover Britain (ISSN 0950-5245, USPS 000-135; Digital ISSN 2397-7108) is published bi-monthly by The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London SW3 3TQ, England. Tel: +44 (0)20 7349 3700 Distributed in the US by NPS Media Group, 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton, CT 06484. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Discover Britain, PO BOX 37518, Boone, IA 50037-0518.

News distribution in the UK and Rest of World: Seymour, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT, England. Tel: +44 (0)20 7429 4000 © The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd. 2022. All rights reserved. Text and pictures are copyright restricted and must not be reproduced without permission of the publishers.

The information contained in Discover Britain has been published in good faith and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. However, where appropriate, you are strongly advised to check prices, opening times, dates, etc, before making final arrangements. All liability for loss, disappointment, negligence or damage caused by reliance on the information contained THE within this publication is hereby excluded. The opinions expressed by contributors to Discover Britain are not necessarily those of the publisher.

LTD

CHELSEA

MAGAZINE

COMPANY

discoverbritainmag.com 3

Issue 228

CONTENTS Calanais p54

Fife p70

© HERITAGEPHOTOGRAPHIC.CO.UK. ILLUSTRATION: © BRENDAN PARSONS

Hill Top p60 Castle Howard p30

Sutton Hoo p82 Cardiff p44 Skomer Island p49

Bath p14

Whitstable p66

Page 30 Castle Howard’s resplendent interiors feature plenty of classical statuary

14

BODICES & BONNETS We explore the romantic Georgian city of Bath, filming location for Netflix’s record-breaking series, Bridgerton

24 NO EXPENSE SPARED

As the Platinum Jubilee approaches, we look back at coronations and royal celebrations through the ages

REVIVED 30 BRIDESHEAD How Castle Howard, setting for the 1981 TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel, has been brought back to life

& JEELY PIECES 40 JAMS Once a teatime treat for the post-war generation, Scottish jam is now an international export

CARDIFF 44 Despite being one of Europe’s youngest capital cities, Cardiff’s rich history dates back millennia

4 discoverbritainmag.com

PUFFIN PEEKABOO 49 PLAYING Writer Bella Falk goes in search of the perfect photo of these popular birds on Skomer Island, in Wales

CELEBRATIONS 54 SUMMER The fascinating history behind Britain’s midsummer celebrations, and where you can join in this year

POTTER 60 BEATRIX Her children’s stories have delighted audiences for a century, but her conservation work is also a legacy

66 WHITSTABLE This historic harbour town has a world-wide reputation for its oysters, and it is chic and charming, too

VOLCANIC COAST 70 THE Journey along the Fife Coastal Path, exploring quaint fishing villages and natural wonders along the way

REGULARS

6

WISH YOU WERE HERE

12

LETTERS

39

COMPETITION

78

MY BRITAIN

81

CROSSWORD & QUIZ

82

NATIONAL TREASURES

Join our 2022/2023 small group tours in

The Four Corners of Cornwall An Historic County in the Southwest of England Like all our tours, no daily packing and unpacking, just leisurely daily excursions from a base hotel 2, 5, or 8 day pre-organized, custom-built and private tours.

Including Poldark and Doc. Martin locations plus ask for more information on our Cornwall Gardeners Paradise Tour Transfers from anywhere in Britain plus international flights if needed.

Castles & Mansions

Relaxing Coastal Villages for a pint and Fish and Chips

The traditional Cornish Cream Tea

Rain Forests and other wonders at the Eden Project IMAGES COURTESY OF LOUISE WEST

Your specialist for Vacations and Tours in Britain Call or email Barry Devo for brochure. Call 330 284 4709 EDT Canton OH Email barrydevo@prepcotravel.com or visit www.prepcotravel.com and click on Start Planning discoverbritainmag.com 5

PETER HAYGARTH

POSTCARDS

6 discoverbritainmag.com

POSTCARDS

Wish you were here...

Inspiring postcards from around the British Isles

AUCKLAND CASTLE, COUNTY DURHAM A patriotic spectacle, Kynren – an Epic Tale of England, returns to the outdoor stage this summer Held on a farm near Auckland Castle, Kynren is an annual live historical extravaganza that tells the story of England from Boudica’s battles through the Romans, Vikings, Tudors, Stuarts, and Victorians in one incredible 90-minute show.

Produced by 11Arches, a registered charity, and held since 2016, Kynren wraps up 2,000 years of history in one dazzling theatrical show, complete with pyrotechnics, and brings some of our legends to life.

Gates to the evening event, which takes place each Saturday from 6 August to 10 September 2022, open two-and-a-half hours before the start of each show, allowing plenty of time for some food and drink as you listen to live jazz by the lake.

Tickets start from £26 per adult and are available to buy now.

11arches.com

discoverbritainmag.com 7

POSTCARDS

KELMSCOTT MANOR, OXFORDSHIRE The idyllic 17th-century country home of Arts & Crafts pioneer William Morris has reopened following major refurbishment Described by William Morris as “heaven on earth,” Kelmscott Manor has reopened following a £6m National Lottery Heritage-funded conservation project.

As well as undergoing structural repairs, the house has been restored to how it may have looked in Morris’s time, in the late 19th century.

Wallpaper has been individually printed by hand using original Morris & Co. blocks, and among many precious period pieces is Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting The Blue Silk Dress.

Painted in 1868, it depicts Morris’s wife, Jane, Rossetti’s muse, with whom he had an affair, sparking one of the most complex love triangles in art history.

John Lewis, General Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, which looks after the house, says: “Our revitalised Kelmscott will explore the history of the estate through the core disciplines of the Society and through the eyes of William Morris as an Antiquary and Fellow of our Society.” sal.org.uk/kelmscott-manor

8 discoverbritainmag.com

POSTCARDS

POLESDEN LACEY, SURREY

Once the darling of early 20th-century high society, when Dame Margaret Greville died in 1942, she left her home of Polesden Lacey, and the treasures within, to the National Trust.

Polesden Lacey had been used by Greville to host lavish parties, which attracted guests such as King Edward VII and Winston Churchill, many of whom gifted her with small, precious objets d’art, as was the custom then.

Now, in Treasured Possessions: Riches of Polesden Lacey, which will run this year and next, visitors can admire key pieces, including jewelled animals by Fabergé and Cartier, and Greville’s cherished Fabergé egg, complete with a diamond clasp in the shape of a snowflake.

Alice Strickland, the exhibition’s curator, says: “In her lifetime it was the privileged few who could enjoy the treasures, but she intended her bequest ‘to form a Picture and Art Gallery,’ ‘for the largest number of people to have enjoyment thereof.’ ’’ nationaltrust.org.uk/polesden-lacey

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/ANGUS MCINTYRE

A new exhibition showcases over 100 treasures from one of the National Trust’s most glamorous collections

VARIOUS LOCATIONS, HEREFORDSHIRE Drink in the scenery of one of England’s most picturesque counties, on a new visitor trail From orchards to vineyards, distilleries to craft breweries, the county of Herefordshire has no shortage of drinks producers who like to take simple, home-grown ingredients, to make delicious beverages.

Now a new trail, Sip Drink Tour, highlights some of the best of these, and other places to stop off en route – such as the Museum of Cider, or the Crown Inn pub in Woolhope, which sells its own cider.

As well as keeping you fully hydrated, the trail is a great way to explore beautiful countryside in Herefordshire, while pointing you towards guided tours and tastings. eatsleepliveherefordshire.co.uk/ultimate-guide/drinks-trail/

discoverbritainmag.com 9

CHRISTOPHER ISON/ENGLISH HERITAGE/JONJONSTOKESPHOTO.COM

POSTCARDS

GREAT TAPESTRY OF SCOTLAND, SCOTTISH BORDERS One of Britain’s best-loved contemporary artists comes to one of its newest museums In Scotland’s Year of Stories, it is fitting that one of the contemporary art world’s best storytellers has decided to come north of the border.

Grayson Perry’s show The Essex House Tapestries: Life of Julie Cope will be displayed at the Great Tapestry of Scotland centre in Galashiels until 14 August 2022.

The centre was built to house The Great Tapestry of Scotland, which tells the story of Scotland from millions of years BC to the present day.

Perry’s tapestries depict “the trials, tribulations, celebrations and mistakes of an average life.”

Sandy Maxwell-Forbes, centre director, says: ‘‘These works of art tell a moving everyday life story of joy and heartbreak. Visitors will experience almost every emotion as they take a sensory journey for the eyes and ears.” greattapestryofscotland.com

10 discoverbritainmag.com

POSTCARDS

CLIFFORDS TOWER, YORK Once one of the most important buildings in England, this tower is finally being given the recognition it deserves Having stood in the city of York since the Norman Conquest, Clifford’s Tower has long been one of York’s best-loved landmarks. However, despite having once served as a royal mint, a medieval stronghold, and a garrison during the Civil Wars, for centuries it stood as an empty shell.

Now, following a £5m restoration project, the 800-year-old building has reopened as a heritage centre, with a free-standing timber structure within that stands to protect it, and a new roof deck with sweeping views over York, plus audio guides that tell the tower’s story. www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/cliffords-tower-york/

discoverbritainmag.com 11

READER LETTERS

Over to you...

Storms, royal ancestry and cross-stitching: it’s your time to shine A few of my favourite things

Of course, there are many other areas of the British Isles I have grown to love (Inverness, Falmouth, Dartmouth, The Isle of Wight, for example) – too numerous to name – and I am looking forward to returning to them again soon.

Cordula Band, Frankfurt, Germany

In honour of Her Majesty

I absolutely loved the last issue of Discover Britain, which celebrated the huge milestone that is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Marking 70 years on the throne is, doubtless, a very special event – a one-off in British history. HM The Queen has reached it in the most admirable way.

Her lifetime service to the nation and the Commonwealth is an unrivalled record, which has been accomplished with grace, straightforwardness, and appropriate touches of wit.

Like so many people around the world, I wanted to join in the celebrations and so I have created a personal crossstitch tribute (see right) to express my admiration for such an exceptional Queen and living icon.

Teresa Gil, Granada, Spain

© PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

I’ve been a subscriber of Discover Britain for a few years and always enjoy reading about places I have been to (and there have been many over the last 40 years).

One of the places I’ve grown fond of is Chelsea Green (see below) in London (I stayed in a holiday flat overlooking it many years ago). Located just off the King’s Road, it’s almost like a village and is like a glimpse of how London might have looked 100 years ago. There are lovely little shops and restaurants around it and a peaceful atmosphere, despite being only metres from the busy King’s Road.

Another place I love to return to is Bath, surely the most beautiful city in Britain due to the perfect architecture and the wonderful countryside around it. You can spend a day exploring the Georgian streets, squares and crescents and then take a brisk walk up the many hills surrounding the city. The Skyline Walk is something special.

Finally, there is Harrogate in North Yorkshire, which I love. Like Bath, it’s a spa town, but it has a wonderful atmosphere of its own, parks and gardens and the wild Yorkshire Dales nearby.

12 discoverbritainmag.com

Keeping it in the family

I am very glad to have received the latest edition of your magazine (226, April 22), which was delightful for two reasons.

The first was that I have been working on my family history for several years and thanks to Discover Britain, I’ve been able to see some of the places my ancestors lived. Through my research, I’ve traced my family back to the Plantagenets and Tudors, which has given me an increased interest in British history.

Henry VII and Elizabeth of York are my 16th great grandparents. This also linked up with the article on Richard III. As we know, he was Elizabeth’s uncle, although I can’t exactly put my finger on what relation he’d be to me. Even though I can’t zero in on it, I’m still proud to have them in my ancestry.

Ron Caldwell, by email

Lightening the mood

Your Teatime Quiz brought lots of laughter and fun during a recent Nor’easter snowstorm (plus power outage) here in Nova Scotia, Canada.

We enjoyed them so much, I found all my past editions and we had extended laughs between myself, my husband, and my mother. I love your magazine.

Meaghan Forster Raymond, by email

Seeing double

The article Circle of Friends by Alison Hughes (Issue 226, April 22) provided fascinating insight into how the Isle of Wight, specifically Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Farringford House, drew so many creative and intelligent people together at that time.

Can you imagine some of their conversations? Letters and diaries would no doubt shed light upon the relations of those famous visitors. After I spent some time looking at the Tennyson family portrait (pictured, top right), I couldn’t help notice the similarities of the faces with the children portrayed by John Everett Millais in Autumn Leaves (bottom right).

The girl on the left looks strikingly like

Lionel and the blond-haired child looks like Hallam. Perhaps other readers noticed this as well.

Thank you for the excellent and enlightening article, as well as your interesting publication that I read coverto-cover.

Ilze Hillier, New Brunswick, Canada

One happy customer

As a new subscriber to Discover Britain, I just wanted to drop your new editor a quick note to say thank you for her first edition. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the magazine this morning and I am delighted I decided to subscribe.

Not really knowing what I was expecting, I was pleasantly surprised, and I really enjoyed the articles, especially the one on Harry Potter (Bringing the Magic Alive). I also love the wonderful pictures of Britain and I now want to visit so many different places.

Kevin Elliott, by email

GET IN TOUCH! Post: Letters, Discover Britain, The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ, UK Email: editorial@discoverbritainmag.com Twitter @We_love_Britain Instagram @discover_britain Facebook facebook.com/ DiscoverBritainMag

discoverbritainmag.com 13

REGENCY BATH

Bodices & Bonnets

LYNCHPICS/ALAMY

With a new series of Bridgerton here and an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion due later in the year, Sally Coffey heads to the City of Bath, to experience the enduring charm of its Georgian grandeur

This image: Costumed Jane Austen fans promenade during the annual Jane Austen Festival

14 discoverbritainmag.com

discoverbritainmag.com 15

REGENCY BATH

F

rivolous romp, period drama for the streaming age, American fantasy of Regency romance, or must-watch TV. Whatever you think of Bridgerton, the Netflix series that brings Julia Quinn’s Regency-set novels to screen, one thing the show gets right is its depiction of marriage, my guide Fred Mawer, tells me as we walk around Bath’s Georgian streets, where much of the first series was filmed.

To women or girls in Regency England, securing the ‘right’ marriage would set you up for life, while reaching your mid-to-late twenties unmarried and with no proposals in sight could spell financial ruin.

In the programme, of course, the action is set in London during the annual ‘season’ (which by this period, had shifted to the spring/summer months) when the upper classes would descend on the capital when parliament was in session, combining political responsibilities with a great deal of social networking.

The season was traditionally a time when balls were held, and young girls were introduced into society as debutantes in the hope of attracting admirers and securing a marriage, an adventure Daphne Bridgerton embarks on in Series 1.

Though London is still home to some beautiful Georgian pockets, producers chose Bath as the main filming location for Series 1, presumably because so much splendour of the period has survived the centuries.

Filming for Series 1 took place in Bath in 2019, with 14 locations featuring in as many as 70 scenes.

Set in 1813, during the regency of the Prince Regent, later George IV, who was famous for his debauched parties and life of excess, there is no shortage of men

Above, left to right: The Duke of Hastings’ & Daphne Bridgerton’s love story captivated audiences in Series 1; The Holburne Museum

16 discoverbritainmag.com

© 2020 NETFLIX, INC./TRAVEL PIX COLLECTION/AWL IMAGES

To women or girls in Regency England, securing the ‘right’ marriage would set you up for life

REGENCY BATH

BRIDGERTON’S BATH Live like Daphne and the Duke with these Bridgerton-themed experiences

Bridgerton tours take visitors to filming locations throughout the city while weaving in other parts of the city’s history and discussing elements of the show for authenticity.

For instance, though Bridgerton takes a rather colour-blind approach to things on screen, Blue Badge-qualified guide Fred Mawer discusses how likely it would have been that people of colour, like Lady Danbury, would have held the positions they do in real-life Regency society.

Fred Mawer Tours (fredmawertours.co.uk) offers private, two-hour Bridgerton walking tours of Bath: £120 per group (any reasonable number).

Bath Walking Tours (bathwalkingtours.co.uk) offers public two-hour Bridgerton walking tours, daily: £15 per person.

Bed down The boutique hotel No.15 spread across a row of listed Georgian townhouses, on Great Pulteney Street (one of Bath’s finest) has 36 bespoke rooms, from the gloriously grand to the romantic and intimate. guesthousehotels.co.uk/no-15-bath/

discoverbritainmag.com 17

REGENCY BATH

behaving badly in Bridgerton, but for ‘ladies’, such behaviour would never be tolerated – just ask the mysterious, all-knowing Lady Whistledown.

The Royal Crescent, that gorgeous arc of Georgian buildings high up in the city of Bath, is the top filming location of Bridgerton, but the city’s second most used location is Abbey Green, a rather more modest part of the city, just a short walk from Bath Abbey.

Here the cobbled stones and square surrounded by shops does a good impression of London’s Covent Garden, where Penelope and Eloise can often be spotted walking, gossiping, and letting off steam.

Bridgerton fans will find it hard to resist popping into Modiste on the square (The Abbey Deli), where filming of Madame Delacroix’s dress shop took place both inside and out over five days in 2019. Sadly, no dresses can be ogled, but a Bridgerton-themed afternoon tea may make up for that.

One feature that surely made this shop appealing for filming is the crinoline railing outside, a railing designed to allow ladies with their hooped skirts to get a little closer to peer in shop windows.

Another location where filming took place both inside and out for Series 1 is Gunter’s Tea Shop (most recently a hair salon), where Simon and Daphne flirt up a storm.

Gunter’s Tea Shop was the name of a real place in Regency London, which stood at 7-8 Berkeley Square,

Bath is a city where history collides, from the Roman Baths to the Georgian Assembly Rooms later moving to Curzon Street, which was famous for its ices, which were very fashionable in Regency England.

Interestingly, the building used for Gunter’s Tea Room in Bath sits on Trim Street, the location of Jane Austen’s last house in Bath, which the author was not enamoured with as it was in the lower part of the town and not nearly as fashionable as the location of her first home in the city: Sydney Place.

Sadly, for Jane, who remained unmarried, when her father died in 1805, Jane, her sister Cassandra, and her mother saw their financial circumstances suffer as they had to do without his vicar’s pension, until that is Jane’s brother, Edward, who had been made heir to other wealthy family members, offered them a house in Chawton, Hampshire.

Bath is a city where history collides, from the Roman Baths to the Georgian Assembly Rooms and Royal Crescent, and with a council that puts screen tourism high on its agenda, it’s also a city where period dramas collide.

While Bridgerton uses Bath as a stand-in for somewhere else (London), the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, set in 1816 and due out later this year (also on Netflix and starring Dakota Johnson as protagonist Anne Elliot), puts the action firmly in Bath.

18 discoverbritainmag.com

© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL/RICHARD WAYMAN/DAVID BETTERIDGE/ALAMY

Clockwise, from above: The Ballroom at Bath’s Assembly Rooms would have been a regular haunt for Austen; costumed cast members for Bridgerton, filming in Bath’s Royal Crescent in 2019; Bath’s Abbey Green was regularly used for filming Series 1 of Bridgerton

TRAVEL

discoverbritainmag.com 19

REGENCY BATH

Clockwise, from top: From the very first scenes, Bath mimics Regency London in Bridgerton; Penelope Featherington and Eloise Bridgerton; The facade of No.1 Royal Crescent becomes the Featherington’s Grosvenor Square house

20 discoverbritainmag.com

REGENCY BATH

© 2020 NETFLIX, INC/RUI_21

Below: Inside, No.1 Royal Crescent is dressed as it would have been during the late 1700s, shortly before Jane Austen’s arrival in Bath

While high society would spend spring and early summer in London in the Regency era, summers were often spent in the country, or taking the waters in one of England’s spa towns, of which Bath was one of the most popular.

Jane Austen lived in Bath for several years from 1801-1806, though she is known to have visited from as early as 1797, and it left enough of an impression on her that she set a large part of the action of both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, her final completed novel, here.

Bath Street, a road that leads up to the Thermae Bath Spa, is a popular filming location as it has very few modern intrusions. Scenes for Persuasion were filmed here, as were scenes of the horse and carriages promenading supposedly in Mayfair in Bridgerton.

If you walk along Gravel Walk, a walkway tucked in behind a row of Georgian properties, which was something of a lover’s lane in Jane’s day, you’ll be walking through the locations of one of Persuasion’s pivotal scenes (we won’t say any more for risk of spoilers).

At the end of the walkway, you will reach the lawns of the Royal Crescent and if you bear right and walk

discoverbritainmag.com 21

REGENCY BATH

Summers were often spent in the country, or taking the waters in one of England’s spa towns

Above: The Holburne’s Sydney Gardens is the UK’s only remaining Georgian pleasure garden Below: Afternoon tea is served in the Drawing Room of The Royal Crescent Hotel

straight ahead, you’ll shortly come to No.1 Royal Crescent, aka the family Featherington’s Grosvenor Square house in Bridgerton.

Step inside and it’s not the Featherington’s house at all, but a Georgian-style audio-visual museum – it looks very much like the kind of place Jane Austen would have stayed at on some of her earlier visits, or at least the kind of place she would have liked to if her family had just a little bit more money.

Interestingly, in Series 2 of Bridgerton, though many of the locations seem to have been used in filming again, much of what you see are studio sets.

The only location used for filming in the city for this series is The Holburne Museum, Lady Danbury’s elegant home, which is central to the action throughout and is very near Jane’s first home in the city on Sydney Place, so she certainly would have known it – though it would have been known then as the Sydney Hotel.

While Jane Austen with her more conservative spin on things, all bonnets, and quiet asides, may seem at odds with the more brash and sexy approach to things of Bridgerton, it seems Bath is big enough for both and it’s all the better for it. n For more Bath travel inspiration, go to visitbath.co.uk

JANE AUSTEN’S BATH For many visitors, Bath is all about Austen. If you want to learn more about the author’s links to the city, then a visit to the Jane Austen Centre (janeausten.co.uk) on Queen Street (near one of the houses Jane stayed in) is a must.

Jane is known to have attended balls at the city’s Assembly Rooms (nationaltrust.org.uk/bath-assembly-rooms), designed by John Wood the Younger, which were the height of fashion in the Georgian era, with a tearoom on one side and a ballroom on the other and they feature in Persuasion, including in a key scene where Anne Elliot’s love interest Captain Wentworth storms off in an apparent jealous rage.

No.1 Royal Crescent, which reopened with a new immersive experience in 2021, hosts a monthly Jane Austen-themed tour (no1royalcrescent.org.uk) and don’t miss the annual Jane Austen Festival (janeaustenfestivalbath.co.uk).

Bed down A few doors along from No. 1, The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa is a genteel kind of place, with a beautiful drawing room and library, sophisticated bedrooms, a pretty English garden, and afternoon tea, which would no doubt have appealed to Jane’s sensibilities. royalcrescent.co.uk

22 discoverbritainmag.com

NICKSMITHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/VISIT BATH

Fill up on everything Austen at these sites in the city centre

Visit No. 1 Royal Crescent in Bath this Summer

Experience life as a Georgian as you step inside our authentic house with its dressed interiors.

Our immersive experience reveals what it would have been like for a family renting a house for the season, and the lives of those that served them. Enjoy a special Jane Austen tour on the last Friday of every month.

Come and see how the Bridgertons lived! www.no1royalcrescent.org.uk

HISTORIC ROYAL CELEBRATIONS

No Expense Spared O

n 17 November 1584, English folk tucked into pies, puddings and cakes and participated in revelry and pastimes.

Feasting and merrymaking sang in harmony with fireworks displays, bell-ringing and civic extravaganzas that included besieged wooden castles and mock battles.

In the capital, Londoners paid 12 pence to enter Whitehall Palace’s tiltyard and watch knights, clad in splendid allegorical armoured costumes, joust in honour of the Queen.

A visitor to England, Lupold von Wedel enthused over how knights entered in spectacular pageant cars drawn by horses “equipped like elephants” and were presented with curious allegorical devices and amusing poetry that made the Queen and her ladies in waiting laugh.

The occasion was ‘Elizabeth’s day’, a day of great spectacle staged to celebrate Queen Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne 26 years earlier. Elizabeth took inspiration from King Edward III, who had marked his 49th reigning year in 1376 with a sensational week-long joust.

The Golden Jubilee celebrations staged for George III in 1809, widely considered to be the first significant festivities of their kind, drew on a rich history of royal tradition.

A medieval-style joust may not have been on the cards for the ailing King, but Queen Charlotte hosted, in the words of publisher John Stockdale, a “superb fête at Frogmore”. Londoners awoke to the “pealing

24 discoverbritainmag.com

of bells” and the “hoisting of flags”, and strolled amongst streets illuminated with marvellous light displays, some made up of as many as 18,000 candlelit lamps. In an Oxfordshire village, every child that year was christened either Jubilee George or Jubilee Charlotte.

In 1887, Queen Victoria was initially little enthused by the prospect of staging Golden Jubilee celebrations. Nevertheless, the Queen forked out an extraordinary sum of over £4 million in today’s money to pay for festivities that saw her tuck into delicious pastries and meats for a breakfast in the grounds of Windsor Castle, entertain royalty in a banquet where she donned a marvellous gown embroidered with silver roses, thistles and shamrocks, and process to Westminster Abbey.

A decade later, the centrepiece of Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations was a procession from Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral. As the Queen left the palace, ‘Queen’s weather’ auspiciously favoured the day, with one newspaper describing that “the sun broke through, and a wave of light spread over the capital of the Empire”.

In an open carriage drawn by eight beautifully majestic cream horses, Victoria passed through streets festooned with summer flowers and a technicolour of bright, cheerful bunting.

In her journal, Victoria recalled being greeted by a “mass of beaming faces” and “cheers” that “never ceased”. The thanksgiving service was conducted outside St Paul’s, which horrified a royal cousin

KGPA LTD/WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE/ALAMY

As Her Majesty The Queen celebrates her Platinum Jubilee, Clemmie de la Poer Beresford explores how previous monarchs celebrated significant milestones of their reigns, and their coronations

HISTORY

The thanksgiving service was conducted outside St Paul’s, which horrified a royal cousin who deplored her decision to “thank God in the Street!!!!”

discoverbritainmag.com 25

HISTORIC ROYAL CELEBRATIONS

26 discoverbritainmag.com

HISTORIC ROYAL CELEBRATIONS

Just like the first Elizabethans, us second wave of Elizabethans will come together and feast on pies and puddings

who deplored her decision to “thank God in the Street!!!!”

The Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1935 for Victoria’s grandson, George V, were decidedly cheery. The king returned from his carriage rides around London “tired but radiantly happy”. On one occasion, he enthused, “I am beginning to think they must really like me for myself’”. George is widely regarded as the dullest monarch.

Queen Elizabeth II has not cast such festivities by the wayside. Highlights of her Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilee celebrations have included the Thames procession, the Big Jubilee Lunches, and the creation of coronation chicken, which the Great British public can polish off by the plateful.

This year, to mark her 70th reigning year, Her Majesty The Queen is sticking to tradition. Just as the first Elizabethans did, us second-wave of Elizabethans will come together and feast on pies and puddings (indeed, the winning pudding from The Platinum Pudding Competition) and enjoy a long weekend of revelry and royal spectacle.

GL ARCHIVE/IANDAGNALL COMPUTING/ALAMY/BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

Extravagant coronations The celebrations for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee recall other splendid royal ceremonies throughout history, such as some flamboyant royal coronations.

Steeped in nearly 1000 years of royal tradition, these splendid events have changed little since William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Christmas Day 1066. Today they follow the same ritual as then, centred around the affirmation, oath, anointing with orange, rose, cinnamon and musk oils (representative of the Holy Spirit), and the crowning of the monarch on the ancient St Edward’s Chair.

Coronations have traditionally been captivating and dazzling affairs, glistening with ostentation.

King George IV’s famously glittered with more opulence than the rest. The king lavished the equivalent of £20 million on it. His 27ft-long erminelined velvet train required nine pages, rather than the usual six, to carry it. Spectators glimpsed a crimson surcoat lined with cloth-of-silver and embroidered in gold thread and sequins beneath and marvelled at his wide-brimmed Spanish hat that was ablaze with a diadem made up of 1,300 diamonds and plumed with amazingly tall ostrich feathers.

Clockwise from left: Coronation of George IV, James Stephanoff; The Coronation Portrait of Elizabeth I; Coronation of Henry III , Cotton Vitellius Previous spread, top to bottom: Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee procession; Procession of Charles II, on the eve of his Coronation, Stoop

discoverbritainmag.com 27

HISTORIC ROYAL CELEBRATIONS

NIDAY PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY

Queen Victoria deemed it far too heavy and in 1838 commissioned The Imperial State Crown

Above: A portrait of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes, 1838, wearing the Imperial State Crown, which was commissioned especially for her

28 discoverbritainmag.com

Had George outshone Napoleon in appearance?

That was his intention. Spectators too were required to don sensationally magnificent costumes. An antique flair incorporating medieval, Tudor and Stuart designs was the order of the day, which reportedly caused “much amusement among the ladies”.

Afterwards, 1,268 diners gorged on cakes, meats, sweets and treats in a banquet in Westminster Hall, reminiscent of the first coronation feast held for King Edward I. True to tradition, at the pivotal moment, the King’s Champion entered on horseback and threw down his gauntlet before the king. This fantastic relic of the medieval past was continued right up until Queen Victoria’s reign.

Other coronations also showed much splendour. In 1661, King Charles II cut a splendid figure in his coronation procession from the Tower of London to

Westminster Abbey, wearing a richly “embroidered suit and cloak” that caught the eye of famous diarist, Samuel Pepys.

Charles rode on horseback in imitation of Ancient Rome, through five richly decorated triumphal arches that towered nearly 100ft high. In 1838, Queen Victoria began her procession from Buckingham Palace, and The Gentleman’s Magazine noted it was the longest procession since Charles II’s. Along the route, the queen delighted 400,000 visitors in her Gold State Coach, the very same coach that Queen Elizabeth II used for her coronation in 1953.

Since time immemorial, the investing of the monarch with Crown Jewels has enhanced the pomp and ceremony of coronations. Charles II’s reign saw the forging of new jewels as Oliver Cromwell had melted the originals down after triumphing over Charles I in the Civil Wars. To replace Edward the Confessor’s 11th-century crown that now circulated as newly minted coinage, the St Edward’s Crown was made, weighing a staggering 5 pounds.

Queen Victoria deemed it far too heavy and in 1838 commissioned The Imperial State Crown. New was made with old, with the crown incorporating a ruby that had belonged to the Black Prince in the 14th century and been worn by Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in the 15th century.

Through the ages magnificence has been matched by mishaps. George IV was plagued processing from the Abbey to Westminster Hall by a swaying canopy above him. Fearing for his safety, the king sped up to walk in front of the canopy, but the Barons of the Cinque Ports (whose honour it was to carry it) reportedly “hastened their steps”, making it sway all the greater. Becoming “genuinely alarmed”, the king “broke into a somewhat unseemly jog trot”. In 1902, Edward VII visibly panicked when the archbishop placed the crown on back to front.

When celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this year, we can delight in looking back on past accession day festivities and splendid coronation ceremonies, realising that perhaps our modern-day celebrations are quite modest in comparison. n

Bath Holiday Rentals are a local Bath company providing a personable service. All properties are four and five star and most properties are in exclusive locations around Bath including the famous Royal Crescent, The Circus and Great Pulteney Street.

Our extensive portfolio of more than 70 properties has period apartments, stylish and contemporary flats, Georgian town houses, and country homes with saunas, swimming pools, tennis courts, hot tubs and games rooms.

We can comfortably accommodate parties from 1 to 19 people.

Properties are serviced weekly, all are well-equipped with self-catering facilities and come with Wifi, linens, toiletries and a welcome hamper for guests.

When booking please use reference DISCOVER BRITAIN and we will ensure to include a lovely bottle of wine.

T: +44 (0)1225 482 225 | E: bhr.office@bathholidayrentals.com T: @bathholsrentals | F: /bathholidayrentals | I: @bath_holiday_rentals

www.bathholidayrentals.com

discoverbritainmag.com 29

This image: The Blue Drawing Room at Powis Castle, Powys

Brideshead Revived Castle Howard has been one of the great palaces of Europe for hundreds of years, but as the lady of the house, Vicky Howard, tells Eleanor Doughty, the pandemic threw up new possibilities

LEONID ANDRONOV/ALAMY/MARK SYKES/AWLIMAGES/HERITAGEPHOTOGRAPHIC.CO.UK/NICK HOWARD

CASTLE HOWARD

T

here are fewer finer approaches to a stately home than to Castle Howard, 15 miles from York. The road runs in and out of gatehouses for a mile and a half before it reaches Sir John Vanbrugh’s great Baroque triumph, its golden cupola lantern glinting in the sun.

For over 300 years, Castle Howard has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family. It was begun in 1699 when Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle, a member of the fashionable Kit Cat Club, asked the dramatist John Vanbrugh to design him a new house.

Undeterred by this, his first architectural commission, Vanbrugh, working with Nicholas Hawksmoor, began work on Carlisle’s new house. The domed central block – the first of its kind in a private residence – was complete by 1706. By the time the house was finished in 1811, Carlisle had been dead 73 years. Today, Castle Howard stands as a monument in the landscape, alongside temples, statues, and follies. But it is also a home, to Hon. Nick Howard and his wife Vicky, a former chief executive of publishing house HarperCollins, who took over the house’s management in 2014.

The Howards have come blinking into the light postpandemic. The lockdowns rather impeded progress on

Clockwise from opposite: Castle Howard’s Grand Hall makes for an impressive entrance to the house; the Antique Passage is lined with classical statuary; Vicky Howard

discoverbritainmag.com 33

34 discoverbritainmag.com

CASTLE HOWARD

Left: The 160-foot Long Gallery was designed by Charles Tatham in the early 19th century, and houses some of Castle Howard’s larger pieces of art

their long restoration to-do list: “If we had known that we were going to get time when the house was closed, we would have planned all sorts of things,” Vicky says.

As it was, “everything got put on hold and we lost two years.” Thanks to the government’s culture recovery fund, they were able to mend part of the roof, though this had to be done in the winter, not an ideal time for roof work in North Yorkshire. “We put a huge tent over half the house, and every time the wind got up it would blow around,” Vicky says.

Still, Castle Howard was not a bad place to spend a pandemic. The first lockdown was “kind of wonderful, with that amazing weather,” says Vicky, “but we were worried about the business. If you’re a visitor attraction with no visitors, that’s a problem.”

They dined outdoors looking over the park, and Nick swam in the lake. “It was a bit like living in a Russian novel,” Vicky says.

CHARLOTTE GRAHAM

Today, Castle Howard stands as a monument in the landscape, alongside temples, statues and follies Truth be told, the couple were glad when the public returned. “We saw amazing numbers of people coming in when the grounds and gardens opened again, which sort of compensated for the house being closed,” says Vicky.

“Our holiday cottages were fully booked, as was our camping, but [before the pandemic] we were heavily dependent on inbound tourism and none of them were coming near the place.” To adapt, they stepped up their digital output, and the curators held online tours and lectures, “making people all over the world excited about Castle Howard”.

The Howards live in the east wing of Castle Howard, the first part of the house to be built. “It’s pure Vanbrugh, with wonderful stone walls and huge arches, though the rooms aren’t that big,” says Vicky.

“People are often surprised about that, but it’s the case for [most of] Castle Howard, apart from the ridiculously big rooms – the Great Hall [tall enough for a 26-foot Christmas tree] and the [160-foot] Long Gallery.”

The relatively intimate east wing is certainly no rectory though – it is, after all, part of Castle Howard. “I don’t think it will ever feel homely in that sense,” says Vicky.

“It is amazing how you get used to your environment, though it does still take my breath away.”

discoverbritainmag.com 35

ANDY BULMER/PETER SMITH

STATELY HOMES

Above: The Crimson Dining Room Right: The Turquoise Drawing Room was restored thanks to funds received from the filming of Brideshead Revisited

36 discoverbritainmag.com

There are downsides to living in such a big house, and Vicky’s knees have taken the brunt of this. “Every time you go anywhere, you’re walking long distances on solid stone floors, it’s like pounding the pavements,” she says.

“I’m constantly losing my phone – it’s a massive distance you have to search if you put it down somewhere.”

Despite the extensive gardens and the 9,000-acre estate, there is no private garden for the Howards. Even going to the 18th-century walled garden is a seven-minute walk from the house. “It’s an expedition – you pack a bag to go into the walled garden,” says Vicky. But she stresses that she is not complaining: “It’s an amazing privilege to live here,” she says.

Castle Howard represents one of the best examples of the 20th-century stately home’s difficulties. When Hon. Geoffrey Howard, a younger son of the 9th Earl of Carlisle, inherited Castle Howard in the 1920s, he had three sons, and the future looked bright.

But in April 1932, his wife Ethel died, and then he too died in 1935 when their eldest son Mark was 17. With none of his children being of age, a trust was established.

In November 1940, a fire broke out in the south-east wing and swept through the house, destroying the dome and nearly 20 rooms. The house was hanging by a thread, the china shattered, the mirrors and paintings destroyed.

Within four years of the fire, Mark was killed in the Normandy landings, and shortly after, his brother Christopher was killed flying with the Dambusters.

STATELY HOMES

Left: A still from the 1981 TV adaption of Brideshead Revisited Below: The Atlas Fountain was first turned on in 1853

Their brother George survived the war and returned home, aged 25, to a roofless Castle Howard to find the trustees had begun to sell off its contents, presuming that the family would never again live there.

“He said no, woah, we’re not getting rid of it,” says Vicky of her late father-in-law.

George, later Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, was determined to rebuild Castle Howard. In the 1960s, he rebuilt the dome, and in the 1990s – after his death in 1984 – work continued and the central block was re-roofed. Restoration works in the burnt-out rooms are in progress, but the sooner they are finished the better: “We are terribly short of storage space,” says Vicky.

Lord Howard also managed to fix a deal that would catapult his home to international stardom.

Though it has recently been on our screens in Netflix’s Bridgerton [as Clyvedon Castle], the house is best associated with the 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited, about the Flyte family.

“Bridgerton is very interesting,” says Vicky, “but I can’t believe it will be remembered in the same way as Brideshead is.”

A former publisher, Vicky enjoys the literary links between Castle Howard and Brideshead, even if these are slightly disputed. Waugh is believed to have based the aristocratic Flytes on his friends the Lygon family of Madresfield Court in Worcestershire – he wrote much of Black Mischief while staying there in 1931.

With a moat, gables, and gargoyles, Madresfield is a far cry from the Baroque arches of Castle Howard. But Vicky points out, “when Brideshead Revisited was serialised and Waugh was asked for an illustration, he gave an image of Castle Howard. I think it was, like all things in fiction, an amalgamation.”

Some aspects of Brideshead are pure Castle Howard though – the fountain, described by Waugh as “frightful… such a fountain as one might expect to find in a piazza of Southern Italy”, matches Castle Howard’s Atlas Fountain, made of Portland stone with four Tritons blowing water over Atlas.

Vicky is happy either way. “Brideshead was the lifesaver of Castle Howard – it put us on the map,” she says. “For a lot of people, Castle Howard will always be Brideshead.” n

38 discoverbritainmag.com

COURTESY OF GRANADA, ITV STUDIOS, AND REX FEATURES/CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/2020 CAG PHOTOGRAPHY LTD

Their brother George survived the war and returned home, aged 25, to a roofless Castle Howard

COMPETITION

Win a luxury weekend on the South Devon coast

D

A two-night getaway at this family-run sea-view hotel in South Devon is up for grabs

iscover Britain has teamed up with Pride of Britain Hotels to offer one lucky winner and their guest a luxurious two-night stay at Thurlestone Hotel in South Devon.

Offering timeless charm, Thurlestone Hotel holds a unique appeal among Devon hotels. Whether you come for relaxation or adventure, it offers an idyllic retreat.

The beautifully appointed sea-view and luxury rooms and suites are perfect for seaside breaks, while guests also love the excellent food, spa, and leisure facilities, and Thurlestone beach is just a five-minute walk from the hotel through the village.

In the heart of the South Devon coast, Thurlestone Hotel has all the hallmarks of a classic seaside hotel, with some Art Deco flourishes that hark back to the days when this stretch of coastline, known for its golden sands and postcard-pretty villages, was the playground of the rich and famous, as depicted in many of author Agatha Christie’s glamorous mysteries.

The Prize One lucky winner, drawn at random from all the entries, and their guest, will enjoy the following: • Two nights dinner, bed and breakfast in a sea-view room at Thurlestone Hotel • A Devon cream tea served on arrival • A bottle of prosecco in their room

Enter the competition Pride of Britain Hotels Pride of Britain Hotels is a collection of hotels made up of the finest properties; each one unique and characterful. With manor homes, castles, woodland retreats, elegant lodges, and city boltholes, there is a special experience awaiting every guest at Pride of Britain Hotels.

Guests are invited to experience the best places to eat, stay and unwind within the British Isles.

For more information, please visit www. prideofbritainhotels.com

To be in with the chance of winning, either head online to www.discoverbritain.com/ southdevoncoast or fill in the form below with the answer to the following question: What famous mystery writer set several stories in South Devon? a) Stephen King b) Agatha Christie c) Ian Rankin Closing date for entries is 21 September 2022. Winner and guest must both be over 18. Prize based on two sharing a double or twin room, excluding the festive period 21 December 2022 – 3 January 2023. Prize must be taken before 31 April 2023. New bookings only and not to be used in conjunction with any other offer. For full terms and conditions, visit www.discoverbritain.com/southdevoncoast

ENTRY FORM

SEND YOUR COUPON TO: US and Canada – South Devon Coast Competition, Discover Britain, PO Box 207, Des Moines, IA 50301, USA UK and rest of world – South Devon Coast Competition, Discover Britain, The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd., Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place, London, SW3 3TQ, UK My answer: Name: Address: Postcode: Email:

Tel no:

Terms and conditions apply. For full details go to www.chelseamagazines.com/terms-and-conditions. Please tick here if you subscribe to Discover Britain . Please tick if you are happy to receive relevant information about new products or services from our competition partners via email , or post , and/or The Chelsea Magazine Company Ltd. via email , post , or phone

discoverbritainmag.com 39

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/ANDREW BUTLER

SCOTTISH JAMS

40 discoverbritainmag.com

SCOTTISH JAMS

Jams & Jeely Pieces

How a popular childhood snack of the interwar years evolved to cater for modern-day tastes, by Derek Guthrie

W

Left to right: A jeely piece, (a jam sandwich), was a favoured snack among the Scottish post-war generation

hat’s a ‘jeely piece’ you ask? Invariably quoted in the sentence “Haw Maw! Fling us doon a jeely piece!” Quite simply, it’s a jam sandwich, preferably made with white sliced bread. Best prepared lovingly by one’s mother (‘Maw’), before being thrown through the air (‘flung’) from an upstairs kitchen window in the general direction of darling offspring, too busy playing football or nursing dollies to have time for a proper lunch.

It’s nostalgia in a sandwich (‘piece’) for a whole post-war generation of Scots who grew up in four- and five-storey apartment blocks, the tenements. Love and sustenance in the form of bread held together by sticky fruit jam.

The famous Scottish sweet tooth started young: jam sandwiches, fudge, tablet, boiled sweets and virtually anything involving sugar were the regular treats of a Scottish childhood. Just ask the poor dentists.

Nowadays, school packed lunches tend towards an apple with an energy bar. Football in the street has gone too. As have many of those tenements, but some childhood dreams remain. Just ask fans of the famous ‘deep fried Mars Bar’ which began life as an urban myth until chip shops started making them to answer demand.

Back in the day, every household had a ‘jeely pan’, a vast shiny cauldron used once or twice a year to boil up enormous quantities of locally grown summer fruit with equal volumes of sugar, to be preserved in jars for the coming winter months. Scotland’s climate, a volatile mix of rain, sunshine, then more rain, is famously favoured by ducks but is also good for farmers and their produce.

On Scotland’s east coast, where there’s slightly less rainfall throughout Tayside, Fife and Angus, bounteous harvests of raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant burst forth every year in verdant landscapes like the green, low-lying Carse of Gowrie and Blairgowrie.

Scotland’s most famous hotel, Gleneagles, is nearby at Auchterarder and at peak season serves raspberries picked that afternoon, in nothing other than a feather-light mille-feuille pastry. “They don’t need anything else” the waiter will discreetly whisper as he slides the delicate, distinctly sandwich-looking dessert before you.

But all that fruit can’t be eaten fresh in a week or two: there’s 25,000 tonnes of strawberries alone.

Each year fruit pickers descend on the fields of Perthshire and suddenly Scotland’s shops and supermarkets are ablaze with brightly coloured punnets of soft fruit. To preserve this annual glut, sugar is added

discoverbritainmag.com 41

SCOTTISH JAMS

and boiled, whereupon an essential natural setting agent, pectin, appears as if by magic. Voila! The taste of summer is captured for the cold, winter months ahead.

Sarah Hood, author of Jam, Jelly and Marmalade: A Global History, explains that fruit was being preserved this way as far back as Roman times but that the sudden arrival of sugar from Britain’s American colonies in the 1600s accelerated domestic consumption.

In the post-war era, food rationing encouraged home cooking so those jeely pans were hauled out from the back of the kitchen cupboard for use once a year. Jars were sterilised in boiling water. Mothers got to work, aided by children testing the mix at every opportunity.

Labels were handwritten. Enough preserves were home-made to keep whole families in unlimited jeely pieces for the year. Until the sudden appearance of convenience foods and the growth of supermarkets put paid to it all. Jam was time consuming to make, much easier to buy off the shelf.

Scots had embraced sugar with enthusiasm, eventually exporting around the world brands like Robertson’s jam and Lauchlan Rose’s lime marmalade. The domestic methods of fruit preservation had expanded to embrace imported fruits too – limes from the Dominican Republic and most notably bitter Seville oranges from Spain, perfect for marmalade.

One story is their qualities were discovered by accident when Janet Keiller, the wife of an 18th-century Dundee merchant, who preserved a whole cargo of fresh Seville oranges before they went ‘off’. Although marmalade almost certainly existed in other forms, what Janet has certainly gone down in history for is the slicing of the peel into chunks, rather than grinding it to a paste, an identifiable trait to this day.

The Keiller business grew.

Dundee became known as the city of ‘Three Js’ after its industries based on Journalism (The Beano children’s comic is from Dundee), Jute and Jam. Keiller’s Marmalade, became the most famous and while the city no longer produces jam, the tradition is continued by their descendants Mackays, up the coast in Arbroath. Their Dundee marmalade can be found in just about any supermarket. One variation echoes another ancient Scots tradition – a tot of whisky on the side of porridge for breakfast. Dundee Marmalade flavoured with Scotch whisky is a big seller.

But tastes change. Sugar, and salt, once taken for granted, are no longer added without a second thought.

For the jam consumer, low sugar preserves have caught the imagination. Small domestic producers, with artisanal methods, are more in tune with farmers’ markets and the scaled down demands of online commerce.

‘Pam the Jam’, whose TV appearances on River Cottage and YouTube tutorials have made her a household name – in the kitchen at least – explains in her definitive Book of Preserves that reduced-sugar jams with powdered pectin liberate the jam maker to explore new avenues.

Full flavour fruitiness rather than simple sugary sweetness has more appeal to modern tastebuds.

Her latest recipe bible now extends to coulis, compotes, chutneys, fruit cheeses, fruit curds, soft set, and even savoury jams.

Scotland’s farmers’ markets are abuzz with new flavours. Kate Thornhill and her partner Iain Mackenzie of Perthshire Preserves started their business on a kitchen table in Callander over a decade ago and are now familiar faces at Edinburgh’s weekly Stockbridge and Leith open-air markets.

They happily produce traditional Scottish jams but add novel twists, like black pepper to strawberry, and citrus gin to marmalade.

They forage locally for their Hedgerow Jelly (damsons, elderberries, wild plums, and bilberries) as well as more savoury, natural ingredients. Wild Garlic Jelly sells out each spring as does their Apple and Wild Gorse, the vivid yellow flower that brightens Scottish moors and hillsides all year round. In autumn, Rowan Jelly is produced from the bright red berries of Mountain Ash trees. All three are designed to accompany cheese or grilled meat, rather than fill a sandwich.

Leoma Armstrong’s Wild Kitchen is secreted down on the Ardlamont Peninsula overlooking the Kyles of Bute and the Isle of Arran. It’s one of Argyll’s quiet, picturesque corners, home to mixed farmland and wild forestry. She forages the surrounding countryside for her ingredients to make mixed berry jam, spiced plum jam and apple chutneys. Her small batch production line (i.e., her own kitchen, near Tighnabruaich) produces jars for sale to local inns, hotels, and shops, as well as online.

Leoma’s preserves retain a home-made flavour and consistency that really could have come from your Maw’s own jeely pan.

The future of jam is bright. And not too sweet. n

Enough preserves were home-made to keep whole families in unlimited jeely pieces for the year

42 discoverbritainmag.com

Clockwise, from above: Jeely pans; marmalade with whisky is ever popular; hand-picked strawberries; Wild Garlic Jelly is a spring favourite; jam is produced across Scotland; Perthshire Preserves owners; Wild Kitchen jam

© LIV FRIISLARSEN/ISTOCK/JOHN MURRAY/GETTY IMAGES/SMAX BRIDGESQUARE MOUNTAIN/STUART ATWOOD/MARK FERGUSON

SCOTTISH JAMS

discoverbritainmag.com 43

CULTURAL BREAKS

CARDIFF

VISIT WALES/CHRISTOPHER NICHOLSON/ALAMY

Proclaimed as the first official Welsh capital in 1955, Cardiff is one of Europe’s youngest capital cities, but its rich history goes back millennia, writes Emma Sparks

Above: The medieval Catholic church at St Fagans National Museum of History Right: The gatehouse entrance to Cardiff Castle, which dates back to Roman times

44 discoverbritainmag.com

CULTURAL BREAKS

S

ituated along the south Wales coast, 150 miles west of London, Cardiff has been used as a port since the Middle Ages and was the country’s main exporter of coal in the 19th century – bringing wealth and prosperity to the region.

Today, thanks to this trading history, post-war immigration and its large student community, Cardiff is home to a welcoming, multicultural population that is fiercely proud of this fascinating, compact capital.

The city’s vibrant nightlife, impressive shopping scene and lively

sporting events (visit on a rugby match day or attend a game at the Principality Stadium and you’ll see what we mean) have always drawn a crowd, and recent years have seen a raft of new indie restaurants offering an unforgettable taste of Cardiff’s hospitality.

Pair all this with a proud and distinctive Celtic culture – plus the fact that the rolling hills of the Brecon Beacons are just an hour north, and a string of sandy beaches lie a stone’s throw to the west, and it’s easy to see why Cardiff makes the perfect base for all kinds of Welsh adventures.

discoverbritainmag.com 45

CULTURAL BREAKS

Morning

Above: The National Museum Cardiff is home to Renoir’s La Parisienne Below: A re-erected building at St Fagans National Museum of History

blossom trees) and a collection of soaring sequoia.

Grab a coffee at the riverside Secret Garden Café or linger to indulge in their delicious homemade bakes.

Afternoon If weather allows, head to St Fagans National Museum of History, on the outskirts of the city, to delve deeper into Welsh heritage. This open-air living museum is home to over 40 re-erected buildings from around Wales, allowing visitors

to walk through centuries of Welsh history. Highlights include a medieval Catholic church and a Victorian schoolhouse with a North Walian slate roof.

Back in the city centre, an abundance of rainy-day adventures awaits. You could browse the collection at the National Museum Cardiff – featuring three paintings from Monet’s Water Lilies series, a Van Gogh and Renoir’s La Parisienne to name a few – or immerse yourself in contemporary art and film at

CADW PHOTOGRAPHIC LIBRARY/JAMES O. DAVIES/DAVID RYLE

Start your day at the capital’s crowning glory: Cardiff Castle, a Roman fort turned medieval stronghold that encompasses 2,000 years of history. Much of the castle’s charm lies in its extravagant gothic-style additions – such as a gilded clock tower, muralled banqueting hall and ‘animal wall’ lined with stone carvings of creatures including a sea lion, a bear, and a pair of apes.

The Bute family – who played a key role in Cardiff’s thriving 19th-century coal exports – resided in Cardiff Castle for over 150 years, until 1947, when the castle and 130-acre grounds (now known as Bute Park) were gifted to the city.

Stretching north from the castle, hugged by the meandering River Taff, the well-tended park is peppered with tree stump sculptures and a plethora of arboreal beauties – including an avenue of Ginkgo biloba, young Sakura (cherry

46 discoverbritainmag.com

CULTURAL BREAKS

OUR TIPS Getting to Cardiff The Welsh capital is just two hours from London Paddington by train (gwr.com) and around three-anda-half hours from London Victoria or Heathrow by coach (nationalexpress.com). Cardiff Airport is a 30-minute drive or train journey from the city centre.

Where to stay The newly opened Parkgate Hotel (theparkgatehotel.wales) offers luxury accommodation within a grand Grade II-listed building that was the city’s main post office during the Victorian era.

Need some ‘me time’? Let the sparkling sea views and tensionbusting spa treatments at Voco St Davids (stdavids.vocohotels.com) in Cardiff Bay soothe your mind, body, and soul.

Canton’s cultural community hub, Chapter, which celebrates its 50th birthday in 2022.

If you like your city breaks with a side of retail therapy, visit the city’s Victorian arcades, which house an array of independent boutiques, art galleries and quaint cafés.

Evening Creativity, self-expression, and the performing arts run deep in Welsh culture – most notably at the National Eisteddfod, an annual celebration of music, dance, visual arts, literature and the Welsh language held in a different region of Wales each year – and Cardiff certainly knows how to put on a show.

Don’t miss the chance to catch a performance at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay – a gleaming architectural wonder by the sea whose resident organisations include the Welsh National Opera, National Dance Company Wales, and BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales.

This is also where touring West End musicals dazzle toe-tapping audiences (it is wise to book well in advance). Classical music lovers should also keep an eye out for concerts at St David’s Hall, host venue for the Welsh proms, while those curious about Welsh playwrights and young local talent can find smaller-scale productions at the Sherman Theatre. n

Above: Cardiff Castle’s Great Hall Below: The Wales Millennium Centre is the perfect place to get your culture fix

Where to eat Grab lunch at Cardiff Market – popular treats include chewycrusted Neopolitan pizzas from Ffwrnes (Welsh for ‘furnace’ – ffwrnes.co.uk) and traditional Welsh cakes (a tasty scone/ pancake hybrid) at Bakestones. (bakestoneswales.co.uk).

Dig into sustainable, locallysourced small plates at Kindle (kindlecardiff.co.uk) – dining is al fresco, but shelter and blankets keep things cosy on cooler days.

Find out more For inspiration and help planning your visit, go to visitcardiff.com and visitwales.com

discoverbritainmag.com 47

Promotion for North American readers

DISCOVER BRITAIN PRESENTS AN EXCLUSIVE READER TRAVEL OFFER The Cotswolds

Small Group Travel for Individuals Passionately focused on small group travel to Great Britain for over 20 years REQUEST MORE INFORMATION BY MAIL:

Discover Britain Travel Offers, c/o Discover Europe, Ltd., 122 Island Street, Keene, NH 03431, USA To learn more about Discover Europe, call their toll-free number or visit their website: (866) 563-7077 | www.discovereuropeltd.com

Please send me the itineraries for your most popular trips to Britain and your free European Travel newsletter.

N���: A������: C���: S����: Z�� C���: P����: E����: □ C���� ���� �� B� A���� T� D������� E�����’� ����� ���������� ����.

(Non US/Canadian residents can only receive the email newsletter)

Discover Britain programmes are designed and operated in conjunction with Discover Europe, Ltd., of Keene, New Hampshire and London, England.

WILDLIFE

PLAYING PUFFIN

PEEKABOO It’s high season on Britain’s coastline for these loveable seabirds, so we asked photographer Bella Falk for her top tips on capturing them on camera

discoverbritainmag.com 49

WILDLIFE

B

Clockwise, from top left: A puffin with supper in beak; Skomer is a puffin breeding ground; Skomer Island; Martin’s Haven; two puffins bask in the sun; visitors get up close

50 discoverbritainmag.com

ritain is home to 25 different species of breeding seabirds, but none is more iconic, or more photo-friendly, than the puffin.

Nicknamed ‘sea parrots’ or ‘clowns of the sea’ thanks to their quizzical expressions, clumsy movements, and eye-catching orange beaks, puffins are so well-loved that in a vote to choose Britain’s National Bird from all 400 native species, they came in 10th place.

Puffins spend much of their lives at sea, but every year in spring and summer over half a million return to the UK’s shores to breed, and one of the best places to see them is Skomer Island, just off the coast of Wales.

Here, between April and September, around 35,000 puffins return to raise their chicks – which are adorably called ‘pufflings’.

Skomer is only small – just two miles across – but there’s other wildlife too, including guillemots, razorbills, curlews, seals, and porpoises, all set against a backdrop of dramatic cliffs, vivid green hillsides, and colourful red and white campions. It’s also just 15 minutes by boat from the mainland, making it an easily accessible place to experience some of the best of British nature.

And yet, despite being a wildlife lover who has photographed everything from penguins in Antarctica to gorillas in Uganda, I’d never been.

Embarrassingly, I’d never even glimpsed a single puffin.

So last year, with international travel cancelled, and desperate for an adventure after months of lockdown, I decided to fix that. I managed to snap up a last-minute cancellation on a Skomer landing trip, rented a car, and drove down the M4 from London to finally tick puffins off my photography wishlist.

My luck held out when I arrived at Martin’s Haven, the departure point for boats to Skomer. It was a bluebird sky day, and the sea was stirred only by a light breeze. The skipper noticed my camera and gave me a knowing nod.

“You’re going to have a great time,” he said. “Head to the south of the island. The puffins practically walk over your feet there.”

In photography there’s nothing more valuable than local knowledge. And as soon as I arrived at the

WILDLIFE

discoverbritainmag.com 51

WILDLIFE

Right: A puffin in flight, heading back to its burrow to feeds its pufflings with sand eels; Below: Puffins nest in burrows in the side of the cliffs

52 discoverbritainmag.com

TAKE FIVE

Here are Bella’s top tips for photographing puffins...

1. Talk to the guides. They will know where the best place is to see puffins on any given day.

2. Autofocus is your friend. Puffins move quickly, and unless you’re a professional sports photographer, you’ll struggle in manual. If you’re using a compact camera, put it in sports mode.

3. Think about the background. Try to position yourself somewhere where you’ll get soft green plants or sparkling blue sea rather than dirty soil. Crouching down to the birds’ level helps.

4. Be patient. It takes a while to get your eye in and learn how they move and how to anticipate them.

5. Follow the rules. Tempting as it may be to get a little closer, never step off the path or you may crush a burrow.

BELLA FALK

promised puffin hotspot, I could see why the skipper had given me this tip.

Right up to the path on both sides, the ground was studded with hundreds of puffin burrows. A few dozen birds were waddling about, or settled on the cliff edge, while yet more shuttled to and fro from the burrow entrances, launching out to sea to fetch food, or landing with beaks crammed with silvery sand eels for their hungry offspring. I attached my biggest zoom lens and started trying to capture them.

For years I’d gazed enviously at the gorgeous puffin photos that appear annually in my social media timelines, but now that I was at the coalface myself, I quickly discovered that puffin photography is a lot harder than it looks. These comical little birds move erratically and fly surprisingly fast for something with such stubby wings.

As soon as they emerge from their burrows they launch into the air and speed away, and when they return, they dive back underground before you’ve even had a chance to swing round and focus. I took shot after shot, and mostly ended up with distant images of a puffin’s rear end as it disappeared.

But gradually I got better. I learned where the busiest spots were, with the most attractive backgrounds. I began to recognise the movements and sounds of departing and returning puffins and got quicker at focusing. And sometimes a parent would temporarily forget where it’d left the baby, pausing with its beak laden with fish to look for the right hole while I fired off shots delightedly.

I can’t tell you much about what the rest of Skomer is like since I didn’t visit any of it. But when you’ve got a front row seat to the stars of the show, why would you go anywhere else? n

Subscribe Now to BRITAIN Magazine

BRITAIN FIND YOUR

6

As a subscriber you will enjoy these benefits: •A fascinating journey around ancient castles and cathedrals, cottages and countryside •Page turning tales of historic heroes and villains, from kings and queens to soldiers and statesmen •Stunning photography that brings Britain’s iconic landmarks and landscapes to life •Competitions to win luxury holidays to Britain •Delivery straight to your home, so you never miss an issue

THE OFFICI AL M AG AZINE

HIS TO RY HER ITAG E TRAVEL CULTUR E

Castle Countr y

AWARD -WI NN ING MA GAZ

INE

WIN

A LUXURY STAY IN SUFFOLK

Discover mighty Northumberland

IN SI DE NU M BE R 10

Prime Ministers past to present

AGATHA CH RI STIE

Cirencester Cotswolds gem

A mysterious life

Kilts, clans & cèilidhs Scot

land’s unique tradition

SPECIAL SAVINGS Fall in love with Liverpool

Shear delight: Historic wool towns

s

JAN/FE B 2021 £4.95

www.b ritain-m agazine .com OFC_BRITAIN JanFeb2

1 final.indd 2

24/11/2020 14:47

Annual subscription to BRITAIN magazine: UK £21.95 | Rest of World £33.95 | Europe €38.95 | USA $39.95 | Canada $44.95 |Australia $66.95

Easy ways to order

UK & ROW go to www.chelseamagazines.com/ CBRTDB22 Or phone +44 (0)1858 438 789 (quoting code CBRTDB22) USA & Canada go to www.chelseamagazines.com/BRI-J212S1 Or phone 888-321-6378 (quoting code J212S1) If for any reason you’re not happy with your subscription, you may cancel within 14 days of placing your order

QUIRKY

Summer

celebrations Rooted in ancient traditions, Adrian Mourby looks at how the longest days of summer have been celebrated in Britain for millennia and explains how you can join festivities this year and next

54 discoverbritainmag.com

QUIRKY BRITAIN

Left to right: Revellers flock to Stonehenge every year for the summer solstice; the alignments of Stonehenge make it the perfect place to observe the midsummer sunrise

CHRISTOPHER ISON/ALAMY/ ANDRE PATTENDEN/ENGLISH HERITAGE TRUST

T

his year 21 June marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere when the earth is at its maximum tilt towards the sun and days are at their longest.

We call it ‘midsummer’ in Britain and while that is chronologically correct – the sun will not be as high again in the sky for another 12 months – our damp maritime climate tends to make this date feel like the beginning of summer rather than its midpoint.

However, from late June onwards Britain warms up.

We take boats out on lakes and rivers, we opt for shorts and sundresses regardless of the weather forecast, and we picnic at the seaside even if, at any moment, rain clouds may send us scurrying back to our cars.

The longest day and all the subsequent joys of summer are important points in the British psyche. Year after year we soldier on through dark, wet winters, focusing on summer’s promise of warmth and easy living as our reward and it’s no new trend.

Across Britain, over millennia many traditions have become associated with midsummer’s eve and midsummer’s day, which traditionally take place a few days after the summer solstice.

Most commonly, people aim to be somewhere that they can watch the sun rise on the summer solstice – which is usually around 5am. Stonehenge is one of the most famous sites in the world for this yearly vigil. It was built 5,000 years ago, possibly as a place of healing as well as a celestial observatory, though historians are still unsure.

Stonehenge’s alignments certainly fit with the rising

discoverbritainmag.com 55

QUIRKY BRITAIN

sun of the summer solstice and there are also some lesser-known stone circles where the solstice sunrise can be observed.

For example, in Devon, three wonderfully-named sites: Hingston Hill, Drizzlecombe, and Merivale are all popular Dartmoor meeting points at dawn, though none can match Stonehenge’s crowds – in 2019, 10,000 revellers watched the sun rise at the iconic stone circle.

Bonfires are another tradition associated with midsummer in Britain. Considering this festival takes place at the brightest and warmest time of the year, it seems ironic that so many celebrations are based around flames.

Leaping over bonfires was – and still is – a popular pastime on midsummer’s eve in some parts of Britain, especially Yorkshire. Traditionally, the highest leap indicated the height that wheat might grow that summer.

Flaming torches are frequently carried in midsummer processions, and if fire were not spectacular enough, when gunpowder reached British shores, places like Trencom Hill in West Cornwall cut ‘midsummer holes’ into the rock. Every midsummer’s eve these would be filled with

gunpowder and plugged with clay and then detonated as darkness approached.

A pre-Christian explanation for all these flames ran that at such a powerful time of the year – when the sun was never stronger – the veil between this world and all others was very thin indeed, so evil spirits were emboldened to walk the Northern Hemisphere.

Also, at this time, old-year fairies might steal babies and replace them with changeling replicas who, on closer inspection, looked like little old men.

So, fire was a good way of deterring demons. Another precaution was picking special flowers and herbs that the harvester could weave into protective garlands.

Plants plucked on midsummer’s eve had special potency. St John’s Wort with its blood-red sap if lain to dry on a window ledge could keep the house free of evil spirits, fire, and thunderbolts. Worn around the neck, it even guarded against mental illness.

Vervain, trefoil and rose were also considered efficacious and worth picking, as was – ironically – the abortifacient, rue.

In Wales, midsummer has been known for many years as ‘Gathering Day’ because so many herbs and flowers

SIMON MAYCOCK/STUART BLACK /HELEN HOTSON/ALAMY

At such a powerful time of the year - when the sun was never stronger - the veil between this world and all others was very thin indeed

Clockwise, from right: The first written records of Morris dancing in England are from the 15th century; Hingston Hill in Devon is a popular meeting point at dawn on the summer solstice; the Mazey Day parade marks the end of the Golowan Festival in Penzance, Cornwall

56 discoverbritainmag.com

QUIRKY

discoverbritainmag.com 57

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/PAUL HARRIS/STEPHEN ROBSON/JOHN MILLER

QUIRKY BRITAIN

58 discoverbritainmag.com

QUIRKY

MIDSUMMER REVELRIES

were traditionally picked over the 24-hour period.

Gathering Day was also the time when people would harvest the herbs that they would need for use throughout the winter.

After the establishment of the Christian Church in Britain, circa AD6OO, the summer solstice was appropriated as the Feast of St John the Baptist. This move mirrored the appropriation of the winter solstice for Christ’s birthday.

While the pagan midsummer solstice could vary by up to three days, according to the astronomical calendar, St John’s Festival was fixed on one standardised date, 24 June, as was midsummer’s day. At the same time the superstition surrounding solar-boosted herbs was replaced by the more ecclesiastical blessing of crops.

The midsummer Festival of St John was also celebrated by bathing in water the night before for purification, and by a feast and prayers on the day itself. Not surprisingly, many of the heartier pagan traditions survived both Catholicism, the English Reformation and even the repressively puritan Commonwealth.

It seems that on the longest days of the year, before we begin our reluctant return towards winter, people just want to have fun. n

Here are some ways for you to join in the summer celebrations across Britain yourself

Observing the sunrise Many hills – like Midsummer Hill in Malvern – attract those who want to witness the sun rise for its longest day from up high.

Stone circles like those at Avebury and Stonehenge also attract worshippers, and remote islands appeal to neo-pagans.

Near Calanais on the Isle of Lewis, there are over a dozen stone circles, all estimated to be around 5,000 years old. The exact function of these constructions isn’t clear, but their very ambiguity makes them ideal for sun and moon worshippers to visit for both equinoxes and the two solstices.

Midsummer Morris The origin of Morris dancing in Britain is debatable. Even the derivation of the word is unclear, with ‘Moorish’ suggested as a reference to the way that dancers used to blacken their faces until the 20th century.

Regardless of etymology, the first written records of this energetic English ritual began in the 15th century. Today ‘Morris’ consists of people (usually men) dancing in white costumes with ribbons and bells on their legs as they hit sticks noisily together.

All-male Morris-dancers can be found on May Day and at the summer solstice in Abbots Bromley, Abingdon, Canterbury, Harrogate, Wensleydale and Winchester. In St Albans, the Stony Redcaps are a group of female Morris dancers who dance without sticks throughout the year, but also particularly at midsummer.

Golowan revived Since 1991, the week-long Golowan Festival (golowanfestival. org – ‘Golowan’ is Cornish for ‘midsummer’) in Penzance, on the Cornish coast, has revived many of the ancient traditions of this time of year in the area. The festival culminates in the election of a Mayor of the quay and a parade on what is known as Mazey Day, when the Penglaz, a sinister-looking hobbyhorse, leads the Serpent Dance through the streets of Penzance.

TIM WRIGHT/ALAMY/VISITSCOTLAND/PAUL TOMKINS/JEREMY FLINT IMAGES

Clockwise, from left: Midsummer Hill (in the distance) is a popular spot to watch the summer solstice; golfers can play a late tee on midsummer’s night in Shetland; the Calanais Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis are estimated to be 5,000 years old

Golf in the Northern Isles With the sun hardly setting at all in the Shetland Isles in midsummer, a new tradition has grown up of people playing late night golf on one of the archipelago’s four stunning golf courses, or the five courses on Orkney. While the clubhouses are closed for the day, courses aren’t, and honesty boxes are provided so green fees can still be paid.

discoverbritainmag.com 59

She became an active campaigner for conservation, buying up large areas of land in her beloved Lake District 60 discoverbritainmag.com

BEATRIX POTTER

Drawn to the Lakes

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON

A new exhibition at London’s V&A Museum in collaboration with the National Trust examines the life and work of Beatrix Potter, from storyteller to natural scientist to conservationist, by Sally Coffey

Left to right: Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top, Cumbria, in 1905; an illustration from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

discoverbritainmag.com 61

BEATRIX POTTER

Early inspiration The world in which Beatrix Potter lived at times seems at

62 discoverbritainmag.com

odds with the subjects and very nature of her books.

Far from living in the countryside, Beatrix lived on the outskirts of London (albeit in a semi-rural part) in Bolton Gardens, in a house big enough that it required cleaning for a full month every year.

During this annual spring clean, Beatrix and her parents, together with her brother Bertram, would leave London and go and stay with friends and family around Britain, often in more rural locations, or rent country houses, and it was these early visits that first inspired Beatrix’s love of nature.

Beatrix and her brother Bertram, who were educated at home with a governess, shared a love of nature and art – Bertram later became a landscape oil painter and etcher – and the pair often sneaked animals into their schoolroom and even kept a collection of insects, birds’ eggs, fossils, and rocks for their own closer inspection.

However, Beatrix grew up at a time when great restrictions were placed on girls and women, and when her brother went off to boarding school, her education continued at home alone, though her parents, who were both artistic, had arranged for her to have drawing lessons.

Beatrix developed an interest in botany and learned how to draw what she saw under a microscope, and by the mid 1880s this had developed into a passion for mycology – the study of fungi. Though she was no doubt an expert in her field, it was only thanks to her uncle, the chemist Sir Henry Roscoe, that an essay she wrote on the subject was presented at a meeting of The Linnean Society (as a woman, Beatrix was not permitted to attend).

Love of the Lakes For a few years the Potter family holidayed at Dalguise House in Perthshire, which inspired some of Beatrix’s earliest stories. It was on a return visit, much later in 1893, that Beatrix wrote to one of the children of her former governess, telling a story of “four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter”.

It was many years before the ‘bunny story’ was first

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON/COURTESY FREDERICK WARNE & CO. LTD/NATIONAL TRUST/PAUL HARRIS

T

oday, conservation is a subject that is taken very seriously. We have national parks protecting areas of biodiversity, laws that forbid or manage certain behaviours, and long-term projects aimed to not only protect our landscapes and wildlife, but in many cases restore them to their natural state.

This was not the case in Beatrix Potter’s time. Born in 1866 into an upper-middle-class household, in London’s Kensington, the circles in which she moved – at least for the first half of her life – were more concerned with displaying the natural world in their homes (the more exotic the better) than they were in conserving it.

But as a new exhibition at London’s V&A Museum, which displays some of the incredible artefacts in the National Trust’s archives, shows, Beatrix Potter never felt completely at home in Victorian London society.

After one particular visit to her grandparents’ house of Camfield Place in Hertfordshire in 1884, aged 17, Beatrix wrote: “Camfield, country most beautiful… Why do people live in London so much?... head suddenly completely better without apparent cause.”

Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature, on until January 2023, looks at Beatrix Potter’s long love affair with nature. Beginning as a childhood infatuation with animals and the British countryside, Beatrix’s love of nature fed her much-loved children’s stories and characters, from the famously mischievous Peter Rabbit to the industrious Squirrel Nutkin, and made her a household name.

However, Beatrix’s success in the publishing world was not the pinnacle of her career – though the riches she earned certainly came in handy – but in later life she became an active campaigner for conservation, buying up large areas of land in her beloved Lake District, which she later gifted to the nation, and which form part of the modern-day Lake District National Park.

Clockwise from right: Yew Tree Farm was sold to the National Trust in 1930; View Across Esthwaite Water by Beatrix Potter; a view of the Lake District; Beatrix Potter aged 15

discoverbritainmag.com 63

BEATRIX POTTER

64 discoverbritainmag.com

BEATRIX POTTER

NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/JAMES DOBSON/ROBERT THRIFT/VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM LONDON

Clockwise, from top left: Beatrix Potter’s desk at Hill Top; a waistcoat in The Tailor of Gloucester, on show at the V&A; Beatrix Potter, her shepherd and a prize-winning sheep; an illustration from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck; Beatrix Potter’s hat and clogs at Hill Top; an illustration from Peter Rabbit

published in 1901, by which time Beatrix’s heart had been well and truly stolen by the Lake District.

The family’s first summer in the Lake District was spent at Wray Castle, on Lake Windermere, in 1882, with Beatrix spending her days drawing the mountains, woodlands, fauna, flora, and wildlife around her. It was at Wray Castle that Beatrix met Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, vicar of the nearby church, who championed her books and conservation work, and who later went on to co-found the National Trust.

Other holiday locations that undeniably provided inspiration for Beatrix’s tales were Fawe Park near Derwentwater, where during a stay Beatrix reimagined the messy garden as Mr McGregor’s Garden in Peter Rabbit.

Conservation and the National Trust In 1905 Beatrix bought her first property, the 34-acre farm Hill Top in the village of Near Sawrey, using the proceeds of her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

On her first visit to Near Sawrey, almost a decade earlier, Beatrix had fallen head over heels, writing: “It is as nearly perfect a little place as I have ever lived in”, so it’s no wonder that she returned here, when she could afford it.

Initially, Beatrix used Hill Top as a place to write and draw, but in 1913, it became her permanent home.

After making Hill Top her main home, Beatrix’s writing became less of a priority, as she focused on farming.

She also became a keen conservationist, who used her wealth to buy up more and more property and land in the Lake District to prevent it from being developed – it had been through the purchase of one of these properties that she had met her husband, the solicitor William Heelis.

After buying one of the largest farms in the Lake District in 1923, Troutbeck Park, Beatrix employed a local shepherd Tom Storey to help her breed Herdwick Sheep and revive numbers of the breed.

Beatrix became the first woman to be elected president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association, an organisation set up by her friend, Canon Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, and today these sheep are still a significant part of the landscape.

Upon her death in 1943, Beatrix bequeathed 4,000 acres of land, including 15 farms and buildings, to the National Trust, which today cares for over 20% of the national park.

Each of the farms are still working farms, as per Beatrix’s wishes, and her beloved Hill Top has been preserved as a heritage site, open to visitors to come and celebrate the places and characters that feature in her ‘little books’. n For more on the exhibition, go to vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/ beatrix-potter-drawn-to-nature

discoverbritainmag.com 65

HISTORIC TOWNS

WHITSTABLE HISTORIC TOWNS

Fresh oysters, colourful beach huts, and coastal walks make this Kent seaside resort a must-visit, writes Nichola Daunton

F

ive miles north of Kent’s capital, Canterbury, the historic town of Whitstable has been defined by its oysters for thousands of years. After the Romans conquered parts of Britain in AD43, the invading army discovered a taste for the Kentish molluscs, which they promptly shipped back to Italy.

Considered ‘poor man’s food’ for centuries, the harbour town’s oysters now have a world-renowned reputation, which is celebrated every year at the Whitstable Oyster Festival.

The four-day event was revived in the 1980s, though an oyster festival of sorts was held here as far back as Norman times. This year’s festival takes place from 27-30 August, the start of the Whitstable Native

66 discoverbritainmag.com

HISTORIC TOWNS

JOANA KRUSE/ALAMY/ALEX HARE/ANNABEL STAFF/VISIT KENT

Clockwise, from left: Historic Whitstable sits on Kent’s pretty coast just five miles from Canterbury; Wheelers Oyster Bar has been running on the same site since 1856; the town has a worldwide reputation for its excellent oysters, going back to Roman times

oyster season, though non-native Pacific oysters, grown in trestles at sea, are available year round.

The celebration kicks off with the traditional ‘landing of the oyster,’ a symbolic ceremony that sees the first catch blessed by the Lord Mayor of Canterbury and his clergy.

If oysters aren’t your thing, there’s plenty more to explore in this historic coastal town.

From brightly coloured beach huts to quirky vintage shops and some of the best fish and chips you have ever tasted, Whitstable is a seaside resort with style.

com). Owned by Delia Fitt, a Whitstable local born and bred, the restaurant has stood on the same site since 1856.

Unmissable on the high street thanks to its salmon pink and blue facade, the waiting list for a table can be months long, so make sure you book well in advance.

Delia, who inherited the bar from her parents, now runs the restaurant with chef Mark Stubbs, and the pair serve up lip-smacking seasonal seafood dishes throughout the year. Everything is made from scratch, using produce caught by local fishermen or grown in their organic garden.

Local hero

Places to stay

You can’t get more local here than Wheeler’s Oyster Bar (wheelersoysterbar.

If you want to stay in a historic building, then book into one of the town’s black

boarded fisherman’s huts on the seafront (whitstablefishermanshuts.com). Dotted along the beach, these wooden huts are over 130 years old and were traditionally used by fishermen to store their gear. Though the striking exterior remains, the inside of the huts have been sleekly kitted out with modern furnishings and clever design.

Another lovely place to stay on the seafront is Tides Cottage (tidescottage.co. uk), a cute hideaway with a door that opens right onto the beach, and which is just a short walk away from the Old Neptune Pub.

Photo opportunity Arguably a contender for the most photogenic place in England, › is a photographer’s dream. From the candy-

discoverbritainmag.com 67

HISTORIC TOWNS

ALEX HARE/VISIT KENT/ROBERTHARDING/ALAMY

Top: Whitstable’s photogenic high street is sprinkled with quirky vintage shops, antique havens and tearooms in which to while away an afternoon Bottom: Colourful beach huts line the shore in Whitstable

coloured shops that wind down the pretty high street, to the brightly jewelled beach huts that line the shore, there’s a vibrancy to everything here.

If you visit during the festival, make sure to snap the grotter sculptures, constructed on Horsebridge beach. For those who don’t know, ‘grotters’ are towers made of oyster shells, usually built towards the end of the day after you’ve eaten your fill of shellfish.

Depending on how hungry you are, they can get quite big, and candles are added at night to give them an eerie ghostly glow.

Extend your trip If you want to spend more time in the ‘garden of England’ you could do a lot worse than walking Kent’s coastal paths. The neighbouring seaside town of Herne Bay is just a five-mile stroll along the seafront and a great place to stop off for some traditional fish and chips.

If you’re up for a longer trek, the larger seaside town of Margate is 12 miles further down the coast. Home to Turner Contemporary, a modern art gallery sat right on the beach, and a smattering of

68 discoverbritainmag.com

antique shops, Margate has become very trendy in recent years.

For a medieval history lesson, a visit to Canterbury Cathedral is a must.

Further reading The county of Kent’s tourism website (visitkent.co.uk) has lots of useful

information for planning your visit.

For a deeper dive into the region, Julie Wassmer’s crime series The Whitstable Pearl Mystery series is hard to put down, while History in Whitstable – Places and People, by Geoffrey Pike and John Cann, will furnish you with lots of background knowledge. n

Enjoy a day out 1,400 years in the making

Kids Go

FREE* until 31 October 2022 *Visitor entry. T&Cs apply

NEW visitor experiences, tours and exhibition for 2022 Less than an hour from London • Search ‘Canterbury Cathedral’

Tour of English Castles & Mansions A magnificent journey through the South East of England and the Heart of England Join us on a small group tour unlike any other

A 9 day tour in the South East of England with the option to extend to 14 day to include the Heart of England (Days include 3 days international travel) • 5 nights in Canterbury and 4 nights in Worcester

No daily unpacking and packing!

Don’t forget our popular Tour of the English Cotswold, our Isle of Wight, our English Channel Isles and our Isles of Scilly MIX & MATCH! for an extended vacation Enjoy you own Private Tours Customize your private tour with family or friends. in the Garden of England.

Ask for more information A gardeners paradise For brochures and more information on the above call Barry Devo on 330 284 4709 EDT Canton OH email barrydevo@prepcotravel.com or visit www.prepcotravel.com and click on Start Planning discoverbritainmag.com 69

ROUTE

70 discoverbritainmag.com

The

Volcanic Coast Easily accessible from Edinburgh, a walk along the Fife Coastal Path is a walk through the region’s geological and industrial past, writes Lizzie Enfield

discoverbritainmag.com 71

K

incraig Neck, one of Scotland’s most spectacular old volcanoes, is made up of vast columns of jointed basalt rock, rising out of the sea, like an array of organ pipes.

It is Fife’s equivalent to Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway: a stunning array of hexagonal structures formed millions of years ago when Scotland was a hotbed of geological and volcanic activity.

This activity has shaped much of today’s landscape. Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and the city’s castle rock are extinct volcanoes, while seen across the Firth of Forth from Fife, the Sidlaw Hills are also the remains of once towering mountains of fire.

The grandly named Kingdom of Fife is a pretty peninsula sandwiched between the Firth of Forth in the south, and the Firth of Tay in the north.

In total, the Fife Coastal Path runs from Kincardine to Newburgh over a distance of 117 miles, but for this route, we’ve chosen to cover the ‘bridge to bridge’ section from North Queensferry, just across The Forth Bridge from Edinburgh, to Newport-on-Tay, which looks across to Dundee – a distance of 81 miles.

The route is sprinkled with sandy beaches, golden dunes, and picturesque fishing villages, and can be easily broken into sections.

There is also a good selection of places to stay at along the way.

The first major port of call is Burntisland, built at the turn of the 20th century to ship coal to Europe – mining was one of the biggest industries here in the 19th and 20th centuries.

All that remains of that industry is the odd skeletal winding gear, looming dramatically like the ghost of an industrial past above disused mineshafts.

From Burntisland you can walk across the vast award-winning sands of Kinghorn Bay and around the coast to the town of Kirkcaldy, once the world’s linoleum capital, when its six factories were in full operation.

Today only one remains, but an exhibition in the Kirkaldy Galleries has an interesting display of pattern books, tools, and printing equipment.

Golf is one of the main tourist draws in the Fife region and there are courses dotted throughout the peninsula, from Leven, which is just nine miles east along the coast from Kirkaldy, to St Andrews in the northeast of the peninsula, where this year the 150th Open will be held.

But don’t rush to Fife’s well-polished main town, as between Leven and St Andrews lies the East Neuk (Neuk meaning ‘corner’), a cute clutch of fishing villages where local boats land their catches into the harbours of Elie, St Monans, Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail.

Previous page: Crail’s pretty harbour is the perfect place to enjoy some fresh shellfish. Opposite page, top to bottom: Ravenscraig Castle, on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy is one of the earliest artillery forts in Scotland; the beautiful Old Course at St Andrews is world-renowned for being the ‘Home of Golf’

72 discoverbritainmag.com

IMAGES © CAROLINE TROTTER/ALAMY/ VISITSCOTLAND/DAMIAN SHIELDS/KENNY LAM ILLUSTRATION © ELLY JAHNZ

ROUTE

ROUTE

Between Leven and St Andrews lies the East Neuk, a cute clutch of fishing villages where local boats land their catches in the pretty harbours

discoverbritainmag.com 73

Each of the villages has other attractions besides, from the sweeping sands of Elie’s Ruby Bay to the 17th- and 18th-century pantiled houses of St Monans, the shrine of St Fillan’s Cave in Pittenweem, and the excellent fish and chips on offer in Anstruther, from where you can take a boat ride out to the Isle of May. From Anstruther, it’s another couple of miles to Crail along what was once the seabed. At the end of the last Ice Age, 11,500 years ago, land that had been pushed down by its weight, began to rise and what was once the beach now stands high above the shore.

So too do the stunning multihued Caiplie sea caves, their arches carved by oceans thousands of years ago. In the harbour at Crail, the Lobster Hut serves fresh shellfish cooked while you wait.

From Crail, a gusty stretch of coastline brings you to St Andrews, heading up first to Fife Ness, with its iconic concrete and glass panelled lighthouse, built to replace a series of light vessels that had previously alerted sailors to the North Carr shoals, a series of reefs that caused numerous shipwrecks.

Another sea cave, Buddo Rock, stands high on the old seabed as the route continues to the famous ‘rock and spindle’ just east of St Andrews, where a column of solidified volcanic ash radiates spokes of joined basalt, giving the appearance of a spinning wheel.

From here, Scotland’s former ecclesiastic capital comes into view. Most of its medieval walls are still intact and its three ancient streets, North, Market, and South Street converge on the ruined, St Andrews Cathedral.

Leaving St Andrews behind, the Fife Coastal Path leads out of the town, past the castle and other important heritage sites, such as Martyrs Monument, an obelisk that commemorates four protestants executed for their beliefs in the lead up to the Scottish Reformation.

Following Polish Camp Road (Polish army units were stationed here during WWII) you pass through a Scots pine forest, joining the Sea Shell trail, a waymarked trail that loops across the dunes and back through the forest, before reaching an icehouse.

Built around 1852, this icehouse was used to store ice gathered from local ponds during winter. The ice, packed with layers of heather and straw, was used to preserve locally caught salmon before shipping it south. The structure is now home to a colony of Natterer’s bats.

The route continues through Tentsmuir Forest to Newport-on-Tay where, with a nice bit of symmetry, the Tay Road and Rail bridges take you across the river to Dundee with its spectacular waterfront, and renowned museums and galleries, including the first branch outside London of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Many visitors to Scotland arrive in Edinburgh and head north for the Highlands or east to the beaches of North Berwick. Close to the capital is an area less well trodden but no less rewarding – the varied and majestic Kingdom of Fife.

Turn the page to discover eight key points along our route…

Clockwise, from top right: Fresh crab and lobster is sold in Crail; St Andrews Cathedral was once Scotland’s ecclesiastical centre; the Isle of May is home to a Stevenson Lighthouse; the Fife Coastal Path boasts many golden sand beaches

74 discoverbritainmag.com

REALIMAGE/STEPHEN DOREY ABIPP/ALESSANDRO BOSIO/ALAMY/VISITSCOTLAND/KENNY LAM

ROUTE

discoverbritainmag.com 75

ROUTE

76 discoverbritainmag.com

ROUTE

DISTANCE: 81 MILES ROUTE: NORTH QUEENSFERRY TO NEWPORT-ON-TAY

1

LOWER LARGO

This village, a little east of Leven, is worth a visit as it was the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish privateer who spent four years as a castaway in the South Pacific and was said to have been the main inspiration for the titular character in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

Selkirk eventually made it back to Lower Largo, but his thirst for adventure was strong and he was soon off again. However, Defoe’s depiction ensured his legacy and there is now a life-size statue of him outside his birthplace at 99-105 Main Street, which is worth a visit.

2018 REIMAR/SHUTTERSTOCK/KENNY LAM/VISITSCOTLAND/DAMIAN SHIELDS/ERICA RUTH NEUBAUER/WANDERLUSTER/ALAMY/LIZZIE ENFIELD

2

ELIE CHAIN WALK

After skirting the expansive sands of Largo and Shell Bay, the Fife Coastal Path divides into two. You can continue on the cliff path or take the Elie Chain Walk, a series of chains, attached to near-vertical rock faces, along which you must edge your way around the headland – you’ll need a friend to assist you.

If you have a stomach for heights, this route takes you into a lunar landscape strewn with jagged rock formations, including the aforementioned spectacular Kincraig Neck, and shadowy caves.

One, a gaping hole in the cliff, is named after Macduff, who is said to have hidden there when fleeing Macbeth.

You will have passed near his castle if you’ve made your way here from Kirkaldy as it’s just north of the village of East Wemyss, between Kirkaldy and Leven.

3

THE SHIP INN & RUBY BAY

After completing the chain walk you may wish to congratulate yourself with a drink overlooking pretty Elie harbour at the Ship Inn, a pub with rooms, which has an outdoor terrace – at low tide you can sometimes catch a cricket match. If you’re hungry, the seasonal menu is good, particularly on the seafood and shellfish front.

Fully sated, continue round to Ruby Bay, a beautiful beach, where if you look hard enough you can find ‘Elie rubies,’ tiny red garnets once embedded in outcrops of volcanic rock. shipinn.scot

4

CRAIL

Though all the East Neuk villages are pretty, Crail has something extra special about it. There are lots of independent shops and cafés amid the stepped gable cottages that lead down to the harbour, including the excellent Crail Pottery.

Down at the harbour, grab a lobster roll from the

Lobster Hut for lunch on the beach as you dangle your feet over the slipway, or take tea and admire the paintings in the Crail Harbour Gallery. crailharbourgallery.co.uk

5

ISLE OF MAY

Out at sea, numerous small islands dot the Firth of Forth, but the jewel is the Isle of May, with its 12th-century monastery and one of the Stevenson lighthouses.

A nature reserve, the Isle of May’s cliffs are home to guillemots, shags, kittiwakes, and puffins. Boat trips from Anstruther will take you out there, but there’s plenty of wildlife to be spotted from the shore: seals, dolphins, redshanks, eider ducks, and, if you are lucky, the odd lone sea eagle can be spotted hovering over the cliffs. isleofmayferry.com

6

GOLF IN ST ANDREWS

This July many visitors may wish to stop in St Andrews and soak up the atmosphere of the 150th Open, which is bringing golf back to its spiritual home.

Even without a ticket for the tournament, there will be plenty to see and enjoy in this historic coastal town and you may even spot some familiar faces. theopen.com

7

OLD FISHERGATE HOUSE

While there is no shortage of smart hotels in St Andrews, this guesthouse, a stone’s throw from the castle and dating from around 1650, is one of the oldest places to stay and has the charm to prove it. Originally five separate fishermen’s houses, it has since been restored into one elegant house with just two twin suites to choose from, with tartan throws and private sitting rooms. The house is well located for accessing St Andrews’ main attractions, including the castle and cathedral, and the full Scottish breakfast will set you up for the day ahead. oldfishergatehouse.co.uk .

8

THE NEWPORT

At the end of the route, reward yourself with a slap-up meal with views over the River Tay towards Dundee at The Newport. Chef patron Jamie Scott (former MasterChef winner) and his team, aim to surprise and delight with their innovative, in-season dishes, and the full-length windows provide the best sunset views on the Tay. n thenewportrestaurant.co.uk

Opposite page, top row, left to right: The 18th hole of St Andrews’ Old Course; Ravenscraig Castle; Lower Largo’s statue of Robinson Crusoe Middle row, left to right: The writer enjoys Fife’s pretty beaches; the V&A Museum and RRS Discovery, Dundee; fishing traps in Crail Bottom row, left to right: The Elie Chain Walk; the Forth Bridge, South Queensferry; Caiplie Caves near Crail, along the Fife Coastal Path

discoverbritainmag.com 77

MY BRITAIN

Justine Locker and a volunteer from Audley End House, Essex, dressed up in a jester’s costume as part of the storytelling programme

78 discoverbritainmag.com

My Britain

PORTRAITS BY GARETH IWAN JONES

English Heritage cares for over 400 historic sites across the country, from world-famous prehistoric sites such as Stonehenge to grand medieval castles, Roman forts, and Georgian cottages. We spoke to Justine Locker, Head of On-site Visitor Experience at the organisation, about her role and why it’s so important to maintain these heritage sites and tell their stories

Justine Locker Head of On-site Visitor Experience at English Heritage I’ve had a long career already in leisure and tourism, across theme parks, resorts, and galleries. My role covers anything on site for all our pay-to enter sites across the country. It is a great way to work with all my favourite things – operations and customer service, as well as history and culture. It really is a dream job, to be honest.

My mum is passionate about history, so I think my passion is probably an osmosis effect from her, I also read a lot of historical fiction. Culture, history, and art has always appealed to me, even when I worked at Alton Towers, we had Grade II-listed buildings and gardens. We are so lucky to be peppered with these heritage gems everywhere in this country.

My role as Head of On-site Visitor Experience is making sure visitors of all ages, abilities, and demographics feel welcome at our site. That might be car parking, the welcome they receive from the teams on the site, or how nice the toilets are! All the visitors need to have a great experience – whatever that means to them.

I love getting to see all the different English Heritage sites. I do a lot of site visits where I walk the visitor journey. Sometimes it feels like I’m just having a day out, walking around these beautiful houses, castles, and abbeys. Meeting the site teams and volunteers is also a treat every time. Everyone is so enthusiastic and passionate about what we do, and the history I’m learning is fantastic.

discoverbritainmag.com 79

MY BRITAIN

“The history of these sites belongs to all of us and conserving these places for the future is so important”

Justine inside the Jacobean Audley End House, with one of the props used by volunteers to help visitors learn more about the house

A favourite part of my job is the storytelling programme, launched last year. We have a team of volunteers who use costumes and props as a way of telling the historic stories of that site in a new, creative way. They use these costumes to intrigue visitors, to tell stories using their imaginations, and to take them back in time to bring the stories to life.

must be careful to protect nature and wildlife. We’re starting to survey some sites with The RSPB, and they’ll give us some best practice on how to manage them without damaging the eco systems. All our sites are also historic monuments, so it restricts what you can do in terms of facilities, signage, or accessibility. But it’s a fun challenge, where you must think outside the box.

It’s easy for heritage or culture attractions to feel a bit disconnected from society, but my job is to make sure people have a good time and learn about the site and the history. The history of these sites belongs to all of us and conserving these places for the future is so important or they will disappear, and all the stories and magic will go with them.

I couldn’t pick a favourite site because I’ve loved every single one I’ve been to. Stonehenge is always impressive, but I loved Whitby Abbey. We went on this stormy, moody day, with the wind whipping around. It was so atmospheric, and I was reading Dracula at the time, which brought it to life even more.

There are also so many I haven’t been to yet. I’m looking forward to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, and Carisbrooke Castle has donkeys, so I’m looking forward to that too. n

The sites can be very challenging at times. Some of them are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, which means we

80 discoverbritainmag.com

CROSSWORD & QUIZ

Crossword no 228

Solutions in next issue

Teatime

QUIZ

Test your knowledge of Britain – answers below!

1. Which of these Jane Austen novels is set in Bath? a) Pride and Prejudice b) Persuasion c) Emma

2. Which monarch said the St Edward’s Crown was too heavy and commissioned the Imperial State Crown for their coronation? a) King Henry VIII b) King George III c) Queen Victoria 3. What is a ‘jeely piece’? a) Jelly and ice cream b) Jam sandwich c) Meat terrine

Down 1 An officer in rank between a captain and lieutenant-colonel (5) 2 County town of Somerset (7) 3 Village in which the poet John Clare was born in 1793 (8) 4 Pliable twigs plaited to make baskets, etc. (6) 5 Robert ________, Poet Laureate who wrote The Testament of Beauty (7) 6 Aintree racecourse is in this city (9) 7 ________ Street, location in Westminster of many private specialists in medicine (6) 8 See 23 14 Mining village near Keswick (9) 16 Liberality in bestowing gifts (8) 17 Classic horse race run annually in Doncaster (2,5) 19 A large, impressive house (7) 21 London location for an annual flower show (7) 22 ________ Heigham, a village in the Norfolk Broads (6) 23 & 8 18th-century English writer and Whig politician, owner of Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham (6,7) 26 Ancient borough in the county of Somerset, near the borders of both Devon and Dorset (5)

5. On which date is summer solstice celebrated in Britain? a) 19 April b) 21 June c) 22 July 6. Where in the UK did children’s author, conservationist, and scientist Beatrix Potter live in her later years? a) The Lake District b) Cornwall c) Chelsea, London

Solutions to crossword 227 Across: 1 Grantham, 6 Beach, 9 Hogarth, 10 Newquay, 11 Penmon, 12 Grinton, 14 Izaak, 16 Ramillies, 18 September, 20 Glebe, 21 Thicket, 22/26 Joseph Addison, 25 Reigate, 27 Sense, 28 The Weald.

Down: 2 Regan, 3 Norfolk, 4 Ha-ha, 5 Montgomery, 6 Bowhill, 7 Aquitaine, 8 Haydn, 9 Hopkins, 13 Grub Street, 15 Amphibian, 17 Stephen, 19 Eskdale, 20 Geordie, 21 Terns, 23 Easel, 24 Tate Teatime quiz answers: 1. b, 2. c, 3. b, 4. a, 5. b, 6. a

Across 1 ________Arnold, eminent Victorian poet who wrote Dover Beach (7) 5 Sir Toby ________, a character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (5) 9 Margaret of ________, wife of Henry VI of England (5) 10 Fishing port on the west coast of Scotland (9) 11 The ________ of Penzance, comicopera by Gilbert and Sullivan (7) 12 A call to a fencer to adopt a defensive stance (2,5) 13 Stately home in south Bedfordshire designed and built by Robert Adam (5,3) 15 ________ House, London residence of the Duke of Northumberland (4) 18 Albert Hall concert (briefly) (4) 20 Arthurian knight, lover of Queen Guinevere (8) 24 ________ Gibbons, late Tudor and early Jacobean composer (7) 25 Highland valley from Rannoch Moor to Loch Leven (7) 27 A play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan first performed in 1775 (3,6) 28 Yorkshire river overlooked by Richmond Castle (5) 29 French sculptor of The Kiss (5) 30 A bright green precious stone (7)

4. What was the name of the king believed to be buried at Sutton Hoo? a) King Ræwald b) King Reginald c) King George

discoverbritainmag.com 81

NATIONAL TREASURES

Sutton Hoo

O

Discoveries at this awe-inspiring Anglo-Saxon burial site changed the way historians view early English medieval history forever, says Henrietta Easton

n the eve of the Second World War, an Anglo-Saxon royal burial site was discovered in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, and the glittering treasures found beneath the soil are some of the richest archaeological evidence for early English medieval society ever found.

It was in 1939 that Sutton Hoo landowner, Edith Pretty, asked local archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate the largest of several mounds in her garden, which she believed housed treasure. Mr Brown soon realised that the site needed more attention and further experts were brought in. Brushing away layers of soil, the team unearthed the shape of a ship, and within the ship, an Anglo-Saxon burial chamber filled with vast riches.

The treasures that were uncovered, believed to belong to King Rædwald, included the king’s sword, shield and helmet, and silver, gold and garnet jewellery. The hoard revolutionised our understanding of the early medieval period – a time previously believed to be unsophisticated was shown to be cultured, vibrant and spiritual.

The king’s helmet, the original of which is now on display at the British Museum, features imagery of fighting and dancing warriors and fierce creatures. The face of the helmet forms a dragon, with its wings the eyebrows and tail the moustache.

These objects, the helmet included, and the fact that they were buried with the king, tell us that the Anglo-Saxons had great respect for power, wealth, and the skills of a warrior, as well as enjoying taking part in feasting and entertainment. What’s

more, the very fact that the king had been buried with treasures indicates that the Anglo-Saxons were developing spiritual belief systems, including notions of an after-life.

Although the discovery at Sutton Hoo was believed to be the greatest Anglo-Saxon archaeological discovery ever made, 70 years later, in 2009, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found was unearthed in Staffordshire. Bearing remarkably similar designs and craftsmanship to the treasures found at Sutton Hoo, the discovery was made by a metal detectorist in a farmer’s field and hit headlines globally.

The hoard was made up of predominantly gold and silver weaponry fittings.

It is now believed that much of the hoard was made in the same 7thcentury East Anglian workshops as the gold and garnet jewellery from Sutton Hoo, and this year, from 19 May to 30 October 2022, the treasures from the Staffordshire Hoard will be reunited those of Sutton Hoo, in the exhibition Swords of Kingdoms: The Staffordshire Hoard at Sutton Hoo. Original objects from the dig at Sutton Hoo, on loan from the British Museum, will be on display with items from the Staffordshire Hoard, along with further Anglo-Saxon findings on loan from Norwich Castle Museum.

This exhibition will be a celebration of a golden age of two remarkable discoveries that changed the way we see the AngloSaxon period forever. Proving that this was a golden age of craftsmanship, and a time of great culture, wealth, and change. n nationaltrust.co.uk/Sutton-hoo

82 discoverbritainmag.com

© NATIONAL TRUST IMAGES/ANDREAS VON EINSIEDEL

The face of the helmet forms a dragon, with its wings the eyebrows and tail the moustache

Join our pride

at Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve Located just one hour from London in the rolling Kent countryside, Port Lympne offers truly unique accommodation, from treehouses and 180-degree-view bubbles to luxury rural retreats.

Tiger Lodge and Lion Lodge, the first accommodation of their kind worldwide, are partially set within the animals’ habitat, allowing guests to immerse themselves in the world of these majestic big cats through large panoramic windows.

Book your unforgettable safari staycation today.

Visit Portlympne.com or call +44 (0)1303 234112 to book