Visit Heritage Blog (History and Heritage) - Visit Heritage

London’s burning, London’s burning
Fetch the engines, fetch the engines…
This September marks 358 years since The Great Fire of London changed the landscape of London and gave us the city we know and love today.

You may have seen Amazon Prime’s latest period drama, My Lady Jane, a fantastical take on the story of Lady Jane Grey, the nine day queen, based on the book of the same name.

Historians have been debating the existence of King Arthur for generations. While some say that he is a completely fictional figure from the depths of Celtic folklore, others say that there is some evidence that the character of Arthur is an amalgamation of several notable people from the time.

As the 13^th August marks the 60^th anniversary of the last hanging in Britain, we thought we would delve into the dark history of capital punishment.

Historians have been debating the existence of King Arthur for generations. While some say that he is a completely fictional figure from the depths of Celtic folklore, others say that there is some evidence that the character of Arthur is an amalgamation of several notable people from the time.

As the excitement of the General Election dies down, here are some of the hapless leaders that haven’t been remembered fondly by history. Time will tell how our current prime minister will be remembered, but for now, let’s indulge in some of the worst remembered prime ministers.

Fame is a funny thing – you might think that the celebrities of today are a flash in the pan and in a few generations time, will be nothing but a distant memory but sometimes fame stays in the family, like with the people we’ll be talking about today.

Last month on the blog, we marked Oak Apple Day and the Restoration of the monarchy, so this month, we thought we’d take a look at the man that, some might say, caused the downfall of the royal family in the first place.

This year marks the 80^th anniversary since the D Day landing, the largest seaborne invasion in the history of warfare. Taking place on 6^th June 1944, D-Day, which is military slang for a day that an operation will begin, went by several code names and there was a campaign of deception and secrecy leading up to the big day.

Happy Oak Apple Day! Oh, you don’t know what that is? Not to worry, we will explain all!

As 8^th May marks VE (or Victory in Europe) Day which marked the formal end of WWII following the unconditional surrender of the Nazis, it seemed appropriate to share some of the lesser known facts from our most talked about war.

This month marks the 285^th anniversary of the end of Dick Turpin’s reign of terror, so to celebrate we thought we would take a look at the life and crimes of Britain’s most famous highwayman and some of his contemporaries.