For escapees from the more crowded corners of this little island, one word encapsulates the allure of Northumberland above any other: space. From the rolling moors and deep wooded valleys of Northumberland National Park to the rugged cliffs and endle

Can we provide a top-secret military installation for the next Bond film? Do we have a spectacular ballroom for next year’s big costume drama? Have we got an Isaac Newton look-a-like who can go on camera? When the phone rings at the National Trust Fi

In 1841, early in Queen Victoria’s reign, her mentor and Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne explained truthfully if opaquely to Her Majesty: “How the power of Prime Ministry grew up into its present form it is difficult to trace precisely.” It’s certa

For much of the last year, we haven’t been able to travel in the way we used to, but the longing to stay somewhere new, to escape the everyday for a day or more, hasn’t abated. We’ve compiled a wishlist of special places to stay once restrictions are

There is much dispute in the history of Highland dress, and its best-known garment, the kilt. Some say it was invented by an Englishman, others that it has a long and noble history as the uniform of the clans. Its modern history began with the Act of

Cirencester began life as Corinium Dobunnorum, a Roman city whose 2nd-century walls encompassed the second-largest area of any in Britain at the time. Almost 20 centuries later, the most panoramic window into its past can be found at the Corinium Mus

She is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. Her 66 murder mysteries have sold more than 2 billion copies worldwide. Her super-sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are household names. But the inimitable Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime, migh

Spend a long weekend in a certain patch of southern Suffolk, nestled along the River Stour and its tributaries, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you had slipped back in time. The five towns of Sudbury, Lavenham, Long Melford, Clare and Hadleigh see

Though it’s one of the most recognisable landmarks in London, Tower Bridge has only been around for 126 years. A new exhibition, which will run until 4 April 2021, aims to celebrate how the people who work here today continue to make history through

In 1886, the Illustrated London News proclaimed, “It is the New York of Europe, a world-city”. The city in question was Liverpool – the place that, according to Disraeli, was the “second city of the Empire”. Yet he was referring to somewhere that in

Say the name of Britain’s best loved children’s author in almost any corner of the world and it immediately conjures up enchanting images of mischievous animals scampering through the pages of those instantly recognisable little white books. Beatrix

Ever since William Wordsworth wrote A Guide through the District of the Lakes in the North of England 200 years ago, this dramatic landscape of tranquil low-lying lakes and thrilling high-flying peaks has held a special place in the nation’s heart.

Wells may be lesser-known compared to the Roman spa city of Bath just a 45-minute drive northeast, and Somerset’s town of cheesy renown, Cheddar (25 minutes northwest), yet it warrants just as much attention, as a visit to its magnificent Bishop’s Pa