The Northumberland Household Book compiled in the early 16th century provides lots of details about everyday life at Wressle and Leconfield Castles. Leconfield Castle was another of the Percy’s stately defended residences (Leconfield Castle has been discussed in an earlier blog in the context of Henry VIII’s Northern Progress). Dating from a time 100 years before […]

The ruined south façade of Wressle Castle is a Grade 1 ‘listed ruin’, being 10 years or so past classed as ‘at risk’ various works were done to ‘increase the shelf-life’ of this standing ruin.  Estimated to have originally been built in the late 14th century it was built to the standard lay-out plan of a

Yesterday evening’s Country File programme included a section on the Hampton Court flower show. An aerial view showed the Tudor period house beside a meander of the River Thames. Built, originally, to the instructions of Cardinal Wolsey early in the reign of the second Tudor monarch Henry VIII Hampton Court was a grand example of the

News from the World Wildlife Fund – In Colombia, north South America, a vast area of Amazonian rain forest has been officially designated a national park and U.N.E.S.C.O. World Heritage Site. The Serrania del Chiribiquete national park, now the largest national park protecting rain forest, is home for a multitude of species, some endangered such

Three fine avenues of trees in this region are; two in Baysgarth Park, Barton and the avenue running east to west down the centre of Queen’s Gardens, Hull. I am advised, although not by an expert, that the trees in question are limes. Certainly limes have been a popular choice for planting in public parks throughout

After a wet, cold early Spring early Summer has seen a very prolonged spell of hot weather with, in this area, just one torrential downpour in the last few weeks. According to the BBC weather site 14 day forecast it is more of the same through the next two weeks. An anticyclone has sat stationary