2022 in Review
Historical Places, Books, Podcasts and of course my own tours and events.
Hi!
As we head toward Christmas and the end of the year, I thought I’d use the last 3 newsletters before the break to review the historical places I’ve visited, books I’ve read, and artifacts I’ve discovered.
This year I visited 51 Historical Places (and I haven’t finished yet), 20 of which were brand new to me.
I’m talking about many of the venues I’ve visited during my weekly live show, Tea Time History Chat live, which you can catch up on, on Instagram, Youtube or on the Podcast. This week I talked about my recent visit to Lord Leycester Hospital, which is currently closed to the public while it undergoes a multi-million-pound renovation. I also covered Chartwell, Deerhurst, Windsor Castle, Runnymede, Glastonbury Abbey, and Wells Cathedral.
This week I have added two places to my list; Salisbury Cathedral and St Thomas’s Church, Salisbury.
I took over 700 photos at Salisbury Cathedral, such was the amount to see! A 1215 Magna Carta, many notable tombs, including that of Edward Seymour and his wife Katherine Grey (sister of Jane Grey and potential, legitimate heir to Elizabeth I’s thrown), amazing architecture and its ‘infinity font’ to name just a few things.
In the reflection of the font is the West Window with its original medieval glass which includes the coats of arms of Henry III and Eleanor of Aquitaine. I got up close and even touched the glass on a private Tower Tour! The tour took two hours and included climbing 5 staircases to get to the top of the tower where we went outside at the base of the spire and learned that the foundations of the Cathedral are only 3ft deep and set into the wet gravel of the valley!
I will be sharing photos and videos from this amazing Cathedral over the next week or so, with a Patreon Exclusive look at what I saw on the Tower Tour. Join now for £5.
Nearby the Cathedral is the parish church of St Thomas’s. Inside here is the most colourful, vivid, and complete “Doom Painting” I have seen to date. The artist, name unknown, is thought to have been English but was potentially well-traveled and had may have visited the studios of prominent Flemish artists, such are the influences in the piece.
That isn’t all, for the church still retains the arms of Elizabeth I, originally displayed during Elizabeth’s reign, on order of the Crown!
History After Dark
This week we played ‘Lie to Me’ when each of the History After Dark team gave their story about an object. The audience then decided which of us was telling the truth! It was a lot of fun as well as being informative.
This Wednesday we will be joined by historian Gareth Russell. You can set a reminder by pressing the button below.
Latest History Article
This month’s history blog is on the incredibly fascinating man that Elizabeth I’s government wished didn’t exist, Sir Thomas Tresham. Each month I will share an exclusive blog for paying substack supporters. The blogs are also available on my Patreon at www.patreon.com/britishhistory
I will post the blog on Tuesday.
I wish you a wonderful week!
Philippa