A Walk Around Britain

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Under the the Elan Aquaduct

Running from the Elan Valley to Birmingham, there is a waterway wrapped in stone.

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“A year after Waterloo, income tax was repealed ‘with a thundering peal of applause’ and Parliament decided that all documents connected with it should be collected, cut into pieces and pulped.”

Politicians never did like people prying into their ‘private’ incomes. That seems as true today as ever.

So the window tax was concieved as an alternative.

Winchester cathedral precincts - a wink at the tax laws...

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I’ve one in my bonnet.

Bees are in trouble, with massive declines in their populations. We are losing hives, mainly in agriculature, but also wild hives too.

If you don’t want a rant, don’t read on:

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Did you know that milking cows naturally grow horns?

So where did all the horns go? Who decided that this natural expression of cow-ishness was wrong, and needed to be remedied?

Why do we only find milk cows with horns at farms like Plaw Hatch, near Forest Row?
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While sitting in the haunted village of Pluckley, taking a pot of ale for strength and courage, we listen to a seated gang of local fruit farmers, who are discussing the dire state of the local and national fruit industry.

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A speech by one of a pair of Romany brothers, as written in “The Gorse and the Briar”

“I hope the public-house or the inn will never cease to be a place in which the solitary traveller my find a fire and someone with whom to talk, but its real significance is lost; it is no longer the institution by which all those who set out on a journey depend, the institution which for centuries has mixed all classes together under one roof. The innkeeper has ceased to depend on the traveller, just as the traveller has ceased to depend on the inn.”

Bible Quotes

Britain is (two difficult words) known as a Christian nation. But what does this mean? Well, simply enough, it means many of the traditions we have inherited are shaped by references taken, and understandings gathered, from the Bible. (more…)

This is where will be our ‘longer-term’ studies of particular ‘areas’, of distinct regions and ‘natural’ phenomena. You might realize that we’re none of us trained scientists; but we’ll ask questions, and look around, and let you know what we find.

The English Peasant’s Revolt took place in 1381, and saw land-workers ‘running’ from Kent and Norfolk to London, to burn tax-records, empty prisons, and behead the Archbishop. The route most rebels took was along the pilgrim’s way.

Half the country had recently died in the Black Death, and the remnant were overworked and overtaxed, without access to courts or justice. A hated poll tax had been declared, to pay for the English army’s manoeuvrings abroad. The rebellion was an act that struck against enforced subservience, a struggle toward freedom. The rebels were not thieves, and all valuables found by the mob were destroyed.  A man found with concealed loot, a silver chalice, was thrown in the river Medway as a lesson to others.

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