Discover Britain

Last year, Historic England began a search for the country’s top 100 historic buildings via a public vote and input from judges including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. Compiled in new book, Irreplaceable – A History of England in 100 Places, the shor

Many thanks for Discover Britain, the history and guides are most useful. Could I ask one question? Our last holiday included York and my family very much loved taking pictures of the old streets in the centre, just like a Harry Potter book. Could yo

Ask anyone in the north of England to name a tasty afternoon tea and the chances are they will point you in the direction of Bettys. Now a Yorkshire institution with six tearooms, a craft bakery and a cookery school, the first café opened on Harrogat

To celebrate our food-and-drink themed issue, Discover Britain has teamed up with Welcome to Yorkshire to offer one lucky reader the chance to explore the culinary delights of Harrogate – one of our foodie towns highlighted in the feature that begins

I run a company called The Knights of Royal England. We put on medieval jousting tournaments at castles around Britain and Europe, trying to mix entertainment and history all in one. Do we represent a more noble British way of life that has been lost

The Cotswolds owes a lot to sheep. This picturesque area of southwest England, which covers 800 square miles from just south of Bath in Somerset to just south of Stratfordupon-Avon in Warwickshire, gets its name from the two Anglo-Saxon words cot and

Incandescent and incredulous, the Sheriff of Nottingham, played to pantomime perfection by Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, rants: “Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public – and they love him for it?” The 1

On Tuesday, 30 September 1856, an auction was held in Mincing Lane in the City of London. The sale catalogue advertises “the valuable building materials, fixtures, remaining furniture, and fittings-up of Clothworkers’ Hall”, including, among other lo

Possibly the most glorious thing about the Glorious Revolution in 1688 is that when William of Orange came over from the Netherlands to claim the British throne as William III he brought gin with him. The new spirit – known initially by the Dutch wor

For Oscar Wilde, London was the centre of existence – of pleasure and of power. It was also the best place to buy cigarettes. Although he may have been born in Dublin in 1854 and would die in Paris in 1900, it was in the English capital that he made

Britain’s first high-speed rail line, HS1, represents the future of rail travel – a 68-mile stretch that connects London with the Channel Tunnel and mainland Europe beyond. This year, however, HS1 will be looking back as well as forward, celebrating

When it comes to interior design, not many people would choose to have scenes from Hades – complete with the Grim Reaper and plenty of unfortunates thrashing about in eternal torment – painted in their homes. However, this is exactly the scene you wi

This southeast English county is rightly proud of its status as ‘The Garden of England’, thanks in no small part to Henry VIII who helped change the perception of vegetables as ‘poor man’s food’ and ordered his royal fruiterer, Richard Harris, to pla

Gaze out across the lush green foliage that fills Cheddar Gorge, Somerset’s own Grand Canyon, and it is hard to imagine this area was once awash with a Caribbean-like sea. Geologists have established that is exactly what one could have found here tho

If you ask most people to name the great romances of the 20th century, it is likely that near the top of their list will be the love affair between Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson. The public imagination was captured by the compelling story of a lonely b

The Loch Ness Monster is not the only mythical creature to have a longstanding place within Scottish hearts. It is in fact the unicorn that is the country’s rather unlikely national animal, after first appearing on an updated royal coat of arms for W

Set on the edge of The Cotswolds within 260-acre grounds that include an orchard, veg plot, herb garden and working farm, Judy Gardner’s rustic retreat is a must for foodies. Husband-and-wife team Sue and Mark Stinchcombe, the latter a winner on TV s