Author: Paul Rabbitts

The River Lea and its crossing at Hertford lie at the heart of the town's history. Before the Norman Conquest the river formed a natural boundary b...

Cassiobury Park has an incredible history. Not only is it one of the remnants of the greatest lost estates in the country, it is now one of the mos...

Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, started as a Saxon settlement called Aegels burgh. By medieval times it had developed into an admini...

Master Carver Grinling Gibbons (16481721) is famous for his breathtakingly delicate, intricate and realistic carvings, both in wood and stone. Tant...

Today, Bournemouth is one of the favourite resorts on the south coast, but until the early nineteenth century, the area was just heathland where ca...

Bandstands have been a feature of the British way of life for well over a century but, after the Second World War, an increasing number fell into ...

Today, millions of tourists from around the world are drawn to Windsor by its magnificent castle, dating from the eleventh century, and its wealth ...

The Bedfordshire town of Luton originated in the sixth century when the Saxons established a farm or settlement (called a tun) by the River Lea. Fa...

Although little is recorded of its earlier history, Salford is a city of great antiquity. In 1228, Henry III granted the Lancashire town the right ...

From its status as the world's first industrialised city, through late twentieth-century decline and subsequent regeneration and rebirth as the 'Se...

What are the ingredients of our great British public parks? We often think of the wider landscape of trees, grass, lakes, meandering footways, bedd...

In 1833, the Select Committee for Public Walks was introduced so that the provision of parks would lead to a better use of Sundays and the replacem...

Sir Christopher Wren (16321723) is now mostly remembered as a genius of architecture but he was also an accomplished polymath, who only came to ar...

One of the remnants of the great lost estates of the United Kingdom, Cassiobury Park is now the largest park in Hertfordshire, and the principal pa...

Close to the Chiltern Hills lies the Bedfordshire market town of Leighton Buzzard. Dominating the town is the 190-foot spire of the thirteenth-cent...

Situated a mile from the Hertfordshire village of Welwyn, the Garden City was founded in 1920. It was the vision of Ebenezer Howard, founder of the...

With its magnificent Early English cathedral, timbered buildings and historic houses, Salisbury has a wealth of history and architectural treasures...

Our great British parks are one of the finest legacies of the Victorian age. Designed and bequeathed to the masses as part of a movement encouragin...

Richmond Park is the largest Royal Park in London, covering an area of 2,500 acres. From its heights there is an uninterrupted view of St Pauls Cat...

The royal parks of London are lands originally owned by the monarchy of the United Kingdom for the recreation (mostly hunting) of the royal family....

Hyde Park is a London favourite. You can walk, lie in the grass, play games, take exercise and engage in sport. It has been a venue for mass celebr...

Much has been written about the history of Victorian life, the Industrial Revolution and the improvements brought about by the great reformers, inc...