The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places

446 Pages·2018·35.28 MB·English

by  Neil Oliver

About the Book
The British Isles, this archipelago of islands, is to Neil Oliver the best place in
the world. From north to south, east to west, it cradles astonishing beauty. The
human story here is a million years old, and counting. But the tolerant,
easygoing peace we enjoy has been hard won. We have made and known the
best and worst of times. We have been hero and villain and all else in between,
and we have learned some lessons.
The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places is Neil’s very personal account of
what makes these islands so special, told through the places that have witnessed
the unfolding of our history. Beginning with footprints made in the mud by
humankind’s earliest ancestors, he takes us via Romans and Vikings, through the
flowering of Christianity, to civil war, industrial revolution and two world wars.
From windswept headlands to battlefields, ancient trees to magnificent
cathedrals, each of his destinations is a place where, somehow, the spirit of the
past seems to linger. Beautifully written, his book is majestic, awe-inspiring, a
kaleidoscopic history of a place with a story like no other.
Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title Page
Dedication
List of Illustrations
Maps
Introduction
1 Happisburgh, Norfolk: In the footsteps of pioneer man
2 Goat’s Hole Cave, Gower Peninsula, West Glamorgan: The Red Lady of
Paviland
3 Creswell Crags, Derbyshire–Nottinghamshire Border: The horse head of
Robin Hood’s Cave
4 Montrose Basin, Angus: Separated by the Storegga Slide
5 Céide Fields, County Mayo: The introduction of farming and the daily grind
6 The Ness of Brodgar, Orkney: The heart of power
7 Newgrange and Knowth, County Meath: Monumental Megalithic art
8 Grime’s Graves, Norfolk: Mining for flint in the Neolithic
9 Great Langdale, Cumbria: Stone axes and the invention of Heaven
10 West Kennet Long Barrow, Wiltshire: Burying the dead
11 Stonehenge, Wiltshire: Tracking the light
12 Avebury, Wiltshire: Circles in time
13 Silbury Hill, Wiltshire: Building something to endure
14 The Amesbury Archer, Salisbury Museum, Wiltshire: Walking into history
15 Cantre’r Gwaelod, Borth, Ceredigion: The Welsh Atlantis
16 Geevor Tin Mine, Pendeen, Cornwall: The Cassiterides and the rise of
bronze
17 Great Orme, Llandudno, Clwyd: The marriage of copper and tin
18 The Dover Boat, Dover Museum, Kent: Bronze Age shipbuilding
19 Llyn Fawr, Cynon Valley, Mid-Glamorgan: Reflections of another world
20 Dún Aengus and Dún Dúchathair Forts, Inishmore: At the end of the Earth
21 The Roman Baths, Bath, Somerset: The arrival of the modern world
22 Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland: The boundary of empire
23 Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent: Layers of religion
24 Iona, Inner Hebrides: The coming of Christianity
25 Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland: A warrior named Arthur
26 Lindisfarne, Northumberland: The holy isle in the east
27 Brough of Birsay, Orkney: Trampled beneath Viking feet
28 St Wystan’s Church, Repton, Derbyshire: Resting place for a saint, shelter
for an army
29 The Alfred Jewel, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: An Anglo-Saxon treasure
30 Hyde Abbey, Winchester, Hampshire: The burial of a king
31 The Battle of Brunanburh: The north–south divide
32 Durham Cathedral: A mountain raised by men
33 Magna Carta and Lincoln Castle: The birth of democracy
34 Snaefell, Isle of Man: At the heart of the British Isles
35 St Nectan’s Glen, Trethevy, Cornwall: The invention of the future
36 Arbroath Abbey, Angus: Light in the darkness
37 Glastonbury Tor, Somerset: A place of legends
38 The Fortingall Yew, Perthshire: Europe’s oldest living thing
39 Cambuskenneth Abbey, Stirling: The Battle of Bannockburn
40 Westminster Abbey, London: Wars of the Roses
41 Harlech Castle, Gwynedd: Last stand of the brave
42 Morecambe Bay Sands, Lancashire: Lost in the mire
43 St George’s Guildhall and the Hanse House, King’s Lynn, Norfolk:
European trade links
44 Stirling Castle: Scotland’s silver brooch
45 Flodden Field, Northumberland: The Flowers of the Forest all withered
away
46 Aldeburgh, Suffolk: The Golden Hind and sailing round the globe
47 Tilbury Fort and Tudor Jetty, Tilbury, Essex: Elizabeth I and the Spanish
Armada
48 The Giant’s Causeway and Lacada Point, Antrim Coast: The wreck of the
Girona
49 Hampton Court Palace, Surrey: The King James Bible
50 The Globe Theatre, Bankside, London: A stage for Shakespeare
51 Dunashad Castle and Lot’s Wife, Baltimore, County Cork: The white slave
trade
52 Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh: A covenant for the faithful
53 Lansdown Hill, Bath: Civil war
54 Sedgemoor Battlefield, Somerset: The Pitchfork Rebellion
55 St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh: The Treaty of Union
56 Culloden, Inverness: The Jacobites’ last stand
57 Staithes, North Yorkshire: The grocer’s boy and the lure of the sea
58 Whitby, North Yorkshire: Captain Cook and HMS Endeavour
59 Salisbury Crags and Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh: James Hutton, father of
geology
60 The Statue of General James Wolfe, Royal Observatory, Greenwich: At the
centre of time and place
61 Schiehallion, Perthshire: Measuring the weight of the Earth
62 The Iron Bridge, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire: The birth of the Industrial
Revolution
63 Burns House, Dumfries: The worldwide reach of Robert Burns
64 Whitehaven, Cumbria: John Paul Jones and the land of the free
65 Merchant City, Glasgow: Tobacco lords and an infamous trade
66 Fishguard, Pembrokeshire: The last invasion of Britain
67 Wilberforce House, Kingston upon Hull: The abolition of slavery
68 Bettyhill, Sutherland: The Highland Clearances
69 Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk: The birthplace of Horatio Nelson
70 HMS Victory, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard: Nelson’s flagship and the
Battle of Trafalgar
71 The Smalls Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire: Safeguarding life at sea
72 The Brontë Parsonage, Haworth, West Yorkshire: Genius born of hardship
and rock
73 The Jurassic Coast, Lyme Regis, Dorset: Mary Anning, fossil hunter
74 Tolpuddle, Dorset: The struggle for workers’ rights
75 Abbeystrewry Cemetery, Skibbereen, County Cork: An Gorta Mór – the
Great Hunger
76 Fastnet Rock, off County Cork: Ireland’s Teardrop
77 Eyemouth, Berwickshire: The Black Friday fishing disaster
78 The Victorian Channel Tunnel, near Dover, Kent: Connecting with Europe
79 The Rutherford Building, Manchester University: Ernest Rutherford, the
father of nuclear physics
80 Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland: A place apart
81 The Grand Hotel, Scarborough: The rise and fall of the British seaside
82 The Coal Exchange, Cardiff: Feeding a global hunger
83 Titanic Slipway, Belfast: A world sinks to its end
84 Somerled Square, Portree, Isle of Skye: The First World War – a terrible
harrowing
85 St John the Baptist Church, Great Rissington, Gloucestershire: The lost
Souls
86 The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London: Remembering the dead
87 Scapa Flow, Orkney: A graveyard beneath the sea
88 John Brown’s Shipyard, Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire: Clyde-built
89 Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire: The birthplace of Winston
Churchill
90 Slapton Sands, Devon: Exercise Tiger – sacrifice on the road to victory
91 Alderney, Channel Islands: Occupation
92 Orford Ness, Suffolk: Operation Cobra Mist and the Cold War
93 Les Écréhous, by Jersey, Channel Islands: A place of magic
94 St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London: Britain’s obsession with news
95 Penlee Lifeboat Station, Penlee Point, Cornwall: Tragedy at sea
96 The Millennium Dome, Greenwich, London: A monument to a new age
97 The Scottish Parliament Building, Edinburgh: Devolution
98 The Old Kirk, Parton, Dumfries and Galloway: James Clerk Maxwell and
the laws of the universe
99 St Peter ad Vincula and the Tower of London: Shadows of a bloody past
100 Dungeness Headland, Kent: At nature’s mercy
Conclusion: These Islands
Acknowledgements
Picture acknowledgements
Index
About the Author
Copyright
For more information on Neil Oliver and his books,
see his website at www.neiloliver.com

To my mum and dad,
Norma and Pat