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The George and Pilgrim, Glastonbuty, (third building from the left) - one of the oldest hotels in the country. For a history of holidays, see below...
Welcome to InfoBritain, for historical visiting information in the UK. InfoBritain tells you what happened and where it happened. We have articles and visits relating to all historical periods from prehistoric Britain to recent times, and to the lives of major British authors, artists, musicians, scientists, politicians, military and royal figures. You can use our site search, or our various menus to find suggested visits relating to times or people. Alternatively go to the regions menu, find a place to visit in a particular area, and then link back to the history relating to it. We also have a full accommodation booking service for all parts of the mainland UK. We specialise in historic accommodation, but we also have comprehensive lists of hotels of all types and price ranges. See the regional menus on the right. Enjoy!
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y
A Personal Note (Archive)
July 30, 2017
A history of holidays.
In 1947 a senior civil servant with an interest in history wrote a wonderful book about the history of holidays. At the beginning of The Englishman's Holiday J.A.R.Pimlott said:
"...this migration of holiday makers to the sea, the countryside, and the mountains... is as typical of Western European culture... as were bread and circuses of ancient Rome and the pilgrims of the Middle Ages" (P9).
Before the sixteenth century people did not go on holiday. There were religious festivals, with which many of our bank holidays still coincide, and on those days no work would be done. But people did not travel for the sake of it. Up until the sixteenth century people travelled to pursue their living, or because they were on official state business. It was only people on pilgrimage who could really be described as travelling for reasons other than work. Read more....
Best wishes
Martin
The InfoBritain view of history (with thanks to The Simpsons)
Historical news for August
Starting on 14th July and continuing to September, the Proms is London's annual classical music festival. Promenade concerts, informal musical events where people were free to walk about as an orchestra played, had taken place in London's parks since the mid eighteenth century.Then in 1838 Louis Antoine Jullien and Arthur Sullivan had the idea of bringing the promenade concert indoors. This led on to the inaugeration of the Proms in August 1895. Their organiser Henry Wood described the concerts as an effort to raise the standard of musical taste by stealth:
"I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music."
For information on this year's Proms go to: http://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/proms-2017/
Anniversaries for August
1st August 1971: James Irwin and David Scott of Apollo 15 during an expedition aboard their lunar rover, discover the "Genesis Rock", thought to be 4500 million years old, dating back to the time when the moon itself was formed.
6th August 1991: Tim Burners-Lee a scientist at the Cern particle collider in Geneva first posts files describing his idea for interlinked files posted to a personal computer accessed "internet".
8th August 1861: Birth of William Bateson at Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire. Bateson would be the first person to use the term "genetics" in studying the nature of biological inheritance.
9th August 1974: Following the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon resigns.
12th August 1939: The Wizard of Oz premieres in the United States. The film would open in Britain in November.
17th August 1945: Publication in Britain of George Orwell's novel Animal Farm. Warburg had finally decided to publish the novel, after it had ben rejected by a number of other publishers.
24th August 1931: The Labour government led by James Ramsay Macdonald resigns, to be replaced by a coalition "National Government", once again led by Macdonald as prime minister. Macdonald spent his next few years in a state of sad isolation, distrusted by both his own Labour MPs, and the Conservative MPs, with whom they were forced to join in coalition.
27th August 1883: The eruption of Krakatoa is witnessed by a naval engineer on a nearby ship. He writes in his journal:
"Suddenly we saw a gigantic wave of prodigious height advancing from the sea-shore with considerable speed....After a moment, full of anguish, we were lifted up with a dizzy rapidity. The ship made a formidable leap and immediately afterwards we felt as though we had plunged into the abyss...
Like a high mountain the monstrous wave precipitated its journey towards the land...Before our eyes this terrifying upheaval of the sea in a sweeping transit consumed in one instant the ruin of the town. The lighthouse fell in one piece and all the houses of the town were swept away in one blow like a castle of cards. All was finished. There, where a few moments ago lived the town of Telok Betong, was nothing but the open sea."
A preview of my novel - about a girl who discovers that surprisingly she can't find her way to the sort of secret world found in story books. So she searches for an alternative.
Please be aware
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Almost all photography on InfoBritain is by InfoBritain or by named contributors. All educational use is permitted, but copyright is reserved for commercial uses. Occasionally we have used copyright free stock images which are available for any use. A note will identify these images.
Thank you to photo contributors Danielle Davis, Jean Edwards, Vicky Eagle of Portsmouth Dockyard, Kevin Edwards, Derick Fusco, Julian Jones, Richard Jones, Jackie Lewis, Debbie Lowless, Judy Mills of the Corinium Museum, Jane Barron of the World Rugby Museum, and Susan Stuart of Old Spitalfields Market.