Camino UK Heritage Tours

26/06/2016

It was lovely today at Woolsthorpe Manor, the birth place of Isaac Newton. This is where he worked out how to split light with a prism and where the falling apple from a tree in the garden sparked his theory on gravity.

05/04/2016

We visit Iron Age Burrough Hill Fort as part of our exploration of life before the Romans.

If we are lucky the views, for anyone who wants to walk around it, are wonderful and really help us to think about why there might have been the need for a place of safety just there.

It was the site of an interesting sacrifice. Around 2000 years ago someone took the matching set of bronze fittings from an Iron Age chariot, placed them in a box and laid the box in a deep pit near their house inside the hill fort. It was ritually set on fire and then covered with a deep layer of burnt cinders and slag. A chariot like this would be the Ferrari of the Iron Age. The fittings could easily have been made of iron but, because they were of bronze they would have been lovingly polished to gleam in the sun. I hope the sacrifice was worth it and the gods granted the prayers of that unknown supplicant all those years ago.

28/03/2016

Æthelberht’s penny

During our Journey Through Time we leave the Roman period and travel through the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. One of the highlights is seeing the fabulous Staffordshire Hoard of gold Anglo-Saxon treasure, but here is another Anglo-Saxon story arising from a lost and found coin:

King Æthelberht was joint King of the East Angles but the powerful King Offa of Mercia ruled over them as High King.

Offa had reorganised the currency of Mercia. Coins were minted with his image on them, just as Romans emperors had done, and used the Latin “REX” or king. The vassal kings were not permitted to issue coins but Æthelberht, rashly, decided to do so anyway. What is more he had his moneyer, C**t, add the word “REX”, for King, after his name.

C**t must have been proud of his work as he put his own name on the reverse of the coin but Offa may not have been impressed because he later had Æthelberht beheaded. The story goes on though, because Æthelberht was later made a saint, supposedly after his severed head miraculously restored a blind man’s sight.

Æthelberht’s penny was found by a metal-detectorist in 2014 and sold at auction for £78,000. What would King Offa have thought about that!

26/03/2016

Rather cold and windy at Flag Fen today on the next stage of our Journey Through Time, visiting the bronze age. I never cease to be humbled by the sight of the walkway and the boats, revealed and preserved after 3000 years.

25/03/2016

We begin our Journey Through Time by visiting Creswell Crags but Neanderthal people were much earlier visitors some 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. They would have been following herds of reindeer, bison, mammoths and horses and they would have had to compete with the lions and hyenas who were hunting the same prey. The skeleton below is a that of a baby hyena which died at Creswell around 40,000 years ago.

People walked long distances to find food and shelter, making their camps in the caves where they sometimes left behind their distinctive tools. It is the only place in Britain where examples of rock art, dating back to the ice age, can be found.

The photograph of the lake was taken at Creswell Crags today but the 'time window' picture (copyright Creswell Crags) is an artist's impression of how it might have been thousands of years ago.

To find out more about our Journey Through Time or our history mini-breaks, visit www.caminotours.co.uk

25/03/2016

UK Heritage Tours with Jane and Dave

Find out more about our Heart of England tour in June at http://caminotours.co.uk/week-1/

Travel back to neolithic times with us and then on to medieval Britain. Complete our short survey at http://caminotours.co.uk/ to receive £100 off your Journey Through Time.

Or get together with a group of friends for a history of England mini break. See some examples at http://caminotours.co.uk/journeys-through-time-tour/minibreaks2/

Small friendly groups and lovely homely accommodation, do join us.

Share this post with people who might be interested or like our page to keep in touch.

24/03/2016

March 24, 1603, Richmond Palace, Richmond
The Death is announced of Queen Elizabeth I

The cause of the death of Queen Elizabeth was never confirmed as she stipulated that her body was not to be examined post mortem. She is generally believed to have died of blood poisoning caused by the application of the white make-up, called ceruse, a toxic mixture of white lead and vinegar.

Her body was embalmed and laid in state in a lead coffin at Whitehall. The coffin was then taken to Westminster Abby where it stayed until the funeral on 28 April. She was laid to rest next to her half-sister - a sister who had always disliked Elizabeth and who had had her imprisoned in the Tower of London - the Catholic Bloody Mary.
The tomb inscription reads:
“Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis.”
"Consorts both in throne and grave, here we rest two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary,
in hope of our resurrection."

16/03/2016

UK Heritage Tours with Jane and Dave

Get together with a group of friends or family to explore a period of English history over 2 or 3 days. Message us to find out more about our Heart of England mini breaks.

Take a one or two week Journey Through Time in the Heart of Engand. Have a look at www.caminotours.co.uk

Small friendly tours, tailored to your interests, flexible timing, comfortable transport,lovely homely accommodation.

Share this post with people who may be interested. Like our page and keep in touch with us.

15/03/2016

As part of our Tours we visit Flag Fen where the first bronze age boats from Must Farm are being preserved. I find looking at those is an amazing experience and now all these new discoveries at Must Farm are so exciting.

During the 2006 evaluation of the site we were fortunate enough to find a large number of complete vessels of all shapes and sizes. It is really exciting that as we are excavating more of the site that more whole parts are appearing. Many vessels are almost identical to those from the evaluation creating a definite consistency across the settlement. Some may well have more burnt residues inside which will be extremely useful for examining late Bronze Age diets.

15/03/2016

UK Heritage Tours
Take a mini break in the Heart of England sometime this year.

Get together with a group of friends or family to explore a period of history, for example:

Pre-history to Iron Age times
Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
Norman to Medieval England
Tudors to the time of the Civil Wars
Georgian and Victorian times

Small friendly tours, tailored to your interests, flexible timing, lovely homely accommodation

14/03/2016

If you would like to take a Heart of England history and heritage mini break, get in touch to find out more. Whilst our full Journey Through Time takes you from cave dwelling times through to the present day, our mini breaks cover a period of history in 2-3 days. Perhaps get together with friends or family to explore:

Pre-history to Iron Age times
Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
Norman to Medieval England
Tudors to the time of the Civil Wars
Georgian and Victorian times

or find out when you could join a mini break with others.

Small friendly tours, tailored to your interests, flexible timing.

13/03/2016

Belton House is open again for 2016, reminding us of the great contrast between 'upstairs' and 'below stairs'. If you worked below stairs you slept in the attic, though by all accounts the servants were well looked after. If you were family or guest you had rather more choice and space. Which bed would you choose?