Ascending the Langdale Pikes in the Lake District we suddenly realised that we’d have to ford a stream if we were to reach the top. The family walking ahead of us, including a girl of about seven, managed to negotiate the fast-flowing waters, so it couldn’t be that difficult, we thought. But when we reached…

Beep, beep. ”Who’s that beeping?’’ asked my mum as dawn broke on the first morning of our boating break. Beeep, beeep. ‘’There they go again,’’ said the 70-year-old, who was putting on her face in her tiny bedroom, curtains drawn. Beeeep, beeeep. ”I don’t know who they’re beeping at,’’ my mum shouted to my wife,…

The sign warned that we climbed the wobbly wooden staircase to the top of the medieval tower at our own risk. But the hint of danger only served to fire our imagination and with every step we were entering deeper into the realms of King Arthur and Robin Hood. After safely negotiating the staircase, we…

You know you’re staying somewhere classy when even rock gods are turned away for having the wrong attire. Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant suffered this indignity at the hands of Joan Reen, general manager and erstwhile owner of Ynyshir Hall in west Wales. Joan recalled the story to my wife and I during a wonderful…

The hills are alive with the sound of music! Cool cats will be performing in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons when the HSBC Brecon Jazz Festival takes place from August 7-10. The stellar line-up includes Courtney Pine, Joan Armatrading, Cerys Matthews, Neil Cowley and Jools Holland with his guest vocalists Marc Almond and Ruby…

An historic inn which has been owned or visited by four English monarchs is once more fit for a king. A £1 million facelift has brought The Bear Hotel in Hungerford, Berkshire, into the present while respecting its character and illustrious past. Dating back to the 13th century, the Bear was later owned by the…

Lincolnshire is often overlooked as a short break destination. But many of its treasures will be strangely familiar to West Midlanders thanks to two of Hollywood’s biggest stars. The county welcomed Tom Hanks when the breathtaking Lincoln Cathedral doubled as Westminster Abbey for the 2006 blockbuster movie The Da Vinci Code. And Keira Knightley shot…

It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Cars were queuing up either side of the Shirley drawbridge over the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and the agitated motorists were beeping their horns. The traffic barriers were steadfastly refusing to open to let them pass and I was stood at the controls – helpless and…

Back in the early 1980s there were three things the average English family would do together almost religiously on a Sunday. There was church in the morning, a traditional roast dinner in the afternoon and then in the evening up to 24 million of us would gather round the TV to watch To The Manor…

The legendary Tom Jones once sang about the green green grass of home. In  truth, the South Wales valleys where he was born and raised were not green at  all when the song went to No.1 in 1966. They had been scarred by an intensive mining and heavy engineering industry which by then was in…