In room 108 of the Relais Henley is the royal coat of arms of King Charles I, who stayed there in 1632.The room next door, 109, was frequented by John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, the great general whose victories included Blenheim in 1704.And room 107, on the other side of 108, is where my wife…
If Mick Jagger or Keith Richards ever fancy a Cotswold escape they should look no further than this charming cottage.That’s because it is within walking distance of the Rollright Stones, some old ‘rockers’ that are even more ancient than members of the band of the similar name!Called Cotswold Cottage, for want of a better name, the…
The splashes, screams and laughter fell silent as a Dakota bomber with D-Day stripes swooped over the outdoor pool.Later, the low rumble of our hot tub’s jets quickly grew louder and louder until we realised the thunderous noise was actually being created by a Typhoon fighter taking to the skies.Both planes had taken off from…
Planning a family break in London can be a logistical nightmare – but I think I’ve cracked it.To save precious time, my wife and I needed a location with easy access to the sights, and to save our sanity we needed a self catering apartment with a separate bedroom for the kids.Step forward Fraser Suites…
Chester’s famous city walls have been taking their biggest pounding since Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentarian forces launched an assault during the Civil War.As the UK was plunged into coronavirus lockdowns, the two-mile long ancient monument became the go-to place for thousands of locals to get their daily dose of exercise.The most complete city walls in Europe,…
Each year, the small, picture-postcard Derbyshire Dales village of Tissington is invaded by 50,000 visitors over just seven days.The hoards are attracted to Tissington’s six wells which every Ascension Day are decorated (or ‘dressed’) with flower petals, as well as cones, mosses, seeds and beans.In a laborious process, each petal is placed individually – overlapping like tiles on a roof…
It was a ‘knight’ to remember as tales of dragons and princesses were told in the grounds of a medieval castle.For starters, Zog and Princess Pearl climbed out of the pages of Julia Donaldson’s best-selling children’s book to recall how they became flying doctors.Then, as bedtime grew near, a sword-wielding knight recalled a tale of another fire-breathing friend which enthralled young listeners and – like all the best pantos – amused mums and dads, too.Accident-prone Zog and Pearl…
IT was good weather for ducks and surfers as we arrived at our holiday destination on the north Cornwall coast.We had neither feathers nor wetsuits to protect us from the driving wind and rain, but that didn’t totally spoil the start of our October half term short break. From our apartment, up a hill in…
La vie en rose! The surreal Pink Granite Coast is as beautiful as it is rugged and must be one of France’s best kept secrets. Miles of colourful, misshapen boulders, some up to 20m in height, are stacked on top of each other, often balanced at seemingly impossible angles. Three hundred million years in the…
The eccentric old woman who lived alone in a cave aroused the suspicion of villagers. They suspected witchcraft and started blaming her for everything from ill health and failing crops to wifi outages and Brexit! Hearing their pleas for help, the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey sent Father Bernard into the witch’s lair, armed only with…
