Mechanical Turk – a chess machine that could beat anyone!
Have you heard of the Mechanical Turk? I do not mean the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) Amazon’s crowdsourcing marketplace, this is not the same. The Mechanical Turk was a creation of Wolfgang von Kempelen. It all happened in 1769 when the French illusionist François Pelletier was invited to perform in Vienna at the court of […]
The British Tommy’s cup of tea!
This is a silly question, but where do you get a cup of tea when you are fighting a war? The Importance of tea to the British Basically, tea was so important to the British way of life that it was ordained that every British soldier deserves his cup of tea, this is a […]
The Combat of the Thirty!!
The Combat of the Thirty took place in France on 26th March 1351, during the Breton War of Succession. It even took place in front of a crowd, who were supplied refreshments and the combatants even took a half time break! What was the cause? To explain, there was a struggle between the House of […]
Do you know Jemima Nicholas, Heroine of Fishguard?
Jemima Nicholas was the heroine of The Battle of Fishguard, which appears to have been the “last invasion of mainland Britain”. What happened? It was an invasion by Revolutionary France, that only lasted three days, 22nd to 24th February 1797. Basically, 1,400 troops landed at Fishguard. It was made up of 600 French regular […]
The Battle of Margate
Have you ever heard of the naval battle of Margate, where the rewards of this victory were over 2 million gallons of wine! More interestingly, I believe that it took place by mistake. You see on the 24th and 25th March 1387, the English fleet thought they were fighting the might of the French […]
The Plumstead Ghost, 1897
In October 1897, the ‘Plumstead Ghost’ appeared in Plumstead, near Woolwich, around the St James’s Church and the school. The local papers were full of stories about young girls fainting on being approached by the ghost, even according to the Daily News, having to take to their beds due to nervous exhaustion. Then a […]
The Amazing story of Anne Green
Anne Green was a scullery maid who was seduced by the grandson of her master, she became pregnant, miscarried, then hid the foetus. The result was that she was charged with infanticide, a hanging offence in those days, and was sentenced to hang at Oxford Castle on 14 December 1650. After half an hour, they […]
The Vikings
For 300 years, from the 8th to the 11th centuries, the Vikings struck terror into the hearts of their enemies and victims. Christian monasteries and churches were their favourite targets as they had rich ornaments and gold. In fact, many of the accounts of their attacks come from monks and priests. For example, a raid […]
Is the Three Musketeers a true story or not?
Well, you have to decide, and to help we have made Alexandre Dumas’s famous tale The Three Musketeers into a rollicking foot tapping 50 minute musical so your children can enjoy performing as a year-end show. The story, which is set in France during the 1620s, is about chivalry, honour, and most of all […]
The build up to the Gun Powder plot
We have all heard of the Gunpowder Plot, we celebrate it every year on November 5th, but do you know why they felt they had to blow up the parliament? It all goes back to King Henry VIII and 1534. Henry’s Church In 1534 Henry started the English Church and for it to succeed he […]