This edited article about Hughenden Manor originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 705 published on 19 July 1975.

Hughenden Manor

Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, bought Hughenden in 1847. The manor is really Georgian in style but was altered to its present Tudor appearance to satisfy the romantic passion for English tradition of the young Disraeli.

Hughenden has an incomparable position, standing high among the Chiltern Hills, overlooking a lovely park in which stands the church where Disraeli is buried.

With its contemporary decoration, the house is a typical example of a Victorian gentleman’s country seat and contains many relics of the statesman.

There are portraits of his friends, letters from Queen Victoria and some of the manuscripts of his novels. His study is arranged exactly as he left it at the time of his death.

The statesman’s son, Major Coningsby Disraeli, lived at Hughenden until 1936, When Mr. W. H. Abbey generously purchased the house, contents and the park for preservation. It was opened to the public in 1949, and is now run by the National Trust.

During World War II, the house became a storehouse of target maps which were used by the Allied air forces.

This edited article about County Durham originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 705 published on 19 July 1975.

At Jarrow Bede taught children the message of the Gospel, by Peter Jackson

On September 27, 1825, a steam engine was standing on a newly-built railway line near the little Durham village of Shildon. It would have looked ridiculous to us today, for it was very small, and had a tall funnel that was quite out of proportion to the rest of its size. It looked rather like a present-day tar-boiler, and was coupled up to a string of trucks and improvised carriages.

“This is a fine engine,” said a man with a tall, shiny stovepipe hat and a green brocade waistcoat.

“Aye,” replied the friend who stood beside him. “Our Mr. Stephenson’s done a right good job!”

Suddenly a man appeared, struggling through the crowd towards the engine.

“There he is!” called the man in the stovepipe hat. “Mr. Stephenson!”

George Stephenson smiled at the excited crowd, then climbed on to the engine tender. The man in the stovepipe hat, his friend, and the rest of the assembled crowd, climbed aboard. Although tickets had only been issued to 300 people, nearly 200 more scrambled on to the train!

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This edited article about protecting and conserving Britain’s heritage originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 705 published on 19 July 1975.

Londinium as the Romans built it, by Ralph Bruce

The occupant of an earth-satellite poised in space over Britain at the right altitude, would be able to see almost at a glance, if he knew what to look out for, evidence of man’s existence here during more than 5,000 years. This would be the record of his way of life, at first agricultural and then industrial, from the time when he originally established himself and laid his ‘signature’ upon the land. From Muckle Flugga at the tip of Shetland to the granite crags of Land’s End, history and prehistory would be spread out beneath his gaze. This is what we call our heritage.

His eye would be caught by the greatest prehistoric monument within our shores, Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, the masterpiece of Stone Age Man which may have taken 1,000 years to build and was completed perhaps 3,500 years ago. Its true purpose is still not known. Not far from it, he would see the Avebury Stone Circle, the largest of its kind in all Europe, and the avenue of giant stones leading to Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. He would see, too, the hundreds of round and oval burial-mounds, especially in Wiltshire, marking the last resting-places of chieftains who died over 3,000 years ago.

All these are impressive relics of Stone Age and Bronze Age Man, the earliest inhabitants of Britain. The hills and ridges of Berkshire, Dorset, Derbyshire and elsewhere carry the relics of their successors. These are the great earth ramparts and ditches of the hill-forts established by Iron Age Man. They may be seen from the air, but you can see and explore them on foot. All are prehistoric sites. All were there when, in the last years B.C., the Romans arrived in Britain.

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This edited article about Castle Ashby originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 704 published on 12 July 1975.

The Long Gallery at Castle Ashby with its early Palladian design. Photograph by Charles Latham

Castle Ashby is a sight worth seeing. It lies in a great landscape park built by the noted landscape gardener, Lancelot Brown, better known as “Capability” Brown. He received his nickname from his favourite saying that a site had “capabilities.”

Although the park was laid out in 1765, the bulk of this quadrangular mansion is regional Jacobean and dates from approximately 1624. An unusual aspect of the building is that it presents the most complete example of a balustrade spelling out an inscription. In this case, it is the verse Nisi Dominus.

The side containing the entrance to the courtyard was built in the style of Inigo Jones, but the date and designer are unknown.

The Great Chamber with Elizabethan and Charles II features, has a ceiling typifying the transition in style from the Jacobean to the Palladian vogue of the sixteenth century.

There is a richly carved oak staircase and the State rooms, hung with expensive Brussels and other tapestries, were decorated in 1675 by the third Earl of Northampton to repair Civil War damage.

Castle Ashby is owned by the Marquess of Northampton.

This edited article about Somerset originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 704 published on 12 July 1975.

The Battle of Sedgemoor by Ron Embleton

Somerset, as the old song says, is where the cider apples grow. It is also a county of rolling hills, famous towns, great men, romantic legends and vital developments in our island story.

You can go back a long, long way in British history, in fact, and still find that men were busy in Somerset. Years before Julius Caesar made his inquisitive expedition to our hostile shores in Kent, the early Celts had developed a high level of culture, centred upon Glastonbury. In that same town, centuries later, Dunstan, probably the first of Britain’s chief ministers, founded the Abbey, the ruins of which still stand today.

Glastonbury, too, is one of the places where King Arthur was said to have been buried, and in the reign of Richard I, an excavating team claimed to have discovered his bones there.

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This edited article about cricket originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 701 published on 21 June 1975.

The first cricket matches were played on the Sussex Downs by Peter Jackson

Almost 150 years ago, one of cricket’s most influential figures, Thomas Lord, was saying cricket was doomed. Like many others at the time, he was concerned about the “round-arm” revolution that was sweeping the game. What, one wonders, would he have said had he still been around to watch the actions and speed of today’s fast bowlers?

Appropriately, the Lord’s ground in London’s St. John’s Wood, is the venue for the first-ever World Cup cricket final, for it was here where Thomas Lord laid the original turf on which so much of the sport’s history has been made. Cricket was not born at Lord’s but it can certainly be said to have grown up here and been an inspiration to the world’s leading players.

Fortunately the Grace Gate, the Long Room and the “Father Time” weather vane have survived the envious eyes of the developers. Thomas Lord arrived in London from Yorkshire at a time when cricket’s popularity was spreading, in the early part of the 19th century. He prepared and rented his first ground in Dorset Square, but when the lease ran out and the rent went up, he moved to another plot where the Regent Canal was later to run.

The determined Lord moved again in 1814 to the present site, taking the original turf with him. When, some years later, he was tempted to sell the land as a building estate, a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club is said to have asked him what the ground was worth. “Five thousand pounds, sir” came the reply and immediately a cheque was signed for that amount. Since then, it has grown to become the headquarters of a game no one is quite sure who started.

It will always begin an argument when a claim that “cricket started here” is made. Young farm labourers in the Weald of Sussex and Kent are generally considered to have started the idea, using the “wicket” or gate from sheep pens as their target.

The earliest cricket prints generally show the scorers seated square with the two-stump wicket with only a stick to cut a “notch” for a run. Batsmen and wicket-keeper did not bother about any protection against underarm bowling and knee-length breeches and heavy wagers on the result were the most common things of cricket’s early days.

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This edited article about County Down originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 701 published on 21 June 1975.

The Irish Brigade of the French army distinguished itself when fighting the hated English at the Battle of Fontenoy by Severino Baraldi

Across the battlefield at Fontenoy in Belgium in 1745, the English and French armies faced each other in silence. Then, with a great cheer, the English charged, scattering the French before them.

Victory seemed certain until, suddenly, a line of determined Irishmen refused to budge before the triumphant English Guards.

“Curse the Ulstermen and their freedom-loving,” growled the Duke of Cumberland as he watched his men driven back from the French lines to defeat.

Why did the Irish fight so stubbornly against the English on that Belgian battlefield? The answer is a simple one: for the same reason they have fought in battles all over the world – for freedom.

They fought at Fontenoy because the English had tried to suppress the Irish wool industry.

A few years before, King George III had raged that it was only the courage of the Ulstermen who fought with them that enabled the Americans to win their independence.

“Our Declaration of Independence is sacredly preserved in the handwriting of Ulstermen,” commented a United States congressman later.

When the English proposed establishing a parliament to govern both Northern and Southern Ireland, Ulstermen immediately prepared to fight, but instead, the English quickly agreed that Ulster should have its own parliament.

Ulstermen are the stubborn, independent people who live in Northern Ireland, among whose counties is County Down.

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This edited article about Nottinghamshire originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 699 published on 7 June 1975.

Robin Hood by James E McConnell

From Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire has come one of the most stirring and romantic legends in English history – the tale of bold Robin Hood who, with his band of Merry Men, roamed the greenwood in the Middle Ages.

But did Robin ever exist? The answer, unhappily, is probably not. The jolly outlaw who made the county, its castle and vast forests famous, may be just a legend.

Ballads and poems have celebrated his daring exploits down the ages. But there are no historical records to prove he lived.

He may have been the Earl of Huntingdon, unjustly banished by bad King John, and Maid Marian may have been Count Fitzwalter’s daughter who followed him to the greenwood.

He could have been another form of the superstition of Robin Goodfellow, a kindly, woodland spirit who was supposed to haunt the forests of England.

Or he may have been just a common outlaw. There were plenty of yeomen in forests like Sherwood, forced to live as robbers after banishment. Heavy punishments were often imposed upon ordinary men for very petty crimes.

Fact or legend, Robin has always represented the yeoman’s love of freedom and hatred of tyranny. And he has made Sherwood Forest immortal.

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This edited article about Warwickshire originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 698 published on 31 May 1975.

A picture history of Kenilworth Castle, one of the great historic buildings of Warwickshire, by C L Doughty

“Up school! Up school!” “Come on, Headmaster’s House!”

Supporters of both teams stood in groups round the football pitch, loudly urging their schoolfellows on to one last effort. The match was nearly over, the players muddy and tired. And still there was no score.

The scene was Rugby School, Warwickshire’s famous public school. On the football field that day in 1823 one boy was to make sporting history. His name was William Webb Ellis.

A dozen boys crowded round the ball. A deft flick of the foot, and the ball sailed towards Ellis. “Come on Ellis, now’s your chance!” roared the boys on the side-lines. A straight kick, and the match would be won.

But William Ellis did not kick the ball. At the side of the pitch, spectators gasped in astonishment as he gathered the ball in his hands, and ran, twisting and weaving, towards the goal.

Astonishment turned quickly to anger. “Foul! Foul! Drop the ball, Ellis! Shame!” yelled the watching boys, as Ellis, the ball tucked firmly under his arm, crossed the goal line and triumphantly touched down the ball there.

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This edited article about Cumbria originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 696 published on 17 May 1975.

William Wordsworth at Dove Cottage by Harry Green

John Paul Jones, his cocked hat set firmly on his head, his sword swinging at his waist, ran up the companion way of his ship, “Ranger”, as it swept smoothly before the breeze into a quiet English harbour.

A number of British vessels were at anchor and Jones could just see them in the moonlight.

He rapped a sharp order to the gunners to prime their cannons and take aim. Suddenly, there was a succession of loud reports, and red flashes illuminated the ships gently straining at their anchors.

“Fire,” shouted Jones again. And once more the cannons boomed, their projectiles striking their targets squarely. Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, the ships burst into flames one by one, and the red glow lit up the guns of the shore battery.

At a command from Jones, the gunners switched their aim to the shore cannons and soon put them out of action.

By now, the whole town was aroused, and ships which had not been hit in the earlier attack began putting to sea. Realising that he was about to be very speedily outnumbered, Jones turned and ran – and peace once again returned to the quiet harbour.

Jones was an American privateer who created havoc around the coast of Britain during the American War of Independence. And this attack in 1778 was upon Whitehaven, a town upon the coast of Cumbria, a county created in April last year.

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