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The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- The Herald Scotland
Best spots to visit in Hampshire according to readers
If you're visiting, it might be a hard job to pick where to go, as there are plenty of places rich in history or full of natural beauty to choose from. Due to the abundance of choice, it might pose the question of what the ultimate place to visit in Hampshire is. Therefore, we decided to ask Daily Echo readers to share the one place they would recommend people to go to in the county. The one place people need to visit in Hampshire according to readers There was quite a variety of comments left on the Facebook post, ranging from picturesque natural beauty spots to points of historical interest. King Arthur's Round Table in Winchester was mentioned by one reader for the latter point, which is part of the Great Hall at Westgate Museum. It is said to be "one of the finest medieval halls in England", which was built as part of Winchester Castle by William the Conqueror. Its website adds: "Step inside the legendary Great Hall and marvel at its soaring arches, rich history and the iconic Round Table, linked to King Arthur's legend in popular fiction, and walk through the formidable Westgate, where echoes of centuries past still linger in the stone." On the more natural side of things, Exbury Gardens in the New Forest was highlighted by one reader. Exbury Gardens were highlighted for their natural beauty (Image: Stuart Talbot/Camera Club) Its website says it contains "200 acres of woodland, herbaceous and formal gardens to enjoy". Other features include a narrow-gauge steam railway, a play area, a log trail and riverside walks, making it perfect for a day out. Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley Abbey was also brought up, which offers a mixture of nature and history to explore. Located on the shores of Southampton Water, it comprises around 200 acres, mixing up parkland, woodland and a shingle beach. Visitors can also explore The Chapel, which was once part of the Royal Victoria Military Hospital. Royal Victoria Country Park has lots to explore (Image: Alison Treacher/Camera Club) Here you can learn about the people who worked and were treated at the hospital, and go to the top of the 150-foot chapel tower. Some readers brought up individual villages as being among the best places to visit in Hampshire, which included Milford-on-Sea, Bucklers Hard and Burley. In terms of museums, Southampton's SeaCity Museum, which tells the story of the Titanic in relation to the city, and the Beaulieu Motor Museum were recommended. Recommended reading: Southampton's Mayflower Theatre was highlighted by one reader, with Winchester Cathedral and Portsmouth's historic dockyard also included. One person went for a slightly different tack in suggesting The Joiners, which is a small music venue in Southampton. This grassroots spot has seen plenty of legendary bands play there, including Oasis, The Verve, The Wombats, Two Door Cinema Club, The 1975, Radiohead and many more.
North Wales Live
17-05-2025
- Business
- North Wales Live
History of North Wales risks being 'buried by unprecedented plan'
North Wales is in danger of losing access to its heritage, worried Bangor University staff have warned. Proposed job cuts will decimate the university's archival department, which oversees a 'rare and unique collection' of local documents. Archivists said anyone wanting to discover more about their family heritage, or dig into the history of their local community, will find it much harder if the cuts go ahead. Bangor University is planning to cut 78 jobs in a bid to making savings worth £5.3m. It follows 'unprecedented' challenges facing the UK's higher education sector with nearly one in four universities slashing staff numbers and cutting budgets. Archivists were horrified to discover their department will be virtually wiped out. Of the four staff, three posts will disappear, leaving just one part-timer to manage the university's entire archival collection, 92 special collections and library of rare books. They have warned of a 'sudden, unprecedented threat to access to heritage' that will see the loss of 'decades worth of knowledge'. A month-long consultation is taking place giving staff and students the chance to share opinions on where the axe should fall. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now In the hope of rallying public support to appeal the proposals, a petition has been by launched by Alex Ioannou, a research and digitisation assistant. Within 48 hours, the petition had been signed by more than 1,000 people. The petition states: "It is difficult to apprehend how this decision was made, which means a reduction of 75% in the archives staffing levels – a reduction which is completely disproportionate to the wider cuts within Digital Services Department. 'We consider these proposed changes to be a direct assault on the service and on the rare and unique collection that have been entrusted to the University for safekeeping since the early days.' As well as Bangor University's own historical records, the archives department manages collections from across Wales and beyond. Papers and manuscripts include those from landed estates and renowned literary figures. It is also oversees donated material at the university's Centre of Arthurian Studies, which seeks to unravel the legends surrounding King Arthur. Another collection provides a focus for the RS Thomas Research Centre. In 2022, Daniel Huws, former Keeper of Records at the National Library of Wales, said Bangor University's archives and collection of manuscripts were 'among the most distinguished in a university anywhere in Britain' The petition added: 'Our community - which includes local people, students, staff as well as international and global visitors - should not have to suffer the loss of such a treasured resource because of short-sighted budget cuts. 'Together we can show that as a community we take pride in our heritage and value access to knowledge.' In February, Bangor University said it needed to make savings of £15m, putting 200 jobs at risk. These figures have now been scaled back to £5.3m and 78 posts. The re-evaluation follows savings already made through 'strict controls' and 'voluntary severance and retirements'. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
Times
17-05-2025
- Times
Empty beaches and Roman ruins on the UK's prettiest pilgrimage trail
After his death in AD642, St Oswald's remains were scattered far and wide. A tooth went to Winchester and a finger to St Paul's Cathedral. Fragments of his skull ended up in Germany and the Swiss Alps. So venerated was this Anglo-Saxon king that his remains were coveted all across Christendom. He was a hero, a kind of King Arthur figure for the nascent Kingdom of England (though Oswald was definitely real). And though his body parts became far flung, I suspect his heart (metaphorically speaking) remained in his native Northumbria, on those places along the 97-mile St Oswald's Way from Lindisfarne to Hadrian's Wall, where he famously vanquished an invading Welsh army. That battle site is Heavenfield, a place name whose peculiar poetry lodged in my mind. One spring day I set out to walk there. First I boarded a northbound train at King's Cross. There were views of Peterborough Cathedral (once home to Oswald's arm) and York Minster (once also containing a bit of Oswald, unspecified). The train slowed beside Durham Cathedral (an erstwhile home to his head). But everyone knows this train journey is at its most majestic north of Newcastle. Here the railway shrugs off the usual lineside clutter of buddleia and barbed wire, the views suddenly become far-reaching and unbounded, taking in shining estuaries, marram grass and marine air. Those on board glance up from their phones as the only 'coast' on the East Coast Mainline materialises: a taunting presence for any English passenger travelling north of Berwick, for these last miles of the country are also the very loveliest. They are sacred too. Lindisfarne soon appeared, silhouetted against a sparkling sea. An hour later, having disembarked at Berwick and caught an onward taxi, I was standing on the tidal causeway that links Lindisfarne to the mainland. The tide was slack and low, the sun shining. Everyone was chipper because Newcastle United had just won the League Cup. 'The weather's canny,' said the taxi driver who dropped me off. 'St Oswald is smiling on you.' The first miles of St Oswald's Way took me inland, crossing fields full of molehills and month-old lambs, the path meandering back and forth across the East Coast Mainline. There were no foot bridges: a lineside phone box connected me to the signalman. 'You are now safe to proceed,' he intoned with a priest-like solemnity. I hurried on. With the possible exception of Cornwall, nowhere in England clings to its local saints as tightly as Northumberland. Thousands visit Lindisfarne because of its connections to St Cuthbert, whose nature-loving philosophy and wild swimming habits resonate among the environmentally conscious. But the island's story really begins with St Oswald, the warrior king who first offered this landmass as a place for a monastery in the 7th century. Oswald was part of a dynasty of Northumbrian monarchs, all with unpronounceable names, a fondness for confusing alliances and a talent for familial backstabbing. All you need to know is that Oswald returned home from exile in Scotland to claim his rightful throne, defeat the invading Welsh and be among the first to spread the good news in pagan England. Over those days of walking, I came to know him in a small way. He stood in stone behind the altar of St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh: stoic, bearded, a king from a pack of cards. He struck a more contemplative figure in wood, carved into the pulpit at St John the Baptist Church, Alnmouth. A pilgrimage along St Oswald's Way is a Christian one, but it is also a journey into the soul of his former kingdom. Of those old Anglo-Saxon lands — Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia — Northumbria is perhaps the last one still meaningful to its residents. Oswald is still present from birth to death in these parts, lending his name to primary schools and also to the northeast's biggest hospice. 'Medieval saints were once perceived as friends and neighbours,' Dr Anne Bailey of the University of Oxford told me. 'Both then and now they seem to offer people a sense of identity, a reassuring sense of community, especially as their stories and legends are often tied to the local landscape.' From the battlements at Bamburgh — the modern successor of the castle from which Oswald had his court — the footpath travelled some 28 miles south along the coast. I walked half of that distance on the sand. These were not the congested coves of bank holiday Cornwall, but Northumbrian beaches: vast at high tide and swelling to the size of deserts or Bolivian salt pans once the waves made their retreat. It was shoulder-season on this northern shoulder of England, so some beaches were without footprints altogether. Only the dogs that outran the surveillance of their owners left pawprints to intersect my own. I tied my boots to my backpack and went barefoot. I picnicked by the ashes of driftwood campfires. I heard the thwip of a passing golf ball on the seaside links. I saw swans out on the sea, and saw too that ancient instinct common to Anglo-Saxon menfolk in the northeast: to whip off shirts at a rumour of sunshine, and expose swan-white skin. Beyond Warkworth Castle, the path veered inland, the direction Oswald would have led his army to confront Cadwallon of Gwynedd, who had invaded his kingdom. Here, St Oswald's Way crosses landscapes as empty as any in England: endless rolling fields, moorlands the hue of Newcastle Brown Ale. Chains of pylons hummed and phone masts relayed calls between England and Scotland. There was an older piece of infrastructure too, present since AD122. St Oswald's Way briefly travels along Hadrian's Wall, reaching its end destination at the tiny church at Heavenfield. It was walking along the Roman parapet that I bumped into its vicar, the Rev Sarah Lunn. • 14 of the best walking holidays in the UK 'Whenever I have something troubling me, I walk up here,' she explained to me as we walked. 'Oswald is still a presence here. We know he walked in this landscape.' She led me to the church — marking the spot where Oswald erected the first wooden cross on English soil before defeating the Welsh, his forces trapping them against the Roman Wall. The church we entered was small, lit only by candles. Mice had eaten out the innards of the Victorian organ so it no longer worked; some years ago the bell fell from the tower in a storm. Lunn explained that the key to Heavenfield was also lost long ago, meaning anyone can wander in and savour its particular silence, and perhaps reflect on the righteous battle once fought here, and other battles fought in other places at other times. • I've been going on walking holidays for 20 years. These are Europe's best I walked many pilgrim trails for my book, On This Holy Island, andSt Oswald's Way is still one of the quietest of England's long-distance paths. But I still sense that Oswald might become a saint for our times: a king who stood resolute when his land came under attack. Not so far from the watchtowers of Bamburgh is the RAF control centre at Boulmer, scanning UK airspace for threats from afar. Lunn kindly gave me a lift to Newcastle station, and soon I rolled again past those cathedrals where bits of Oswald's body were once stored: Durham, York, Peterborough. After spending just a few days on his trail, I felt oddly Smith was a guest of Macs Adventure, which has four nights' B&B on a self-guided itinerary along St Oswald's Way from £485pp, including luggage transfers and maps ( On This Holy Island by Oliver Smith is out now in paperback (Bloomsbury £10.99). To order a copy go to or call 020 3176 2935. Free UK standard P&P on online orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members By Siobhan Grogan Following in the footsteps of the miquelots, medieval pilgrims who travelled to Mont St Michel in France, this 155-mile trail connects the abbey in Normandy to Winchester Cathedral. The UK section is now marked with green signs and stretches 29 miles from the church to Portsmouth, weaving through Bishop's Waltham and Southwick. Stop along the way at the Crown, a 16th-century coaching inn in Bishop's Waltham with eight contemporary rooms named after French ships or admirals (B&B doubles from £98; then finish at the Ship Leopard Hotel, a modern, adults-only hotel close to Portsmouth Harbour (B&B doubles from £129; This circular trail from Sundon Hills Country Park traces 86 miles through Bedfordshire countryside, dedicated to the memory of John Bunyan, the 17th-century author of The Pilgrim's Progress. The route takes in various places associated with the writer, including Harlington Manor, where he was interrogated in 1660, and Bedford, where he was released from jail in 1672. The full trail takes eight days. Break it up with stops at the White Hart, an 18th-century coaching inn in the Georgian market town of Ampthill (B&B doubles from £76; and the quirkily decorated Red Lion in Stevington (B&B doubles from £80; Dubbed 'the Welsh Camino', this challenging 135-mile route crosses north Wales from Basingwerk Abbey, near Holywell, to Aberdaron and Bardsey Island, otherwise known as the Island of 20,000 Saints. It follows the trail pilgrims have used since the 7th century and takes about two weeks, passing moorlands, coastline and farmland between stone churches dedicated to 6th-century saints and past a thousand-year-old, 12ft-high cross at Maen Achwyfan. Rest your weary feet along the route at the Hawk & Buckle, a five-room, 17th-century coaching inn in Denbigh (B&B doubles from £95; and the comfortable Ship Hotel, metres from the beach in Aberdaron (B&B doubles from £140;
RNZ News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur found hiding as a book cover
By Ashley Strickland , CNN Conservator Sally Kilby and Błażej Mikuła photograph inside the folds of a medieval manuscript that was used as the cover for another book later on. Photo: Supplied / Cambridge University Library via CNN Researchers have found pages of a rare medieval manuscript masquerading as a cover and stitched into the binding of another book, according to experts at the Cambridge University Library in England. The fragment contains stories about Merlin and King Arthur. The two pages are from a 13th century copy of the "Suite Vulgate du Merlin." The manuscript, handwritten by a medieval scribe in Old French, served as the sequel to the legend of King Arthur. There are just over three dozen surviving copies of the sequel today. Part of a series known as the Lancelot-Grail cycle, the Arthurian romance was popular among aristocrats and royalty, said Dr. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, French specialist in collections and academic liaison at Cambridge University Library. The stories were either read aloud or performed by trouvères, or poets, who traveled from court to court, she said. Rather than risk damaging the brittle pages by removing the stitches and unfolding them, a team of researchers were able to conduct imaging and computed tomography, or CT, scans to create a 3D model of the papers and virtually unfurl them to read the story. Fabry-Tehranchi, one of the first to recognize the rarity of the manuscript, said finding it "is very much a once in a lifetime experience." The scans revealed book-binding techniques from the distant past and hidden details of the repurposed manuscript that could shed light on its origins. "It's not just about the text itself, but also about the material artefact," Fabry-Tehranchi said in a statement. "The way it was reused tells us about archival practices in 16th-century England. It's a piece of history in its own right." Former Cambridge archivist Sian Collins first spotted the manuscript fragment in 2019 while recataloging estate records from Huntingfield Manor, owned by the Vanneck family of Heveningham, in Suffolk, England. Serving as the cover for an archival property record, the pages previously had been recorded as a 14th century story of Sir Gawain. But Collins, now the head of special collections and archives at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, noticed that the text was written in Old French, the language used by aristocracy and England's royal court after the Norman Conquest in 1066. She also saw names like Gawain and Excalibur within the text. Collins and the other researchers were able to decipher text describing the fight and ultimate victory of Gawain, his brothers and his father King Loth versus the Saxon Kings Dodalis, Moydas, Oriancés, and Brandalus. The other page shared a scene from King Arthur's court in which Merlin appears disguised as a dashing harpist, according to a translation provided by the researchers: The pages were folded, torn and stitched together to create a cover for 16th century property records. Photo: Supplied / Cambridge University Library via CNN "While they were rejoicing in the feast, and Kay the seneschal (steward) brought the first dish to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, there arrived the most handsome man ever seen in Christian lands. He was wearing a silk tunic girded by a silk harness woven with gold and precious stones which glittered with such brightness that it illuminated the whole room." Both scenes are part of the "Suite Vulgate du Merlin" that was originally written in 1230, about 30 years after "Merlin," which tells the origin stories of Merlin and King Arthur and ends with Arthur's coronation. "(The sequel) tells us about the early reign of Arthur: he faces a rebellion of British barons who question his legitimacy and has to fight external invaders, the Saxons," Fabry-Tehranchi said in an email. "All along, Arthur is supported by Merlin who advises him strategically and helps him on the battlefield. Sometimes Merlin changes shape to impress and entertain his interlocutors." Blue and red flourishes on some of the letters enabled researchers to date the manuscript to the late 13th to early 14th century. Photo: Supplied / Błażej Mikuła / Amélie Deblauwe / Cambridge University Library via CNN The pages had been torn, folded and sewn, making it impossible to decipher the text or determine when it was written. A team of Cambridge experts came together to conduct a detailed set of analyses. After analyzing the pages, the researchers believe the manuscript, bearing telltale decorative initials in red and blue, was written between 1275 and 1315 in northern France, then later imported to England. They think it was a short version of the "Suite Vulgate du Merlin." Because each copy was individually written by hand by medieval scribes, a process that could take months, there are distinguishing typos, such as "Dorilas" instead of "Dodalis" for one of the Saxon kings' names. "Each medieval copy of a text is unique: it presents lots of variations because the written language was much more fluid and less codified than nowadays," Fabry-Tehranchi said. "Grammatical and spelling rules were established much later." Photo: Supplied / Błażej Mikuła / Amélie Deblauwe / Cambridge University Library via CNN But it was common to discard and repurpose old medieval manuscripts by the end of the 16th century as printing became popular and the true value of the pages became their sturdy parchment that could be used for covers, Fabry-Tehranchi said. "It had probably become harder to decipher and understand Old French, and more up to date English versions of the Arthurian romances, such as (Sir Thomas) Malory's 'Morte D'Arthur' were now available for readers in England," Fabry-Tehranchi said. The updated Arthurian texts were edited to be more modern and easier to read, said Dr. Laura Campbell, associate professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University in Durham, England, and president of the British branch of The International Arthurian Society. Campbell was not involved in the project, but has previously worked on the discovery of another manuscript known as the Bristol Merlin. "This suggests that the style and language of these 13th-century French stories were hitting a point where they badly needed an update to appeal to new generations of readers, and this purpose was being fulfilled by in print as opposed to in manuscript form," Campbell said. "This is something that I think is really important about the Arthurian legend - it has such appeal and longevity because it's a timeless story that's open to being constantly updated and adapted to suit the tastes of its readers." Researchers captured the documents across wavelengths of light, including ultraviolet and infrared, to improve the readability of the text and uncover hidden details, as well as annotations in the margins. The team carried out CT scanning with an X-ray scanner to virtually peer through the parchment layers and create a 3D model of the manuscript fragment, revealing how the pages had been stitched together to form a cover. The CT scans showed there was likely once a leather band around the book to hold it all in place, which rubbed off some of the text. Twisted straps of parchment, called tackets, along with thread reinforced the binding. Scans across different wavelengths of light enabled the researchers to see hidden details and annotations. Photo: Supplied / Błażej Mikuła / Amélie Deblauwe / Cambridge University Library via CNN "A series of specialised photographic equipment such as a probe lens as well as simple accessories such as mirrors were used to photograph otherwise inaccessible parts of the manuscript," said Amélie Deblauwe, a photographer at Cambridge University Library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory. The research team digitally assembled hundreds of images to create a virtual copy of the pages. "The creation of these digital outputs including the virtual unfolding, traditional photography, and (multispectral imaging) all contribute to the preservation of the manuscript in its reused form, while revealing as much of the original contents as possible," Deblauwe said. The researchers believe the methodology they developed for this project can be applied to other fragile manuscripts, especially those repurposed for other uses over time, to provide a nondestructive type of analysis. The team plans to share the methodology in an upcoming research paper. - This story was first published by CNN
News.com.au
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Trent Dalton reveals Boy Swallows Universe origin story and his next ‘murder-mystery' project
Fans of Boy Swallows Universe,get keen – the star Australian author behind the global streaming hit has a new novel coming out, and it is his most intimate project yet. Revealing he has just finished writing Gravity Let Me Go, which wraps together themes of true crime and relationships, Trent Dalton acknowledged feeling 'profound gratitude and crippling dread' because 'this might be the most personal book I've ever written'. Dalton also shared a little-known story about the humble origins of his semi-autobiographical 2018 debut, Boy Swallows Universe, which became a No1 bestseller and was turned into a TV smash by Netflix last year. He said as a young journalist two decades ago he had tried writing a book, largely to distract himself from the 'troubled nocturnal ramblings' of his eccentric rental housemate, a British WWII veteran 'who conversed at length with his ginger cat every night after six VB tallies'. 'I called this book Armour. The title came from the fact my three older brothers and I were obsessed with the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,' Dalton wrote in The Daily Telegraph. 'All the streets where we grew up in this particular Housing Commission cluster of Bracken Ridge, Brisbane, were named after Arthur and his knights … I always thought it was so hopeful and optimistic that a place bursting daily with innumerable social sores was named after such romantic and noble figures of mythology. 'I feverishly devoted 40,000 words to Armour before I wisely realised it was a load of garbage and I swapped bad writing for reading the works of good writers and, after doing that for 18 years, I turned the bones of Armour into my first novel, Boy Swallows Universe.' That storywas an award-winner at home and topped the streaming charts in the US. Dalton revealed he has only watched the show in full once; however he has repeatedly viewed the closing scene, because it reminds him of the one thing he longed for as a child, in vain: that his estranged parents 'might one day be able to live together'. 'Then Netflix came along and turned that book into a series and added on a scene at the end that showed me exactly what such a world might have looked like,' he wrote. 'Maybe I think if I watch that scene enough times I might be able to convince myself that it's real.' The new novel, Gravity Let Me Go, will be published in late September by HarperCollins. Like Dalton, its protagonist is a married father-of-two and a journalist. And like three of his other hits – Boy Swallows Universe, Love Stories and Lola In The Mirror – it is also set in Brisbane. He told The Daily Telegraph: 'It's a marriage story buried inside a murder-mystery … my aim was to write something that might feel familiar to the eight-million-plus married people in this country and to the 70 per cent of Australians who live in the suburbs, while also being my version of a rattling noir-ish whodunit.'
