The place to learn about the past and present,
Presenting the biggest coins in the world - The world's No.1 is as heavy as a car! When the Royal Mint minted a massive £10,000 coin in 2021, it got me wondering what the biggest coins in the world were. So, I reached into my bag of tricks and I came up with this; the... Continue Reading →
The Prince who murdered his family because he couldn’t marry his one true love This is the grisly story of a truly astounding crime. In 2001 the Nepalese Royal Family was slaughtered in a frenzied shooting spree. What makes this more disturbing is that it was committed by one of their own family members. On... Continue Reading →
The story of when the king of Britain adopted a feral child from the forests of Germany into his royal court When King George I brought a feral boy into the British Royal Court in 1726 he caused a sensation among London’s high society. ‘Peter the Wild Boy’ as he came to be called, neither... Continue Reading →
Why a friendly, sociable local killed 12 people was a mystery to most. Here, his life is scrutinised to expose how it unravelled before its fatal climax A puzzling episode of Cumbrian history that bewilders locals to this very day. After an angry confrontation with some colleagues, a man named Derrick Bird shot dead his... Continue Reading →
The 120-year history of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, Germany's 'steampunk train' Railway from The Future This is the story of the oldest suspension railway in the world, an engineering marvel whose origins go back much further than when it first opened for business at the turn of the 20th Century. Film footage (below) from its first... Continue Reading →
Shed a tear for three British aristocrats, with their millions of pounds and stately homes, who suffered such misfortune, one might barely distinguish them from commoners Privileged aristocrats are human and so suffer poor luck and judgement like the rest of us. But for us unwashed masses there is a certain guilty pleasure in seeing... Continue Reading →
Read about the worst that Mother Nature has thrown at Britain When Mother Nature gets angry the effects can be both spectacular and catastrophic. Stories of homes getting obliterated by violent winds, buildings rocking on their foundations or tornadoes tearing across the land rarely emanate from Great Britain, however. The UK has it seems a... Continue Reading →
The story of the hero policeman who sniffed out trouble to save the lives of his neighbours When the nose knows you’d better take notice; that was certainly the case for Police Constable Nick Shaw in the wee hours of the 9th of January, 1987. It was because of this policeman’s sense of smell and... Continue Reading →
The little known story of two English nobles who fought the last ever private battle on English soil. The rural folk of one quiet corner of Great Britain have let much of the island's long, tumultuous history pass them by. In the year 1470, a traveller might have set out from London and headed due... Continue Reading →
History and Things 