History’s greatest conundrums and mysteries solved

When skirts, tights and frills were the hallmarks of masculinity

Today, clogs are mainly associated with the north of England, but this hard-wearing, affordable footwear was common across Britain from Victorian times right through World War Two. With a shaped woode

Horses were involved in King Harold’s defeat at Hastings – but also in the demise of his Norman conqueror It’s one of the most famous of all medieval images. Harold II stands upon the battlefield at H

Few objects in the long history of the Catholic church stir the imagination quite like the fabled sedia stercoraria. With a name that roughly translates as ‘dung chair’, the myth of the so-called papa

This is one in a series of articles; the intention is to provide an overview of useful family and local history records in existence, covering the period 1066-1485. Each article can be enjoyed as a st

How Chaucer reshaped English poetry