History of the United Kingdom

Bellbird

Bellbird

-Oceania-South Pacific
Location
New Zealand
There has been so much news on the Royal Family of late, and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, my ancestors all from the UK, the history of the UK is breathtaking,( to me anyway.) I am so fascinated with the castles, the old towns and buildings, the stately homes, many of which are on the tourist map.
The chances of me being able to see all the history plus walk the roads of my ancestors, in person, is zilch so I content myself by viewing it all on Youtube .
I wonder how many on the forum find the above fascinating, and do get to see it all in person.?
 
Bellbird said:
There has been so much news on the Royal Family of late, and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, my ancestors all from the UK, the history of the UK is breathtaking,( to me anyway.) I am so fascinated with the castles, the old towns and buildings, the stately homes, many of which are on the tourist map.
The chances of me being able to see all the history plus walk the roads of my ancestors, in person, is zilch so I content myself by viewing it all on Youtube .
I wonder how many on the forum find the above fascinating, and do get to see it all in person.?
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well I live here and tbh, pretty jaded with castles et al having seen so many in my life... and currently living in a small town where the castles and the churches date back to the 11th century...we're just used to it...
 
With most of Ireland already gone and the rest will follow, peacefully, within 20 years at the outside, Scotland on the verge of going and Wales only held in thrall by armed subjugation and not even represented on the Union flag the term "United" Kingdom is a bit of a misnomer!
 
The "United Kingdom" is a somewhat loose union of four quite different nations and a variety of cultures, languages and history. How long that remains the case is debatable, but not here.

As Hollydolly says, we tend to accept living alongside the remnants of the past. Just along the coast from me are the remains of St. John's church which was founded in 1004 and abandoned in 1830. Allegedly the second oldest church in Scotland, it sits on top of a cliff with a view across Gamrie bay and the North sea.
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There are numerous 'castles' in Scotland although the term is often applied to a fortified house rather than a military base. The largest cattle in Scotland is Edinburgh castle which dates from the 11th century. Over the centuries, there have been upwards of 3000 castles in Scotland.

Even these buildings are 'modern' in comparison to some of the earliest ones in the the Orkney and Shetland islands where some buildings date back over 3000 years BC.
 
It's a funny, strange world out there when it comes to travel. Canadians and Americans love Europe and want to see all those old castles, churches and paintings. Europeans come here to see the large distances, the mountains, the miles and miles of bush and the waterfalls and everything that is new.

Apparently, in season there are 2 charter flights from Germany to The Yukon every week. Why? Well, the Germans want to come to Canada and live in the bush (like the Indians) and they pay big money to do so. I don't blame them as the cities are polluted with people walking around starring at their "smartphones" which is pretty boring to see but is common the whole world over. I think we all want to see something different, so people from UK don't want to see castles and old churches and Canadians (I should know) sure don't spend their money flying over to Europe to see some forests or trees.
 

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Unfortunately The United Kingdom is run as a democracy, one person one vote, and because there are more English voters done everybody else put together the so called union is in fact ruled by England!
 
Packerjohn said:
It's a funny, strange world out there when it comes to travel. Canadians and Americans love Europe and want to see all those old castles, churches and paintings. Europeans come here to see the large distances, the mountains, the miles and miles of bush and the waterfalls and everything that is new.

Apparently, in season there are 2 charter flights from Germany to The Yukon every week. Why? Well, the Germans want to come to Canada and live in the bush (like the Indians) and they pay big money to do so. I don't blame them as the cities are polluted with people walking around starring at their "smartphones" which is pretty boring to see but is common the whole world over. I think we all want to see something different, so people from UK don't want to see castles and old churches and Canadians (I should know) sure don't spend their money flying over to Europe to see some forests or trees.
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so true...I want to see huge wide open spaces...big Canyons... huge waterfalls.. amazing forests....and tree houses...Gigantic Trains... enormous expansive deserts.. glorious palm trees...
 
No matter where we live, we live with the remnants of what went on in the past. It's just that some places in the world have more rocks stacked on top of other rocks than other places. I have always enjoyed gawking at castles and such on my trips to foreign (to me) sites.

In my part of the world, things were mostly built of wood and tended not to last for centuries in this rainy climate.
 
I live close to wild moorland, and there are the remains of stone circles (tiny compared to Stonehenge), which indicates that people have been living in the area for thousands of years. There are buildings dating back to Tudor times with people still living in them, vast areas which were used as royal hunting grounds, plus a couple of castles, Roman roads. There is a pub (bar) with the columns from a Roman fort outside.
I'm very aware of all this history around me. Whenever I go out for a walk, I know I'm using a track which has been in use since ancient times.
The truth is, of course, that all countries are full of history. It just seems to be rather more concentrated in Britain.
 
I have direct ancestry to Lincoln, the English/Scottish border counties and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland so want to visit those. Had plans to do so in 2020 but that obviously didn't happen. Maybe in the next year or two...

In genealogy, you're only to count ancestors with a documented direct paper trail or direct yDNA male line, or mDNA female line ...not!!! what someone has entered into ancestry.com which is full of user generated errors and fantasies... My oldest unbroken paper trail line is to John Hutchinson, 1515-1565. He was mayor of Lincoln and died in office.
 
Laurie said:
With most of Ireland already gone and the rest will follow, peacefully, within 20 years at the outside, Scotland on the verge of going and Wales only held in thrall by armed subjugation and not even represented on the Union flag the term "United" Kingdom is a bit of a misnomer!
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Dont write this ancient union off just yet, (this would be the lesson of history in my view)!
 
Thanks for the posts, right from a kid I have been fascinated with the history of the UK and the USA, good or bad. It was drilled into us at school, our whole life originated around the UK, events, sayings, food, recipes etc. even our xmas cards had snow on them, a lot still do, even though it is our summer. It is sad to see so much of what I grew up with being taken away or just forgotten.
Doing my genealogy for over 20 years, the UK was the origin of my ancestors, finding quite a few of them went to the US in the 1800's, Canada, I knew I would need to know were we all originated. I am awaiting my DNA results, should arrive in about 6-8 weeks, I cant wait.
Not many people realise New Zealand is the youngest country on earth, it was the last land mass of magnitude to be discovered, so our history is sparce.
 
Bellbird said:
the history of the UK is breathtaking,( to me anyway.)
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I also find it interesting. Much of my ancestry is UK based, and I believe our civilization and culture here in the US is more UK based than anything. So I think UK history is really an extension of US history. However we are not taught a lot of it.

Been watching documentaries of late and hoping to get to the UK to see some of the historical sites.
 
Alligatorob said:
I also find it interesting. Much of my ancestry is UK based, and I believe our civilization and culture here in the US is more UK based than anything. So I think UK history is really an extension of US history. However we are not taught a lot of it.
Been watching documentaries of late and hoping to get to the UK to see some of the historical sites.
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History was the only subject in my school days where I managed to win the prize at the end of the year in our class, (a book token, and I used it to purchase a George Orwell book).
However in the final exams, or state exams I didn't do quite so well, (maybe I peaked too early??), and it us true that more modern history had me struggling to take it all in.
Ancient history on the other hand, with its seemingly romantic stories was a different matter, and I was teachers pet in that subject, (treated as a separate exam though!).

After my school days, and before my one trip to the US in 1988, I did read a book called, "A history of English speaking peoples", that was largely about America, and included a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.

You'll enjoy the UK should you manage to visit, but there is so much history to possibly consider it won't be easy to fit in everything obviously, or get much more than a flavour of British history really.

I couldn't even recommend you a castle to visit, though there are so many to visit should you wish, some partly destroyed deliberately to prevent them being reused during whatever period of history it might have been involved in battles, maybe during the civil war, (or even before this when there was internal strife?).

In a sense you can't go wrong though, and good luck! :)
 
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It was a vast Empire for a very long time. See how they became so powerful in this 10 minute video.


from Google

The British Empire does not exist today. However, the Commonwealth is a free association of sovereign states comprising the United Kingdom and many of its former dependencies that acknowledge the British monarch as the association's symbolic head.
 
grahamg said:
I couldn't even recommend you a castle to visit, though there are so many to visit
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I have been to the UK, but only on business, got very little tourist time.

On one trip we were working in in the client's law office, everyday we took a taxi from our hotel to the office. Kept passing this very impressive looking place so I finally asked the driver what it was. He was rather surprised and replied "Buckingham Palace".

That's about the story of my UK adventures, now I really need to go back with more time.
 
Alligatorob said:
I have been to the UK, but only on business, got very little tourist time.
On one trip we were working in in the client's law office, everyday we took a taxi from our hotel to the office. Kept passing this very impressive looking place so I finally asked the driver what it was. He was rather surprised and replied "Buckingham Palace".
That's about the story of my UK adventures, now I really need to go back with more time.
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You can go around Buckingham Palace now I believe, though I've never done so.
When working in London I did visit "The Tower of London", where so many historical figures were taken or held before "getting the chop"!

The "Crown Jewels" are held there in a vault you enter on a moving walkway, and to say they're impressive is an understatement obviously, but are to be marvelled at, and how much wealth was accumulated in times gone past.

On my trip to the US it was mostly business, though a fair proportion of time for sightseeing too, (and a guy on the trip with me said he'd visited many times on business but never had any time for sightseeing before, like yourself in the UK.
 
Paco Dennis said:
It was a vast Empire for a very long time. See how they became so powerful in this 10 minute video.


from Google

The British Empire does not exist today. However, the Commonwealth is a free association of sovereign states comprising the United Kingdom and many of its former dependencies that acknowledge the British monarch as the association's symbolic head.
Click to expand...
Isn't it amazing how such a small country has had such a huge impact on the rest of the world? At present, the British are allowing themselves to be denigrated. Schools really need to go back to teaching the whole story. It wasn't all slavery and exploitation!

One thing I would like to bring to certain people's attention: when the Saxons invaded Britain (before it became England) they murdered large numbers of the ancient Celts and drove the rest westward into what is now Wales. The Welsh have never forgiven them. The same thing happened in the north when the Vikings invaded. Having their lands stolen has happened to white people too!
 
Tish said:
I am also fascinated with British history, especially Scottish.
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Many Scots have belief in a glorious past that was, at best, romanticised. From uprisings, clan feuds to the 'Highland clearances' and the less talked about 'Scottish potato famine', Scotland has had a turbulent past . Although on a much smaller scale than the Irish one, the Scottish famine was in part responsible for the emigration of large numbers of Scots to Canada and Australia, and the general depopulation of the Highlands.

Although the UK government has responsibility for matters such as foreign policy, defence, immigration etc.., Scotland has a good deal of autonomy, with its own Legal, health, limited financial and education systems.
 
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