British engineer Sir Frank Whittle patented his pioneering design for the turbojet engine in 1932. His invention would go on ...

To take on a job as an apprentice or female domestic servant usually required living under the same roof as the employer. Not ...

There have been many reincarnations of London Bridge since the original Roman crossing in AD50. The most famous and longstanding of these was the “Old” Medieval bridge, finished in 1209 during the ...

Legend has it that Robin Hood was an outlaw living in Sherwood Forest with his ‘Merry Men’ – but did he really exist? There are several versions of the Robin Hood story. The Hollywood one is that of ...

Please note that Platform 9 ¾ has moved! Click here to jump down to the updated part of this article. For those of you that have ever read a Harry Potter book or seen one of the films, Platform 9 ¾ ...

In March 1987, the ferry The Herald of Free Enterprise sank off Zeebrugge with the loss of 188 lives. This great tragedy occurred because the roll-on/roll-off ferry had sailed with its bow doors open, ...

During the 15th century struggle for power between the rival houses of Lancaster and York, the First Battle of St Albans marked the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. During the 15th century struggle ...

Cue the whirring of dial-up modems, Microsoft Frontpage and an exceptionally slow PC. It’s 2000, which means AltaVista, MSN Messenger and the very first version of Historic UK being uploaded to the ...

For centuries the Highlanders of Scotland had eked out a living for themselves and their families by cultivating a small stretch of land for which they paid landlords rent, a practice known as ...

Having failed in their attempt to gain support in England and advance on London, the Jacobites had retreated all the way back to Scotland and besieged the government forces under the command of Major ...

The last major engagement of the Wars of the Roses took place at the Battle of Stoke Field, near the town Newark in Nottinghamshire. Although the Yorkist King Richard III had been killed at the Battle ...

Although the powerful Percy family had supported the Lancastrian King Henry IV when he took the throne from Richard II in 1399, the rebellion of 1403 stemmed from the king’s failure to sufficiently ...