In “Kitchenalia” we introduce objects from different historical periods, discover a bit about their history and find out how each was made. This time ancient portable coookers.

November 6th, 1217: On This Day England’s longest-lasting law, the Charter of the Forest, is sealed extending freedoms to the common people.

OTD the assassins of Julius Caesar were defeated at the Battle of Phillipi in northeast Greece.

The Bayeux Tapestry returns to England but what is its significance?

On This Day, 19th September, the preserved body of “Ötzi the Iceman” was discovered in 1991.

September 2nd to 6th, 1666 : The Great Fire rages across London destroying four-fifths of the city. In the early hours of September 2nd, 1666, a fire had broken out in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. At the time blazes were fairly common, which might explain the Lord Mayor of London’s reaction ( right ). Unfortunately for Sir Thomas and his fellow Londoners a long, hot, dry summer had turned the city’s largely wooden infrastructure into a tinderb

On This Day, 27 August 1896, Britain fought its shortest ever war lasting just over 40 minutes.

A further two recipes from the Golden Age of Piracy from an event at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London.

A guide to poisons, their history and uses in the ancient world.

An introduction to the history of assassins and assassination.

A six part series on "How to:" build a replica naval gun from the Age of Sail. In Part Six we explore how to recreate the tackle, the ropes and pulleys to run out the gun.

The notion of Viking berserkers has captured the popular imagination but who were they?

Dispelling some myths that Medieval people did not bathe.

A brief introduction to crime and punishment in Merry Ol' England.

Dispelling myths that towns and villages in the Medieval period were dirty, smelly places in which to live.

Did Roman soldiers train with double weight swords?

Dispelling some myths surrounding the legendary King Arthur.

Etymology The Roman testudo means “tortoise” not “turtle”, even if Rex Harrison, playing Julius Caesar in the 1963 film “Cleopatra”, uses the latter term. To be fair, he was delivering a line from script written by an American, which may sound a little condescending until one realises that in North America “turtle” is used to denote the whole group of creatures. In fact, the order’s name, Testudines , is based on the Latin word testudo  meaning “tortoise” and was coined by

Challenging some of the common misconceptions about witches.

Was "Albion" the name used for Great Britain by its earliest inhabitants?