1799: The Napoleonic POW Escape That Shamed a Norfolk Town for 60 Years
In October 1799, 130 Napoleonic French and Dutch prisoners of war were locked in a Norfolk church bell tower for the night. One man managed to escape - sparking a man hunt! Before Waterloo & Austerlitz, this is the story of Jean de Narde — a French petty officer, 28 years old, son of a notary from St. Malo — and the sixty years of shame that followed his death in an East Dereham churchyard.
1095: The Uprising That Ended in Red-Hot Pokers - The Earls' Revolt
Following William the Conqueror's death in 1087, England underwent a series of power struggles as the Duke of Normandy was a different person to the King of England. This situation caused The Norman War of the Brothers, spanning from 1087 to 1106.
1972: The Rabbit Apocalypse That Sold 50 Million Copies – Watership Down & Richard Adams
n 1972, a British civil servant finished writing a story he'd been telling his daughters on long car journeys. It was about rabbits. Trouble was... it also discussed genocide, torture, vivisection and secret police.
How the Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Norman Conquest was anything but.
1190: The Pope Who Accidentally Built Kent's Most Beautiful Village Church - Barfrestone
In 1190, the Archbishop of Canterbury lost a fight with the Pope — and a tiny Kent village accidentally inherited some of the finest Romanesque stonework in England.
1648: The Mayor Who Sent His King to the Block - The Battle of Maidstone
Join us for the story of Britain's second Prime Minister: the man who had to ask the man he was replacing to do the job for him.
1538 The Exeter Conspiracy and Fat Henry's Paranoia - Okehampton & The Courtenays
Join us for the story of Britain's second Prime Minister: the man who had to ask the man he was replacing to do the job for him.
1727: The Prime Minister So Bad, They Named Delaware’s Largest City After Him - Spencer Compton
Join us for the story of Britain's second Prime Minister: the man who had to ask the man he was replacing to do the job for him.
1913: The Oxted Toilet Bombing Done By a Labour Party Chairman Who Taught JFK
Exploring a 113-year-old case - where a future Chairman of the Labour Party, and mentor to both JFK & Pierre Trudeau, blew up the men’s toilets at Oxted Station in Surrey, in support of the Suffragette movement. On 4th April 1913, Edwin Mighell arrived for his shift. He found the remnants of a rush basket containing a petrol can, an alarm clock, and what appeared to have been gunpowder.
1943: The Golf Course the Luftwaffe Built - Lullingstone Park
Exploring a 113-year-old case - where a future Chairman of the Labour Party, and mentor to both JFK & Pierre Trudeau, blew up the men’s toilets at Oxted Station in Surrey, in support of the Suffragette movement. On 4th April 1913, Edwin Mighell arrived for his shift. He found the remnants of a rush basket containing a petrol can, an alarm clock, and what appeared to have been gunpowder.