Amazing & Extraordinary Facts About Great Britain Read Online Free PDF

establishments which underpinned the Industrial Revolution pioneered in Britain.

    LEGGING IT
    The British canal system has added two expressions to the language. Navvies, or navigators, were the armies of labouring men, often Irish, who dug out and constructed the canals in the 18th and 19th centuries and went on to build the railways. ‘Legging it’ referred to the process by which canal boats were manoeuvred through tunnels, where horses could not tow them. Men known as ‘leggers’ would lie on planks set across the boat and ‘walk’ or ‘leg’ the boat along by pushing against the walls (or roof) of the tunnel with their feet. Britain still has 2,000 miles of inland waterways – about 80 per cent of the extent during the heyday of the system – and about 27,000 boats though nearly all are now used as dwellings or pleasure craft rather than for conveying freight which was their original purpose. One of the canal system’s most peculiar features is Weedon Bec, on the Grand Union Canal near Daventry in Northamptonshire. Constructed during the Napoleonic Wars as a small-arms ordnance depot, it was designed to double as a refuge for the royal family who would evacuate there from London in the event of invasion. It is far inland from the coast but accessible because of the canal which serves it. The complex is now used as stores and workshops for the many small firms in the area .
Tearing Down the Walls
Derry’s identity crisis – all in the name of religion
    W hat’s in a name? Quite a lot if the name is Londonderry. One of the oldest inhabited towns in Ireland, it was originally called Derry, the old Irish word for the oaks which grew in the area. In 1613 James I, who wished to encourage English and Scottish Protestants to settle there, changed the name to Londonderry. The name has been a matter of dispute between the Catholic and Protestant citizens of Northern Ireland ever since. The City Council is at present attempting officially to change the name of the city back to its original Irish form by application to the Privy Council. It was the last walled city to be built in Europe, the walls being constructed between 1613 and 1619 to reassure the English and Scottish settlers who were fearful of their Catholic neighbours. In 1867 it became the home of Mrs C F Alexander (1818–1895), creator of well-known hymns such as
Once in Royal David’s City
and
All Things Bright and Beautiful
. Her husband was the Bishop of Derry.
The Heart of the British Film Industry
Ealing in black-and-white
    E aling, in west London, was the subject of the first English census in 1599. This was a list of all 85 households in the village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations. No-one knows why it was taken, 202 years before the first full British census in 1801. The results may be seen in The National Archives not far away in Kew. Ealing is also the home of the world’s oldest film studios. Established in 1896, it later became associated with the Ealing comedies such as
Passport to Pimlico
and
The Lavender Hill Mob
as well as with classic war films like
The Cruel Sea
. From 1955 to 1995 the studios were owned by the BBC which made such 1970s series as
Colditz
and
Porridge
there. In 2000 the studios were bought by a new owner and have been used for making such films as the 2002 production of Oscar Wilde’s
The Importance of being Earnest
.
The Underground Church
Resting place for a poet and a heroine
    T rebetherick in Cornwall contains the church of St Enodoc which for almost three centuries was submerged in drifting sand except for a portion of the tower. Once a year the rector of the nearby parish of St Miniver would descend through an opening in the tower beneath the bent steeple, accompanied by parishioners, to conduct a service in order to keep the church in use and, importantly, maintain its right to collect tithes. By 1864 the dunes were cleared away and the church has