Heritages of Britain

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Festival of Britain 1951 - national celebration on the South Bank

The Festival of Britain in 1951 was designed to celebrate the nation's industry, arts and science, and promote a feeling of recovery following the aftershock of the Second World War. Held on a 27-acre former industrial site on London's South Bank, the Festival opened on the centenary - almost to the day - of the 1851 Great Exhibition.

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The Rochdale Pioneers Museum - the birthplace of the Co-op

Just before Christmas in 1844, the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society opened its doors for the first time. This former shop is regarded as the birthplace of the modern co-operative movement and is now a museum dedicated to its history.

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Making a connection - the Museum of Global Communications

From 1870, the small Cornish seaside village of Porthcurno - just south of Land's End - became a hub of the British telecommunications industry. PK Porthcurno, The Museum of Global Communications, celebrates this history.

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Town Criers - a British tradition temporarily silenced

Before the age of newspapers, radio and television, townsfolk relied on a resident town crier to bring them information and keep them up to date on bylaws and market days. Town criers also patrolled the streets after dark, arresting miscreants and taking them to the stocks for punishment, and ensuring fires were damped down before night. Nowadays, they perform civic and ceremonial duties.

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May Day - traditional time for celebration

May Day, the first day of May, is traditionally a British celebration (or festival) of spring and the resurrection of nature after the winter months. It is normally associated with flowers, decorative headdresses and clothing, dancing and Maypoles, with celebrations sometimes including the crowning of a 'May King', or 'Queen', or the parading of a Jack made up of the new season's greenery, who is eventually slayed.

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Blaenavon's Big Pit -preserving the Welsh coal mining story

The Big Pit National Coal Museum at Torfaen, Wales, was an active coal mine from 1860 to 1980, and then re-opened in 1983 as a fascinating museum of Wales' mining heritage. The Coal Museum is part of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site

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The Mail Coach - delivering the post and passengers

Mail coaches were introduced to Britain in the late eighteenth century, to provide a more speedy and cost effective system of transport for the post, but also to carry travellers around the country.

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Tintern Abbey - romantic remains by the River Wye

The ruins of Tintern Abbey, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye north of Chepstow, have for many years delighted walkers and tourists, and inspired poets and painters such as Wordsworth and Turner. The original abbey was abandoned after the monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII.

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British pub signs - whispers from the past

The pub signs of Britain often go back further than the age of the buildings they adorn, and are markers of historic incidents and ancient traditions.

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Lynton & Lynmouth Railway - a very functional funicular

Funicular railways have provided important links on steep inclines around Britain for the past couple of centuries. Famous amongst these is the Lynton and Lynmouth Railway on the coast of Exmoor, North Devon.

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Queen Street Mill, Burnley - the last surviving steam weaving shed

Queen Street Mill, a former weaving mill in Harle Syke near Burnley, is the world's only surviving operational steam-driven weaving shed, with its looms intact. It is a Grade I listed building, and has been maintained as a working textile museum since it closed as a commercial proposition in 1982. After a three-year closure due to spending cuts, the mill reopened in 2019, but has also subsequently been hit by the pandemic restrictions.

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The National Gas Museum - Leicester's powerful celebration of an industry

A handsome brick building in Leicester is home to an unusual but significant museum. The National Gas Museum collects the artefacts and machinery associated with Britain's rich history of gas manufacture and supply.

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Cooling Towers - Falling Giants

Gigantic cooling towers built to go with coal fired power stations were once a familiar and distinctive part of the British landscape, but they are fast disappearing now, in a series of dramatic demolitions.

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Liverpool's Lime Street - the world's oldest mainline station

Liverpool Lime Street was built as the main terminus station for the city of Liverpool in the early days of the railways. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. The original station was designed by architects John Cunningham, Arthur Holme, and John Foster Jr, though subsequent elements have been added to other designs.

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Llechwedd Slate Caverns

The Llechwedd Slate Caverns are in the Snowdonia National Park near Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales. This former slate quarry is now open to the public with various tours highlighting the history of slate mining in the area.

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The Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield

An industrial museum in Sheffield which includes one of the last three Bessemer Converters in the world (pictured) - looking like a structure from a steampunk science-fiction movie.

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Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills

An industrial museum in what was once the world's largest woollen mill - Armley Mills showcases Leeds' impressive industrial history - with an emphasis on textiles.

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The Watlington Hoard - a treasure trove that was hidden for over a thousand years

In 2015, a metal detectorist in Oxfordshire discovered a hoard of silver coins and ingots, buried in the 870s as King Alfred fought Viking forces moving across England.

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The Bude Canal - a lost network now rediscovered

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