A couple of miles south of the village is Old Wardour Castle, an atmospheric ruin that appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner. Not far from that is pint-sized Swallowcliff, home to the Royal Oak pub, owned since 2020 by TV presenter James May. There are celebrity residents too...
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How a Welsh pub was rebuilt brick by brick and taken back to 1915
Five more buildings remade brick by brick St Fagans is a treasure trove of old buildings, remade. In its new home The Vulcan sits beside a row of shops and a working men’s club, both of which appeared in 2007 in an episode of Doctor Who set in the 1910s, thanks to their period accuracy....
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I visited ‘the UK’s worst seaside town’ – it’s like the British Library of bad tattoos
All summer we will be taking the pulse of our most famous traditional seaside towns, examining the efforts being made to regenerate them, and opining on whether they are still worth visiting. This week, Ed Grenby explores Skegness. I have narrowly avoided winning a plastic lizard. Which is good because I think I might have...
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The twee Cotswolds town that became a super-rich playground
The service in the rest of the hotel isn’t quite as dedicated as the Grain Store, with staff overstretched in the restaurant, which is riotously popular with locals who come to devour oysters with champagne. Food is traditional with a trendy take and dependably delicious. I very much enjoyed my cheese souffle with truffle, and...
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The Norfolk nature reserve known for its pristine sands – and surprising birdlife
Even so, the unseasonal conditions make one particularly heavy-set, long-necked bird seem all the more exotic. Standing nearly a metre tall on sturdy black legs, its plumage is pure white except for a dusting of saffron on its chest. Its dark bill flattens out into a bronze-tipped spatula that the bird is dipping into the...
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Scotland’s 10 greatest islands
Arran sports two distilleries (a brace of breweries too), plus a great butcher, baker, ice-cream maker, and even a chocolatier. It’s the only island with all of Scotland’s wildlife Big Five (red deer, seals, otters, red squirrels and golden eagles). You can cycle round it in a day. Where to stay The Auchrannie is the...
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The best places to go fossil hunting in Britain
Crail Harbour Gallery and Tea room is a characterful café with sea views (01333 451896; crailharbourgallery.co.uk) . UK Association of Fossil Hunters occasionally runs guided fossil walks at Crail and other locations around the UK (ukafh) Best find? Hard to beat those track marks of the giant centipede. Boggle Hole, Yorkshire A one-mile hike south...
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The undersea nuclear graveyard now more costly than HS2
Steve Thomas, emeritus professor of energy policy at Greenwich University, an expert in nuclear economics and policy, points out that we have built lots of rail lines and power stations – but never a giant nuclear waste site thousands of feet below the sea. “The volume of the GDF would be equivalent to Wembley Stadium...
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Tesla pushes to legalise driverless cars in UK
Tesla is pushing to legalise its self-driving system in the UK and Europe, launching a charm offensive with regulators as Elon Musk bets the carmaker’s future on autonomous driving. The company demonstrated its “full self-driving” (FSD) technology to officials on European roads last month, taking attendees at a safety conference on test drives around Munich....
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This Yorkshire wonder is still a model village – 170 years on
Salt even banned pubs from the village (which explains why there’s now a bar in its promenade of shops called Don’t Tell Titus). These days though, Saltaire has Unesco-listed status and a cosmopolitan buzz. West Yorkshire is packed with beauty spots, but this mill complex is a one-off. Despite being full of visitors, it’s not...
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The 10 best holidays in Cornwall for 2024
One such is Cornish Cycle Tours, which offers a five-day West Cornwall itinerary, starting in Porthleven and following the coast clockwise through Penzance, Sennen, St Ives, Redruth and Falmouth. The package includes accommodation at each stopping point, as well as the option to ride an electric bike. How to do it: Cornish Cycle Tours (01637...
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Britain ‘must invest in Iron Dome as world war looms’
Gen McMaster, who served as national security adviser between 2017 and 2018, said: “I think it’s quite urgent for the United Kingdom, the United States, for all nations to invest more in defence. “What we’ve seen is we have a huge gap in our defence, industrial base, and in the capacity of all of our...