England History & Monuments

Ancient times
Silburry Hill, in the English county of Wiltshire, is the largest man-made earthen mound in Europe. It was built about 4750 years ago.

The stone circle at Avebury is the largest in the world. It was built between 5300 and 4600 years ago and covers 11 ha (28 acres). The outer circle is surrounded by a bank and ditch long of 1.5 km (1 mile).

The so-called British Imperial system of measurement (English units in the USA) has its roots in Roman units. The Romans also counted in feet, which they divided in 12 inches (unciae in Latin, from which the English word is derived). 5 feet made a pace, and 1000 paces (mille passus) became a mile in English. The Roman gallon was the congius (worth 0.92 U.S. gallons). The word pint comes from Latin picta ("painted"), via the Old French pinte, and corresponded to a painted mark on a vessel indicating this measure. Other units like the pound only evolved in the Middle Ages.

Colchester in Essex is the oldest recorded town in Britain, as well as the first Roman town and Roman capital of Britain. Colchester Castle has the largest keep ever built in Europe, having a land area 50% bigger than the Tower of London.

The Fossdyke, connecting the River Trent at Torksey to Lincoln, is the oldest canal in Britain. It was built by the Romans around 120 CE and is still navigable today.


Middle Ages & Renaissance

York was the first English city to become settled permanently by the Danish Vikings (in 867) and the last to remain under Viking rule (until 954). It served as capital of the Danelaw under the name of Jorvik.


Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest royal residence in the world still in use. It was originally constructed in 1070 and rebuilt in stone in 1170.

Berkeley Castle is the oldest English castle still inhabited by the family who built it. The founder of the Berkeley family was Robert Fitzharding (c. 1095–1170). He started building the present castle from 1153.

Winchester was the first capital of England, from 827 to 1066. Winchester Cathedral, completed in 1070, has the longest nave of any medieval cathedral in Europe.

York Minster is Britain's largest medieval cathedral, has the largest Gothic nave in the country, and the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world.

The first building in the world to overtake the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was Lincoln Cathedral, completed in 1280. Had its spired not been destroyed by a storm in 1549, it would have remained the highest construction ever built in the world until 1884, when the Washington Monument was erected.

The world's largest and oldest chained library is in Hereford Cathedral, which also contained the best preserved of the four Mappa Mundi.

The mathematician Thomas Harriot (1560–1621) invented the symbols for "is less than" [<] and "is greater than" [>].

The county of Kent is home to England's oldest church (St Martin's in Canterbury), oldest school (the King's School, established in 600, also in Canterbury), and oldest brewery (Shepherd's Neame Brewery in Faversham, founded in 1698).

Founded in 1534, Cambridge University Press is the world's oldest printing and publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world.

Opened in 1660, the Royal Armouries in the Tower of London is the oldest museum in the United Kingdom, and one of the oldest in the world (possibly the first in Europe outside Italy). The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, inaugurated in 1683, was the world's first university museum.

Champagne was invented in England, not in France. In 1662 scientist Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society in London describing how the addition of sugar and molasses to wine make it brisk and sparkling. This method, now known as méthode champenoise, was adopted by Dom Pérignon over 30 years later to produce the first sparkling wine in Champagne.

18th century to present
The national anthem of the United States ("The Star-Spangled Banner") was composed by an Englishman, John Stafford Smith (1750-1836) from Gloucester.

The claim for the world's oldest working railway is disputed between Tanfield Railway in County Durham, which oldest section dates from 1725, and Middleton Railway in West Yorkshire, which has been working continuously since 1758.

The world's first modern encyclopedia was Chambers' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, published in 1728 in London. It pre-dates the Encyclopédie of Diderot and D'Alembert by over two decades.

Established in 1734, Bennett's of Irongate in Derby is the oldest department store in the world, pre-dating by over 100 years the first department stores in the USA, France or other parts of Britain. It is still trading in the original building.

During the first three decades of the 19th century, West Cornwall produced two thirds of the world's copper. The smelting of copper ore was subsequently transferred to Swansea, in South Wales, which became the global centre for the trade during most of the century.

The Caen Hill Locks, a flight of 29 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal (between Bath and Reading) rising 72 m in 3.2 km, making it the steepest flight of locks in the world. The locks were built in the early 1800s.

It is in England that the first postage stamps appeared. The first Penny Post was invented by entrepreneur William Dockwra in the 1680's for delivery of packets within London. The first nation-wide stamp (and first adhesive stamp) was the Penny Black, introduced in 1840 as part of Rowland Hill's postal reforms. Because Britain was the first country to issue national stamps, British stamps still have the unique distinction of not mentioning the country's name on them.

The custom of afternoon tea was devised in 1840 by Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, who felt the need for an extra meal between lunch and dinner. She began inviting her friends to join her, and the custom quickly spread around British society and throughout the British Empire. Britain's first tea room was opened in 1864 by the Aerated Bread Company at London Bridge.

In 1884, Charles Parsons invented the steam turbine, which made cheap and plentiful electricity possible. In 1894 he launched the first steam turbine-powered boat, the Turbinia, by far the fastest ship in the world at the time. The steam turbine engine revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare.

The statue of Anteros on Piccadilly Circus (1892) was the world's first statue to be cast in aluminium.

The world's first modern Olympic Games were not held in Athens in 1896, but in the small town of Much Wenlock(Shropshire) in 1850, which inspired French Baron Pierre Coubertin to launch the Athens Olympics half a century later.

The English invented and developed the world's earliest railways. In 1901, Hornby became the first maker of model railways. The British love of train also gave birth to Thomas the Tank Engine, originally in books in 1946, then on TV from 1984 onwards.

The man behind the construction of the world-famous Sydney Opera House was Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962), an English conductor and composer of Belgian origin, who was director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music at the time.

The world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer was made at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, in 1943-44. Nicknamed Colossus, it was used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II. Colossus was kept a state secret until 1974, which is why Americans have been credited with the invention of computers.

The world's first drive through safari park opened at Longleat House (Wiltshire) in 1966.

Liverpool Cathedral, Britain's newest cathedral (completed in 1978), holds many records. It boasts the world's the largest (though not the highest) belltower, with the world's highest and heaviest peal of bells, and the largest organ in the UK. It is the second longest church on Earth after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and the biggest cathedral in England.

source-http://www.eupedia.com/