<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- generator="" --> <?xml-stylesheet href="/components/com_sppagebuilder/assets/css/dynamic-content.css?db0eb064dd605d51126ac7a52bb9f826" type="text/css"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> <channel> <title>United Kingdom</title> <description><![CDATA[Martin Randall Travel is the leading specialist in cultural tours, with over 300 tours and events in 50 different countries. Contact us for more information.]]></description> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news</link> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 31 Oct 2026 03:26:18 +0000</lastBuildDate> <generator></generator> <atom:link rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/united-kingdom?format=feed&type=rss"/> <language>en-us</language> <item> <title>Through sacred spaces – the cathedrals of England</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/the-cathedrals-of-england-a-diary</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/the-cathedrals-of-england-a-diary</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:46:12 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>A New Take on North West England</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/home-fires-in-lancashire</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/home-fires-in-lancashire</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2026 11:44:44 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>A selection of favourite gardens handpicked by our experts </title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/perennial-favourites</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/perennial-favourites</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt="Jardins d’Étretat © SCStock"></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 11:33:14 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>On the Highroad: celebrating Scotland's history & heritage</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/celebrating-scotlands-history-heritage</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/celebrating-scotlands-history-heritage</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2025 16:11:08 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>15 Best Cathedrals in England to visit: A Complete Guide</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/cathedrals-in-england-guide</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/cathedrals-in-england-guide</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 11:39:55 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>Celebrate Turner 250 with an exclusive art history experience</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/celebrating-250-years-of-jmw-turner</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/celebrating-250-years-of-jmw-turner</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:40:10 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>Making Waves – a tour to navigate England’s sea-faring history</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/making-waves</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/making-waves</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/images/News/News-Making-Waves.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1488" loading="lazy"></p><h4>Iona Godfrey-Faussett talks to James Davey, expert speaker on 'Maritime England', one of MRT’s newest tours, focused on the English monuments, ships and sites that best illustrate the history and significance of Britain’s sea-faring past.</h4> <p><em>'I am so excited to be leading this tour! As a former curator, and now a university lecturer, I love talking about Britain’s maritime past and am thrilled to have this opportunity to share my expertise.'</em></p> <p><br /><strong>The tour focuses to a large extent on the 18th century, but there is also a lot more to it. Could you let us into some of the other subject areas or particular points of interest within the itinerary?</strong></p> <p>Yes absolutely – this tour is designed to tell the story of ‘Maritime Britain’ across the last five centuries. So, we will obviously be focusing on the 18th and 19th centuries when British naval and maritime power was at its height, but we will also be exploring its earlier history, and consider more contemporary subjects too.</p> <p>The start of the tour concentrates on the 16th and 17th centuries, when England was but one European power attempting to exploit the maritime world. We’ll explore the Pool of London and visit the Docklands Museum, the National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory, all of which reveal that disaster was as common as victory in these years. Perhaps most significant and poignant is the concluding visit to the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. This is, in my opinion, the most remarkable cultural heritage site in the country. Not only is it an amazing archaeological story, it’s also a fascinating social history museum that gives real insight into the lives of 16th-century mariners.</p> <p>As we tour maritime Britain, the centrality of the sea to the contemporary world will also be evident. It remains a key part of Britain’s national identity, and throughout the tour we’ll be thinking about the legacies and relevance of this maritime past.</p> <p><img src="https://rezkit-tour-images.b-cdn.net/01hksy5ph4yavzwqw83za2gq9v/images/01J9KNRVXC2R2DC8MFK705CD0B.jpg?width=928&height=600&crop_gravity=center&aspect_ratio=928%3A600" alt="" /></p> <p><em>Clockwise: Buckler's Hard, Hampshire; HMS Victory; The Ropery, Chatham Dockyard; HMS Warrior</em></p> <p><br /><strong>What are your personal highlights or stand-out visits of the tour?</strong></p> <p>I think it’s the contrasts that I’m most excited about. We will get to visit the finest museums in the country – especially the National Maritime Museum and Mary Rose Museum. Unlike many other nations, Britain doesn’t have a ‘National History Museum’, but given the importance of the sea to its past, I always think these institutions essentially serve that function.</p> <p>I’m keen that we don’t spend the whole trip inside, though – it will be August after all! At Chatham Dockyard and Buckler’s Hard we’ll get to explore the built environment of Britain’s naval past, hopefully while also enjoying some sunshine. These settings were the engines of British naval power: not only did they produce vessels that came to dominate the world’s oceans, but they were also sites of remarkable industrial and scientific invention. We’ll also investigate fortifications along England’s south coast and learn about how the sea was a source of fear and anxiety for Britons, as well as opportunity.</p> <p>Perhaps most importantly we’ll also get to step aboard our most treasured cultural heritage: the ships themselves. HMS Victory is perhaps the most famous vessel in British history following its role in the Battle of Trafalgar, but participants can also board the Warrior, which is in many ways a more impressive technical feat.</p> <p>All in all, it’s a unique assembly of carefully chosen sites, many off the beaten track, that won’t be found in combination anywhere else.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>You were previously a curator at the National Maritime Museum – what are you most excited about sharing with people there?</strong></p> <p>I was, and I’m going to be able to give a real ‘behind the scenes’ insights into the museum. I was the lead curator of the ‘Tudor and Stuart Seafarers’ gallery, and the co-curator of the ‘Nelson, Navy, Nation’ gallery, so will be able to give in-depth, expert tours of those displays. I’ll be able to show off some of my favourite objects – incredible works of art, the personal possessions of 18th-century sailors, and a mass of material culture that demonstrates how the maritime world came to mean something, even to those Britons who lived miles from the sea.</p> <p>More than that, though, I’ll be able to explain some of the complex decision-making that goes into museum curating. Who decides what themes to focus on, what stories to tell, what objects to display? There’s a range of considerations here, including the fragility of objects, the strategy of the museum, and the views of the gallery designers, and I’ll be able to talk through the difficult decisions that curators must make. At a time when Britain’s past is increasingly a topic of debate, talking about how that past is presented becomes even more important, and I’m excited to hear the views of those taking part in the tour too. </p> <p> </p> <p><em>Cover image: The Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, Richard Brydges Beechey, 1881.</em><br /><em>Buckler's Hard: Mike Peel; HMS Victory: Ballista; HMS Warrior: The Wub ©</em></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 15:56:00 +0000</pubDate> </item> <item> <title>Hadrian’s Wall: the hidden history of a Roman frontier</title> <link>https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/hadrians-wall-the-hidden-history-of-a-roman-frontier</link> <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.martinrandall.com/en-gb/news/hadrians-wall-the-hidden-history-of-a-roman-frontier</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p><img src="https://www.martinrandall.com/" alt=""></p><h4>‘Matthew Symonds is acknowledged as one of the leading scholars on the Roman frontiers in Britain and this book provides a lively account of the new directions of study which are transforming our understanding of Hadrian’s Wall.’ So comments Professor Richard Hingley, of Durham University, about the latest publication by archaeologist Matthew Symonds, <em>Hadrian’s Wall: creating division</em> (Bloomsbury Academic). Matthew leads our <i>Walking Hadrian's Wall</i><strong> </strong>tour<strong> </strong>in May 2026.</h4> <p>1,900 years ago northern England witnessed the sights and sounds of a building project that was utterly unprecedented in Britain. On the command of the emperor Hadrian, the Roman legions garrisoning the island sent work parties to erect a formidable barrier cutting across previously open country. The result of their endeavours was what is surely still the greatest military fortification ever created in Britain. Hadrian’s Wall presents a mystery that has confounded generations of scholars: why did the Roman army need such an imposing barrier? Answers have ranged from the Wall representing no more than a hollow – albeit impressive – statement of imperial control, through to it repulsing barbarian armies from the north.</p> <p>Praised for seriously influencing the way we look at Hadrian’s Wall in the future, Symonds latest work makes the case for the barrier being a calculated response to the attitudes and prowess of the farming communities living in the region when the Roman army arrived. Their responses to the occupation ranged from collaboration to full-throated resistance, with Roman troops proving vulnerable to guerrilla-style warfare. Rooting our understanding of the Wall in an appreciation of these local communities reveals how Hadrian’s new barrier disrupted longstanding and sophisticated political, religious and working landscapes, with unpredictable results.</p> <p>The tour <a href="https://www.martinrandall.com/walking-hadrians-wall" target="_blank"><strong><i>Walking Hadrian's Wall</i></strong></a> in May next year presents an opportunity to investigate how this story played out on the ground – how the Wall shaped events and was in turn shaped by them – while exploring some of the most majestic Roman archaeology that Britain has to offer. </p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://rezkit-tour-images.b-cdn.net/01hksy5ph4yavzwqw83za2gq9v/images/01J9KQ6GSXPS4YQAYRH4D8CDND.jpg?width=928&height=600&crop_gravity=center&aspect_ratio=928%3A600" alt="" /></p> <p><em>The remains of Turret 41A</em></p> <h2><br />Praise for Hadrian’s Wall: creating division</h2> <p>‘In this stimulating addition to the burgeoning literature of Hadrian’s Wall, Matthew Symonds…brings fresh emphases to the study of this endlessly fascinating Roman monument…The result is a thought-provoking volume that will seriously influence the way we look at Hadrian’s Wall in the future.’ <br /><em>Minerva</em></p> <p><br />‘It is [Symonds’] holistic, comprehensive and non-partisan approach to the story of the Wall that sets it apart and gives the reader as rounded a picture of its origin and life from AD 120 to the present day as you’re likely to get.’<br /><em>Classics for All</em></p> <p><br />‘A great read’<br /><em>British Archaeology</em></p> <p><br />‘Matthew Symonds offers a compelling and often refreshing analysis…The most significant aspect of this book…is that it is the first monograph of a new phase of Hadrian’s Wall studies’<br /><em>Journal of British Studies</em></p> <p><br />‘All will surely agree that this is an important volume that considers the Wall in its setting both geographically and chronologically, in a readable and engaging style.’<br /><em>Britannia</em></p> <p><br />‘Every student of Hadrian’s Wall needs to have [this] on their shelves.’<br /><em>Archaeologia Aeliana</em></p> <p><br />‘This new book by Matthew Symonds provides a thoroughly interesting and different perspective to the scholarship surrounding the impact that the Wall has had’<br /><em>Journal of Classics Teaching <br /><br /></em></p> <p><a href="https://www.martinrandall.com/walking-hadrians-wall" target="_blank"><strong>View itinerary for <em>Walking Hadrian's Wall</em></strong></a></p> <p><a href="mailto:info@martinrandall.com"><strong>Contact us</strong></a></p>]]></description> <category>Blog</category> <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jun 2024 10:13:07 +0000</pubDate> </item> </channel> </rss>