The English Heritage Podcast

March is Women’s History Month and to celebrate, we’re joined in the studio by English Heritage’s Curatorial Director Anna Eavis, to discuss the stories of a selection of the inspirational women who are honoured with blue plaques at their former London homes.Learn about the lives and accomplishments of women’s rights campaigners Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst, pioneering chemist Rosalind Franklin, journalist Martha Gelhorne and more – and discover how English Heritage are hoping to attract more female blue plaque nominations in future.To find out more about the blue plaques scheme, go to https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/support-the-scheme/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ahead of the launch of new cookery book, How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs Crocombe, we meet the book’s authors, senior properties historian Andrew Hann and food historian Annie Gray, to discover the story of Audley End’s former head cook Avis Crocombe and the recipes she left behind.Learn about Mrs Crocombe’s working life at Audley End, why Bob Stride, a descendent of the Crocombe family, decided to donate her original recipe book to English Heritage, and how she has since become an unlikely YouTube sensation.To find out more about Audley End House and Gardens, and plan a visit, go to www.englishheritage.org.uk/audley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined by Senior Properties Historian Dr Michael Carter to discuss how he came across a previously unpublished list of relics that were at Battle Abbey in the mid-15th century.Discover how he has been able to show that at least some of the relics were likely the gift of William the Conqueror and had originally been in the Anglo-Saxon royal treasury, and that others were given by King John, having been collected by his brother, Richard I, while on Crusade in the Holy Land.Plus, we explore the wider medieval belief in relics and pilgrimage – and other English Heritage sites where relics were kept. To find out more about Battle Abbey and plan a visit, go to www.englishheritage.org.uk/battle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley has fascinated people for more than 450 years. Their relationship has been explored in books, films and on TV, most recently by Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes in the film Elizabeth, and by Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons in the series Elizabeth I. They certainly shared an emotional connection on each other throughout their lives, but were they ever really lovers?Ahead of Valentine’s Day, we interview head properties curator Dr Jeremy Ashbee to reveal the real story of their supposed romance and Dudley’s now legendary attempt to woo England’s ‘Virgin Queen’ over 19 days in 1575 at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.To find out more about Kenilworth Castle and plan a visit, go to www.englishheritage.org.uk/kenilworth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following an archaeological dig to discover the secrets of the Root House that once sat in the mysterious Mithraic Glade of Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, we meet senior properties historian Dr Andrew Hann and PhD student Jemima Hubberstey to reveal why the glade was created and the literary inspiration behind it.Plus, we reveal what the Root House was, how it was used, and its unique connection to the story of this spectacular estate.To find out more about Wrest Park and plan a visit, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/wrest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re at Dover Castle in Kent to take an exclusive tour of the ‘Dumpy’ level of its secret underground tunnels with Cold War expert Mark Bennett.Once fully equipped and designed to keep those inside 'safe' from nuclear fall-out, the austere rooms and tunnels are now largely devoid of their equipment, furnishings, fixtures and fittings, but still retain a chilling air of the Cold War. Discover when the tunnels were built, why Dover Castle was selected and how you can take a tour of the tunnels today.To find out more about Dover Castle and our exclusive Members’ tours of the ‘Dumpy’ level of the secret war tunnels, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/dover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve managed to convince English Heritage head gardener John Watkins to down tools and join us for a one-to-one gardeners’ question time to talk us through what goes into maintaining our historic gardens.Discover how our gardening teams are busy preparing for spring, the key jobs they can be found doing over the winter period and the sites where you can eat the produce from our historic kitchen gardens.To find out more about our gardens and plan a visit, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/historic-gardens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we’re joined in the studio by two experts on Roman history – English Heritage Properties Historian Dr Andrew Roberts and Curator for the north east Rachel Wilkinson – to reveal what life would have been like for the Roman soldiers stationed and living along Hadrian’s Wall.Discover what garrison life would have been like, how the soldiers coped with the harsh British winters and the artefacts that offers clues to their daily life in our museums today.To find out more about Hadrian’s Wall or plan a visit to any of the English Heritage sites along it, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/hadrians-wall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’re inspired to try something new in 2020 then volunteering with English Heritage might just be what you’ve been looking for. We head behind the scenes at Stonehenge to meet three volunteers with very different roles to find out what a day in their volunteering life is like – and we reveal the other opportunities available to get involved across the country.To find out more about volunteering with English Heritage, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/volunteer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year from English Heritage. If you’re looking for inspiration for places to visit over the months ahead, then this is the episode for you. We’re joined in the studio by head historic properties curator Dr Jeremy Ashbee, head of learning and Interpretation Dr Dominique Bouchard, and senior properties historian Dr Steven Brindle to discover the English Heritage sites where the course of history was changed forever.Listen on to find out what three sites and events each of our experts nominated, why they were pivotal to English and even global history, and what you need to know about each of them.To plan a visit to any of the sites mentioned, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices