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It was 65 years ago, on 26th August 1958, that the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams died. Among his most famous compositions are The Lark Ascending, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and A Sea Symphony. Despite increasing deafness, brought on by exposure to gunfire when he served in the Second World War, Vaughan...

Four hundred years ago this month, on 6th August 1623, Anne Hathaway died. She was the wife of William Shakespeare. Born in 1556, she was eight years older than her husband, who was only 18 when they married. The eldest of eight children of a well-off yeoman farmer living at Shottery, only a mile from...

Did you know that there are 18 species of bat in the UK? And did you know that these bats make up almost a quarter of ALL our mammal species? So, our UK bats are well worth celebrating. And International Bat Night brings together bat groups and the Bat Conservation Trust, to provide many opportunities...

Much beloved by gardeners across the UK, allotments are cherished for the space they provide to grow one’s own fresh vegetables, among other things. This year the theme is Soil Health. As National Allotments Week explains: “Good soil health is widely accepted as way to improve yield when growing edibles, but also contributes positively to...

All in the month of JULY 75 years of the National Health Service Even the BBC couldn’t find the Loch Ness Monster In appreciation of William Byrd Henry Moore and his monumental sculptures Diabetes timebomb: NHS to offer ‘soup and shakes’ diet The sweet smell of rain ** Editor:  We continue our column that looks...

It was: 400 years ago, on 4th July 1623 that William Byrd, English Renaissance composer, died. Regarded as one of the greatest British composers, and best known for his sacred music. 175 years ago, on 7th July 1848 that Waterloo railway station in London opened. 150 years ago, on 19th July 1873 that British-born Australian...

It was 75 years ago, on 5th July 1948, that the National Health Service (NHS) began operating – formally opened at the Park Hospital in Manchester, now renamed Trafford General. The National Health Service Act provided for the establishment of a comprehensive health service for England and Wales. (Separate legislation was produced for Scotland and Northern...

Twenty years ago, on 27th July 2003, a team from the BBC reported that the Loch Ness monster did not exist. They had combed every inch of the loch, using 600 sonar beams guided by satellite navigation, and still found nothing. The operation was covered in the BBC One documentary, Searching for the Loch Ness...

Four hundred years ago, on 4th July 1623, William Byrd, the English Renaissance composer, died. Regarded as one of the greatest of all British composers, he is best known for his sacred music. However, he wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, and his many-faceted but unique music is still...

Henry Moore, the British sculptor and illustrator best known for his monumental semi-abstract bronze sculptures, was born 125 years ago, on 30th July 1898, in Castleford, a small mining town in Yorkshire. He knew he wanted to be a sculptor from an early age, having heard at Sunday school about Michelangelo’s life and work. But...

The NHS is to roll out a ‘soup and shakes’ diet across the UK, aimed at the tens of thousands of patients who are fighting Type 2 diabetes. Health officials said every part of the country will be offering the regime by next March, as the NHS tries to tackle what has been called Britain’s...

Have you ever noticed the sweet, fresh smell after a downpour of rain? That ‘smell of rain’ is called petrichor, and it fascinates scientists. It was back in 1965 that scientists first named it. Petrichor comes from the Greek for stone, ‘petra’, and the golden fluid flowing through the veins of the immortals, ‘ichor’. Petrichor...