Month: June 2019

I lived in London for many years and visited Westminster Abbey a few times although perhaps not as much as I should. But then I only visited the Tower Of London a couple of times. i find we often don’t fully appreciate a city in which we live.

Westminster Abbey is younger than Notre Dame, but is a glorious building.

There was a roof fire in Westminster Abbey during the second World War.

On the evening of the May 10th 1941, Westminster Abbey precincts and roof were hit by incendiary bombs. All the bombs were extinguished except for one which ignited out of reach among the wooden beams and plaster vault of the lantern roof over the North Transept. Finally the Lantern roof crashed down, preventing the fires from spreading further.

Stonehenge was first built around 5,000 years ago. There have been lots of theories about why it was built but no-one is certain.

It probably had something to do with death, there are lots of burial mounds nearby, but perhaps in was some sort of primitive clock. Perhaps it was both.

But whatever its purpose, the construction was laborious and impressive.  That some of it remains today is a testament to the builders.