Advertise on podcast: The English Heritage Podcast

Mills have towered over English landscapes since the medieval period. In this episode, Amy finds out how modern conservation and passionate people are working to keep windmills alive today.  Sibsey Trader Windmill is a magnificently restored mill, now reopened to the public in Lincolnshire. This Victorian tower mill has been rescued from the brink after decades of decline. Nick Holder and Joseph James explain how these beautiful buildings have shaped communities, powered industry, and transformed landscapes. Plus, they tell the story of how this mill and its mechanics have been painstakingly restored to their former glory.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A stone knight, an emerging frontier and a story of shifting identity: this time, Amy and her guests explore how the Anglo-Scottish border began to evolve in the centuries following the Norman Conquest, right through to a critical 1237 treaty.  English Heritage’s Will Wyeth and Professor Richard Oram from the University of Stirling explain how the people and landscape of Northumberland were critical in shaping this story of competing loyalties, powerful figures and soap-opera style characters, from knights and nobles to bishops and kings.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some blocked plumbing at Brodsworth Hall, a pre-ball dancefloor drama and the fiercely competitive annual May Queen crowning at the local school: these are just some of the stories that emerge from this country house’s ‘floral’ history!  This week, Amy is joined by Eleanor Matthews for a joyful celebration of flowers. They’ll listen to the memories of gardeners, housemaids and locals to find out how flowers have connected the house and gardens at Brodsworth to its local community through the decades.   What’s more, Brodsworth Hall is continuing this tradition with this year’s ‘Flowers’ season, which invites the public to enjoy this special history–and its present-day incarnation too.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It might feel like an everyday treat now, but a dip into the history of chocolate reveals a story of global trade, empire, aristocratic tastes and industrial revolution.   This week, Amy is joined by food historian Sam Bilton and English Heritage historian Dr Andrew Hann to trace chocolate’s journey from a bitter, spiced drink of status and ceremony to the sweet comfort and ritual we know today.   From a commemorative chocolate tin sent to troops in the Boer War through royal courts, chocolate houses and country house kitchens, this chat sweeps through history. We’ll explore what chocolate has meant to people over time: as a medicine, a mood lift and a status symbol.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Creators of an Art Deco masterpiece at Eltham Palace in London, Seely and Paget were one of the most remarkable architectural partnerships of the 20th century.  In this episode, Amy explores the men behind the names, tracing how two well-connected young men who met at Cambridge went on to leave their mark on churches, colleges and country houses across the country and reshape Eltham Palace into one of Britain’s most striking Art Deco homes.   English Heritage’s Dr Andrew Hann and Seely and Paget expert Dr Peter Forsaith unpick the story of a partnership that defined the business and private lives of the pair and how architecture can balance modern living with respect for the past.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we picture the building of Britain’s great country houses, it’s easy to imagine architects, craftspeople and wealthy patrons...but they’re almost always men.   However, after a closer look at the records, a different story becomes clear. From brickfields and workshops to family building firms and busy construction sites, women have always been present during the construction of the buildings we know and enjoy today.  This time on The English Heritage Podcast, Amy Matthews is joined by Dr Megan Leyland and Professor Linda Clarke to uncover the hidden history of women in building, from the well-known business mind of Eleanor Coade to brick moulders, glaziers and more. They’ll discuss why it’s been so easy to miss these skilled workers and labourers in previous research and why that’s set to change as we look to a more equitable future for workers in the building industry.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiny enough to wear around your neck, yet big enough to hold secrets, memories and devotion: portrait miniatures give us an intimate insight into the private lives of the past.   In this episode, Amy Matthews is joined by curators Lydia Miller and Peter Moore to explore remarkable stories from this pre-photography phenomenon and delve into English Heritage’s special collections.   From beaver teeth used to prepare ivory painting surfaces to secret eye miniatures exchanged between lovers, these intricate artworks reveal a hidden world of affection, remembrance and personal identity. They could be worn as jewellery, tucked into cabinets or carried close to the heart, and today they give us a glimpse into personal stories we don’t see in grand public portraits.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does an oyster shell have to do with medieval books? This week, Amy explores one of her favourite moments in history: when medieval scribes started to create beautifully illuminated manuscripts.   She’s exploring the complex, multi-faceted and highly skilled work that helped create these works of literature and art. From a stinky parchment creation process to fine pigments and steady hands working by candlelight, making medieval books was far from a simple task, as English Heritage’s Dr Susan Harrison and Dr David Rundle from the University of Kent explain.   Find out about artistry, quiet devotion, cheeky doodling in the margins and how these objects moved from monastic workshops into wider medieval life.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do deer shelters, cosmic theories and serpentine garden paths have in common?  The brilliant (but often overlooked) mind of Thomas Wright of Durham. This week on The English Heritage Podcast, Amy Matthews explores the life and work of an Enlightenment polymath who rose from carpenter’s son to mathematician, stargazer and garden visionary.   Biographer Simon Webb and historian Dr Andrew Hann explain how this brilliant and influential mind blended poetry, physics, myth and maths to shape ideas about garden designs, buildings and even the structure of the Milky Way.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was Maiden Castle really the site of a brutal Roman massacre? Or have we been telling the wrong story for decades?   This vast Iron Age hillfort in Dorset is home to human remains that have shaped our understanding of conquest, conflict and resistance for nearly a century. In this episode, we return to the skeletons that made the site famous: young men, women and children bearing signs of violence, to find out what they can tell us about life and death in Iron Age Britain.  Amy Matthews is joined by experts to unpack the latest research and investigate how new interpretations raise questions about the narratives and stories we take for granted.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget roses and chocolates this Valentine’s Day. Lovers from the past set the bar high, with romantic poetry, locks of human hair, beautifully crafted silver and even a new city dedicated to a lost love.  Join Amy Matthews and English Heritage historians and curators for a look at love tokens, secret messages and heartbreak memorials from our sites, to discover how people in the past flirted, mourned, adored and remembered. It turns out that whether it’s a sonnet, a statue or a sentimental keepsake, love has always been messy, meaningful and very human.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This isn’t a story of castles and conquest, but of carved pins, private churches, timber halls and even a king’s toilet.  In this episode, we’re exploring early medieval England to uncover how wealth, status and authority were expressed before the Norman Conquest. Far from a sharp break in history, new archaeological research reveals deep continuities in how England’s elites lived, ruled...and showed off!  Amy Matthews is joined by English Heritage curator Dr Will Wyeth and medieval archaeologist Dr Duncan Wright to explore a society in transition, where rising gentry built impressive residences, decorated themselves with finely crafted objects, controlled landscapes and resources, and used architecture to project power long before stone castles dominated the skyline.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What could a postal worker, a murdered emperor, and a Roman grain measure possibly have in common?  In this episode of The English Heritage Podcast, Amy Matthews is joined by Dr Francis McIntosh to explore a remarkably well-preserved Roman modius, or grain measure. Discovered by pure chance in 1915 near Hadrian’s Wall, this object carries an extraordinary story.   An official measuring vessel, the modius opens a window into everyday life on the empire’s northern frontier. It tells of Roman bureaucracy and standardisation – and a possible case of fraud. On top of that, a scratched-out inscription also reveals political assassination and the chilling practice of damnatio memoriae.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Darwin’s pigeons to peregrines on Parliament, birds have always been more than background noise. They’ve shaped science, symbolism, status and the very landscapes we live in.   In this episode, Amy chats with three passionate bird enthusiasts: English Heritage’s Dr Louise Crawley, head gardener and bird obsessive Anthony O’Rourke, and zoologist and broadcaster Megan McCubbin. Together, they explore our long, tangled relationship with birds: from Victorian taxidermy and medieval falconry to folklore, fashion and the fight for biodiversity today.  Along the way, there are moon-flying woodcocks, pigeon-breeding experiments in a country kitchen, and a powerful reminder that heritage sites aren’t just windows into the past but vital refuges for wildlife right now.  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From steamy jungles and boiling mud pools to a bathroom aboard a luxury yacht, this is a plant story like no other. Sir Stephen and Lady Virginia Courtauld weren’t just art deco tastemakers; they were globe-trotting orchid obsessives, chasing rare blooms across Southeast Asia in the 1930s and (legally!) bringing them home against the odds.  Joined by English Heritage’s Dr Andrew Hann and gardener-researcher Hannah Pearson, Amy Matthews follows the Courtaulds’ trail through diaries, photographs and maps, uncovering a tale of privilege, passion and peril. Along the way, orchids are dealt, gifted, bombed, evacuated and lovingly preserved through war, displacement and decades of change.   It’s a story of people and plants and how a collection of extraordinary flowers travelled the world and were conserved through conflict for the benefit of the world today  Don’t forget to follow this podcast and leave a review if you love the show.     Join English Heritage: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/join/⁠     Podcast listeners can get 20% off the first year of an annual membership. Use code POD20 at checkout.*    Support our work: ⁠https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/support-us/⁠     The English Heritage Trust is a charity, no. 1140351, and a limited company, no. 07447221, registered in England and Wales.    *Offer is available through the use of this code and valid for new memberships by annual Direct Debit only. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotion, on life memberships or renewals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices