Episode 7: Crumbling Churches

The parish church is one of the oldest buildings in the British landscape. Most of them have been here for over 900 years and some date from the Saxon period. They are ubiquitous; their steeples point above the rooftops, the bell towers chime on a Sunday, pews of some age are lined up towards the […]

Britain’s Worst Avalanche…

Hard to believe but in the south of England there was a terrible disaster – in fact, the worst avalanche in British history and it happened on the site where a pub stands as a reminder of this tragedy. The Bald Explorer heads off to explore this tragic disaster in the Victorian era. He is […]

Hopton Castle, Shropshire.

Hopton Castle in south Shropshire is a medieval tower house which thanks to the funding from the National Lottery the old ruins have greatly been preserved for future generations. The remains, a subject of the Channel Four TV programme Time Team is looked after by the Hopton Castle Preservation Trust. Richard Vobes, aka The Bald […]

Crumbling Churches Preview 3

Rector, John Gay, tells Richard Vobes about the problems with the roof of his beautiful church in Itchingfield, West Sussex in this preview of the new Bald Explorer episode coming soon to the Community Channel in 2013. Wendy Dorkings, the church warden at St. Nicolas, allows the cameras in to see the wonderful and rare […]

The Battlefields Trust

As part of my Bald Explorer episode about our crumbling churches I have been working with Julian Humphrys from the Battlefield Trust. The reason was to explore a rather nasty clash between the Roundheads and Cavilers during the English Civil War (1642–1651) at a church in Alton in Hampshire. I further wanted to find out […]