Monday, 5 February 2024

Women Outlaws

Some of the most notorious outlaws of the Wild West were women 

Sunday, 4 February 2024

Dirt poor

 I made a video about a myth about the phrase dirt poor 

Tamworth

 I wrote about the English town of Tamworth 

Friday, 2 February 2024

Lichfield

 I wrote about the cathedral city of Lichfield 

Escape from the Tower of London

 For centuries the Tower of London was used to hold important prisoners. The first was Ranulf Flambard the Bishop of Durham. When King William Rufus was killed in 1100 his brother became Henry I. The new king promptly arrested the bishop for simony (selling positions in the church for money).

However, the bishop escaped. He was allowed certain privileges such as being able to buy his own food and wine. On 2 February 1101, the bishop generously invited his guards to a feast. When the guards became drunk he managed to squeeze through a window and climb down a rope. However, the rope was not long enough and he had to drop the final distance. The bishop was met by friends who rowed him across the river and he then rode a horse to the coast where he escaped on a ship.

Thursday, 1 February 2024

Wolverhampton

 I wrote a brief history of Wolverhampton in the Midlands

Sit-in

 On 1 February 1960 four African American men staged a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina after they were refused service. They stayed till the store closed and then returned the next day. More people joined the sit-in the next day. Woolworths was eventually forced to give in, at the end of July. Meanwhile, the sit-in movement spread across the USA.