Your wedding day is one of the most important and memorable days of your life. However, planning a wedding can be stressful, time-consuming, and overwhelming. With so many things to consider and decisions to make, it can be difficult to know where to start. To help you organise your wedding day with ease, here are 10 top tips that will … Read More
Top 10 Gilbert & Sullivan Facts
The wonderful partnership of Gilbert & Sullivan produced memorable comic operas. Although the partnership wasn’t always smooth sailing, it was a lasting friendship. This continued throughout the mens lives right until the end. Theirs was a partnership that had a massive impact on boosting the career of both men. And helped shape the future of musical theatre. Discover our ten … Read More
Winter Gardening – 7 Essential Tasks
Whether you’re a casual gardener or green fingered expert, there’s always a job to do even in the winter months. And winter gardening, in actual fact, can make a huge difference to your success come spring and summer. Here are our seven essential gardening tasks to get ahead in the winter months: #1: Clean Pots The quieter winter months give … Read More
Afternoon Tea Delights
There is nothing more quintessentially British than a much loved afternoon cream tea. Henry James said it best, “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” This delightful English tradition started, when a lady felt a little peckish one late afternoon before dinner in 1840! Waiting from lunch until … Read More
It’s Back…The 6th Harrow Whisky Festival!
It’s just over two weeks until the popular Harrow Whisky Festival returns to the Grim’s Dyke Hotel on Friday 6th & Saturday 7th January. With the festival delayed in previous years due to the global pandemic, excitement and anticipation is high. The featured distillers and bottlers are ready to make this a wonderful event you’ll truly remember. The Festival This … Read More
10 Tips for hiring the right wedding DJ for you
Planning your perfect wedding can be exciting, but it can also be a little overwhelming. When it comes to the music on your big day, having the right DJ is important. When you’re deciding who to hire to create the soundtrack to your day, keep these top 10 tips in mind. #1: Choose an experienced DJ Being a DJ may … Read More
The bed of kings: the four poster bed
The bed has long been used as a symbol of money and power. The better a style and quality of bed, the wealthier its owner was. In Saxon and Norman times, most people slept on the floor around the fire. It was only the wealthy or those with a higher status, that slept off the floor, on beds created from … Read More
A brief history of Victorian herbalism
Herbalism or botanical medicine is one of the oldest traditions around. The Egyptians used herbs for medicine, as did indigenous healers around the world. In Britain, herbalism can be traced back thousands of years. The British Library has a copy of a ‘leech book’ – thought to date back as far as the 800s CE! Medieval lay healers used herbs, … Read More
A Brief History of the Victorian Glasshouse
The greenhouse, otherwise known as the Victorian glasshouse, became an iconic feature of british gardens during the Victorian era. As the Victorian’s love of gardening grew, the need to house their fragile, temperature controlled and valuable plants did too. The glasshouse provided a home for these species, whilst also paving the way for plant experimentation and cultivation. A status symbol … Read More
The history of Father’s Day
Father’s Day is an annual celebration that is celebrated in over one hundred countries. This year in the UK, we’ll be celebrating it on Sunday 16th of June. However it wasn’t always a celebrated day. Initially celebrating fatherhood was something only the Copic and Catholic Churches of southern europe celebrated, as part of their St. Joseph’s Day celebrations, but now … Read More