What's historical in your area?

[Harovan]

Around the city, where I was born, the biggest battle in Europe prior to WW1 took place. Over half a million troops, resulting in about a hundred thousand deads and injured. The stench of so many rotting bodies infested the city for weeks.



This monument was built at the 100th anniversary of the slaughter.

[Harovan]

In the place where I'm living at the moment, the inventor of one of the most popular styles of clothing in the today's western world was born.

[BeBMan]

Lederhosen???

[Harovan]

No, jeans.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Around the city, where I was born, the biggest battle in Europe prior to WW1 took place. Over half a million troops, resulting in about a hundred thousand deads and injured. The stench of so many rotting bodies infested the city for weeks.

Umm, what city, what battle, what war, what year?

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Umm, what city, what battle, what war, what year?

Check the file name

[Harovan]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
Umm, what city, what battle, what war, what year?

The Battle of Nations near Leipzig in the Liberation wars against Napoleon 1813. The mentioned monument was built at the 100th anniversary, in the eve of a yet bigger slaughter.

On a sidenote, my parents told me, that the day the Berlin Wall was initiated (August 13th, 1961) they were with me on top of that monument. Reportedly I was amazed about the sight from a 91m tall monument. I was 3 years old.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Yes, I know Coventry folk who also blame the council. Spon Street used to be nice when I lived there.

What I never understood was the feeble "The City in Shakespeare Country" that they had on signs. I always thought the city did itself down with that.

You want they should brag about Vince Hill and Larry Grayson ?


I suppose they could have mentioned George Eliot, Clive Owen, Billie Whitelaw, Nigel Hawthorne, Frank Whittle, Philip Larkin, Jerry Dammers...

...'Philip Larkin Country' sounds impossibly depressing though.

Coventry and Warwickshire made geographic and cultural sense. Lumping Coventry in with Birmingham was a ghastly idea.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by molly bloom
You want they should brag about Vince Hill and Larry Grayson ?

They could have bragged about the motor industry :shrug:. It's not like Stratford-upon-Avon was in Coventry - it's bleedin' miles away.

Jerry Dammers

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


They could have bragged about the motor industry :shrug:.

Jaguar Country ?


Big game hunters only need apply....

It's not like Stratford-upon-Avon was in Coventry

No, but they were both in Warwickshire originally.

And there is the Shakespeare link (however tenuous)...

Using information from the fascinating book 'Shakespeare the Player' by John Southworth, it seems quite likely that the first appearance of William Shakespeare in Coventry was in 1580, when he was almost certainly a sixteen year-old apprentice player with the group known as Worcester's Men. It is known that they performed in Coventry on the 22nd November of that year.

http://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/guildhall.php

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Jaguar Country ?

Well, maybe I knew more people that made a living on the track at 'The Jag' than off Spokeshave. How about "London Taxi Country".

No, but they were both in Warwickshire originally.

That's like Maidstone selling itself as the "Er, town in Dickens Country" because Rochester is up the road.

And there is the Shakespeare link (however tenuous)...

So he did a gig there. Yay.

Maybe they should settle for "Older than Birmingham".

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus

That's like Maidstone selling itself as the "Er, town in Dickens Country" because Rochester is up the road.

Given the places Dickens lived, worked or visited, where isn't 'Dickens Country' in the South East ?

My old school:

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Given the places Dickens lived, worked or visited, where isn't 'Dickens Country' in the South East ?

Yep. He used to live on Bayham Street - just down the road from me.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


Yep. He used to live on Bayham Street - just down the road from me.

The Dickens Museum in Camden is jolly super.

Sit at the desk that Dickens farted at.

What a treat.

[Dauphin]

Famous 19th Century D's please.

Darwin lived not too far from me, at Downe House.

Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It is located in Downe in the London Borough of Bromley, a suburb 14.2 miles (22.8 km) south east of Charing Cross. It was in the house that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution by natural selection. It is now a museum

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.330894,0.054999&spn=0.025,0.025&q=51.330894,0.054999

I especially like the map, go east a bit and you can see Badgers Mount - Pratt's Bottom