Issue 2

In 1497, an uprising of Cornishmen, angry at increased taxes and royal demands, made a remarkable march across England, from the far west of Cornwall to London, to present their grievances to the government. Julian Humphrys looks at the route, progress and outcome of the Cornish March on London.

Henry VIII’s last great construction project was, in its day, the height of modernity and the epitome of Tudor opulence. There was ‘none such’ palace to rival this sixteenth-century grand design. Dr Elizabeth Norton explores what is known of the magnificent palace and what can still be seen today.

In Somerset, the Dissolution of the Monasteries brought an end to centuries of rivalry between Wells Cathedral and the abbeys at Glastonbury and Bath. Dr Emma J. Wells charts the path of the cathedral through the Reformation to pre-eminent status over its neighbours.

Built for Henry VIII in 1529 – 30, the Bayne Tower at Hampton Court Palace had one of the most sophisticated en-suite bathrooms of its time. Tracy Borman explores the Bayne Tower and how it became the private sanctum of an increasingly ill monarch.

The seismic changes wrought by the Reformation in the sixteenth century are imprinted in the very fabric of the parish churches. Dr Emma J. Wells explains what these changes were, why they occurred and where their impact can still be seen today.

Phil Downing, is the Hall and Programmes Manager for Harvington Hall, an Elizabethan manor house in Worcestershire. Remarkably unchanged since its construction in the 1570s, Harvington has seven priest hides and an extensive collection of rare Elizabethan wall paintings. Outside of work, Phil runs a Facebook page, The Tudor Tours, and takes part in re-enactments of the Tudor period, most recently as the young Henry VIII.