Red Boxes Gallery

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Galena, the main ore of lead, was mined extensively in the Lake District and North Pennines from the very earliest times.

Two large deposits of iron ore (Haematite) occur in Cumbria; around Egremont and close to Dalton in Durness and Millom.

Peter Kelly often illustrated his letters. This would have been chosen deliberately for Nicholson given his strong identification with the Millom area.

Copy of an entry in the Coniston manor court roll, admitting Adam Bell to a 'close of woody ground' in the manor, which he had bought from William Atkinston.

The Herdwick sheep, thought to have been brought to Cumbria by the Vikings, is a regional icon.

Visitor maps and guides have been published since tourists first started coming to the Lake District in the late 18th century.

Goodacre Carpets have been manufacturing carpets in Kendal for over 50 years, using spool Axminster looms.

Intended to encourage tourism, this 18th century map shows the manors made up of the Liberty of Furness, large parts of which once belonged to Furness Abbey.

In St Andrew's churchyard in Penrith lies 'The Giant's Thumb' - one of several Anglo-Norse high crosses to survive in Cumbria. Thought to date to c.AD920.

Beatrix Potter is best known for her illustrated children's books of Peter Rabbit and friends. As a child, she spent many holidays in the Lake District.

The south western corner of Cumbria is dominated by Barrow in Furness, with market towns including Ulverston and Dalston along the peninsula.

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Circular sheep folds in Weardale date from the 13th century and wool is still Durham’s principal rural product.

Cattle farming, both for beef and the tanning industry, was always prominent in the county.

Durham had a cottage carpet-making industry in the 18th century, and a factory was established alongside the River Wear around 1815.

The Durham coal field is one of the most extensive in the country, and
generated huge wealth for the coal owners.

The importance of coal mining in the north east led to the independent
development of the safety lamp by Stephenson, at the same time as Davy in the south.

The Northern Brown Argus butterfly 'Aricia artaxerxes' exists across the north of England, but the related Durham Argus is endemic only to County Durham.

Together with carpets, mustard was considered the principal manufacture of Durham, where the processing methods were evolved.

Begun in 1096, the cathedral is one of the greatest buildings of Christendom. It contains the shrines of St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede.

Evolved from the track-ways which had developed to carry coal from the pits to the ports, Durham was where the first modern railways were developed.

Lead mining has existed at least since Roman times in the county. Durham’s last lead mine closed in 1919.

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When house foundations were being dug, part of a Roman cemetery was unearthed. The cemetery site was fairly typical, adjacent to the main road to London.

A once-in-a-lifetime (if you’re lucky) discovery, this is the most important princely burial to be found since Sutton Hoo, and possibly one of the earliest.

Between the 3rd quarter of the 14th century and the early 16th century, over 100 churches were fitted with elaborate, beautifully constructed timber belfries.

Simpler timber framing resulted in handsome and surprisingly eco-friendly houses like Monks Barn in Newport and countless more modest dwellings Essex.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the area around Saffron Walden was the main centre in England for the cultivation of saffron.

Visit the Plume Library in Maldon, where you will be taken back in time to 1704, in a room unchanged since its creation by Thomas Plume in 1700.

The location of Essex facing the Continent made it vulnerable to seaborne attack. One endangered area was the gently shelving beaches of Tendring Hundred.

Searching for my ancestors, I found more than I bargained for!

During my 60 years living in Essex, I have enjoyed giving a true and very Essex reply to the perennial childhood question ‘Why is the sky blue?

Maldon’s salt and Tiptree’s jams are splendid Essex examples of thriving international business with royal support and much praise.

Maldon’s salt and Tiptree’s jams are splendid Essex examples of thriving international business with royal support and much praise.

Famed as the inventor of wireless telegraphy, Marconi (1874 -1937 ) gave us much more...

A scale model of the Ford Popular car made by the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham in Essex between1953 and 1959.

Chuff Horlock’s 'MistleyMan’s Log' so typifies the Essex attitude:
Business, yes – but let’s also have fun!

I spent many an evening huddled over a small transistor radio listening to “pirate” radio stations broadcasting from ships anchored off the Essex coast.

The University of Essex enrolled its first students in 1964. Over 100,000 students from more than 140 countries have graduated since.

Quite different from the common rock oyster andrepresentative of the Island of Mersea and an important aspect of the history of Essex and the Roman occupation.

Warner & Sons started life in London in 1870 but moved to Braintree, Essex in 1895.

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This book, standard classroom reading in the 70s, represented my knowledge of Gloucestershire when I started a new job as a software engineer in Stroud (1985).

This core sample was taken from one of the oak timbers of the early Tudor merchant's house in Westgate Street, Gloucester.

The sheep were photographed in a field on the Fosse Way outside Cirencester. The wool was handspun from a fleece and dyed using onion skins.

Cheese-making has a long tradition in the Severn Vale, where Single and Double Gloucester was traditionally made from the once nearly extinct Gloucester cattle.

Tewkebury Abbey rising about the surrounding water was one of the iconic images of the devastating floods of 2007.

Westonbirt, the national arboretum, is home to 2,500 different species and 170 champion trees.

The most notorious royal connection for the county is the murder of Edward II, alledgedly with a red hot poker, at Berkley castle.

Rugby has traditionally been more popular than football in the county. Gloucester have played at Kingsholm since 1891.

This represents the ducks and other waterfowl at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, founded by Peter Scott in 1946 as a pioneering centre for conservation.

For gallantry during the Battle of Alexandria (1801), the Gloucestershire Regiment was given the honour of wearing a badge on the back of their caps.

The Cheltenham Festival, the spring National Hunt meeting, has run at Prestbury since 1912.

Gloucestershire's association with aircraft dates back to World War 1 and the formation of the Gloster Aircraft Company.

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Since the late 18th century ‘Hampshire hog’ has been the traditional nickname for residents of the county.

Langdon’s map of Mapledurwell, 1616, was drawn for Corpus Christi College, Oxford, the owners, and is preserved in a beautiful book of maps in their archives.

Basing House was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in 1645 after three sieges in the Civil War.

The Basingstoke geology map clearly shows the twofold division of the area with the Reading Beds (RB) and London Clay (LC) in the upper part of the map.

The clay/chalk geology affected much of the life of the area.

By the early 16th century Basingstoke and its rural hinterland had a flourishing cloth industry. Flocks of up to 500 sheep pastured on Basingstoke Down.

A shortage of legal coins in the 1780/90s led many contractors to issue tokens to pay workers.

From 1775 to 1800, Austen lived in Steventon, ‘the cradle of her genius’, where, from 1796 she wrote early versions of three novels.

Thomas Burberry set up shop in Basingstoke in 1856.

A steam road roller of the type manufactured in Basingstoke by Wallis & Steevens in the late 19th century.

For much of the 20th century the Thornycroft vehicle works was the largest employer in Basingstoke. It is perhaps best remembered for the Mighty Antar.

Arguably the two best chalk streams for this the purest form of trout fishing arise and flow for their entire length in Hampshire.

John Arlott, OBE (1914–1991) was a radio broadcasting ‘immortal’. He was BBC radio’s voice of English cricket for over a generation, retiring in 1980.

The shield of the Wallop family, earls of Portsmouth from 1743, is supported by chamois.

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Cases from the SAS firing range at Ross. The Special Air Service is well known as being based near Hereford.

Displayed at Hereford Cathedral, the Mappa Mundi is a medieval map of the known world, dating from c.1300. It is the largest medieval map still known to exist.

Originally published in 1782, Gilpin was one of the pioneers in developing the picturesque which is essentially a set of rules for depicting nature.

The castle is one of the finest and best preserved of all English medieval castles. It takes its name from an English landowner, Godric.

Butty Buch means Little Friend in Welsh. The Wye Brewery is based in Stoke Lacy which is situated in the heart of Herefordshire.

There are many orchards in Herefordshire. Apples are used to make cider and two of the main British Cider producers – Westons and Bulmers are both based here.

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The three tools in this photograph were fashioned 14,500 years ago at the head of a gorge in the Charnwood uplands, where hunter-gatherers could intercept prey.

Leicester's Jewry Wall is one of the largest surviving pieces of Roman architecture in Britain. Kathleen Kenyon led an excavation of the site in 1936-9.

A fragment of cooking pot rim, thousands of which were made in the Leicestershire village of Potters Marston. Production peaked in the 13th century.

The discovery of King Richard's body in a car park attracted huge public and media attention.

Roman Leicester had buildings roofed with Swithland slate, possibly from outcrops. Quarries at Swithland are documented from the 14th century.

A well-preserved basketry eel trap, made in the 9th or 10th century, discovered by archaeologists in the paleochannels of the river Trent at Castle Donington.

The Leicester & Swannington Railway opened in 1832, linking the coal mines in north-west Leicestershire with the county town.

The Melton Mowbray pork pie is distinguished by its use of uncured chopped pork in a hand-raised pastry case. The sides bow outwards as it is cooked.

Leicester’s footwear industry hardly existed before the 1850s, but then began to grow following the decline of framework knitting.

Framework knitting began in Leicestershire in the 17th century. By 1844, there were said to be over 20,000 frames in the county.

Ladybird books began life in 1915 as the imprint of Loughborough printers Wills & Hepworth.

The extensive Leicestershire hosiery industry encouraged related businesses to locate in the county. G. Stibbe & Co Ltd was founded in 1886.

Engine assembly bays and testing facilities were erected in secrecy in 1938 within a disused iron foundry in Lutterworth, to receive a prototype jet engine.

Leicester's Asian community expanded substantially in 1972, when Idi Amin ejected Asian people from Uganda. Many settled in the Belgrave area of the city.

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Butchers were very important for the economy of medieval Middlesex due to London’s huge demand for meat.

Middlesex also covered the area to the east of the City of London and in the 17th century, Petticoat Lane was a commercial district on bordering Middlesex.

Middlesex contains the centres of the three pillars of the British state: crown, church and Parliament. The crowned portcullis features on the one penny piece.

The Middlesex Infirmary opened on Windmill Street in 1745 and became the first hospital in England to have lying-in beds in 1747.

The electoral culture of Middlesex and Westminster came to national prominence in the 18th century, famed for their boisterous contests and radicalism.

Based in Clerkenwell from 1601, the Middlesex Quarter Sessions heard criminal cases and undertook administrative functions for the county.

Cricket was played in Middlesex from as early as the 16th century, but a team representing the county first emerged in the 18th century.

The Metropolitan Railway was the first underground passenger railway in the world, connecting the termini of Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross.

Middlesex was required to produce a formal Development Plan by 1951. 'Mind Your Own Middlesex' combined the burgeoning fields of town planning and PR.

Ealing Film Studios is the oldest continuously operating film studio in the world, active from 1902 to the present day.

Since World War Two, immigration to the area of historic Middlesex has resulted in an increasingly diverse population.

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Begun in Norwich, Rosie’s Plaques is a guerrilla art movement which aims to put individual women back on our maps of the past. @Rosiesplaques

Lotus Engineering, founded by Colin Chapman and Colin Dare in 1952, has been based at Hethel near Wymondham since 1966.

The design of this badge forms a crowned capital M, composed of two eagles flanking a lily pot representing the Annunciation.

While flint occurs all over Britain it is perhaps especially associated with Norfolk.

Julian of Norwich was a medieval hermit, whose piety and profound thought remains an inspiration to Christians and writers to this day.

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The former Express Lifts Tower was known locally at ‘The Northampton Lighthouse’. It was built as a lift testing tower in 1980-82.

In 1847 Sir Charles Isham of Lamport Hall, whilst holidaying in Germay, saw local miners take small china figures down the mines as a talisman.

The landscape of Northamptonshire has largely been formed by hunting, the great forests of Rockingham in the north and Whittlewood and Salcey provided deer.

Thomas Becket’s opposition to Henry II’s plans to reduce the powers and privileges of the Church led to a confrontation at Northampton Castle in October 1164.

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Perhaps Nottinghamshire is most famous for the fictional character, Robin Hood. Stories and films were produced about his exploits in Sherwood Forest.

Jesse Boot, founder of Boots The Chemist, originally helped his widowed mother run a small herbalist shop in Goose Gate, Nottingham.

Eric Coates was born in 1886 at Hucknall. He is famous as the composer of light music of the early 20th century. The Dam Busters March was written for the film.

David Herbert Lawrence was born in Eastwood, the son of a coal miner. Most of his books were set in the county which he called ‘the country of my heart'.

Scrooby in north Nottinghamshire, the meeting place for a group of Separatists more widely known as the 'Pilgrim Fathers', who sailed to the New World (1620).

Within Sherwood Forest were five large estates all at one time owned by dukes, hence the area became known as The Dukeries.

Newark is a market town on the river Trent where it is crossed by the Great North Road. At the time of the Civil War it was a Royalist stronghold.

Southwell Minster is the cathedral for the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham, which was established in 1884.

The river Trent enters Nottinghamshire in the south west and then turns northwards.

The south and east of Nottinghamshire are mainly agricultural areas. Laxton village is unique in still using the medieval open field system of farming.

In 1951, when the Festival of Britain was celebrated, Trowell was chosen as Britain’s Festival Village. The glass is a souvenir of the Festival.

The world famous cricket ground at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, was laid out in 1838 by William Clarke.

Nottingham’s Council House, which replaced the Exchange, was opened in 1929. On either side of the main frontage are two carved stone lions.

Wollaton Hall is a house designed by Robert Smythson for Sir Francis Willoughby which was completed in 1558.

During the 19th century Nottingham became famous for machine-made lace. The lace was used to decorate clothes and to make curtains.

The framework knitting machine was invented by William Lee of Calverton in 1589. It led to a cottage industry in many villages.

Coal was mined mainly in the west and north of Nottinghamshire.

Gypsum was mined in the south of Nottinghamshire, particularly at Gotham, Kingston on Soar and East Leake, and in the Newark area.

Telecommunications equipment manufacturing has been part of Nottinghamshire’s heritage for over 100 years, employing upwards of 10,000 people at its peak.

The annual Goose Fair was originally held in Nottingham Market Place, named for the geese, their tarred feet were driven from Norfolk to Nottingham each year.

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The River Thames crosses the county, forming the ancient boundary separating Mercia from Wessex and Oxfordshire from Berkshire. Water collected 25/8/19.

West Oxfordshire’s primary base rock, and its primary vernacular building material, still dominating its ‘Cotswold’ towns and villages.

Commonplace in the south Oxfordshire Chilterns, capping the underlying Chiltern chalk.

Oxford’s emblem (still featured in its coat of arms), from the eponymous ‘ox ford’ across the Thames.

Oxford castle has dominated Oxford’s Westgate area since 1071, while St George’s Tower itself is now recognised to be pre-Conquest.

Representing Oxford University - a dominant feature of the town since the 12th century, and still dominating outside perceptions of Oxford.

Sheep, wool, and cloth (alongside arable farming) have been central to Oxfordshire’s economy throughout its history.

Woodland has long been an important feature of the Oxfordshire landscape - from the Chiltern beechwoods through to its ancient royal forests.

Frost-split Stonesfield slate fostered a significant local industry around Stonesfield village from the 17th century.

In the 18th to early 19th century Oxfordshire was ‘the most prolific area for morris dance activity in the south midlands’ (Keith Chandler).

Though clay pipes are ubiquitous, some Oxfordshire pipe-makers prospered as rural craftsmen in the 18th and early 19th centuries, over several generations.

Development of Morris’s Cowley car plant (outside Oxford) from 1913 provided the city’s first large-scale employment entirely independent of the university.

Since the 1940s the Martin-Baker Aircraft Co. has developed and tested aircraft ejector seats at the former Second World War airfield at Chalgrove.

Oxfordshire as perceived by many modern tourists: Blenheim Palace, Dreaming Spires, Inspector Morse, and Harry Potter...

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Shrewsbury Flax Mill Maltings is the first iron framed building in the world and is currently undergoing a restoration project. Open to the public in 2021.

Sheep and wool were extremely important for the economy of Shropshire.

The first Iron bridge still standing is in the place now called Ironbridge.

Shropshire is very signifcant to geology. Eleven out of twelve geological periods are represented in the county .

Agriculture is of much importance to such a rural place. Shropshire & West Midlands Agricultural Society was founded in 1875 has a key role in the county.

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury in 1809.

Gingerbread has been made in Market Drayton since 1817.

Is it Shreewsbury or Shrowsbury is an eternal question for residents and visitors to the town!

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Alabaster resembles marble and can be very finely carved. Watchet’s pink stone, mottled with white, black and dark salmon, was popular for monuments and fonts.

Parts of these extinct creatures together with their relatives the ichthyosaurs have been found throughout the county especially during lias quarrying.

This is a coiled oyster (gryphea) fossil from the west Somerset coast which is rich in fossil remains.

Donyatt potteries were a long-lived industry in south Somerset mostly concentrated at Crock Street and their products are found locally and in America.

Brewing is an ancient Somerset industry. One of the largest brewers was the company Starkey, Knight and Ford.

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W.H.F. Talbot of Lacock was a scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photography.

Wiltshire Constabulary was formed on 13 November 1839. It was the first of the County Forces to be created under the 1839 County Police Act.

Chalk found lying on flower bed in Aldbourne.

For centuries, agriculture was the main occupation for most people in Wiltshire. From the first Neolithic farmers, the landscape has been shaped by farming.

Ribbed butter pats are the best way to cut and shape butter without it melting. The ridges help to hold the butter, but also imprint an attractive design.

This represents the traditional Wiltshire, and much loved, Lardy Cake. This is sold at many bakeries throughout the county.

Wiltshire is a place people travel to and travel through. Visitors have been coming to its iconic monuments thousands of years but others are passing through...

Natural features have been overcome by engineering feats such as the Caen Hill Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal and Brunel’s Box Tunnel on the GWR line.

Passenger coaches originally passed through the county en route from Bath to London taking 17 hours.

The Wiltshire Regiment, a line infantry regiment of the British Army was formed in 1881 and was amalgamated with the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1959.

Examples of prehistoric flint artefacts.

Natives of Aldbourne are called “Dabchicks”. According to legend a strange bird appeared in the pond...

Designed by Trowbridge flag enthusiast Mike Prior, it uses the Great Bustard as its centrepiece. Previously extinct, the bird is now back on Salisbury Plain.

For 500 years from the 1500’s the textile industry dominated the towns and larger villages of Wiltshire.

The Swindon Works opened in 1843. It was the hub of locomotive manufacture from the mid 1840s until its closure in 1986.