Archive for the ‘Did you know?’ Category

The Legend of King Arthur is possibly the most popular and well known of all the legends associated with British history. There are simply dozens of sites which purport to have a connection. Tintagel and Glastonbury perhaps are the most evocative.

If he existed at all, he was probably a war lord who lived in the 6th century during the early Anglo-Saxon period after the Romans. His story was first told by a monk writing in the 9th century, and then in 1136AD Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote The History of the Kings of Britain in which Arthur’s role was expanded upon and elaborated. It is Geoffrey’s account which forms the basis of the current legend.

While you’re planning your trip to the UK, do a little research on currency exchange options. Consult a professional currency exchange broker while you’re planning the trip, so you can develop an exchange strategy that saves you money. Waiting until you arrive at Heathrow or Gatwick to exchange money can be very expensive. The Pound fluctuates constantly, so it’s important to know when and where to exchange currency. The first rule is to stay away from airport exchange merchants, hotels, restaurants and local businesses, especially if you want to get a decent exchange rate without excessive fees.

If you have to exchange money while you’re traveling, use a bank or Building Society. Even large Post Offices will give a fair rate, but you will have to pay a fee, plus a handling charge of £ 2.50 to make the exchange. A professional currency exchange broker will give a real time exchange rate every time you exchange money without fees, handling charges and inflated exchange rates. A currency broker can help you average your exchanges, so you can offset Pound fluctuations before you leave home. That means you have more money to spend on the trip.

Other travel tips
Always carry cash in a money belt, leg pouch or hidden pocket that’s secure and out of sight and use hotel safes when you reach your destination. Remember to use common sense. It’s your best security tool when you use it.

The experts at ForexTraders.com provided this article to help you understand the importance of properly exchanging money for a trip to a different country to maximize your budget. For additional information on currency trading, forex broker reviews, strategies and a free course to educate yourself, make sure to visit ForexTraders.com

In Britain we are holdng on to the pound while most of the rest of Europe, incuding Ireland, has moved over to the Euro.

With Christmas just past I was reminded of the old tradition of stirring in silver sixpences into the pudding and it reminded me of the days when we had a wide variety of coins, until decimilisation in 1971, with all their colloquial names.

The Pound is still often called a ‘Quid’
The Pound was divided into 20 Shillings
A shilling, or ‘Bob’, was worth 12 pence
A sixpence was worth 6 pence (not surprisingly) and was called a ‘tanner’
A Crown was worth 5 shillings and a half crown was 2 shillings and sixpence.
A Florin was worth 2 shillings
A guinea (which was long extinct by decimalisation) was 1 pound and 1 shilling.
A pretty 12 sided coin was worth 3 pence, called the threepenny piece (pronounced ‘thruppance’)
Half a penny was a halfpenny (pronounced ha’penny)

It is a wonder how we managed to work out it all out! There was a lot of resistance to converting to pence (100 pence or ‘p’ to the pound), just as there is now resistance to getting rid of the pound all together. For many years considered the reserve currency of the World, it has had such a glorious history!

We often tell potential visitors to Britain and Ireland that you do not have to travel far to find places of interest. Every town and village, and even the countryside, is steeped in history. These countries really are living museums!

Take our own village, Barford, in Warwickshire. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book, but goes back many years before this. The name derived from it’s position on the banks of the River Avon where the river is quite shallow. Hence it was the perfect place to ford the river with your load of barley, or other grain, to take to market at Warwick. ‘Barley Ford’ soon became shortened to Barford.

We have a web site dedicated to the heritage of Barford. I hope you find it as interesting as we do!

You can tell a lot about a history of a British town by the names of the streets. For instance:
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In researching the last blog entry on place names I used the Domesday Book web site. It dawned on me that many people, although they may have heard of it, may not know exactly what it is.
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