please empty your brain below
The first German plane to be shot down in the Battle of Britain landed within a mile of my home.

Mike Scott | 15.08.20 - 7:18 a.m. | #

King Alfred the Great was born very close (probably much less than a mile) from my home, although the exact site is not known.

Dominic H | 15.08.20 - 7:19 a.m. | #

GCHQ is within 1 mile of my house where a lot of significant things have happened, possibly.

John E | 15.08.20 - 7:23 a.m. | #

Athelstan, first king of all England, was crowned in 925AD, less than a mile fr where I live, om the border neteeem Wessex amd Mercia. Six other Saxon kings are also said to have been crowned there, although evidence for some is scanty

Timbo | 15.08.20 - 7:31 a.m. | #

Holloway prison, just up the road - many of the suffragettes were force-fed while on hunger strike, & Ruth Ellis was hanged here.

Toni | 15.08.20 - 7:38 a.m. | #

The largest maiden (non-pollarded) oak in the country, with a circumference of 7.6 metres, is within a mile of my home. It is believed to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth I (but this is not historical enough).

Frank F | 15.08.20 - 7:39 a.m. | #

Fleeing after the Battle of Worcester, Charles II took on the role of a man servant to Jane Lane of Bentley Hall, well within a mile of my home.

Tony Martin | 15.08.20 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Robert Kett and his fellow rebels camped out in 1549 within a mile of my home.

Tim W | 15.08.20 - 7:56 a.m. | #

Queen Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace on the 24th March 1603, a mere half mile from my front door.

Robert | Homepage | 15.08.20 - 8:33 a.m. | #

King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park is just within a mile from my home. This was thought to be where King Henry VIII stood In1536 to watch a rocket fired from the Tower of London, as the signal that his wife Anne Boleyn had been executed for treason and he would be able to marry Lady Jane Seymour. This is unverified and likely untrue, as he spent that night in Wiltshire. A good story, but probably not historic.

Artie Leblanc | 15.08.20 - 8:33 a.m. | #

The Battle of Lund covered quite a lot of land, some of which is less than 1.6 km from my home.

RC | 15.08.20 - 8:36 a.m. | #

Supposedly the last two Song emperors lived briefly within a mile of my home during the 13th century (shortly before their final defeat by the Mongols.)
The 1967 Hong Kong riots first started within a mile of my home.

Alan | 15.08.20 - 8:57 a.m. | #

I'm within a quarter of a mile of The Crown and Treaty, a pub on Oxford Road in Uxbridge, where Charles I and his Parliamentary opponents during the English Civil War held negotiations (the Treaty of Uxbridge) between 30 January and 22 February 1645.

Historical enough, and nothing else comparable around here!

Keith | 15.08.20 - 9:10 a.m. | #

The Putney Debates of 1647 to determine a new constitution for England took place well under a mile from ap hq.

Amazingly there are recordings of the event.

ap | 15.08.20 - 9:26 a.m. | #

Battle of Turnham Green in 1642 just down the road. Not much of an actual battle but quite historic.

ActonMan | 15.08.20 - 9:28 a.m. | #

Within a mile I have the Brunel Tunnel, the construction of which is definitely historic, and Deptford Dockyard, location for the knighting of Sir Francis Drake and a stay of Peter the Great to learn shipbuilding.

commonliner | 15.08.20 - 9:50 a.m. | #

I claim the Peasants Revolt as well, but the Blackheath part of it. They camped there before a spot of looting.

Is the Home of Time historic? I'll say that is.

Chris | 15.08.20 - 10:00 a.m. | #

My only historic item of note, just up the road a bit and well within the 1 Mile, is the Allenton Hippo (but this is not historical enough)

Kevin Too | 15.08.20 - 10:13 a.m. | #

A few:
- King Alfred the great was crowned here
- the longest cathedral in Western Europe was built here
- William II was buried here
- Jane Austen died here

David | 15.08.20 - 10:20 a.m. | #

Battle of Northampton, less than a mile from my house.

Mike | 15.08.20 - 10:35 a.m. | #

Various stately homes occupied by minor gentlemen. More significant the RAF Staff College which played a key role in various conflicts. Now closed and is a new housing estate. But nothing historic enough.

davews | 15.08.20 - 11:01 a.m. | #

I briefly lived within a mile of the site of the Battle of Hastings. My stepmother still does.

Jonathan Wadman | 15.08.20 - 11:31 a.m. | #

The building where stainless steel was invented falls (just) within a mile of where I live. It's not your conventional moment from history but its impact on the future look of the world is significant.

Anders | 15.08.20 - 12:09 p.m. | #

Don’t let HM the ~ as far as she was concerned ~ the Q Matilda hear you demote her. She was apparently a force to be reckoned with, set up her own kingdom in the West Country and was a thorn in the side of her brother Stephen's legitimacy for ages.

JP | 15.08.20 - 12:37 p.m. | #

I live less than a mile from where Emily Davison, the suffragette, was killed by King George V's horse in the Derby. Is that sufficiently historic?

And you can have phosphorous acid, but the white stuff is phosphorus.

dg writes: Fixed, thanks.

Peter | 15.08.20 - 12:58 p.m. | #

Within one mile of my Paris flat is the site of the former College de Navarre, infamously burgled in 1456 by the ne'er-do-well poet François Villon who suffered a series of legal woes as a result.

BWB | 15.08.20 - 1:42 p.m. | #

My borough seems to prefer listing celebrities born and lived here rather than historical events, but I am a mile from a certain famous school which educated historical figures - including the rather well-known Winston Churchill

Cornish Cockney | 15.08.20 - 2:03 p.m. | #

I live on the street where Mary Nichols was murdered by a bastard who was never caught. Way too many people seem fascinated by this and gather at the end of the street as a result. I think they're weird. From our living room window we'll one day again be able to see the building where Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky Gorky and others attended the 1907 Bolshevik Congress, also the back of the building where Joseph Merrick was once publicly exhibited before being rescued and taken to the Royal London to be cared for.

Colin | Homepage | 15.08.20 - 2:35 p.m. | #

About five or six hundred yards from my home on Cadogan Terrace E9 (opposite Viccy Park) the first railway murder took place, in 1864. Or at least the crime was discovered there; the body of the victim, Thomas Briggs was carted to the long-demolished pub at the other end of the street.

dg writes: that's also within a mile of my home, and it is not historical enough.

Joel | 15.08.20 - 4:53 p.m. | #

"properly historic, the kind of thing that might make it into a school textbook, not just a local event of significance."

diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.08.20 - 4:55 p.m. | #

Following the defeat of his Royalist forces at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, Charles II had a bounty on his head and had to flee the country. Aided and hidden by his supporters, he travelled incognito for a month, before he was finally smuggled to France in a small boat. The boat left England from a spot about 10 minutes walk from where I live in Shoreham by Sea.

Arlu | 15.08.20 - 5:07 p.m. | #

The WWII bouncing bomb was tested and developed within a mile of my home

Tones | 15.08.20 - 5:34 p.m. | #

JP - Empress Matilda, if you please (by virtue of her first marriage, to the Holy Roman Emperor). And she was Stephen's cousin, not his sister.

Timbo | 15.08.20 - 6:58 p.m. | #

This post could easily become a collaborative effort in order to produce a dedicated website or a book:
"One mile from my home - relevant historical facts that happened near to where I live"

Caravelle | 15.08.20 - 8:04 p.m. | #

Rather a lot for what is a small enough town; these would be ones that might turn up in history books written for a non-domestic audience (and do make every school history course domestically):

• 1534-5 Silken Thomas Revolt extensively centred around the castle in the town centre
• The issues around the founding and funding ("Maynooth Grant") of the Catholic seminary from the late 18th through mid 19th century makes history books
• The last Governor General of Ireland lived in the town and has entire books written about him alone

Cian Duffy | Homepage | 15.08.20 - 9:19 p.m. | #

Thank you Timbo, I stand corrected.

Relying on half-remembered Somerset lore about the Anarchy and not fact-checking before committing pen to paper has hoisted me petard.
Three Henrys, two Matildas and commiting the cardinal sin of assuming done for me!

JP | 16.08.20 - 12:41 a.m. | #

An enormous Chartist demonstration was held on Kennington Common (now Kennington Park) in 1848, and the world’s first photograph of a crowd was taken of it.

Baldassaro | 16.08.20 - 7:21 a.m. | #

To begin with, how about Julius Caesar being scared away by the locals in 55BC?

Onto Operation Dynamo being coordinated in 1940.

Karl, Dover | 16.08.20 - 3:13 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy