Legendary London

When you make a trip to London, you could end up including sights that are so diverse and enticing; which would mean that there is much more to London that has normally met the eye. These places may have served as the setting for England’s most important developments; and these are no more than an hour’s ride outside the capital. This would mean that you could keep to your London itinerary and shove in an extra day to visit these sites.

Bath

British history is known to come alive in this city; which is best described as ‘elegant’. This city has its traces that go back to an origin associated with the Romans; when it was a rather fashionable watering hole during the 18th century. The Roman baths are surprisingly intact. The Georgian houses made up of golden stone have been so well preserved that they’ve aptly earned the city the title of a World Heritage Site.

Battle

This was the site of a battle which ended up changing the entire course of English history. In the year 1066, the William of Normandy ended up defeating the King of England, King Harold. William of Normandy then became the new king of England. Today, you get a chance to walk the grounds of what then served as the very battlefield between those two armies. While walking the battlefield, you can hear stories about the battle; and this can be quite the thrill for history lovers.

Canterbury

The Canterbury Cathedral is perhaps one of the most venerated buildings to stand in England. Pilgrims flocked to this cathedral during the whole of the Middle Ages. They would pray at the shrine of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He had been slain by the henchmen of King Henry II. Becket’s shrine may have gone, but the cathedral and the intrinsically medieval atmosphere is still retained.

At a short distance from the cathedral lies the St. Augustine’s Abbey. This is one of the oldest monastic sites to have ever been built in England. It was set up by Augustine in the year 598 A.D. This was the time when he’d been sent by Rome to convert the natives living here. The ancient ruins of this site have today gotten the label of being a World Heritage Site; and so has the Canterbury Cathedral.

Runnymede

This meadow lies 3 miles from Windsor. It was here that King John was forced by his own feudal lords to affix his seal on a document called the Magna Carta. This event occurred in the year 1215. The Magna Carta ended up changing the rules about the concept of a constitutional monarchy and affirmed the right of the ‘individual’ to justice and liberty. The entire American constitution is based on the Magna Carta.

St. Albans

In the first century A.D., the town which is now called St. Albans was then known to be a thriving Roman community that went by the name Verulamium. Within the walled interiors of the city lay temples, town houses, official buildings and even a full-fledged amphitheater. If you plan a day trip to this site, you can till date visit the excavated remains of the huge amphitheater. It was perhaps, one of the largest such structures that remain from the Roman Britain. You’ll notice an array of Roman mosaics that crown the floors of the Verulamium Museum.

Winchester

This lovely Hampshire town was the capital of the kingdom of Wessex. The Winchester Cathedral houses the remains of a dozen Anglo-Saxon kings. This town used to have associations with the ‘mysterious’ King Arthur. Arthur’s Round Table has for a good 600 years been displayed at the Winchester Castle.