Wales Aqueduct Put Up For UNESCO Status
|
|
www.guardian.co.uk One of the vertiginous wonders of the canal age was nominated for world heritage status, along with Scotland's Roman wall and the twin monasteries that Bede helped make an intellectual powerhouse. If accepted by Unesco they will join 27 sites on the British list, including St Kilda, Canterbury Cathedral and the Liverpool waterfront.
Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte aqueduct near Llangollen tests the nerve of narrowboat skippers who, unprotected on one side by any guard rail, find themselves sailing 35 metres above a gorge through a 305-metre iron trough whose joints were made watertight with Welsh flannel and lead dipped in sugar.
The aqueduct, built for £45,000 and the highest ever of its type, was opened in November 1805 in a ceremony which included a ceremonial passage of six boats: two for the managing committee, one for the band of the Shropshire Volunteers and one for the civil engineers. The fifth and sixth carried coal.
The monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth (by the Wear) and St Paul at Jarrow (by the Tyne) was founded in the seventh century by Benedict Biscop. For almost a century it was a centre of European learning, with Bede - a local lad and author of an ecclesiastical history of England - its unassuming star. It produced the Codex Amiatinus, the world's oldest surviving single-volume Bible, now held in Florence.
The Antonine wall, the northernmost frontier of the Roman empire, ran for 39 miles from the Forth to the Clyde. The first forts on the line were established by Agricola, governor of Britain, in AD81 and the wall, a turf rampart on a stone foundation, was built on the orders of the emperor Antoninus Pius after the reconquest of southern Scotland 60 years later. The remains of forts and wall foundations can still be seen. The defences were abandoned after 20 years when the Romans retreated to Hadrian's wall.
The nominations will be submitted between 2007 and 2009 and assessed over the following 18 months. |
Back to main page
|
|
A Britain of Lakes, Lochs, Loughs And Tarns
As I travel through Britain on many a hike or climb it can be very hard to not come across a body of water in some shape or form. Why even a National Park, the Lake District is named from bodies of wa (12/11/2012)
|
|
Tourism Ministers to debate barriers to travel
Reducing visa constraints, simplifying entry processes and developing policies that improve connectivity across borders are the topics on the agenda for the worlds Tourism Ministers as they meet (31/10/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
Live like James Bond
To celebrate the release of Skyfall we explore Bond’s Britain. The UK is the home of James Bond and his creator, Ian Fleming, so where better to live like the world-famous spy?
(10/10/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
There's more to London than sport, says Boris Becker
Tennis legend Boris Becker urges Games spectators to make the most of their visit to London, regretting the many times that he played tennis over the years without ever getting chance to properly expl (12/08/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sports tours and museums in London
Football, cricket, rugby, golf: name a sport and there\'s a good chance we Brits invented it, wrote the rules or are just plain obsessed by it. And if playing or watching your favourites isn\'t enough (09/07/2012)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Shakespeare: staging the world
During the summer of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the British Museum is presenting a major exhibition on the world and works of William Shakespeare, supported by BP
(22/04/2012)
|
|
Coasteering and Cliff-diving in Wales
I am coasteering along the Pembrokeshire coastline of West Wales, getting a taste of the country’s wild side. Along with my group of travel partners, our wits and courage are put to the test.
(18/03/2012)
|
|
Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam
The final exhibition in the British Museum’s series on spiritual journeys. This is the first ever major exhibition dedicated to the Hajj; the pilgrimage to Mecca which is central to the Muslim (17/02/2012)
|
|
|
|