Eccentric Britain, 2nd; The Bradt Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles

by Benedict le Vay

• ISBN13: 9781841621227
• ISBN10: 1841621226
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2005-08-01
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Summary

A delightful romp around the British Isles searching out the mad marquess, the eccentric earl, the barmy baron, and the daft duke and gathering a fair collection of crackpot inventors, weird adventurers and fascinatingly and not to mention insanely curious customs along the way. All of which make this rainy little island home to that remarkable breed of individual - the British eccentric.

Author Biography

Benedict le Vay is a sub-editor on the features section of the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK. He is also the author of Bradt's Eccentric London and mini guides Eccentric Edinburgh and Eccentric Oxford.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. VII
Introduction	p. VIII
Eccentric Things We Do	p. 1
The Eccentric Year	p. 3
January	p. 3
Highlights of the Eccentric Year	p. 4
February	p. 10
March	p. 11
April	p. 11
May	p. 16
June	p. 20
July	p. 24
August	p. 25
September	p. 29
October	p. 31
November	p. 33
December	p. 36
Daily events	p. 38
Various dates	p. 39
Fairs	p. 39
Travel information	p. 43
Eccentric Pastimes	p. 49
Collections of eccentrics	p. 49
Eccentric interests	p. 57
This rather eccentric race	p. 59
On the road to eccentricity	p. 64
Odd associations	p. 70
Eccentricity on display: Britain's top 27 odd museums	p. 73
Travel information	p. 81
Barmy Bureaucracy and Curious Charities	p. 83
Paying the rent in roses, nails and parsnips	p. 83
Britain's weird courts that court disbelief	p. 86
Worth the weight	p. 91
Your taxes or a kiss	p. 91
Britain's most eccentric jobs	p. 92
Key to eccentricities	p. 93
Bizarre bidding	p. 94
Weird and wonderful ways to get the dole	p. 95
Dice, vice and houses of ill repute	p. 98
Travel information	p. 98
Eccentric People	p. 101
The Aristocrats of Eccentrics	p. 103
The tunnelling duke and other strange aristos	p. 103
Hellfire and heroism	p. 105
Bonkers, and bonking, MPs	p. 107
Modern marquesses of B	p. 108
Wanted: hermits, running footmen and gossips	p. 109
The duke who goes to the polo by jumbo	p. 110
Stately pigs of Old England and sty society	p. 111
Travel information	p. 113
Dead Eccentric	p. 117
Bizarre last wishes	p. 117
Land of odd pyramids	p. 119
Legend in his own lifetime	p. 120
London's only Nazi memorial	p. 121
Pigeons at war	p. 121
Amazing grace	p. 121
Pickled brains and restless heads	p. 122
Surrey's mystery mosque and a death railway	p. 123
How the living can follow the dead	p. 125
Gone for a Burton: the Arab tent in deepest Mortlake	p. 127
Tombs along odd lines	p. 129
Above our heads	p. 131
Some very strange organs	p. 132
Evasion of the body-snatchers	p. 137
Travel information	p. 138
The Eccentric Church and Some Very Strange Churchmen	p. 145
Beyond belief	p. 145
Well, well, well - eccentric saints	p. 151
Britain's top ten most surprising places of worship	p. 153
Travel information	p. 155
Eccentric Places	p. 157
Home of the Eccentric	p. 159
Unlikely additions	p. 159
Living with the railways	p. 163
Travel information	p. 174
Eccentric Gardens	p. 177
Garden wit, wisdom and mass wisteria	p. 177
Neither unhinged nor unhenged	p. 181
Travel information	p. 182
A Place for Eccentrics	p. 185
Signs of serious eccentricity	p. 185
The world's oddest pubs	p. 187
Eccentric engineering	p. 190
Gateway to eccentricity	p. 197
Dovecotes, royal dung and gunpowder	p. 198
These people should be locked up	p. 200
Eccentric villages	p. 201
Travel information	p. 202
Monumentally Eccentric	p. 207
Obscure obsolete obelisks	p. 207
Milestones in eccentricity	p. 213
Convicts and martyrs	p. 214
Shrines by the wayside	p. 215
Cranks, pioneers and heroes of the skies	p. 216
Unlikely jumbos	p. 218
Britain's ten most magical (and least known) standing stones	p. 220
Travel information	p. 223
Towering Eccentrics	p. 227
In search of utter folly	p. 227
Britain's top ten (plus) towers (mostly with very tall stories)	p. 230
True follies come in threes	p. 236
The triangular angle	p. 238
All a sham	p. 242
Cartoons of the sky	p. 244
Travel information	p. 246
Practical Information	p. 251
Nuts and Bolts	p. 253
Getting around	p. 253
Where to stay	p. 259
Food	p. 261
Telephones	p. 262
Eccentric Itineraries	p. 263
Further Reading	p. 271
Index
County	p. 277
Alphabetical	p. 283
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