Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Lying only about a mile and a half from the city centre, Birmingham Botanical Gardens is one of the UK’s most significant historic Botanic Gardens.
Six Things on
The wren - diminutive King of the Birds
The European wren delights in the bizarre scientific name of Troglodytes troglodytes, and is one of the smallest birds in the UK. It is also thought to be the most common breeding bird in the UK with 8.5 million breeding pairs.
Lindow Man - 2,000 year-old body in the bog
Lindow Man, also known as Pete Marsh, is the preserved 2000-year-old body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire. The remains, estimated to have been deposited between 2 BC and 119 AD, were found in 1984 by commercial peat cutters.
Ralph Vaughan Williams - capturing the sounds of the English countryside
Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer, born in 1872. Much of his music is evocative of the English countryside. His best known and much loved compositions include "The Lark Ascending", "Fantasia on Greensleeves" and "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis". These regularly top public choices of classical music favourites in Britain.
Greatstone Sound Mirrors - oddball interwar defence technology
The remnants of a fascinating technological dead end can be seen near Dungeness in Kent. The Greatstone sound mirrors are three concrete “listening ears” built between 1928 and 1935 as part of Britain's national defence strategy.
Dorset's nettle eating contest
One of the strangest eating competitions in the country takes place every year at the Bottle Inn, a 16th-century public house at Marshwood in Dorset. This is the World Nettle Eating Championship.
Six things to delight and entertain you every day.