Escape to this Jacobean Manor in Oxfordshire that once hosted King Charles I For £9 million this Norman home could be yours – and not only has it hosted a late King, but also the writers John Betjeman and Iris Murdoch By Annabel Sampson
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Charles Jenner famously stipulated that a row of female statue pillars should feature on the façade of the building, to convey that women are the ‘support of the house’. A destination for luxury goods, fine foods and other indulgences, Jenners came to be dubbed the ‘Harrods of the North’, a star attraction for tourists and local shoppers alike. It has held a Royal Warrant since 1911 and was even visited by the Queen for its 150th anniversary in 1988.
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20 January 2021 will go down in history as an Inauguration Day like no other, which saw new US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sworn in without the throngs of crowds that typically look on at such an occasion. Yet the downscaled, socially-distanced celebrations felt all the more emotional considering the extraordinary circumstances in which they took place, amid the raging of a global pandemic and at a moment of strife and division within the US.
Among the celebrity performances, prayers and speeches broadcast to viewers at home, the appearance of young poet Amanda Gorman left an impression that will not easily be forgotten. For all the star power lent to proceedings by the likes of Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, Gorman’s reading of her own work, ‘The Hill We Climb’, has been widely hailed as a moment that stole the show. So just who is the 22-year-old poet who so deftly captured the mood of a nation on that all important day?
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London may have been under strict lockdown measures for the vast majority of last year, but that didn’t stop the super-rich from snapping up the city’s prime property.
Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and Brexit, the city’s housing market enjoyed a robust year in 2020, with the value of London’s prime properties expected to creep up even further over the next 12 months, according to a new report by Beauchamp Estates.
Homes valued at £10 million and up across central London’s prime enclaves will see price gains of 1 per cent to 2 per cent in 2021. Big-ticket houses are also expected to be in high demand, with sale values expected to rise by up to 15 per cent, said the property firm.
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With the hunt for the trophy country home at an all-time high, it turns out there’s one particular pocket of England that’s seeing the biggest demand.
The Cotswolds, synonymous for its yellow-stone cottages and historic manor houses, with well-heeled residents including the Beckhams, Kate Moss, and the Camerons, has seen a surge of interest from potential buyers during the pandemic.
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According to Rightmove, the area has become one of the most sought-after with online searches for houses doubling in the second half of last year. Stats revealed that searches rose by 102 per cent in the last six months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, no doubt fuelled by those looking for more space during lockdown, with remote working allowing city dwellers to make the big move to the country.
In non-pandemic times it would have been a royal funeral with full military honours By Isaac Bickerstaff
‘Though it isn’t unusual for our ravens to roam outside the walls, free-spirited Merlina has previously always returned to the Tower and to the Ravenmaster and his team, with whom she shared a wonderfully close bond… Since joining us in 2007, Merlina was our undisputed ruler of the roost, Queen of the Tower Ravens. She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the Ravenmaster, and all of us in the Tower community.’[twitter id= 1349291551592230912 ]
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King Charles II is thought to have been the first monarch to officially rule that ravens should reside at the fortress at all times. They’ve been a beloved fixture at the historic site ever since and were even used to help spot bombs and planes during the Blitz in WWII. After their numbers drop