All articles in Natural World
10th January, 2023 in Natural World, Society & Culture
Was it witchcraft or pragmatic plant medicine?
The use of plants as food and medicine is probably as old as man himself, and originally must have been discovered independently by different communities. Such knowledge would have been handed down orally from one generation to the next and of course it was only in historically r…
1st July, 2022 in Local & Family History, Natural World
Life on the edge of land and sea in Norfolk
Ajay Tegala author of The Unique Life of a Ranger gives us a glimpse into life at Blakeney Point in Norfolk. If you’re anything like me, then you’ll always be looking for an excuse to head to the coast. There’s something soothing and restorative about waves gently lapping on the…
9th June, 2022 in Folklore, Natural World
Freshwater follies and fantasies
As River Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland is being published Lisa Schneidau reflects on the folk tales of Britain and Ireland’s freshwaters, and what these stories have to tell us about our relationship with rivers – past, present and future. What is a river? Is it a channel of…
13th April, 2022 in History, Maritime, Natural World
Polar regions today and yesterday
The ‘Heroic Age’ of Polar Exploration extended from the late 19th century until World War I, a period of about 20 years. In the North Polar region, as in the South, the ultimate goal was the pole itself. However, because the North Pole was a hypothetical location in the mids…
14th January, 2022 in History, Natural World
Reaching the South Pole, 110 years ago
By mid-January 1912, Dr Edward Wilson, Captain Robert Scott, Henry ‘Birdie’ Bowers, Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates and Edgar ‘Taff’ Evans were approaching their destination. On 16 January, as they lunched, they discussed the possibility of reaching the South Pole the following day – but…
10th January, 2022 in Natural World
A wild New Year
Author Dawn Nelson reflects on 2021 as we go into the New Year and invites us to ‘rewild’ and reconnect with nature. I was brought up on a healthy diet of bird watching, veg growing and pond dipping. I wrote my first story when I was six. We lived in London at the time, a short w…
10th June, 2021 in Archaeology, History, Local & Family History, Natural World
Top 10 stone circles in the Lake District National Park
For those interested in British prehistory, nothing beats a ring of big stones. Indeed, people all over the world are fascinated by them. Together with henges, passage tombs, and burial cairns, stone circles stand as icons of Britain’s prehistory. But while most only know of Ston…
19th January, 2021 in Natural World
A beginners guide to tracking
Mammal tracking, like many natural history subjects can be a daunting prospect mostly because it is difficult to find a starting point. This is true with regards to the identification of all forms of wild things. In any of these subject areas the first 10-20 species will be the h…
16th December, 2020 in Biography & Memoir, History, Natural World
A Christmas like no other? Captain Robert Scott’s 1910 expedition to the Southern Ocean
By late December, Captain Robert Scott’s expedition ship, the Terra Nova, had been on the Southern Ocean for almost a month. After a sea-sickness-inducing passage through the Roaring Forties and a ferocious storm in the Furious Fifties, photographer Herbert Ponting and his compan…
30th September, 2020 in Folklore, Natural World
A walk in the wild, wild woods
Listen to any good traditional storyteller and, sooner or later, you will find yourself walking into the woods. Woodlands are full of immediate life, colour, sound, scent, and danger, no matter what the season. They are worlds away from the barren, unforgiving desert, or farmland…
18th February, 2020 in Natural World
Penguins and polar bears: The wildlife at Earth’s poles
The earth’s polar regions are unique in many ways, from their geography to the birds and animals that live there. Their different geographic characteristics have materially affected animal types and populations. The north polar region can be thought of as an ocean surrounded by l…
12th February, 2020 in Biography & Memoir, Natural World
A pig called Alice
To call Alice ‘just another pig’ would be the gravest insult. She was far removed from the ordinary, the common-or-garden, the routine. She had qualities that elevated her above the common- place members of that species. All pigs are special, as those who have kept them will tell…