. . . just links from HayYoo.com and DanKostecki.com
Juan Pujol García MBE (Catalan: Joan Pujol Garcia, 14 February 1912 – 10 October 1988) was a Spanish citizen who deliberately became a double agent against Nazi Germany during World War II. He relocated to England to carry out fictional spying activities for the Nazis, and was known by the British codename Garbo and the German codename Alaric Arabel.
CNN posted a video about old found photos –
After sitting in a suitcase in an attic for almost 30 years, the newly-discovered photographs of amateur photographer John Turner offer a glimpse into life in pre and post-war Britain.
According to Historic-UK.com –
A rather unusual and decidedly British ceremony takes place each year in late October. The City of London pays rent to the Crown for two pieces of land, even though it no longer knows their exact locations! For the first piece of land, somewhere in Shropshire, the City pays two knives, one blunt and one sharp. For the second piece of land, 6 giant horseshoes and 61 nails are handed over.
The Georgian Bedale Leech House in Bedale, North Yorkshire is the last standing leech house in the United Kingdom. It was constructed to keep them alive, fresh, and hungry for blood while they waited for druggists or doctors to use them for bloodletting.
On numerous housing estates throughout London, the rows of black steel and mesh railings guarding red brick mansion blocks appear, at first glance, little more than a quirk of post-war architectural design.
However, unbeknown to thousands of passersby each day, those sometimes rusting or buckled fences were in fact the emergency stretchers that helped to save the lives of those injured during the Blitz.
Kionda the gorilla loves performing ballet to adoring crowds at Paignton Zoo, in Devon. The 15-year-old ape looks graceful and elegant as he glides through the air.
… welcome to the largest hedge of its kind in the world – a monster yew that takes gardening staff at a country estate two whole weeks to trim. At 40ft tall and 15ft wide, groundsmen at the Bathurst Estate in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, say the 300-year-old yew hedge is the largest of its kind in the world and costs £6,000 a year to maintain. It takes a specialist two-man team at the estate two weeks – with no weekend break – to give the hedge it’s annual trim.
