This rather innocuous-looking bridge over the River Thames is the latest in a long line of bridges to stand on this spot and lay claim to the name London Bridge.

This current bridge opened in 1973, but a bridge has existed at or near this very spot since the Roman occupation of the area, around 2,000 years ago. There were a number of bridges during this time, but it wasn’t until 1209 that a truly great bridge was erected.

The Medieval London Bridge took a seriously lengthy 33 years to build, but it would have been pretty impressive in its day, as it was completely covered in shops set in the base of buildings seven stories tall!

For 600 years the Medieval bridge was a bustling and relatively safe haven in the centre of London, but eventually it was decided that it was too old, narrow and decrepit¹ to serve Londoners any longer, and that it should be replaced.

In 1799 Thomas Telford proposed a bridge with a single iron arch that would span the entire river, but it was rejected due to worries about feasibility. The bridge that was finally completed in 1831 was built 30 m west of the Medieval one, and was designed by Scots civil engineer John Rennie.

By 1896 the “New” London bridge had become the busiest point in London (with around 9,000 people crossing every hour), so it was widened by 4 metres to combat the acute congestion. On the disused railway track at the old Swelltor Quarry on Dartmoor, you can still see left over granite pillars that were quarried as part of this process, but never used.

Unfortunately the bridge couldn’t cope with the extra weight – after widening, it began to sink by about 3 cm every 8 years, meaning that yet another new bridge would be required.

However, instead of knocking the bridge down, in 1967 the City of London council hit upon the brilliant idea of putting the bridge up for sale; and on 18 April 1968, Rennie’s bridge was sold to the American entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for $2.4m dollars, and subsequently moved, brick-by-brick to Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

The story goes that McCulloch mistakenly believed he was buying (the frankly much more desirable) Tower Bridge, but of course this has been vehemently denied. Regardless, the reconstructed London Bridge forms the centrepiece of a English-style theme park that has since become Arizona’s second most popular tourist attraction, being only less-visited than the Grand Canyon.

(London Bridge was previously featured back in 2006 before the advent of Street View).

This is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, or to give it its full Welsh name, Traphont Ddŵr Pontcysyllte¹, which carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in north east Wales, and which has recently been recognised as one of the most important engineering accomplishments of all time.

Completed over 200 years ago, this stunningly beautiful engineering masterpiece was designed by everyone’s favourite² civil engineer Thomas Telford (1757 – 1834), and to this day it remains the longest and highest aqueduct in the UK.

Despite scepticism at the time (this was the late 1700s after all), Telford was convinced he could build a cast iron trough to carry the canal over the massive 307 metre span of the valley. After all, he had seen his methods succeed at Longdon-on-Tern, where he had designed the world’s first cast iron navigable aqueduct.

Originally constructed as part of the now long-abandoned Shrewsbury Canal, today the Longdon-on-Tern aqueduct still sits astride the River Tern, and is not only Grade I listed but is also a scheduled ancient monument.

Despite this previous experience, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is truly a testament to Telford’s genius. The cast iron trough he designed soars 38 metres above the valley floor, regularly carrying narrowboats safely³ over the valley.

In ultimate recognition of its importance, on the 27th of June 2009, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, joining a list of nearly 900 other places of great cultural or physical significance that includes such treasures as the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, and Stonehenge.

Thanks to the ever on-the-ball Jonathan Rawle. See the Wikipedia links in this article for more info, or explore Wikipedia’s list of works by Thomas Telford.

This year’s Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts drew 177,000 party people to deepest Somerset, reaffirming Glastonbury’s position as the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.

Some went for the music. Some went for the mud. A few might even have gone for Bruce Springsteen – but no doubt a good (if slightly damp) time was had by all.

Despite its name, the festival is not actually held in Glastonbury, but at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton, some six miles to the east.¹ Google’s aerial photos clearly weren’t taken at the end of June, as they reveal a remarkably unsullied rural scene – the site is still a working dairy farm. The famous Pyramid Stage is missing, but the foundations (and surrounding dried mud) can clearly be seen, as can the electricity pylons that cross the site.

Of the second stage (known, with a great deal of imagination, as the Other Stage), there is no sign at all – it is situated here, in a peaceful-looking field. (If you squint a bit, perhaps you can just make out a vague dark semicircular area.)

Near the southern edge of the site, you can see the stone circle, a favourite hippy hangout that was built for the festival by a druid, no less.

“Glasto” will be 40 years old next year, but it remains a brief annual blip of madness in the Worthy Farm routine. Once the music is over, the stages dismantled, the last hungover revellers departed and the vast quantities of rubbish cleaned up, Pilton’s cows can once again live in peace – until next time.

It’s interesting to compare this map of this year’s festival site to the aerial photos, so you can see what happened where.

Thanks to Barry.

“Best” is a subjective word at, err… best. What one person or group values as the “top” will never be the same for everyone – still, when you’re looking for something and you want the “best”, it’s always nice when someone compiles a list. Whether you agree or not with their assessment, in 2007 Golf.com published a list chronicling the “100 Top Golf Courses in the World“.¹

Because seven out of the top ten are all within the continental U.S., today we’re looking at the Top 5 Golf Courses scraped from their list, whilst allowing only one entry per country.

#5 Hirono Golf Club, Kobe, Japan

Situated between rolling hills overlooking the city of Kobe, Japan, the Hirono Golf Club is the location of a very exclusive 18 holes. Its claim to fame isn’t the number of major world competitions it’s held², instead it’s simply how hard it is to get in. Apparently this is the course that all other Asian courses are measured against, but I’m not sure how anyone would know; given that getting a tee time at Hirono is nigh on impossible.

Coming in at #37 on the Golf.com’s list, the C.H. Alison-built course is the only entry in our worldwide Top 5 that comes from a non-English speaking country.

#4 Royal Melbourne (West), Melbourne, Australia

Just south of the main urbanised area of Melbourne is the West course of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club which is known for its “intricate bunkering, tough but fair challenge, variety of shotmaking, and exceptionally fast and true greens”. Designed by world renowned course architect, Dr. Alister MacKenzie it’s ranked 6th on Golf.com’s list, but comes it at number 4 on our improved version!

#3 Royal County Down Golf Club, Newcastle, Northern Ireland

Our third course was designed by Old Tom Morris for just 4 guineas. Considered the best in Ireland, the Royal County Down opened in 1889 and today is considered the tenth most exclusive club in the world.

The imagery isn’t the brightest, but does capture the climatic conditions of Northern Ireland perfectly. However, according to the club website, the Royal County Down is one of the most photographed links courses in the world, and with rolling greens peering out over the Irish Sea, it’s easy to see why.

#2 St. Andrews (Old Course), St. Andrews, Scotland

This is of course where the game of golf began. Officially recognised as being designed by “nature”, the 14th century-built Old Course at St. Andrews is the blessed hope of all that play the game. It is the oldest course in the world and probably #1 on the “must play” bucket-list for most golfers. For our list, it comes in at #2 (#3 on Golf.com’s list).

The Open Championship,³ the oldest professional golfing competition, has been held at the Old Course at St. Andrews every five years since 1873. Unfortunately, the last time a Scot won was in 1910.

The Old Course is held in the public trust by an act of Parliament, and every Sunday golfing is banned for the day to allow the course to rest, so it is instead enjoyed by locals for family picnics and leisurely strolls through the greens.

#1 Pine Valley Golf Club, Pine Valley, New Jersey

Finally we reach the Pine Valley Golf Club. Originally built upon 164 acres of marshland by George Arthur Crump, today the private course sprawls nearly 2 sq km in the thick pinelands of New Jersey.

According to Wikipedia, Crump, a hotelier who knew the area from his hunting expeditions, was subject to obsessive idiosyncrasies that ultimately contributed to designing the #1 course in the world.

Some of those peculiarities included:

1. Holes should not be laid parallel to each other.
2. Consecutive holes should not play in the same direction.
3. Players should only be able to see the hole they are playing on.

Don’t expect to play here anytime soon however – to get a tee time at Pine Valley you have to be personally invited and accompanied by one of the board members! Interestingly, Tiger’s been invited, though he’s never played.

Have you played Hirono, taken in the views at the Royal Down, or paid homage at the Old? What do you think about Golf.com’s assessment of the “best”? Have they got it spot on or are there others that deserve the honour? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to leave a link to your favourite course.

One of the most picturesque villages found in the Peak District National Park, Eyam is historically significant for the actions the villagers took to isolate themselves in the mid 1600s to prevent the spread of the plague despite the toll it took on their population.

Fleas in a shipment of cloth brought the plague to the village in 1665 with the first death happening within a week of its arrival and the disease spreading quickly to neighbouring homes, now known as the Plague Cottages.

The villagers, led by their Church ministers, enacted measures to try to restrict the spread of the disease, such as families having to bury their own dead and limiting contact with outsiders. Church services were held outdoors in Cucklett Delph, a nearby valley.

The plague killed more than 260 of the 350 people who lived in the village, with researchers unsure why some survived. Elizabeth Hancock lost her husband and six children in 8 days but did not become ill herself. The family is buried some distance from the village in a plot known as the Riley graves.

The village effectively quarantined itself, refusing any contact with people from nearby communities. Villagers developed arrangements to receive and pay for goods without meeting people from elsewhere face-to-face. Difficult to see on Google Maps, but a landmark for hikers, the Boundary Stone can be found on the footpath to Stoney Middleton. The stone has a number of holes carved in the top – villagers from Eyam would fill these with vinegar in an attempt to disinfect the coins they would leave as payment for food and medicine delivered there.

A similar arrangement took place to the north of the village at Reverend Mompesson’s well.

There is a small museum depicting the sombre history, and many landmarks have information signs for those walking around the village. Online information can be found at Wikipedia and the Eyam Plague Village site.