60. General James Wolfe and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Neil Oliver: News, Comment, History
Fat Belly Films
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2021
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Neil climbs the hill to the Royal Observatory and finds himself at the centre of time & place.
Henry VIII’s hunting lodge where he kept his mistress of the moment once stood here. Then in 1675 Christopher Wren was commissioned to build the Royal Observatory in this spot, a building that stood at the forefront of astronomy and mapping for centuries. It’s here that the prime meridian bisects the planet and a legendary soldier, General James Woolfe, looks out over one of the greatest cities in the world and through thousands of years of history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The 15 million pound Lotto Super Saturday jackpot must be won this Saturday. |
| 0:04.5 | Or thousands of you will win a share of the prize. |
| 0:06.7 | But who will it be? |
| 0:07.7 | Maybe Raj, watching the racewalk and thinking I could do that. |
| 0:10.6 | Well speed walk down the shop and get yourself a ticket. |
| 0:13.1 | Lotto will you be next play in store or on app the national lottery account terms |
| 0:17.6 | rules and procedures apply players must be 18 or over. |
| 0:27.0 | Hello fellow time travelers I hope you're well. To help support the making of this podcast sign up to my Patreon.com site there you'll get to see me in person every week. I post a video on a subject that has, I don't know, sparked my mind into action. |
| 0:38.4 | The last three, just as examples, have been very different one from another diverse you would say there's |
| 0:44.8 | one about D-Day there's one about buried Viking treasure and the last one was about the push |
| 0:51.1 | and pool of the great European continent, the drift of people endlessly on the move. |
| 0:57.6 | Sure you get the idea, the site's packed with history, current affairs and a whole lot more. |
| 1:01.2 | And to get your hands on it go to patreon.com and search for me, |
| 1:05.2 | Neil Oliver. It would be great to see you there. In the meantime, here is the next episode of my love letter to the British Isles, |
| 1:13.2 | Q the music. |
| 1:14.7 | Would be conquers down through the years have imagined themselves, the Spanish at the time of the |
| 1:29.6 | Armada, Napoleon, Hitler, they've all imagined themselves following that silvery path of the Thames into |
| 1:37.1 | the heart of London. |
| 1:40.2 | In this podcast we're walking to the top of a hill with a view that takes your breath away. |
| 1:47.6 | Standing on the spot where one of Henry VIII's favourite hunting lodges once stood, a place that this larger than life king kept for his |
| 1:56.9 | mistress of the moment. In another age the great architect Sir Christopher Wren built an observatory here for the mapping of stars and planets and time itself. |
| 2:09.0 | Close by is a legendary soldier and then hold your breath and jump from one hemisphere to another in the blinking of an eye. |
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