WW2 RAF Ace Billy Drake’s medals go on sale

A group of medals awarded to RAF squadron leader Billy Drake heads the sale of military medals at Bonhams on 12 March in Knightsbridge.

The medals, including a World War II DSO and DFC and bar group, are estimated to sell for  £20,000-£30,000.

Billy Drake was born in London on 20 December 1917 to an English father and Australian mother. He was educated in Switzerland after several schools in England failed to cope with his lively temperament. 

Hickory golf comes to Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel

Visitors to Scotland’s Gleneagles Hotel can now enjoy a round of golf as if it was 1924.

Until the end of July, hotel guests and visitors can take to the fairways with hickory clubs to recreate an early 20th-century golfing experience on Gleneagles’ PGA National Academy Course. 

British Museum to loan six Lewis chessmen to Scotland

Six of the Lewis chessmen are to go on permanent display at Lews Castle, Stornoway, from 2014 as part of a loan agreement between the Western Isles Council and the British Museum. 

The medieval chess pieces will be displayed in a new museum funded by a £4.6m Heritage Lottery Fund grant and supported by National Museums Scotland (NMS) and the British Museum. 

Sotheby’s London to sell royal and aristocratic heirlooms

On 23 January 2014, Sotheby’s London will present Of Royal and Noble Descent, a sale featuring royal and aristocratic heirlooms from important European dynasties. 

The sale comprises a suitably eclectic collection of items says Heinrich Graf von Spreti, President Sotheby’s Germany: ‘Having survived through inheritance, these treasures from palaces and historic houses have never been seen by the general public and their appearance at auction offers a unique opportunity for discerning collectors to acquire them.’

Research focuses on rare New Forest woodcock

Volunteers examining the behaviour of rare woodcocks in the New Forest have been awarded grants of more than £12,000 from the park’s sustainable development fund to undertake research.

The New Forest Woodcock Group aims to increase understanding of the species and explore the reasons behind its national decline.

Yorkshire Museum hopes to keep precious Viking hoard

The Yorkshire Museum is hoping to raise funds to keep the Bedale hoard, a collection of Viking era precious metal and jewellery, in England.

The hoard, which includes a gold sword pommel, a neck ring, gold rivets, half a silver brooch and 29 silver ingots is believed to date back to the 10th century, but between now and March, the Yorkshire Museum, where the treasures have gone on display, needs to raise £51,636 to keep it.

Natalie McCaul, the museum's curator of archeology, says: ‘There are two factors that make it especially interesting to us.

Rare shipwreck archive on sale at Sotheby's

An unparalleled archive of shipwreck images will be presented for sale at Sotheby’s London auction on 12th November 2013. 

Taken by four generations of the Gibson family of photographers over nearly 130 years, the 1,000 negatives record the wrecks of over 200 ships and the fate of their passengers, crew and cargo as they travelled from across the world through the notoriously treacherous seas around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly between 1869 and 1997. 

Plugstreet 14-18 Experience set for November opening

An interpretation centre is scheduled to open near Ploegsteert in Belgium this November.

Entitled the Plugstreet 14-18 Experience, after the British troops’ version of the village’s Flemish name, the centre will explain the role the area and its surrounding region played in the First World War and aims to give visitors the information they need to get the most from a visit to the nearby battlefields.

Anny Beauprez, president of the tourist office of the Commines-Warneton area, which includes Ploegsteert, says: ‘The architect designed the centre to comprise a pyramid-shaped roof above a main display area that is largely underground and reached by a sloping walkway.

The best coffee houses in Vienna

If you were there, it may have seemed that there were few benefits to be found in the Turkish siege of Vienna. 

As historians will remember, the episode marked the high water mark of the Islamic offensive in Europe, with the Turks finally forced to retreat in 1683.

Among the things the attackers left behind, so the story goes, were some sacks of coffee. These were discovered by a group of defenders who, presuming they were camel feed, were preparing to burn them when one of their number, better travelled and more entrepreneurial than the rest, realised what they were.

Glorious Twelfth opens British game season

Probably the most important date in the shooting man’s diary is 12 August. The date – known as the Glorious Twelfth in sporting circles – marks the beginning of the game season in Britain.

Across the country, sporting estates buzz with excitement as shooters, keepers, beaters and dogs prepare for the big day.

With luck, the moors and uplands will be looking their best, with heather flowering in its full purple glory and skylarks in full song under a blue, high summer sky.