A pretty UK seaside town may look like a picturesque holiday spot – but it has a dark history. Now locals are remembering those who were brutally killed in the 17th century with a new plaque
Weymouth is a popular seaside town (Image: Jacob Crossingham)
While it may be a picturesque seaside spot, this pretty town has quite a dark history behind it.
Weymouth is a seaside town located in Dorset, southern England and it’s know for it’s sandy beach, decorated with colourful beach huts and backed by Georgian houses. But what we see Weymouth as today was the total opposite to the dark chapter in history in the 17th century filled with brutal killings and bloody streets.
Two hundred and forty years ago, in September 1785, 12 local men were hanged, drawn and quartered in the town for their involvement in the Monmouth Rebellion.
The brutal sentence was delivered by Judge Jeffreys at the Antelope Hotel in Dorchester during the infamous ‘Bloody Assizes’. This new plaque brings the total number of installations on the trail to 19.
Nowadays, Greenhill gardens is an award-winning gardens in Weymouth, with a tennis court, putting, bowling, live music events and two cafes. It has become a picturesque haven, beloved by locals and visitors for its vibrant floral displays and sweeping sea views, and the contrast between its serene present and brutal past adds a poignant depth to the town’s historical narrative.
Now locals from the We Are Weymouth group have unveiled a powerful new addition to the town’s heritage trail: a commemorative plaque on the Promenade at Greenhill, marking one of the darkest chapters in Weymouth’s history.
Graham Perry, chair of We Are Weymouth, said: “It is ironic that the first historical mention of Greenhill, one of the most beautiful spots in Weymouth, is in relation to this horrific event.
“The installation of this plaque helps us to remember the many layers of Weymouth’s history – both the celebrated and the sombre – and ensures they are not forgotten.”
The heritage trail, which celebrates the unification of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1571 under Queen Elizabeth I, takes visitors on a journey through the town’s rich past. Highlights include the arrival of the Black Death, Weymouth’s rise as a Georgian resort, and its strategic role in the D-Day invasion.
Later this year, two additional plaques will be installed along Preston Beach, sharing stories from Lodmoor, a saltmarsh reserve with diverse wildlife, including waders, ducks, terns, and winter birds, and a reedbed with Bitterns and Bearded Tits.
Once complete, the trail will form a continuous historical journey from the Roman temple at Bowleaze to the iconic Nothe Fort, offering a superb and immersive experience for residents and visitors alike.
These initiatives reflect We Are Weymouth’s ongoing commitment to placemaking, community engagement, and celebrating the town’s unique heritage.
The Pop Idol winner discovered on this week’s episode of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? that he is related to King Edward I and William the Conquerer – so Mirror man Matt decided to dig into his ancestors too
Will Young discovered King Edward I is his 20-times great-grandfather(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Wall to Wall / Stephen Perry)
As if Will Young didn’t already have reason to be smug, the Pop Idol and two-time Brit Award winner now has something else he can boast about – he’s related to royalty.
Specifically, King Edward I, his 20-times great-grandfather. Oh, and William the Conquerer too.
The singer found out about his kingly lineage filming this week’s episode of BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? And he’s not the only celebrity who, besides being blessed with success, can also add royal blood to their claims to fame.
Josh Widdecombe is another, having learned he’s also directly descended from Edward I. Before him there was Danny Dyer, who discovered his ancestors include King Edward III, William the Conquerer and French king Louis IX.
Will Young discovered he is related to William the Conquerer
Then there’s Matthew Pinsent – four-time Olympic gold medallist and, it turns out, also related to Edward I, William the Conqueror and one of Henry VIII’s wives.
What is it about being a celebrity, I wondered, that makes you more likely to have royal relatives? Knowing Will was going to be the latest to fill me with jealousy, I set out to find out if mere mortals like me had any remotely interesting ancestors.
In my case, the chances of even finding anyone slightly aristocratic in my family tree seemed pretty bleak. Will was already born with a silver spoon in his mouth, a boarding school boy whose dad was a company director and whose grandad was an RAF flight lieutenant.
Matt’s grandfather Henry Roper, was a painter, and his great-great-grandfather Frederick was a coal miner
Most of the relatives I knew about, on the other hand, were proud yet poor Nottinghamshire coal miners and their wives.
Still, I set up an account on FindMyPast and added the names of the relatives I knew about over the last 150 years. As the site suggested potential matches based on birth, marriage, baptism and census records, I gradually worked my way back around 12 generations to the mid-1600s.
Alas, what I discovered only confirmed my suspicions. My family were paupers, not princes – grafters who toiled for centuries in coal mines, stables, forges and along canals.
My great-grandfather, I discovered, was a coal miner loader who had worked his way up to coal hewer – hacking coal from the mine bed by hand, hundreds of metres underground – just like his father and grandfather before him.
Matt was shocked to discover a connection to Queen Elizabeth I(Image: Daily Record)
Earlier still were nailmakers, boatmen, stonemasons and stablemen. Almost all lived and died in Derbyshire, Yorkshire or Lancashire. We were clearly the servants, not the masters. I had more in common with Baldrick than Blackadder.
But just as I was about to give up, I stumbled on something unexpected. In the late 1500s, Derbyshire man William Gilbert, my 13th great-grandfather, married Anne Clere – and into a well-known family.
The Cleres, it turned out, were an ancient family from Norfolk whose patriarch, Sir Robert Clere, was the High Sheriff of Norfolk and known for his great wealth.
Anne’s father, Sir Edward Clere, was an MP, but apparently not a very articulate one when speaking in the House of Commons. One diarist wrote how he made “”a staggering [stumbling] speech… I could not understand what reason he made.”
He was knighted in 1578 after having Queen Elizabeth I stay over at his home in Thetford, Norfolk, when he entertained her with a theatrical performance and jousting.
Josh Widdecombe found out he’s a direct descendent of King Edward III(Image: BBC/Wall to Wall Media Ltd/Stephen Perry)
Fascinated that my family was at least good friends with royalty, I kept digging. Edward’s father was Sir John Clere, an MP and naval commander who drowned in August 1557 when his fleet tried to conquer the Orkney Islands, but was beaten back to sea by 3,000 angry islanders.
But it was her mother, Alice Boleyn, my 14th great-grandmother, whose name jumped out at me. Sure enough, as I followed the tree, her niece was none other than Anne Boleyn, Queen of England until she was beheaded in 1533 by Henry VIII – and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.
I was astounded – that makes me Elizabeth I’s first cousin, 16 times removed.
On the other side of the Clere family, however, things were taking a more sinister – but no less fascinating – turn.
Sir John Clere’s wife, Anne Tyrell, also had royal connections, it turned out, but ones that probably changed the line of succession forever.
On her father’s side, her grandfather was Sir James Tyrell, a trusted servant of Richard III, who allegedly confessed to the murders of the Princes in the Tower under Richard’s orders.
Sir James Tyrrell was depicted in Shakespeare’s William III
James is also portrayed in Shakespeare’s Richard III. I was astounded – I studied the play at school and had no idea I was reading about my 17th great-grandfather.
Treason and treachery, it seems, ran in the family. His father William was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1462 for plotting against King Edward IV.
William’s father, Sir John Tyrell of Heron, was High Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire and knight of Essex, and three times Speaker of the House of Commons. That my 19th great-grandfather basically once ruled Essex is something I won’t be letting people forget in Stansted, where I now live.
But it was also through Anne Tyrell’s mother’s side that I found something even more astonishing. As I followed her line, the names began to get more and more aristocratic, through the Willoughbys, De Welles, Greystokes and Longsprees, until I found…. My 26th great-grandfather, King Henry II.
His father was Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou and his grandfather, King Henry I. And Henry’s father? No other than William the Conquerer – my 29th great-grandfather.
And perhaps even more bizarrely, that would make Will Young my 9th cousin, 9 times removed. I’ll be inviting him round for tea next week.
King Henry I is Matt’s 28th great-grandfather
Genealogists will tell me to calm down – apparently there are about five million people who are descended from William the Conquerer. Establishing myself as the true heir to the British throne could certainly be tricky.
But just being as special as Will, Danny Dyer and Matthew Pinsent is enough for me. And not bad for the son of Nottinghamshire nailmakers, stablemen and coal miners.
How to trace your family tree on Findmypast:
Register for a free Findmypast account and create your tree.
Add your own information, then details about your parents, grandparents and other relatives that you know. You don’t need every detail such as date or place of birth, but the more you have the better.
Findmypast then searches its records and provides hints about your ancestors, helping you expand your tree. To access the records you’ll need to pay a subscription.
Most of the records go back to the 1700s, but family trees created by other people can help you trace back even further.
Use the internet to search some of the key names – you might find more clues and other historical connections.
TikTok sensation Katie Kennedy – aka The History Gossip – is bringing history to life in her new Sky TV show History Crush after going viral with her bawdy social media videos
Queen Elizabeth I was “fuggers”, Henry VIII “clapped” and it’s debatable whether Anne Of Cleeves was a “minger”.
Katie Kennedy, better known as The History Gossip, uses this colourful language to bring alive famous historical characters in her bawdy social media posts, which have earned millions of likes on TikTok. Most people take years to get noticed, but Katie became famous practically overnight.
One minute she was writing her 12,000-word dissertation on Women in Pompeii in her final year at Durham University, the next she’d posted a few quirky history videos on TikTok and gone viral.
Like most students, she’d happily wile away hours of study time on social media, but for Katie, it led to greater things. “I was on TikTok all the time anyway, so I posted some stuff about the Tudors and I got a couple of thousand followers Then I did a video with the caption – why were the Tudes clapped?” she says.
Seeing my blank expression, she translates: “Why were they really ugly? That did really well. It got onto this really big meme page called Great British Memes and they’ve got loads of followers. People were screenshotting it and asking, ‘Is that you?”
Earthy and funny, Katie’s history videos are the right side of sweary, with a sprinkling of Gen Z language. “Some of the slang that I’ve picked up through the years was originally just to get around TikTok guidelines,” she explains.
The young Henry might have been worth a flng, but Katie says the older king was definitely ‘clapped’(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Half a million followers later, Katie got a book deal and published The History Gossip – Was Anne Of Cleeves A Minger? And she will now be appearing on our screens on Sky TV’s History Crush, where she’ll be rummaging through the underwear drawers of historical figures like Lord Byron, Charles Dickens or Marie-Antoinette – and asking the big questions like was Henry VIII clapped? “Yes he was,” she giggles. And was Lord Byron a crush or a burn? “Definitely a crush.”
The speed at which Katie got a book deal will have many seasoned writers gnashing at the bit. “I had a message from my now agent in February last year when things were going off,” she says. “And she was like, ‘Have you ever thought about writing a book?’ And I thought, ‘Yeah maybe in the future.’ But as soon as I handed in my dissertation, I started writing it and finished it during Freshers Week at Oxford – when I was hungover!
“We got it out for November for Christmas, because it was more of a gifty book. It’s still really weird seeing it in the book shops.”
When we meet outside on a sunny afternoon in pretty Vaults and Gardens Cafe by Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, where 25-year-old Katie’s now studying for her masters, I have to ask, “Was Anne of Cleeves a minger?”
A diet of sugar left the Virgin Queen with ‘fuggers’ teeth and awful breath, says Katie Kennedy(Image: UIG via Getty Images)
“Well I don’t think so,” she replies. “Henry VIII gave her a castle and they had a brother and sister type of relationship. Of all his wives, she came out of it quite well. She wasn’t really minging, like her portraits said, but she was ‘mid’.”
What about Elizabeth 1? “Her teeth were fuggers because she ate so much sugar,” says Katie. “And it’s so funny that even when she looks a bit minging in her portrait, that’s probably her best photoshopped version.”
Katie has just returned from a holiday abroad, but her skin remains the colour of porcelain. “I don’t like to sit in the sun because I get scared of getting sunburned,” she says in her sing-song Geordie accent.
“I’ve lived in Durham my whole life. I grew up there, went to a local comprehensive school, did sixth form. And then a journalism apprenticeship with BBC,” she says.
This explains why Katie’s so good at finding a hook in a story – and she has a journalism certificate to prove it. “In my posts, I have to get a three second intro to get people interested – that takes a lot of research,” she explains. “I don’t really script them though, I just press record!”
The History Gossip says Anne of Cleeves was nowhere near as ‘minging’ in real life as her portrait(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The secret of Katie’s success is clearly an authentic voice on the platform, which is backed up by years of hard academic study.
“I did journalism for two years, but I felt like I’d missed out on university, so I applied to Durham to do Ancient History and Archeology – and got in!” she says.
While she seems surprised by her ‘luck,’ it strikes me that both Durham and Oxford are lucky to have someone with such a knack for bringing history to life.
Although she has a bit of imposter syndrome, the university social life has made up for it. “I loved being at Durham – all the traditions and stuff and that’s partly why I wanted to come to Oxford,” she admits. “It’s fun and you don’t get that in every university.”
A quick peek at her socials and you can see Katie has settled in well since arriving last September. She laughs: “Yeah the balls are so nice. I love wearing the gowns. I went to a Balioll College ball last week. I can’t lie – the balls here are better than Durham!”
Katie’s first taste of history came when her parents dragged her around National Trust properties every Sunday. “I remember when I was seven being like, I don’t want to go to Wellington and Cragside, I just want to sit on my little Nintendo,’” she admits.
In her new show, Katie reckons poet Byron was definitely a ‘crush’ rather than a ‘burn’(Image: Getty Images)
But the experience left an impression, because she fell in love with immersive history – even becoming part of a Beamish Living Museum of the North exhibit.
“It’s just down the road from where I liv,e so I did work experience there twice,” she recalls. “Once dressed up as a Victorian school child and then as a Second World War evacuée and I had my little cardboard gas mask box.
“Did you know during rationing, instead of ice lollies little kids would have frozen carrots?”
Inspired by TV historians such as Lucy Worsley and Ruth Goodman, Katie admits that Horrible Histories – which has probably done more to make history popular than all the dusty old academic institutions put together – inspired her.
“Horrible Histories doesn’t make you feel like you’re learning. The author of the books, Terry Deary, is from Sunderland, which is not far from where I’m from,” she adds proudly.
“I used to love Ruth when she would do Victorian Farm on TV and she would be like, ‘I’m going to make bread from scratch.’ She doesn’t make you feel you’re being lectured to – she’s living history and talking about normal people, who I think get overlooked sometimes.
“It definitely sparked the way I like to present history in a fun, doesn’t-feel-like-you’re-learning type of way.”
‘Misunderstood’ Marie Antoinette loved her gowns and employed a full-time hot chocolate maker(Image: ullstein bild via Getty Images)
I do wonder what Katie’s more traditional tutors think of her style of bringing history to the masses. “When I first started on TikTok, I blocked everyone at Durham and friends and family, because I was embarrassed about posting a video that might get three views,” she reveals. “It was only later when I did a series on the Victorians, that I stopped caring what people thought.
“My supervisor at Oxford’s really supportive. I told him it’s like Horrible History but for adults, and he thinks it’s great that I’m making history more accessible.”
Social media burn out is real for influencers. I ask how she’s managing her time with so much on her plate. “My masters is on British and European 18th-century history, and I’m doing my dissertation on the fan-making industry and how women used fans. But I’ve gone part-time now, so I’ve got another year to get my arse in gear and sort it”: she says.
“I used to post every single day on TikTok, but I’ve learned to take a step back from it and know that if I don’t post today, it’s not like the end of everything.”
And history clearly attracts a decent social media crowd. “I just get Americans not being able to understand my accent, or they’re like ‘what’s a minger?’” she laughs.
In Durham she lives with her mum, dad and brother, who’s just started studying politics at university. “He was debating history or politics, but he likes arguments, so it’s politics,” she says.
Katie and her new book The History Gossip – Was Anne of Cleeves A Minger?(Image: Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)
While she’s keen to ask if historical figures are worth dating, she sidesteps when asked if she’s single. “Depends on who’s asking?” she smiles.
But she gushes when talking about one of her great loves back in Durham. “We’ve just got a King Charles Spaniel puppy called Millie – I love to sit and cuddle her in the garden,” she says. “I miss her so much when I’m not there.”
Devoting a lot of time to studying women in history Katie continues: “I especially like the Brontes and also Mary Antoinette, because I feel like she was very misunderstood.”
The arts have been losing out in the push for more maths and engineering, but Katie is making history cool again and reminds us the importance of knowing about our past.
“History keeps repeating itself,” she says. “People aren’t so different to us today. The Tudors put belladonna in their eyes to make them sparkle. Victorian women would eat arsenic wafers to give their skin a pale complexion and wore dresses dyed with a green pigment made from arsenic. Women died wearing them.”
So, forget Brazilian butt lifts, or excessive tanning – when it comes to dying for beauty, the Tudors and Victorians got there first.
• HISTORY CRUSH, presented by Katie Kennedy (aka History Gossip), will be available on Sky HISTORY on demand via Sky and Virgin Media from May 29. More at www.history.co.uk/shows/history-crush #HISTORYCRUSH @HISTORYUK
