Eccentric Britain: The Bradt Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles Book

	Preface	VII
	Introduction	VIII
Part 1	Eccentric Things We Do	1
Chapter 1	The Eccentric Year	3
	January	3
	Highlights of the Eccentric Year	4
	February	10
	March	11
	April	11
	May	16
	June	20
	July	24
	August	25
	September	29
	October	31
	November	33
	December	36
	Daily events	38
	Various dates	39
	Fairs	39
	Travel information	43
Chapter 2	Eccentric Pastimes	49
	Collections of eccentrics	49
	Eccentric interests	57
	This rather eccentric race	59
	On the road to eccentricity	64
	Odd associations	70
	Eccentricity on display: Britain's top 27 odd museums	73
	Travel information	81
Chapter 3	Barmy Bureaucracy and Curious Charities	83
	Paying the rent in roses, nails and parsnips	83
	Britain's weird courts that court disbelief	86
	Worth the weight	91
	Your taxes or a kiss	91
	Britain's most eccentric jobs	92
	Key to eccentricities	93
	Bizarre bidding	94
	Weird and wonderful ways to get the dole	95
	Dice, vice and houses of ill repute	98
	Travel information	98
Part 2	Eccentric People	101
Chapter 4	The Aristocrats of Eccentrics	103
	The tunnelling duke and other strange aristos	103
	Hellfire and heroism	105
	Bonkers, and bonking, MPs	107
	Modern marquesses of B	108
	Wanted: hermits, running footmen and gossips	109
	The duke who goes to the polo by jumbo	110
	Stately pigs of Old England and sty society	111
	Travel information	113
Chapter 5	Dead Eccentric	117
	Bizarre last wishes	117
	Land of odd pyramids	119
	Legend in his own lifetime	120
	London's only Nazi memorial	121
	Pigeons at war	121
	Amazing grace	121
	Pickled brains and restless heads	122
	Surrey's mystery mosque and a death railway	123
	How the living can follow the dead	125
	Gone for a Burton: the Arab tent in deepest Mortlake	127
	Tombs along odd lines	129
	Above our heads	131
	Some very strange organs	132
	Evasion of the body-snatchers	137
	Travel information	138
Chapter 6	The Eccentric Church and Some Very Strange Churchmen	145
	Beyond belief	145
	Well, well, well - eccentric saints	151
	Britain's top ten most surprising places of worship	153
	Travel information	155
Part 3	Eccentric Places	157
Chapter 7	Home of the Eccentric	159
	Unlikely additions	159
	Living with the railways	163
	Travel information	174
Chapter 8	Eccentric Gardens	177
	Garden wit, wisdom and mass wisteria	177
	Neither unhinged nor unhenged	181
	Travel information	182
Chapter 9	A Place for Eccentrics	185
	Signs of serious eccentricity	185
	The world's oddest pubs	187
	Eccentric engineering	190
	Gateway to eccentricity	197
	Dovecotes, royal dung and gunpowder	198
	These people should be locked up	200
	Eccentric villages	201
	Travel information	202
Chapter 10	Monumentally Eccentric	207
	Obscure obsolete obelisks	207
	Milestones in eccentricity	213
	Convicts and martyrs	214
	Shrines by the wayside	215
	Cranks, pioneers and heroes of the skies	216
	Unlikely jumbos	218
	Britain's ten most magical (and least known) standing stones	220
	Travel information	223
Chapter 11	Towering Eccentrics	227
	In search of utter folly	227
	Britain's top ten (plus) towers (mostly with very tall stories)	230
	True follies come in threes	236
	The triangular angle	238
	All a sham	242
	Cartoons of the sky	244
	Travel information	246
Part 4	Practical Information	251
Chapter 12	Nuts and Bolts	253
	Getting around	253
	Where to stay	259
	Food	261
	Telephones	262
Chapter 13	Eccentric Itineraries	263
Appendix	Further Reading	271
	Index
	County	277
	Alphabetical	283