Should I suddenly become very lucky and not have the UK police knocking on my door for a ‘speech crime’ for a change and instead have the travel fairy knock on my door with tickets and a visa for the United States, there are certainly some things and places that I’d like to see on such a visit to the USA.
The first would be a visit to the US National Archives to see the 1789 Bill of Rights. This is for two reasons. The first is that some of the Bill of Rights such as the First and Second Amendment were in my view partially inspired by Britain’s 1689 Bill or Rights and as a politics anorak I find this very interesting. Also as the US First Amendment protects US publishing platforms including those on which I publish and comment, I am therefore partially protected by that First Amendment from undue harassment by the UK authorities and their dubious and dangerous ‘speech crimes’ legislation. Thanks to my American friends and their First Amendment it has been much more difficult to incarcerate me in one of His Majesty’s Prisons for a ‘speech crime’ than it might otherwise have been.
The other place I’d want to visit in the USA is Nebraska. Firstly for the scenery, I’ve heard that in parts it’s a bit like the English county of Norfolk, but bigger, much bigger, proper flat Big Sky country. The second reason would be to visit the State Capitol which is I believe architecturally impressive and is the tallest State Capitol building in the US. There’s also I understand some pretty impressive mid 20th century carved woodwork in the state’s Supreme Court building that I’d love to see. Yes, I can currently jump on a bus and see medieval wood carving, but I’m interested to see what Americans have done with the art of wood carving for public buildings.
Having very particular interests in what I’d like to see in the USA got me thinking. What would I recommend an American visitor to Britain to see. Yes there are a multitude of guides, You Tube videos and suchlike but few of them to concentrate on the things that mark a connection between Britain and the USA. Therefore I decided to put together a short list of things that American visitors to the UK could see or experience which link our two nations. We have a long shared history and it’s left its mark on Britain just as Britain and British 18th century thought left its mark on America’s Constitution.
1. The original town that was the place where the family of General, later President, George Washington lived for many years. This is in Washington, County Durham. President Washington’s ancestors were fervent Royalists during the English Civil War and because of that faced dispossession and sanction during the period of Oliver Cromwell’s Republican Interregnum. It was partially because of the privations that the Washington family faced during Cromwell’s time that propelled some of the family to move to the American colonies.
2. The grave of American revolutionary and later traitor to the American cause Benedict Arnold in St Mary’s Churchyard, Battersea, South London. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3595/benedict-arnold
3. Bamber Bridge where in 1943 US Army racial segregation policies during World War II clashed with many Briton’s desire to see all who fought against Hitler and the Japanese Empire treated equally.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Battle-Of-Bamber-Bridge/
4. The cemeteries and memorials to all those Americans who fought alongside Britons and others in various wars and whose graves are now on British soil
https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/
5. The plaque at Durham Cathedral that celebrates the Washington family and mentions how one member, that is George Washington, went on to ‘feats of great renown’ overseas.
6. Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire which was built by George Washington’s ancestors.
7. Slapton in Devonshire where Allied troops rehearsed the D Day Landings with live ammunition. There was a most terrible friendly fire incident during these rehearsals that was covered up until after the War.
8. Grosvenor Square in London where John Adams, later a US President, was the first legate to Britain shortly after the American Revolution. It was later the site of the American Embassy. Grosvenor Square is also the site of the memorials to the sixty seven Britons who died in the 11th September 2001 Islamic terror attack on the United States.
https://www.guidelondon.org.uk/blog/around-london/grosvenor-square-london/
9. Manchester which was once a great cotton processing city saw workers boycott slave grown cotton during the American Civil War. What’s admirable is that even though such actions brought down great hardships upon the workers who boycotted slave grown cotton, they still did it.
10. The City of Bristol was the site of a great many of the prison camps for those Americans captured during what I call ‘the regrettable unpleasantness’ of the War of 1812.
https://www.bristolhistory.co.uk/2025/03/13/the-war-of-1812-bristols-american-pows/
11. Poldhu in Cornwall where Marconi made the first Transatlantic radio transmission.
12. Plymouth’s Mayflower Museum which documents some of the first British colonists to leave for what became the United States.
https://www.mayflowermuseum.co.uk/
13. Benjamin Franklin House. Home of US Founder Benjamin Franklin
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/
14. There’s also memorials to people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and William Penn in Westminster Abbey. Also at Westminster Abbey is The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior which is displayed with the Congressional Medal of Honour which was presented to the grave of the Unknown Warrior in 1921 by General Pershing on behalf of the United States and is displayed near to the Tomb.
https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/unknown-warrior
15. But Britain is not just England. Remember Britain is four nations in one country. There’s England, there’s the Principality of Wales, the nation of Scotland and the Province of Ulster/Northern Ireland. There’s also the Crown Dependencies of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands that are both a part and at the same time not a part of Britain, they occupy a similar Constitutional position as places like Puerto Rico do for America. Tens of thousands of English, Scots, Irish and Welsh left the United Kingdom across the centuries for new homes in America, some of them fleeing abject poverty, famine and others political and religious oppression in Britain and Ireland.
Some of these British origin Americans have gone on to great things and include not just some of America’s Founding Fathers and early Presidents like George Washington (England) but later leaders such as President Donald Trump (Scotland), former Presidents Richard Nixon (Wales) and John F Kennedy (Ireland – Now the Republic of Ireland). Wales also originally produced the families that went on to produce such great political luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, James A Garfield, Calvin Coolidge and Barack Obama.
Scotland also produced the philosopher Frances Hutchinson who in 1740 argued that British colonies such as what became the USA should be free and some say that this was the one of the first sparks of the American Revolution. Ulster Scots and Scots from the Mainland Scotland also contributed greatly to those most American of music styles bluegrass and country. In addition the man whose family originally came from Greenock in Scotland was used as the model for the original ‘Uncle Sam’ army recruiting poster. England is represented in America by many great men and women who came from England to make America their home and include the family of former President Harry S Truman and the men who wrote the Star Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key who wrote the lyrics to Star Spangled Banner and was of English ancestry and John Stafford Smith who wrote the tune but who stayed in Britain.
These are just a few of the places and things in Britain that might of of interest to American visitors who are interested in exploring the depths of the links between Britain and the United States in both good times and bad.
There’s more to see in Britain than just Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London although these are classic, if expensive, places to visit. As well as the things that are American linked that I’ve listed above there are also some nice beaches, the stunning but attractive bleakness of the pebbles at Dungeness, museums on the subject of the Industrial Revolution, the grand houses once occupied by the gentry, preserved steam railways, art galleries, pubs that in some cases are older than some European nations, Anglo Saxon churches, the architectural and cultural footprints of those who came fleeing oppression in places like Russia and Germany and a great many sites, such as our great Universities, where Britons played a massive part in inventing the modern world and modern thought. There’s also, because of Britain’s turbulent and sometimes violent political and social past, lots of sites of battlefields. Don’t forget the Roman and Viking sites that exist in Britain and are from a time when Britain was not even an independent and unified nation. Britain is one of the few places in the world which I can think of where you can travel along the course of a Roman Road, worship at a Saxon Church and finish up with a beer and some food in a pub that is older than Germany and do all that in a day.
Oh and if you have the good fortune to meet me in person then remember that I’ve made a long standing personal promise to buy at least one random American a pint of beer to thank them for the American First Amendment that has partially protected me as well as protecting Americans. Also please remember that in the UK we drive on the Left, many of our cars have manual gearboxes and the accent can change and there’s a different word for a bread roll every one hundred miles (or less) that a person travels.
So come to Britain, it may surprise you just as many Britons have been very pleasantly surprised by the United States during the World Cup. Yes there’s rubbish areas in Britain, such as the London Borough of Newham, please don’t go there, it’s nasty, just as there are less than savoury cities in the United States, it’s not all as bad that in the UK, some bits are good some bits are not so good. In Britain you will find stunning scenery, food that no longer looks or tastes like a World War II ration pack, history, culture, art and weird and sometimes puzzling juxtapositions of old and new buildings a mix that is partially the fault of the German Luftwaffe and post war central government planning.
Britain and the United States has a long shared history so please come and explore it and you never know you might run into me and I’ll buy you a pint.
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