In January 1604, Hampton Court Palace hosted a tense meeting between King James I, the bishops of the Church of England, and Puritan reformers. The arguments were about worship, authority, and the future of the English church — but one proposal, raised almost in passing, would outlast every dispute in the room: a new Bible in English. From that winter conference beside the Thames came a seven-year translation project, carried out by teams of scholars in Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge, and printed in 1611 as the King James Bible. This episode follows how a palace built for power became the birthplace of a book that reshaped English religion — and the English language itself.

A Place in History is presented by Ben Fox — a history graduate, and a lifelong lover of Britain’s past and the places that have shaped it.

You can find further short-form history and visual explorations of historical sites on TikTok at the.history.fox, and on YouTube at TheHistoryFox.

New episodes are released every Monday and Thursday.

Britain’s history is written into its landscapes.

From coastlines and river valleys to towns, churches, and industrial sites, the past endures not only in books, but in the places where events unfolded and lives were lived.

A Place in History is a narrative history podcast that tells the story of Britain through specific locations — using each place as a lens to explore wider developments in the nation’s past, from deep prehistory to the modern age.

In this short introduction, the series sets out its guiding idea: that history does not happen in abstraction. It happens somewhere.

New episodes released twice weekly, every Monday and Thursday.

A Place in History is presented by Ben Fox — a history graduate, and a lifelong lover of Britain’s past and the places that have shaped it.

You can find further short-form history and visual explorations of historical sites on TikTok at the.history.fox, and on YouTube at TheHistoryFox.

New episodes are released every Monday and Thursday.