@katlaughing - ...I've always thought of the UK as having so many ancient buildings and artifacts intact from the different reigns, only to find there's very little left of the Tudors...

My local pub, The Old Hall, to which I shall shortly wander over for a couple of pints of Lancaster Bewery's 'Bomber' was completed in 1598. Most of the buildings in the village were built in the early 1600s, and the barn of the other pub (The Royal, which I much prefer but it's a pop quiz night) was built in 1500. It's all still here, and most old buildings are 'listed' - which meants that it's pretty much against the law to demolish them.

If anyone's interested, I've just finished Iain M. Banks 'The Use Of Weapons', and am now re-reading Le Carre's 'The Honourable Schoolboy'. His best book, I think, but read TTSS first.