Category Archives: history

history, links, science

More Interesting Links

OK, guys and gals, here’s another round of links to articles you may have missed — and it contains all sorts of weird and interesting stuff. As usual we’ll start with the more scientific and end up with, I hope, something a bit easier.
All vertebrates have single eyes as we do. But most insects have compound eyes and they work in a rather different way to our vertebrate eyes.
We probably all know by now that our guts are host to many different microbes. But so are most other parts of our bodies. So girls, here’s a look at what lives in your vagina. And no, I don’t imagine that male parts are too much different!
And while we’re on the subject, here are 10 things you maybe didn’t know about vaginas.
So just how does one link from there to Neanderthals? Oh, right this is how! It is being suggested that hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart the Neanderthals. Which would mean we were beginning to domesticate canines a lot earlier than previously thought.
But by then the Neanderthals were turning eagle talons into jewellery (right) — that’s only some 130,000 years ago.
It seems my scepticism in the last set of links was well founded because apparently the research was NOT showing that gerbils were to blame for the plague; it was badly interpreted by journalists.
Good news for the gerbils, but it seems there’s bad news for the Celts. Apparently research on Britons’ DNA is demonstrating that the Celts are not a single genetic group.

Click on the image to see a larger view

From Celts to computer programmers … here are nine truths computer programmers know that most people don’t have a clue about.
And here are five languages which could change the way you view the world.
And continuing our recurrent theme on nudism, here’s a piece on the benefits of social nudity, especially stress reduction. (Long read)
On the other hand what could be better at reducing stress than the perfect gin & tonic?
Which actually brings us on to things historical … First off here’s a piece on the rivers of London from artist and cartographer Stephen Walter’s forthcoming book The Island: London Mapped.
Second up the history of something familiar to all Londoners, and much overlooked: the London Plane Tree.
And yet still on the history of London, here is a piece on the Elizabethan Theatre in London.
Finally something we hope doesn’t happen for many years … a look at what might happen when the Queen dies. It could be the most disruptive event in the last 70 years, but I suspect it is all a bit more planned than this article implies.
That’s all, Folks!

amusements, history, topographical

Oddity of the Week: Myddleton Passage

Myddelton Passage is a quiet road near Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London EC1. Initially a narrow footpath, the street was widened in the early 19th century as a result of nearby development, but despite this expansion it was considered to be a dark and dangerous alley throughout the Victorian era; a reputation making it notorious enough to feature in George Gissing’s 1889 novel, The Nether World.
Today you can walk along Myddelton Passage in the evening without fearing for your life. But look more closely at the wall running along its southern edge and you’ll see a hint of its shadier Victorian past.


Carved into the brickwork of the wall is a large collection of seemingly random numbers. They were mostly carved around the mid- to late-19th century by an array of police officers and each number represents the respective bobby’s collar number. Most of the numbers feature a a letter ‘G’ linking them to ‘Finsbury Division’; the team who operated out of the former King’s Cross police station.
Quite why so many Victorian coppers chose to create this swathe of graffiti in this particular location remains something of a mystery.
From Cabbie’s Curios: The Policemen’s Wall

history

Ten Things #15

A few days ago my father, were he still alive, would have been 95. So I thought we might highlight a few of the momentous events which happened during his lifetime (1920-2006).
10 Things which Happened in My Father’s lifetime

  1. World War II, and all that it implies (1939-45)
  2. Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female British Prime Minister (1979)
  3. Revival of the Liberal Party under Jo Grimmond (late-1950s & early 1960s)
  4. Death of Winston Churchill (1965)
  5. Assassination of President Kennedy (1963)
  6. Suez Crisis (1956)
  7. Great Depression of 1930s
  8. Accession and abdication of Edward VIII (1936)
  9. First artificial earth satellite (Sputnik, 1957)
  10. Dawn of a new millennium (2001)

And that list really does only scratch the surface!

history, photography

Weekly Photograph

This week another from our trip, last May, round Oxfordshire villages in search of ancestors. This archway — which looks to be Tudor in date — is in a hedge across the middle of the graveyard of Churchill’s old church. It really does just lead from one piece of churchyard to another and appears to be of absolutely no significance, beyond being rather splendid.

Archway to Nowhere
Archway to Nowhere
Churchill, Oxfordshire; May 2014
Clink the image for larger views on Flickr

food+drink, history, topographical

Coming up in December

December is, of course, the month of Christmas and consequently that takes over most events etc. So this month’s list is rather abbreviated.
1 December
On this day in 1934 author Anthony Powell and Lady Violet Pakenham were married at All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge (below).


12 December
1889 saw the death, in Venice, of poet Robert Browning on the day his last work Asolando was published.
21 December
Winter Solstice. That dark day when we in the Northern Hemisphere have the fewest hours of daylight. This day is also celebrated as the festival of Yule in many pagan traditions when the year turns and the days begin to lengthen again towards Spring.
24 December
Christmas Eve is traditionally the day for celebratory meals and the exchange of presents in many European countries. In the UK it is, of course, the final mad dash up to Christmas Day.
25 December
Christmas Day. Hodie Christus natus est. Today we have a very commercial and secularised Christmas Day whereas in much earlier times it was one of the few holidays when peasants were not expected to work but to attend church, feast and make merry (if they could afford to). There are many Christmas Day traditions around the country, so have a search for what’s happening near you.
26 December
Boxing Day and the Feast of St Stephen. Boxing Day is traditionally the day when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts (a “Christmas box”) from their bosses or employers. Although this custom has generally now died out there are many community events, both traditional and modern, on Boxing Day which often raise money for charity. The day is a public holiday in the UK and many other countries, a big day in the sporting calendar and also marks the start of the winter sales. Again seek out your local traditional events which may include Morris dancing or customs such as the Greatham Sword Dance.

31 December
New Years Eve, the last day of the old year, is another day on which there are many traditional customs as well as the usual social gatherings to see out the old year and welcome the new. Once more look out for your local customs like the Allendale Tar Barrel Ceremony. This is also one of the days on which we should be wassailing our apple trees and raising a glass to both their fruitfulness and general prosperity in the coming year.

history, personal, ramblings

Birthtime TV

There’s an interesting new resource from the BBC … the BBC Genome project.
It contains the listings information (TV and radio) which the BBC printed in Radio Times between 1923 and 2009 … and you can search the site for BBC programmes, people, dates and specific Radio Times editions.
That means you can find when a particular programme was broadcast, who appeared in a particular episode of your favourite comedy series and even what was being broadcast the minute you were born.
Now this latter I find sort of scary. Having been born in another century and on a different planet — ie. before we had 24 hour, wall-to-wall TV — I was totally unsure what I’d find being broadcast when I appeared.


I know I was born at lunchtime, about 12.50 according to my mother. And of course I now the date and place (University College Hospital in London’s Gower Street). But back in 1951 this was not just before the days of 24 hour TV but at a time when there were only three radio stations and one TV channel. TV (now BBC1) and the Third Programme (now BBC Radio 3) broadcast almost exclusively in the evenings with just the occasional TV programme during the day (see later).
That left me with entering the world to either Workers’ Playtime on the Home Service (now BBC Radio 4) or Hullo There! on the Light Programme (now BBC Radio 2) which featured comedian Arthur Askey.
OMG! I remember hearing Workers’ Playtime when I was a bit older. It was awful and condescending. But then so was everything in those days. As an example, the afternoon I was born TV screened a programme called Designed for Women which included “John Gloag reviews some recent books” and “Round the Shops, Margot Lovell reports on what she thinks will interest you in the shops this week”. Can’t you just hear those awful Fanny Craddock-style presenters?
Thank heavens we live in another age and in a greater light!
What about you? What was being broadcast when you appeared in the world?

amusements, food+drink, history

Oddity of the Week: Coffee Grinding

The coffee plant is native to Ethiopia, but the first evidence of coffee beans being turned into a beverage comes from fifteenth-century Yemen. The fashion for this black, bitter drink spread across the Middle East and the Mediterranean, reaching Europe in the late sixteenth century. Although hand-operated spice mills had been in use since the 1400s, coffee beans continued to be ground using the more basic technology of mortar and pestle, or by millstones. Even as late as 1620, when the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for America on the Mayflower, all they brought with them for grinding coffee was an adapted mortar-and-pestle device.
In the 1660s a certain Nicholas Book, ‘living at the Sign of the Frying Pan in St Tulies Street’ in London, publicized himself as the only man known to make mills that could grind coffee to powder, but he was not necessarily the inventor of the machine he manufactured. The first US patent for a coffee grinder was issued in 1798 to Thomas Bruff of Maryland, who, when he was not grinding coffee, was Thomas Jefferson’s dentist.
From William Hartston; The Things that Nobody Knows: 501 Mysteries of Life, the Universe and Everything; Atlantic Books; 2011

environment, history, ramblings

Coming up in October

Here’s my selection of events, celebrations and customs that are happening during October.
Reminder: These listings contain an eclectic mix of interesting (to me) anniversaries, historical events, red letter days and upcoming “awareness events”, mostly UK-centric. My rules for the inclusion of awareness events are that they must not be medical, nor aimed specifically at children, nor must they be too obviously purely commercial; and they must have a useful website. (It is surprising how many get cast asunder by the lack of a useful website.)
Anyway here’s this month’s list …
4 October
French painter Jean-Francois Millet was born on this day in 1814.


Jean-Francois Millet; The Goose Girl

6 to 12 October
National Knitting Week. Celebrate by bringing knitters together, sharing techniques and learning something new. More information over at www.ukhandknitting.com/.
6 October
National Personal Safety Day is an annual event aimed at highlighting some of the simple, practical solutions that everyone can use to help avoid violence and aggression in today’s society. It’s about helping people live safer, more confident lives. Find out about this year’s campaign and getting involved at www.nationalpersonalsafetyday.co.uk/.
10 October
Tavistock Goose Fair has been held on the second Wednesday of October since 1823 (but with roots back to the 12th century) and it is one of only two historically established traditional goose fairs in the UK, the other being the larger Nottingham Goose Fair held in the first week of October.

Waltham Abbey Church, East End,
with the alleged burial place of King Harold in the centre foreground

11 October
King Harold Day. Waltham Abbey in Essex (very near my childhood home) celebrates each October the life and death of our last Saxon King — Harold — killed at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. Harold founded the abbey at Waltham and took “For the Holy Cross of Waltham” as his battle cry. He is allegedly buried under the old high alter of the abbey church (now outside the remaining church). More details of the day’s events can be found at www.kingharoldday.co.uk/.
13 to 19 October
This is a massive week for Britain’s food lovers with the concurrent celebration of Chocolate Week, National Baking Week and National Curry Week. Mmmmm … yes … curried chocolate cake! Well maybe not!
21 October
Apple Day. Sponsored by Common Ground, Apple Day is intended to be both a celebration and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture. More information over at commonground.org.uk/projects/orchards/apple-day/.
31 October
All Hallows’ Eve (or Halloween) is a celebration on the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead. Although it may have roots back into Celtic harvest festival celebrations, many of the present-day customs are recent innovations.
This day is also the Pagan feast of Samhain, a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. It is celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which is almost midway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh it makes up the four Gaelic seasonal festivals.

current affairs, history

Independent or Not?

On the back of Scotland’s decision not to become an independent country, it occurs to me to ask …
How many “countries” (states, provinces, or whatever you want to call them) have ever voted in a free and fair election NOT to take independence from their “imperial masters”?
The only other which comes to mind is Quebec in 1980 and 1995. Are there any others since (say) 1800? One hears of so few that it seems to me that if independent sovereignty is sought, it is almost always attained.

history, personal, photography

Weekly Photograph

Following on the family history theme from the other day, this week’s photograph is another from our trip to Kent last week: a view of an English country churchyard. Specifically this is the churchyard of St Mildred’s, Tenterden and shows the headstone to my ggg-grandfather, Samuel Austen — that’s the large browner stone in the middle; it’s the back, so you can’t see the inscription.


Samuel Austen in Context
Tenterden; September 2014