Category Archives: history

environment, history

Heritage Open Days

Starting tomorrow there are four days of Heritage Open Days (so that’s Thursday 12 through Sunday 15 September).
Heritage Open Days celebrates England’s fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to places that are usually closed to the public or normally charge for admission.
Every year on four days in September, buildings of every age, style and function throw open their doors. It is a once-a-year chance to discover architectural treasures and enjoy a wide range of tours, events and activities that bring local history and culture to life.


And that’s everywhere from Lanhydrock in Cornwall (above) to Berwick Town Hall via Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire.
There are maps, searchable lists and lots more information on the Heritage Open Days website at www.heritageopendays.org.uk.

history, photography

Weekly Photograph

This week’s photograph is an interesting piece of ecclesiastical architecture in Saint Augustine, Brookland, Kent.
This looks to be a decorated window on which a Tudor form has been superimposed, apparently as part of a chantry chapel. It is a real challenge to photograph as the sill is above head height, there is a big built-in cupboard in front of it, plus two disused box pews (used for storage of things like cleaning mops!). The only way you can get square-on is to invade one of the (raised) disused box pews. It’s a pity the glass is so dirty as the colours of the trees through the window were lovely and would themselves have made a good shot.

Click the image for larger views in Flickr

Tudor Window
Tudor Window
July 2009; Saint Augustine, Brookland

history, topographical

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance

The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is this year on Monday 9 September.
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, first performed at the Barthelmy Fair in August 1226, is one of the few ritual rural customs to survive the passage of time and now takes place annually on Wakes Monday.


After collecting the horns from the church at eight o’clock in the morning, the Horn Dancers (six Deer-men, a Fool, Hobby Horse, Bowman and Maid Marian) perform their dance to music provided by a melodian player at locations throughout the village and its surrounding farms and pubs. This involves a walk of about 10 miles (16km). At the end of this long and exhausting day, the horns are returned to the church.
There are more details of the route, schedule and general visitor information on the Abbots Bromley website at www.abbotsbromley.com/horn_dance.

history

International Museum Day

This year’s International Museum Day is on Saturday 18 May. Every year since 1977 International Museum Day, which is on Saturday 18 May this year, is organised worldwide to make people more aware of how museums contribute to enriching, and developing, our societies!

I remember being taken to museums when I was young and like most children I found just looking at objects boring. But later you come to realise that each of those objects is a piece of history and tells a wonderful story: of a hero, a king, the life of a farmer or slave, of an animal and its environment, of a different way of looking at life.


So one of the best, and most important things, about museums is how they link different cultures together: by displaying objects from different countries and cultures; and by making museums available for travelling tourists to learn about other places and people.


There’s some more information on the International Council of Museums website at http://icom.museum/activities/international-museum-day/ or checkout you local museum to see what they’re doing.

history, photography

Weekly Photograph

Actually this week we’re actually going to have more than one photo. One morning last week we went for a little tour round some of our local old churches, mainly because I had promised to take a few record shots of them for the local family history society. It was a blustery, intermittently sunny, morning which kept threatening rain — and I think we all felt more like a duvet day than going out taking photographs. But we gritted out teeth and carried on.

One of the churches on the list was St Mary the Virgin, Perivale. I quite see why it was championed by Sir John Betjeman. It is a tiny gem, right on my doorstep, and I’ve never been to it before.

The church itself has long been decommissioned, although I think not de-consecrated. It is now leased and tended by its Friends organisation and used for small concerts etc.

Most of this I knew, so we didn’t really expect to get access beyond being able to walk down the cycleway that runs alongside.

St Mary's, Perivale from South
As we arrived, the sun came out; there were several people tending the churchyard and the church itself was open. Not wishing to impose too much on everyone’s good will we had only a brief look inside and a longer stroll round the graveyard.

St Mary's, Perivale Interior
Except for those horrible red chairs the church interior reminded me very much of the small churches of the Romney Marsh, especially Fairfield; and also of Greenstead-juxta-Ongar in Essex. Although not really that similar to either architecturally it was the intimacy which was the key. Apart from the tiny chancel the inside is not especially ornate; it would be too much if it were.

St Mary's, Perivale Churchyard
But as you see from the photos the setting is a delight. It is surrounded by trees and Ealing Golf Course. And again, although small, the churchyard is a lovely peaceful oasis, just a couple of hundred yards off the busy A40.

Everything was fresh and green, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. You could easily have been in the middle of nowhere. What more could one ask?!

history, science

National Mills Weekend

National Mills Weekend is Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May.

National Mills Weekend is the annual festival of our milling heritage and provides a fantastic opportunity to visit mills, of all types, many of which are not usually open to the public.


Until the advent of the steam engine, wind and watermills provided the only source of power for many different processes — from making flour, paper, cloth to hammering metal and extracting oil. You can explore mills that produced, or still produce, these products — some restored to working order, some derelict, some still working commercially.

As usual there is more information on the National Mills Weekend website at www.nationalmillsweekend.co.uk.

history

Local and Community History Month

May is also Local and Community History Month.

The aim of the month is to increase awareness of local history, promote history in general to the local community and encourage people to participate.

You probably think that your local area is dull and boring with no history, but this is unlikely to be true. Almost everywhere in Britain is at least close to an ancient village or town, and a surprising number of places had something interesting going on.

There may well have been a manor house. What is the history of your local church — although it may be less than 200 years old, is it on the site of an earlier church? Was there a lost monastery or a royal deer park?


Just as an example, I was brought up in what is now a fairly dull, northern suburb of London; but I lived very close to the site of the Elizabethan Theobalds Palace (of which fragments still remain, see above) and to Waltham Abbey. Where I live now once had a trotting track, which was one of the earliest speedway tracks in the country — but, despite the layout still being visible in the modern roads, no-one seems to know!

So who knows what you will find out about your local area? The fun is in not knowing, and of finding out. It is like a treasure map of local community secrets.

Activities happen across the UK and include trips, library exhibitions and local lectures.  It is a great way for groups to highlight local history and for local people to get involved. 

Local and Community History Month is organised by the Historical Association and there is a database of activities on their website at www.history.org.uk/resources/general_resource_1567_55.html.

current affairs, history

RIP Mrs Thatcher

So Lady Thatcher has died. No real surprise as she had been in poor health (physically and mentally, I think) for some years.

No, I’m not going to write an obituary, there’ll be more than enough of those around over the coming hours and days. I just want to make a very brief observation.

Whether you liked Lady Thatcher or not (and I can see both why people would and wouldn’t like her) she certainly changed much of the landscape and culture of the country, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. I think when historians look back they could well find that the two most influential Prime Ministers during the second half of the 20th century were Mrs Thatcher and Harold Wilson (with Tony Blair some way behind in third).

RIP Margaret Thatcher.

history, ramblings

Scotland's Tartan Day

Saturday 6 April marks Tartan Day Scotland and the start of the eponymous 10 day Festival. It is not so much a celebration of tartan but more a celebration of all things Scottish:

Tartan Day is a celebration of Scotland. Our vision is to see Scotland at the heart of a global Tartan Day celebration, bringing to the world’s attention our creativity, our innovation, our heritage, our business success — and our people.

Tartan Day marks the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 at Arbroath Abbey. This historical occasion sowed the seeds of modern day democracy and was used as a basis for the American Declaration of Independence. Tartan Day was inspired by this historical occasion to celebrate all that is good about Scotland — its people, its heritage, its history, its culture and its amazing legacy to the world.

The Tartan Day Scotland Festival takes place at the beginning of April each year. The Festival is a 10 day programme of very special events which commemorate all that is best about Scotland and the Scots, home and away. Find out more about why we celebrate Tartan Day, read about famous Scots and keep up-to-date on news stories from around the world.


Tartan Day is also celebrated in the USA, Canada and I suspect many other places where there are people with Scottish roots.

There’s a lot more information at www.tartandayscotland.com.

amusements, history

Ever More!

There’s a brilliant BBC News item from Boxing Day on the ravens at the Tower of London. They have released the latest recruit “Jubilee” who has spent the last 6 months being acclimatised. A second male bird named “Gripp”, after Charles Dickens’ pet raven, has also been released to prowl the Tower grounds along with “Jubilee”.


It is believed ravens have been living in the Tower of London since at least the time of King Charles II and legend maintains that if they ever leave the tower and the monarchy will crumble — although this may all be Victorian fiction. Allegedly too when Charles II received complaints that the ravens were interfering with the work of the Royal Observatory, he ordered the re-siting of the Observatory to Greenwich rather than remove the ravens.

About the only restraint on the ravens is that they have the flight feathers on one wing clipped to prevent them flying off (they can however fly short distances to perch) and, as I recall, they are caged overnight. Otherwise the ravens are free to roam the tower grounds and do much as they please.

And do the ravens have a good life! As Wikipedia notes, quoting Boria Sax:

The ravens are now treated almost like royalty. Like the Royals, the ravens live in a palace and are waited on by servants. They are kept at public expense, but in return they must show themselves to the public in settings of great splendour. So long as they abide by certain basic rules, neither Royals nor ravens have to do anything extraordinary. If the power in question is political and diplomatic, the Royals now have hardly more than the ravens. But the word “power” here can also mean the aura of glamour and mystery which at times envelops both ravens and monarchs.

This is rather exemplified by another brilliant quite in the BBC News piece from Chris Scaife, the Yeoman Warden Ravenmaster:

“Raven Jubilee is doing very well and has now been trained to come out of his cage and meet all the visitors … But it takes years for the birds to really get to know members of the raven team and for us to get to know them and their idiosyncratic ways.”

He added: “They are the most pampered birds in the country — and one of the most intelligent. They gang up on small children with crisps at the tower — but they don’t like cheese and onion — so they’ll open the packet and dip the crisps in water to get rid of the taste.”

And that’s despite they’re each fed around 8oz of meat a day plus fruit, cheese, eggs and bird biscuit.

What brilliant birds!