Category Archives: history

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!

history

Are the Nazis Winning?

Well no clearly they’re not in the strictest sense; they were almost obliterated in WWII. For which we should all be hugely grateful.

However over at Hardcore Zen, Brad Warner (Sōtō Zen priest, author, blogger, Godzilla enthusiast and punk rock bass guitarist) has an interesting take on Nazi Germany which I’d not previously thought about.

Nazi-ism is the antithesis of Buddhism in a lot of ways. One of the least obvious, though probably the most important is that Nazi-ism was completely goal oriented … They wanted a better world, a world unified and at peace.

The Nazis set their sights on a goal. And they were willing to do all sorts of nasty things to make that goal happen. The goal was important. What needed to be done to achieve it was secondary. But goals are problematic. They never really turn out the way you imagine them.

Ironically many of the goals the Nazis were trying to accomplish have come to pass, though not in the ways they would have envisioned or liked. Europe is unified. There is a single currency throughout most of the continent. There is even a common language spoken by people all over Europe. That the language is English and not German, the currency is the Euro and not the Deutsche Mark and the union is presided over from Brussels rather than Berlin might have made them cringe. But many of their major goals have been achieved. That the Nazis themselves had to be destroyed in order that their goals could be achieved probably didn’t fit Hitler’s master plan. But that’s how goal-oriented practice works.

And he’s right, give or take a few local difficulties and a varying value of “better”. No real wonder then that large numbers in this country are very anti the European Union.

None of which, of course, justifies Hitler’s ways and means. Ever!

history, ramblings, topographical

Over-priced London

3 Comments

They must be havin’ a giraffe! A bleedin’ big ‘un n’all.

Yesterday Diamond Geezer, who blogs a lot about various London-y things, posted a list of the cost of various London attractions.

This was prompted by the news that The Shard is to charge a few coppers shy of £25 for the privilege of going to the top to see the view. A view which, likely as not, will be mist, aka. low cloud, rather than the promised 40 miles round London.


So everyone can be equally scandalised, here are the maximum prices from Diamond Geezer‘s list with one or two I’ve added …

£30.00 Madame Tussauds (on the day)
£29.95 The View from The Shard (Time Out website)
£29.00 Harry Potter Tour, Watford
£28.00 Up at the O2
£26.95 Ripley’s Believe It Or Not
£24.95 The View from The Shard (standard price)
£24.00 The London Dungeon
£23.00 London Zoo
£20.90 Tower of London
£19.80 London Aquarium
£18.90 London Eye
£18.00 Buckingham Palace State Rooms
£16.50 Churchill War Rooms
£16.95 Hampton Court Palace
£16.00 Westminster Abbey
£16.00 Kew Gardens
£15.00 Houses of Parliament
£15.00 St Paul’s Cathedral
£14.00 HMS Belfast
£13.50 London Transport Museum
£13.00 St Paul’s Cathedral
£12.00 Cutty Sark
£8.00 Tower Bridge exhibition and walkways
£7.00 Royal Observatory Greenwich
£6.00 Apsley House
£4.00 Wellington Arch

I’m sorry, London attractions, but those prices are just not on and they are why you won’t see me visiting any time soon. So don’t go wondering why you don’t see me, at least until you reduce those prices by 50%. We’re in a recession. OK?

Yes, I’ve done a lot of the attractions. I remember being taken to Madame Tussauds at the age of about 10 (so 50-ish years ago) and my father complaining about how exorbitant it was even then. Here’s my verdict on those I can remember:

  • Madame Tussauds : distinctly “so what”
  • The Tower : also distinctly “so what?” 50 years ago
  • London Zoo : a rip-off at £18 about 4 years ago
  • London Aquarium : very disappointing
  • London Eye : the super views made it just about worth £12 for 30 minutes a few years back
  • Hampton Court : haven’t been since my school trip of 50 years ago; I really should go again
  • Westminster Abbey : I refuse to pay for admission to any state funded church
  • St Paul’s : same as Westminster Abbey; and anyway I hate rococo
  • Cutty Sark : boring 45 years ago; the new “replica” seems to me a waste of money
  • Houses of Parliament : interesting, but not as interesting as I had hoped
  • Kew Gardens : with Hampton Court about the only place on this list that’s really attractive
  • Wellington Arch : only opened recently; worth the cost of a pint for the view down Constitution Hill, up at the Quadriga, and especially if you can be there when the Horse Guards go underneath

Add to which that the London Dungeon, Apsley House, Buckingham Palace, Harry Potter, the O2, The Shard, and Ripley’s hold no attraction for me, which is why I’ve not been to them.

And that is from someone who likes history and going to interesting and odd places. What a sad reflection on one of the great cities of the world and my home!

Thank your personal deity the national museums are all free.

amusements, books, history

Thoughts on England

Despite all the business, I have found some time for reading. One of these indulgences has been Letters from England by Karel Čapek, first published in Prague in 1924. Against my expectations it is a delight and pretty nearly a laugh a page — which is likely what was intended. All interspersed with Čapek’s curious little drawings.

Čapek is best known for writing, with his brother Josef, two almost iconic plays: R.U.R. (1920) and The Insect Play (1921). I know the latter as the short scenes were a staple of my school’s “house plays” and we even did a complete staging in my final year at school as that year’s school play. Ants running amok in the auditorium! Dark and malevolent; but great fun.

But Letters from England is Čapek’s reportage on a visit he paid to Britain. First he sojourns in London:

[S]ince I have already been on this Babylonian island ten days, I have lost the beginning. With what should I begin now? With grilled bacon or the exhibition at Wembley? With Mr Shaw or London policemen? I see that I am beginning very confusedly; but as for those policemen, I must say that they are recruited according to their beauty and size: they are like gods, a head above mortal men, and their power is unlimited. When one of those two-metre Bobbies at Piccadilly raises his arm, all vehicles come to a halt, Saturn becomes fixed and Uranus stands still on his heavenly orbit, waiting until Bobby lowers his arm again. I have never seen anything so superhuman.
…
[A]t night the cats make love as wildly as on the roofs of Palermo, despite all tales of English puritanism. Only the people are quieter here than elsewhere.
…
But not as long as I live will I become reconciled to what is known here as ‘traffic’, that is, to the volume of traffic in the streets. I remember with horror the day when they first brought me to London. First, they took me by train, then they ran through some huge, glass halls and pushed me into a barred cage which looked like a scales for weighing cattle. This was ‘a lift’ and it descended through an armour-plated well, whereupon they hauled me out and slid away through serpentine, underground corridors. It was like a horrible dream. Then there was a sort of tunnel or sewer with rails, and a buzzing train flew in. They threw me into it and the train flew on and it was very musty and oppressive in there, obviously because of the proximity to hell. Whereupon they took me out again and ran through new catacombs to an escalator which rattles like a mill and hurtles to the top with people on it. I tell you, it is like a fever. Then there were several more corridors and stairways and despite my resistance they led me out into the street, where my heart sank. A fourfold line of vehicles shunts along without end or interruption; buses, chugging mastodons tearing along in herds with bevies of little people on their backs, delivery vans, lorries, a flying pack of cars, steam engines, people running, tractors, ambulances, people climbing up onto the roofs of buses like squirrels, a new herd of motorised elephants; there, and now everything stands still, a muttering and rattling stream, and it can’t go any further …

Amongst Capek’s perambulations of the country he visits the Lake District and makes this note on the sheep:

Pilgrimage to the Sheep. It is true that there are sheep everywhere in England but lake sheep are particularly curly, graze on silken lawns and remind one of the souls of the blessed in heaven. No-one tends them and they spend their time in feeding, dreaming and pious contemplation.

He also makes numerous observations on the English themselves, including thes delights:

I wouldn’t like to make overly bold hypotheses, but it seems to me that the black and white stripes on English policemen’s sleeves have their direct origin in this striped style of old English houses.
…
Most beautiful in England though are the trees, the herds and the people; and then the ships. Old England also means those pink old gentlemen who with the advent of spring wear grey top hats and in summer chase small balls over golf courses and look so hearty and amiable that if I were eight years old I would want to play with them and old ladies who always have knitting in their hands and are pink, beautiful and kind, drink hot water and never tell you about their illnesses.
…
Every Englishman has a raincoat or an umbrella, a flat cap and a newspaper in his hand. If it is an Englishwoman, she has a raincoat or a tennis racket. Nature has a predilection here for unusual shagginess, overgrowth, bushiness, woolliness, bristliness and all types of hair. So, for example, English horses have whole tufts and tassels of hair on their legs, and English dogs are nothing but ridiculous bundles of locks. Only the English lawn and the English gentleman are shaved every day.

It’s real reportage of the hastily concocted letter home variety. A sort of semi-structured stream of consciousness. And none the worse for that. As I say it is pretty much an amusement a page. A couple of evening’s bedtime reading or something to while away a train journey.