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Ruins in the woods: A case study of three historical ruins 'hidden' in the woodland of Derbyshire
Historian article
Ruined buildings shrouded in trees, masonry crumbling into the undergrowth. It sounds like the backdrop for an Indiana Jones movie, the sort of thing people trek across Central America or the wilds of Cambodia to find. But Britain has its own share of enigmatic relics. Three very different such historical...
Ruins in the woods: A case study of three historical ruins 'hidden' in the woodland of Derbyshire
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Out and About on the Isle of Man
Historian article
Caroline Smith introduces us to the delights in the south of her home island.
The Isle of Man has had mixed fortunes as a tourist destination. It first attracted visitors in the early nineteenth century and had its heyday in 1913. In that year, over 600,000 holidaymakers came during the...
Out and About on the Isle of Man
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The German prisoner-of-war camp in Dorchester
Historian article
Dave Martin investigates why there is a war memorial for German soldiers, ‘buried in a foreign field’, in a Dorset churchyard.
The German prisoner-of-war camp in Dorchester
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Out and About - On the Track of Brunel
Historian feature
What do the bronze statues of Isambard Kingdom Brunel reveal of the man?
In ‘Brushstrokes', his essay on biography, Ben Pimlott wrote: ‘A good biography is like a good portrait: it captures the essence of the sitter by being much more than a likeness. A good portrait is about history,...
Out and About - On the Track of Brunel
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The River Don Engine
Article
Sarah Walters explores The River Don Engine - her favourite history place.
The River Don Engine, though strictly an object, is almost big enough to be labelled as a place in its own right. It certainly needs its own high-ceilinged museum annex and it is in this room that I...
The River Don Engine
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Out and About: the central Marches of Wales and the Mortimer family of Wigmore
Historian feature
Paul Dryburgh and Philip Hume enable us to see the interaction of one prominent family with the area that they dominated.
The central Marches span the English/Welsh border in an area that encompasses the picturesque landscapes and market towns of north-west Herefordshire, south-west Shropshire, and Radnorshire which has also the rugged...
Out and About: the central Marches of Wales and the Mortimer family of Wigmore
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My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
Historian feature
Wakefield Bridge Chapel, by the River Calder, is thought by many to be the finest of four bridge chantries, the others being Bradford-on-Avon, Derby and Rotherham. The chapel at Wakefield was originally founded and endowed by the people of Wakefield and district between 1342 and 1359.
In 1397 Edmund de Langley,...
My Favourite History Place: The Chantry Chapel of St Mary on Wakefield Bridge
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My Favourite History Place: The Red House
Historian feature
Tim Brasier tempts others to visit the iconic Arts and Crafts Red House, home to William and Jane Morris in Bexleyheath, London.
This is a favourite historical venue of mine because it is so accessible. We literally live around the corner from the Red House in its location of the London...
My Favourite History Place: The Red House
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Gone with the Wind: a great book?
Historian article
HA President Tony Badger examines the historical context which shapes our understanding of Margaret Mitchell’s enduring novel.
I had been a historian of the American South for 50 years and like Ringbaum, I had a secret. I had never read Gone with the Wind. As I came up to retirement...
Gone with the Wind: a great book?
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Hitler’s British Isles: The Real Story of the Occupied Channel Islands
Book Review
Hitler’s British Isles: The Real Story of the Occupied Channel Islands, Duncan Barrett, Simon and Schuster, 2018, 413p, £20-00. ISBN 978-1-4711-6637-2
Having just read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Bloomsbury 2008), this very interesting book has now extended considerably my understanding of the nature of the experiences of...
Hitler’s British Isles: The Real Story of the Occupied Channel Islands
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My Favourite History Place: Tivoli Theatre
Historian feature
The Tivoli Theatre opened on 24 August 1936 with Jean Adrienne in Father O’Flynn and Shirley Temple in Kid in Hollywood, with film star Jean Adrienne appearing in person. It was designed by Bournemouth-based architect E. de Wilde Holding. The front of the building was an existing Georgian-style building named Borough House. Inside the auditorium there...
My Favourite History Place: Tivoli Theatre
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Narrative Projections of a Black British History
Book Review
Narrative Projections of a Black British History - Eva Ulrike Pirker
(Routledge), 2011
322pp., £80 hard, ISBN 978-0-415-89375-6
Since the mid-1990s, the black experience in Britain has begun to be intensely renegotiated, with a particular emphasis on history. Narrative Projections of a Black British History considers narratives that construct or...
Narrative Projections of a Black British History
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Flowers Block the Sun
Article
As Northern Ireland begins to hope for a long and hot summer, there is one famous landmark in Belfast that can be guaranteed to be ready for a six month summer, regardless of rain or shine. Reg Maxwell, veteran of over thirty years in Belfast City Council Parks Department and...
Flowers Block the Sun
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My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
Historian feature
Richard Stone introduces us to a quiet neighbourhood in Bruges which has played its part in the development of women’s independence.
Close to the Minnewaterpark, on the fringe of the bustling historic centre of Bruges, with its medieval buildings and atmospheric cobbled streets, the Beguinage is a tranquil haven. Cross the...
My Favourite History Place: The Beguinage at Bruges
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Out and About: Kennington and the Elephant and Castle
Historian feature
The HA's very own Martin Hoare takes us on a tour of Kennington and Elephant and Castle, to some lesser-known gems that ought to be higher on the London tourist trail.
Over the years of working for the HA I’ve quite often used my lunch break to take walks around the areas...
Out and About: Kennington and the Elephant and Castle
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Exploring the Cornish Religious Landscape
Article
The Cornish religious landscape shares one particularly significant feature with its Welsh neighbour to the north. The Celtic tendency to dedicate churches to very local saints is very strong in both Cornwall and Wales, with the church dedications frequently being mirrored by the place name. This similarity is, to an...
Exploring the Cornish Religious Landscape
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Out and about in the East Yorkshire Wolds
Historian feature
East Yorkshire is a somewhat neglected area for touring. Yet, the villages in the chalk Wolds possess much charm and a lot of surprising history to reward those who would explore them. In my youth, I toured these villages many times both on foot and by bicycle. This route is...
Out and about in the East Yorkshire Wolds
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Sharing The Past: Northamptonshire's Black History
Book Review
Northamptonshire Black History Association Pub 2008; ISBN:978 0 9557139 1 0; £12.95 [+£2.30 p and p] from: NBHA, Doddridge Centre, 109 St James Road, Northampton, NN5 5LD.
How fortunate Northamptonshire history teachers are! With the current emphasis on community cohesion and diversity in the New Secondary Curriculum, they are presented...
Sharing The Past: Northamptonshire's Black History
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Out and about in Martinsthorpe: a walk in the country
Historian feature
History is nothing if not an exercise in informed imagination. On a country walk in Rutland arranged by a group of (non-historian) friends, I noted that the Ordnance Survey map showed our planned route, following a ridge of high ground separating the valleys of the meandering Gwash and Chater rivers,...
Out and about in Martinsthorpe: a walk in the country
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Out and about in Cromford Mill, Lea Mills and the Lumsdale Valley
Historian feature
Cromford Mill, one of the best known, and the Lumsdale Valley, one of the least known of the early industrial sites, are linked today by being managed by the Arkwright Society. They have also been the subject of a recent BBC1 programme in a series: ‘Britain's Hidden Heritage'. They are...
Out and about in Cromford Mill, Lea Mills and the Lumsdale Valley
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The National Tramway Museum and its Archives
Article
The National Tramway Museum, set on a Derbyshire hill at Crich, is one of the most attractive and fascinating in Britain. Rosemary Thacker introduces some of its technical and archival treasures. From its introduction at Birkenhead from the United States in 1860, the tramcar became the first vehicle in Great...
The National Tramway Museum and its Archives
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Jerome K Jerome and other travellers in the Thames Valley
Article
Travellers and visitors have streamed to, and through Oxford, for centuries. Its name conveys its very functional origin as a fording point on the River Thames. Obviously these travellers and visitors came from a variety of directions, and by a variety of routes, using land and water transport. On this...
Jerome K Jerome and other travellers in the Thames Valley
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Novelty and Amusement? Visiting the Georgian Country House
Article
The best-known country house visit in literature is that to Pemberley of Elizabeth Bennet, accompanied by her uncle and aunt Gardiner. Few events make better costume drama: personal and class unease, historic dress and carriages, grand house and landscape park. But beneath the tension of Elizabeth’s unexpected meeting with Darcy,...
Novelty and Amusement? Visiting the Georgian Country House
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Out and About in Wheathampstead
Historian feature
Dianne Payne examines the structural local history of Wheathampstead and provides a template for wider comparisons.
The rural village of Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, situated about four miles from St Albans, lies on the River Lea. The village and surrounding land has a long history and in ancient times was owned by the...
Out and About in Wheathampstead
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My Favourite History Place: Petra
Historian feature
Ghislaine Headland-Vanni visits the ancient city of Petra, in Jordan.
When you hear the word ‘Petra’ what images does the word conjure up for you? Maybe you have visited and know it already; if not, then like me you may not fully comprehend its size. I naively thought I could...
My Favourite History Place: Petra
