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‘The cradle of the Industrial Revolution’
Historian article
Michael Winstanley challenges assumptions about Lancashire's new industrial landscape, inviting us to re-imagine what Manchester and the country around it looked like.
Lancashire, especially the cotton textile district to the east of the county, is widely regarded as the ‘cradle of the industrial evolution’. But what did this burgeoning industrial landscape actually look like in the early nineteenth century?...
‘The cradle of the Industrial Revolution’
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The Monarchies of Ferdinand and Isabella
Classic Pamphlet
On 12 December 1474, the news reached the Castillian city of Segovia, north-west of Madrid, that Henry IV, king of Castile, had died. After the proper ceremonies had been conducted in memory of the deceased monarch, his sister, Isabella, was proclaimed queen of Castile in that place. There was much...
The Monarchies of Ferdinand and Isabella
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Michael Wood, Hadrian and the Making of Early England
Article
Michael Wood opened the summer lecture series for the HA virtual Branch on the Making of Early England. In it he introduced key characters and texts that help to establish the cultural past of that time and also reveal to us what we know of it. These people included overlooked...
Michael Wood, Hadrian and the Making of Early England
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Real Lives: Maria Rye’s emigration home for destitute little girls
Historian feature
Alf Wilkinson explores the controversial story of Maria Rye, who founded the Female Emigration Society in 1861 in order to take ‘surplus’ young ladies to Australia and New Zealand to work as teachers and governesses. As there was insufficient demand for these, she refocused her work on taking pauper children...
Real Lives: Maria Rye’s emigration home for destitute little girls
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The changing convict experience: forced migration to Australia
Historian article
Edward Washington explores the story of William Noah who was sentenced to death for burglary in 1797 at the age of 43. He, and two others, were found guilty of breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Cuthbert Hilton, on the night of the 13 February. From Newgate Prison he was...
The changing convict experience: forced migration to Australia
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British-Army camp followers in the Peninsular War
Historian article
Charles J. Esdaile throws light on a vital part of a field army that receives little study, the ‘baggage train’.
The subject of the involvement of women’s involvement in warfare is one that over the past 20 years has become increasingly fashionable, and there is, therefore, a growing literature on...
British-Army camp followers in the Peninsular War
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Sparta and war: myths and realities
Historian article
Stephen Hodkinson explains how images of ancient Sparta have been distorted and misused.
On 15 April 2017, at a violent right-wing rally in Berkeley, California, some striking ancient Greek symbols were visible amidst the swastikas and ‘Make America Great Again’ hats. Several demonstrators wore replica ‘Corinthian’ helmets, as worn by...
Sparta and war: myths and realities
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The Memory of a Saint: Managing the legacy of St Bernard of Clairvaux
Historian article
When Bernard of Clairvaux died in 1153, the Cistercian Order was faced with a problem. The self-proclaimed ‘chimera of his age’ had enjoyed an unusual and varied monastic career, as abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux and papal confidante, making him remarkably well-known for a monk. At the funeral the...
The Memory of a Saint: Managing the legacy of St Bernard of Clairvaux
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Moresnet: a small country in a big narrative
Historian article
Wim van Schijndel explores the intriguing story of Moresnet, a tiny enclave in Europe that existed from 1816 until 1920 between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, until it was finally annexed by Belgium at the time of the Treaty of Versailles.
A big part of our modern-day society is based...
Moresnet: a small country in a big narrative
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The Diabolical Cato-Street Plot
Historian article
Richard A. Gaunt reminds us that it is still possible to visit the site of a notorious conspiratorial challenge to Lord Liverpool’s government, and why this event was so significant.
At around 7.30pm on Wednesday 23 February 1820, a dozen Bow Street Runners in plain clothes, led by George Thomas...
The Diabolical Cato-Street Plot
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Homes fit for heroes? James Cecil and the public interest
Historian article
Hugh Gault reminds us that the provision of adequate and price-accessible housing stock has been a matter of public debate and concern for over a hundred years. Economics and financial priorities have continued to undermine the methodologies and good intentions needed to solve the problem.
This year is the hundredth...
Homes fit for heroes? James Cecil and the public interest
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The Northern Limit: Britain, Canada and Greenland, 1917-20
Historian article
Imperial ambitions during the First World War extended beyond the Middle East and Africa. In this article Ben Markham looks at the territorial wrangling over Greenland.
It is well known that the British Empire grew in size significantly in the wake of the First World War. In the course of...
The Northern Limit: Britain, Canada and Greenland, 1917-20
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Journeys Home: Indian forces and the First World War
Historian article
This article examines the importance of understanding the experiences of the Indian Forces during the First World War and how that can affect young people today.
One hundred and four years ago the British Empire was one of the largest global operations in existence. Roughly a quarter of the world’s population...
Journeys Home: Indian forces and the First World War
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From Bedfordshire to the Arctic Circle
Historian article
Travelling from the Western Front to fight former Allies in Russia is not the usual story of 1919 for a British ‘Tommy’. Yet that was the story of some of those men still serving King and Country.
On 9 January 1918 the supplement to The London Gazette, an official paper...
From Bedfordshire to the Arctic Circle
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A fit country for heroes?
Historian article
In this article Steve Illingworth explores the conditions for returning British servicemen at the end of the First World War in relation to the promise by Prime Minister Lloyd George about creating ‘a fit country for heroes’. In particular, it looks at the experiences of former soldiers in Salford, a...
A fit country for heroes?
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‘Cromwell’s trunks’
Historian article
Ted Vallance discusses the extent to which Richard Cromwell was able to muster broader support for his rule than is sometimes acknowledged.
If the second Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, is remembered at all, it is as a byword for political failure. Succeeding to the position of head of state after his father, Oliver Cromwell’s death in September...
‘Cromwell’s trunks’
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The LGBT civil rights movement in Britain
Historian article
This article has been created from the podcast of the same name on this website by Professor Sally R. Munt, University of Sussex. It has been put into article form by Paula Kitching, and the factual and arguments of the piece are those of the original author.
The LGBT civil rights movement in Britain
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Why the OBE survived the Empire
Article
An anomaly of the British honours system is the name of the award most frequently given - the Order of the British Empire created in 1917. Each medal carries the words: ‘For God and the Empire'. When the connection between the person honoured and the church is often very tenuous...
Why the OBE survived the Empire
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The end of the Roman Empire
Historian article
Guy de la Bédoyère considers whether the Roman Empire ever really fell or simply went through endless processes of change that makes it an integral presence in our lives today.
The fall of the Roman Empire is like the end of the dinosaurs. It’s one of the vast dramatic crisis moments we love...
The end of the Roman Empire
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The Lady of the Black Horse: Mabel Stobart (1862–1954)
Historian article
Peter Down takes us on a winter retreat over snow-covered mountains.
Mabel St Clair Stobart was born into a wealthy Victorian family and enjoyed an idyllic childhood. She was gifted academically and excelled at sport. Married at 22, she had two sons. Unfortunately in 1903 her husband lost his fortune and...
The Lady of the Black Horse: Mabel Stobart (1862–1954)
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The Voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot
Classic Pamphlet
Historians have debated the voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot who first discovered North America under the reign of Henry VII. The primary question was who [John or Sebastian] was responsible for the successful discovery. A 1516 account stated Sebastian Cabot sailed from Bristol to Cathay, in the service of...
The Voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot
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Robert Grosseteste (c. 1170-1253)
Historian article
Jack Cunningham considers a medieval philosopher, the significance of whose ideas has grown in importance through the centuries.
An appreciation of Grosseteste the thinker has not always been at its appropriate level during the almost 800 years since his death. If historians have paid attention to the great man this ...
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1170-1253)
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The Great Charter
Classic Pamphlet
The following introduction to and translation of Magna Carta was made for the use of my pupils and is here published in response to a suggestion that it may be of use to others. The Charter bristles with technical legal terms and its Latin is often ambiguous since the language...
The Great Charter
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The development of the Department of Health
Historian article
Health as a specific feature of central government strategy is a relatively recent phenomenon and Hugh Gault identifies how this feature of everyday headlines in our newspapers has been managed until the present time.
At the start of the twentieth century Lord Salisbury’s Cabinet comprised four Secretaries of State –...
The development of the Department of Health
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Admiral Lord Mountbatten: man of science and royal role model
Historian article
Mountbatten was a controversial figure who died in tragic circumstances but Adrian Smith demonstrates that, behind his aristocratic facade, he was a very adept, talented and formative personality.
Four years have passed since the re-opening of Broadlands, the Hampshire home of Lord and Lady Brabourne. The house was subject to...
Admiral Lord Mountbatten: man of science and royal role model
