English Local History
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Recent papers in English Local History
How Reading, UK became the home for hundreds of Danish prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.
An article on the original use of Waterstones' Bookshop, Broad Street, Reading, UK and its significance to the history of Reading.
Surveying the Chetham Society aims, activities, and publications (since 1843): ◈ 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬 Biographies, Autobiographies, and Genealogies; Family Deeds, Papers, and Letters; and Heralds, Visitations, and Wills. ◈... more
David Baxter, Medieval Bourn: A Cambridgeshire Village in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2008)
"A mineralogical thriller!" says, Peter Stucley, the youngest son of Sir Hugh Stucley and the Great-grandson of George Wentworth Warwick Bampfylde, 4th Baron Poltimore (1882-1965) What you are about to read is an extraordinary detective... more
This study about the comedy The Merry Devil of Edmonton and the tragicomedy The Witch of Edmonton was initially suggested by a comparison between their titles. This very simple operation immediately underlines two elements in common: a... more
Medieval and early modern great houses had a three-fold identity as house, garden and farm. The manorial curia was made up of enclosures, buildings and rooms with residential, service, agricultural and horticultural functions. The... more
CONTENTS Obit: Mary Desborough Cra’ster, 1928–2008, John Pickles, Peter Gathercole, and Alison Taylor A Fen Island in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Excavations at North Fen, Sutton, Cambridgeshire, Leo Webley and Jonathan Hiller A fen... more
The Military Order of the Knights Templar acquired property within English towns, established residences and chapels for its brethren there and developed new urban settlements and markets. This article argues that the role that the... more
The name of the Jewry Wall, Leicester, has never been satisfactorily explained. This paper reviews the several hypotheses which have been proposed for its origin, and argues, drawing on comparative evidence from elsewhere in England, for... more
Confident identification of the Offa of Widsith with others named Offa fails to take account of the "saga-ising" nature of the poem. Comparison with Early Irish sources.
This dissertation examines the artefact known as the London Stone, a monolithic fragment of limestone which has been part of the history of the Cannon Street area of London for upwards of a thousand years. Taking an object biographical... more
This note chronicles the attempt made in 1572 by Thomas Digges to claim 'inned' lands at Lydd, on Romney Marsh, for the Crown; and the legal arguments deployed against him by John Heblethwayte, the town clerk. Heblethwayte's case was that... more
This book tells the history of Cambridge from the earliest Roman and Anglo Saxon inhabitants through to the notorious Cambridge Spies, who actively spied for the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Told in an accessible manner, and illustrated... more
In his provocative 1975 essay ‘Property, Authority and the Criminal Law’ Douglas Hay declared: ‘The private manipulation of the law by the wealthy and the powerful was in truth a ruling-class conspiracy, in the most exact meaning of the... more
Andrew Boorde, writing in the 1540s, advised the builder of a new house to choose a site which was close to supplies of water and wood but also had a good view. He further recommended having a garden and orchard, while a park full of deer... more
The Essex village of Earl’s Colne boasts one of the most comprehensive collections of historicaldocuments in Britain, and has been the subject of an intensive and ongoing research project tocollate and computerize the surviving records.... more
"1.Second Interim Report, 1997 Andrea Cox, Jonathan Fox, Gabor Thomas................. 7. Democratic Archaeology at Sedgeford Neil Faulkner.................. 11.The Smugglers of Sedgeford Linda Nudds of the Local History... more
This paper is an edited version of a public lecture delivered 11 March 2017, at a symposium on Dartmoor. It explores writing about the large English county of Devonshire in the 'long nineteenth century: costly early-19th century... more
Draft newspaper article for local press. Written for the launch of the 'This Used to be Fields Mural', October 2014.
The speculative development of the village of Leamington Priors into the town of Royal Leamington Spa took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in conscious imitation of spa towns such as Bath and Cheltenham.... more
Ely, Cambridgeshire, is known to tourists as an incredible city steeped in myth and legend and dominated by the Norman Cathedral, a masterpiece of medieval architecture. There have been many popular books written about the Isle, but in... more
In this paper I propose a tripartite model for understanding the organization of local history studies in England. The aim is to review the current state of local history studies, using Cambridgeshire as a case study to illustrate local... more
Southern History is a peer reviewed academic year book published by the Southern History Society covering the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxford, Buckingham, Berkshire, Surrey,... more
The Military Order of the Knights Templar acquired property within English towns, established residences and chapels for its brethren there and developed new urban settlements and markets. This article argues that the role that the... more
Southern History is a peer reviewed academic year book published by the Southern History Society covering the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxford, Buckingham, Berkshire, Surrey,... more
"The Third Interim Report Edward Biddulph................. Sedgeford Church - rediscoveries by resistivity Janet Hammond ................. Roodstairs and Doorways - Some Food for Thought Shelia Medlar................. The... more
A discussion of the token issuer John Browne, confectioner of Norwich's sad career and the White Swan near the city's market.
Law-related English local maps, especially those dating from the early-to mid-sixteenth century, remain in need of both extensive and close study. In this article, a hand-drawn sketch map in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC,... more
The study shows how communal baking practices were used to establish a sense of community, and to establish and maintain feelings of mutual solidarity during the first half of the nineteenth century in the mill towns of northern England,... more
Detailed history of the Lockyer-Lafbery family in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Southern History is a peer reviewed academic year book published by the Southern History Society covering the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Oxford, Buckingham, Berkshire, Surrey,... more
An overview of the Chetham Society’s history and aims.
Many brass bands have flourished in Britain and overseas over the last 200 years, but very few have documented records covering their history. For those wishing to delve into the history of brass bands there are various sources available,... more
Publication of a hoard of late thirteenth- or fourteenth-century silver pence found at Hook, Kingston upon Thames, in 1789.
Summarising the Chetham Society’s history, personnel, publications, and aims.
This text is the substance of a paper given at the conference in memory of Prof. Margaret Spufford 'After Margaret Spufford: English Local History Now' at University of Roehampton, 19th-20th June 2015. It aims to explore the hidden world... more
Between 1642 and 1660, the Church of England was directed and administered by centrally-appointed government committees, who oversaw the appointment of clerics, arranged generous salaries for many ministers, and undertook ambitious... more