BBC History Magazine

“Welcome to our first edition of 2022. Each new year brings with it a whole array of anniversaries to commemorate, many of which we’ll be exploring over the coming months. One that would be remiss of us to overlook is the centenary of the BBC itself,

This remarkable collection of coins and golden artefacts, found in an unremarkable field in west Norfolk, has been declared the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins unearthed in England to date. The hoard comprises 131 coins, a gold bar and pendan

Recent documentary series The Beatles: Get Back prompted Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) to consider how well he and his fellow historians capture the threedimensional human nature of the eras they study – and if it’s even possible. “Watching Get Back, an

Measuring 1.5 centimetres long, weighing just 5g and crafted from 22 or 24-carat gold, this tiny artefact in the shape of a bible is thought to date from the 15th century – and was found by chance by a metal detectorist near York. Decorated with imag

Jane Austen's masterpiece finally reaches the booksellers’ shelves “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” So begins Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s one of the be

What was the mood in Northern Ireland before the events of Bloody Sunday? It was very fraught. The Troubles [conflict between mostly Protestant unionists (loyalists), pushing for Northern Ireland to remain within the UK, and largely Catholic national

In early 1886, Lord Rosebery, the incoming foreign secretary, waited nervously to meet Queen Victoria. He was a liberal politician in his thirties; she had been on the throne for almost half a century. As the door swung open, Victoria – vastly experi

Princess Victoria (known to her family as Vicky), wife of the Prussian crown prince Fritz, was one of her mother’s most prized assets in intelligence gathering. And Prussia’s ambitious minister-president Otto von Bismarck was under no illusions about

At the heart of the BBC’s operations at Savoy Hill was a simple bit of kit that was vital to broadcasting but utterly terrifying to many who stood before it: the microphone. The earliest models had been no more than telephone receivers dangled from c

The Scot’s trial proved there was little to prevent kings from using treason laws to pursue vendettas On 23 August 1305, William Wallace was convicted of treason at Westminster Hall in London. He then suffered the gruesome fate of the male traitor: h

In 1965, Kim Gordon and his parents moved from Britain to China to see communism for themselves. At first, it was a time of excitement and adventure. But as the increasingly radical government grew more hostile to foreigners, everything changed. Arre

Emily Soldene started her improbably varied career in the music halls, where she became a leading lady, producer, director and impresario. She circled the globe many times, conquering Broadway, touring the Wild West and sailing to Australia and New Z

Ellie Cawthorne: In 1823, the British colony of Demerara was the scene of a huge slave uprising. Where was Demerara and what was the situation there in the early 19th century? Thomas Harding: Before I started looking at this story, I only knew the na

With this impressively ambitious and wide-ranging study, Martin Sixsmith – former BBC correspondent in Moscow and author of such works as Philomena and Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East – adds a fascinating chapter to Cold War scholarsh

It’s a beautiful spring day in Paris sometime in April 1248 as sunlight streams through the south-facing windows of Sainte-Chapelle. Natural light tangles with the glow of countless candles and smoke traces the lines of the stone as they vault toward

It wasn’t for lack of trying. Daughters might have been disappointments to a king desperate to bolster his dynasty with a male heir, but they were still useful for forging treaties with foreign princes. At the tender age of two, Mary was promised to

The Mothers’ Clinic for Constructive Birth Control opened on 17 March 1921 in Holloway, a working-class area of north London. Its founder, MARIE STOPES, sought to make the use of birth control within marriage respectable and to ensure “joyous and del

It was a year of hope. It was a year of regret. It was a time of boundless optimism at the possibilities offered by peace. It was a time of almost unimaginable grief at the ravages of the First World War. It was a “roaring” year of dancing and decade

The second woman to take up a parliamentary seat in the House of Commons was elected on 22 September 1921 at a by-election in Louth, Lincolnshire. MARGARET WINTRINGHAM was the first British-born woman to sit in the Commons, as Sinn Fein member Consta

In September 1921, 30 councillors from Poplar – including GEORGE LANSBURY, a radical social reformer – were imprisoned for their roles in resisting central government taxes. Poverty was rife in this East End borough, and Poplar’s councillors argued t

In March 1821, Antonios Oikonomou – a sea captain from the Aegean island of Hydra and a member of the revolutionary Filiki Eteria, or Friendly Society – was drinking in a tavern in the port of the island when he heard that an uprising to free Greece

In 1812, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founding father of the eponymous bank, signed a document that was to shape the experiences, opportunities and challenges that faced his female descendants for the following two centuries. His will set out that the b

When someone you barely know invites you to a party, you won’t spend long questioning their motives for doing so – if you have a good time. This was, in essence, the thinking of Thomas “Tommy” Kendrick who, between the wars, passed himself off as a l

Tracy Borman is a bestselling author and historian, specialising in the Tudor period. Her most recent book is Crown & Sceptre. Her other books include Elizabeth’s Women, which was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4; and Henry VIII and the Men Who Made H

It was the find of a lifetime. Four years ago, while out walking round a recently dug gravel pit near Swindon, amateur fossil hunters Sally and Neville Holling-worth noticed the top of a fossilised leg bone of a mammoth. Subsequent excavations of the

Why does Digging for Britain so capture viewers’ imaginations? I can’t quite believe I’ve been making Digging for Britain since 2010. But I do have a handy reminder of just how long I’ve been doing this series, as when we set out to film the first se

This hearty dish comes from Norfolk and was traditionally eaten on “Plough Monday” – a Monday in early January that was seen as the beginning of the farming year. Serving this pudding marked the start of spring ploughing. Difficulty: 5/10 Time: 3.5 h

Nestled in a fold of the Cotswold Hills lies Sudeley Castle. Its basic layout has changed little since it was built by Ralph Boteler, 1st Baron Sudeley, in the 15th century: occasional towers and two-storey crenellated buildings with mullioned window

7 Members of Jewish sect that died out with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in AD 70 (9) 9 Combining term, as in the First ____-Turkish War (1897) (5) 10 City of northern England, founded by the Romans, and one of the last English t

Join us between 17 and 21 January as we take you back to the high seas of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This was a period known as the golden age of piracy, when the oceans were awash with criminals hoping to make their fortunes. historyext

A panel of historians considers who were the most accomplished kings and queens in British history Miles Russell explains how ancient British tribes managed to survive the arrival of the legions Anna Maria Barry and Fiona Snailham describe Arthur Con