Search results for ""HERTFORDSHIRE PRESS""

Mark Freeman’s classic history of St Albans, first published in 2008, has been substantially rewritten by the author and brought fully up to date, making it an invaluable guide to more than two thousand years of St Albans’s history. From the late Iron Age, when the new oppidum of Verlamion emerged at the site of modern St Albans, to plans to develop the city’s unique ‘brand’ in the 2010s, this is a scholarly yet highly readable account of St Albans from pre-Roman times to the present day. The Roman settlement of Verulamium grew out of Verlamion soon after the Roman invasion; in 60 CE it was attacked during Boudica’s great uprising against Roman rule, along with Colchester and London. Becoming one of the most important towns in Roman Britain and the site of Britain’s first Christian martyrdom, Verulamium later took the martyr’s name as its own, the abbey dedicated to the saint among the most significant religious houses of medieval England. For many in St Albans, the long period of conflict between the abbey and the civic authorities would have cast a shadow over their lives, but the history of St Albans is also the story of political upheavals that beset all England through the centuries, as experienced by the citizens of a rapidly evolving town. Like many other places, it was touched by the Norman conquest, the Wars of the Roses and the civil wars. The emergence of urban self-government in early modern St Albans provides a case study of a process that happened throughout the country. The same is true for the account of St Albans’s suburbanisation and the emergence of a commuter population fostered by the railways in the nineteenth century, the growth and decline of the local manufacturing economy, and its participation in the growth of mass education, consumerism and democratic politics. At every point in St Albans’s history, two key themes play out: the proximity of London, and an awareness of the significance of its own history. The past is a powerful resource, helping a community to understand the events that have made it what it is. That process is exemplified in this masterful volume.

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This book investigates what a case study of a northern market town and its rural hinterland can tell us about village differentiation, exploring how and why rural communities developed in what was chiefly an industrial region and, notably, how the relationship between town and country influenced rural communities. It looks at six villages close to Doncaster - Sprotbrough, Warmsworth, Rossington, Fishlake, Stainforth and Braithwell - chosen to represent the diversity of landownership and land type of the Doncaster district. Rural communities, and more specifically the development of English villages, have proved fertile ground for historians. This book makes an original contribution to these debates. In particular, it engages with existing models of village typology, suggesting that not only are they too restrictive to account for nuanced differences, but also that they fail to acknowledge the importance of the relationships between rural communities and between town and country. Following Sarah Holland’s detailed research into different aspects of rural communities, the book offers new perspectives on how rural communities in close proximity developed, often differently, during the mid nineteenth century. Themes looked at in detail include living and working conditions, agriculture and industry, religion and education, and through these Holland considers existing theories of village typology, before setting out her ideas regarding social hierarchies, spheres of influence and agency, which combine to create complex patterns of differentiation. Communities in Contrast will appeal to all those interested in rural life and economy in the nineteenth century, the relationship between town and country, as well as the history of Yorkshire.

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There is currently much concern about our trees and woodlands. The terrible toll taken by Dutch elm disease has been followed by a string of further epidemics, most worryingly ash chalara – and there are more threats on the horizon. There is also a widely shared belief that our woods have been steadily disappearing over recent decades, either replanted with alien conifers or destroyed entirely in order to make way for farmland or development. But the present state of our trees needs to be examined critically, and from an historical as much as from a scientific perspective. For English tree populations have long been highly unnatural in character, shaped by economic and social as much as by environmental factors. In reality, the recent history of trees and woods in England is more complex and less negative than we often assume and any narrative of decline and loss is overly simplistic. The numbers of trees and the extent and character of woodland have been in a state of flux for centuries. Research leaves no doubt, moreover, that arboreal ill health is nothing new. Levels of disease are certainly increasing but this is as much a consequence of changes in the way we treat trees – especially the decline in intensive management which has occurred over the last century and a half – as it is of the arrival of new diseases. And man, not nature, has shaped the essential character of rural tree populations, ensuring their dominance by just a few indigenous species and thus rendering them peculiarly vulnerable to invasive pests and diseases. The messages from history are clear: we can and should plant our landscape with a wider palette, providing greater resilience in the face of future pathogens; and the most `unnatural’ and rigorously managed tree populations are also the healthiest. The results of an ambitious research project are here shaped into a richly detailed survey of English arboriculture over the last four centuries. Trees in England will be essential reading not only for landscape historians but also for natural scientists, foresters and all those interested in the future of the countryside. Only by understanding the essentially human history of our trees and woods can we hope to protect and enhance them.

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Presenting the results of new research on the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow—among the most sophisticated centers of learning and artistic culture in 7th- and 8th-century Europe, and the home of Bede—and their churches, this study examines the long-lasting effect of their buildings and estates on the surrounding region from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. The authors trace these relationships through time with new studies of the changing landscape, the monastery precincts, and the surviving structures themselves, detailing how the historical archaeology of the sites reveals how the churches and their communities were rooted in the landscapes of Northumbria but flourished through their links with other parts of Britain and Europe. Researchers from many different backgrounds contributed to the project, using aerial, geophysical, geoarchaeological, and palaeoenvironmental surveys and digital mapping to examine the monasteries and surrounding lands. This book reveals not only the link between the churches and the region’s political and economic history, but also demonstrates how their cultural significance for local people in northeast England has changed over time.

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Dividing the county of Hertfordshire into four broad regions—the “champion” countryside in the north, the Chiltern dip slope to the west, the fertile boulder clays of the east, and the unwelcoming London Clay in the south—this volume explains how, in the course of the middle ages, natural characteristics influenced the development of land use and settlement to create a range of distinctive landscapes. The great diversity of Hertfordshire’s landscapes makes it a particularly rewarding area of study. Variations in farming economies, in patterns of trade and communication, as well as in the extent of London’s influence, have all played a part during the course of the postmedieval centuries, and Hertfordshire’s continuing evolution is followed into the 21st century. Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, this authoritative work is invaluable reading for all those with an interest in the history, archaeology, and natural transformation of this fascinating county.

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1952 saw the opening of a new Technical College in Hatfield, built on land donated by Alan S Butler, Chairman of the de Havilland Aircraft Company. With its roots in Britain's pioneering aeronautical industry, the College was soon established as an innovative force in education. Having been at the forefront of developing new subjects such as Computer Science, it evolved continually, being redesignated as Hatfield Polytechnic in 1969 and becoming the University of Hertfordshire in 1992. The institution has been forged over time out of its Hertfordshire-wide constituent colleges and campuses, which were variously founded to offer training and inspiration in teaching, medicine, the arts, business, science and the humanities. Now the University of Hertfordshire has become an internationally recognised leader in both research and teaching, exemplifying what a university can achieve through embracing a broad curriculum. This is the history of the University of Hertfordshire, relating the challenges and achievements of sixty years in further and higher education. At the same time, through its focus on a single institution, the book illustrates the importance of the post-1992 higher education sector in advancing the knowledge economy and cultural life of the country. The University has both been shaped by and has informed government policy as it has developed and it now takes its place in an international context as part of the global education system. Founded on principles of widening participation in higher education, in its sixtieth year the University celebrates the life-changing experience of education and its great cultural, social and economic value. Through the stories and memories of individual students and members of staff, the book also illuminates the experience of the hundreds of thousands of students who have graduated, and the contribution of academic and professional staff in making the College, Polytechnic and University a success. Over the decades there has been continuous growth and development - and, always, a vibrant culture of learning. Looking forward, the book explores how the University of Hertfordshire is drawing upon its heritage to shape its future.

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For Ellen Terry, actress-manager Lena Ashwell (1869-1957) was 'a passionate voice'. From her first appearance on stage in 1891 to the end of her life, Ashwell was determined to make the theatre accessible and relevant to everyone, prompting G.B. Shaw to describe her as possessing an 'awakeningly truthful mind as well as an engaging personality.' An inspiring and strong woman in a rapidly changing world, she was crucial both for the advancement of women in the English theatre and for the formation of the National Theatre. She presented 'new drama' at the Kingsway and Savoy Theatres and was active in the Actresses' Franchise League, as well as being committed to the British Drama League. From the outbreak of World War 1 she initiated and raised money for thousands of concert-party troop entertainments at the Front; when peace was declared, her Lena Ashwell Players set about taking regular theatre performances into local communities throughout London and beyond. Long before educational drama and public subsidy for the arts were realities, she engaged local authorities in the provision of facilities and support for her work.Although she wrote four books about her work, her achievements have been largely unsung. Margaret Leask's book, however, skilfully presents Ashwell in the historical and cultural contexts in which she worked and which she helped to transform. Immaculately researched, abundantly illustrated and lucidly written, this biography is the first book-length treatment of its subject and will be the definitive account for many years to come.

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Honoring the memory of Professor Alan Everitt—who advanced the fruitful notion of the ""county community"" during the 17th century—this volume proposes some modifications to Everitt’s influential hypotheses in the light of the best recent scholarship. With an important reevaluation of political engagement in civil war Kent and an assessment of numerous midland and southern counties as well as Wales, this record evaluates the extraordinary impact of Everitt’s book and the debate it provoked. Comprehensive and enlightening, this collection suggests future directions for research into the relationship between the center and localities in 17th-century England.

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This second volume of Hertfordshire Garden History considers how Hertfordshire’s historic parks and gardens have been influenced by, and reflect, the social and economic history of their time. Beginning with the hunting parks and Renaissance gardens of the Bacons, Cecils, and Capels in the 16th and 17th centuries—and their gradual replacement by designed landscapes—this book shows how, in Hertfordshire, individuals have long sought greater space and comfort within easy reach of the capital, London. With examples from both well-known and less-visible or vanished gardens from the past 500 years, it is sure to delight garden enthusiasts.

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Powerful and disturbing, this version of the Hamlet story is set in a modern Middle Eastern state whose leader has just died, to be replaced by his brother, a ruthless, Westernized dictator who juggles petro-dollars, arms dealers, and democratic slogans in an attempt to quell the rising tides of Islamic extremism. Presenting a composite of many Arab concerns that affect peoples from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic and beyond, it is a concrete and poetic formulation of an Arab viewpoint, combining aspects of the Arab oral-poetry tradition with the rhetoric of modern-day politics. It is Hamlet as pure, dangerous politics.

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This book examines the relationship between a town and its region in the late medieval period. The population, wealth, trade and markets of Cambridge and its region are studied and the changes that took place over a century of economic and social transition are detailed. Using taxation records and records of purchases made by the Cambridge colleges and other institutions, a picture of the town's trade emerges and the population and wealth of Cambridge and other towns and parishes are compared. The University expanded considerably through the fifteenth century and new colleges were founded. The extent to which trade with London stimulated the development of the malt, barley and saffron trades during the later fifteenth century is analysed. The markets and fairs of Cambridge and its region are studied as are the supply of food and fuel to the town, and the price of wheat. The land and labour markets are also examined in detail and the impact of the college building projects taken into account. A detailed picture emerges of the economic activity of a key English town and its region in the late medieval period. Contributing to an interesting debate on urban decline, the book questions assumptions that label this period as one of economic transition.

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As the third and concluding volume of the series, this work examines the persecution of the Gypsy people in Hungary, Norway, Slovakia and Yugoslavia during World War II, together with Switzerland's policy towards refugees. It also looks at the intertwined fates of the Jews and the Gypsies. Included in the coverage is an overview of the events following 1945—reparations and the postwar trials. Various methodologies associated with research and writings about the Holocaust are also discussed.

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A comparative study of the effects of local, regional, and national changes on nine parishes in Britain's Upper Eden Valley during the Victorian period, this book reveals demographic trends among the parishes of Appleby, Brough, and Kirkby Stephen and six surrounding parishes over six censuses.

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Many of London’s Victorian buildings are built of coarse-textured yellow bricks. These are ‘London stocks’, produced in very large quantities all through the nineteenth century and notable for their ability to withstand the airborne pollutants of the Victorian city. Whether visible or, as is sometimes the case, hidden behind stonework or underground, they form a major part of the fabric of the capital. Until now, little has been written about how and where they were made and the people who made them. Peter Hounsell has written a detailed history of the industry which supplied these bricks to the London market, offering a fresh perspective on the social and economic history of the city. In it he reveals the workings of a complex network of finance and labour. From landowners who saw an opportunity to profit from the clay on their land, to entrepreneurs who sought to build a business as brick manufacturers, to those who actually made the bricks, the book considers the process in detail, placing it in the context of the supply-and-demand factors that affected the numbers of bricks produced and the costs involved in equipping and running a brickworks. Transport from the brickfields to the market was crucial and Dr Hounsell conducts a full survey of the different routes by which bricks were delivered to building sites - by road, by Thames barge or canal boat, and in the second half of the century by the new railways. The companies that made the bricks employed many thousands of men, women and children and their working lives, homes and culture are looked at here, as well as the journey towards better working conditions and wages. The decline of the handmade yellow stock was eventually brought about by the arrival of the machine-made Fletton brick that competed directly with it on price. Brickmaking in the vicinity of London finally disappeared after the Second World War. Although its demise has left little evidence in the landscape, this industry influenced the development of many parts of London and the home counties, and this book provides a valuable record of it in its heyday.

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In spite of being named the first 'Garden City', Letchworth was conceived as a model industrial town built on enterprise and employment. Never intended to be merely a pleasant place to live, it needed to be large enough to encourage the mass movement of manufacturers and their employees from overcrowded cities and to function as a self-supporting new town. In this richly illustrated account, Letchworth Local History Research Group look in detail at the town's foundation in the early 1900s and the energetic organisation and administration that enabled it to get off the ground quickly and successfully. Based on new research into a wealth of source material, the book puts to rest some of the enduring myths about the garden city, revealing a nuanced picture of the founding of a working community. The collaborative efforts of First Garden City Ltd (FGC), the development company for the new town, are a key focus. Extremely well-connected, experienced and highly influential, the senior management of FGC (including Ebenezer Howard), together with a team of engineers as well as architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, were able to provide key infrastructure and sites for development in keeping with a clear strategy. Naturally there were challenges and the need for capital to maintain momentum posed considerable difficulties. But strong leadership saw the fledgling town through some tough periods, including the first world war. The second part of the book comprises a detailed gazetteer of the industries that established themselves in Letchworth in its early years, with rare archive photographs showing both premises and workers. From printing and publishing, to motor manufacture, foundries, clothing and pioneering cinematic companies, the story of Letchworth's early industry is lively and unique.

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Following 18 carefully structured lessons, this Romani language primer explores the vocabulary and grammar of the Kalderash Roma in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Designed for beginner students, this course reference begins with the basic verbs and nouns and builds through to the subtler grammatical necessities of reading and speaking the language. Quotations from native speakers, poems, songs, proverbs, and folktales add to the cultural and historical understanding of the language.

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To date, over sixty medieval parks have been identified in Hertfordshire - a large number for a relatively small county. In this ground-breaking study of parks created in Hertfordshire between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries, author Anne Rowe has adopted a holistic approach to landscape history. The geographical locations of the parks have been determined and, in most cases, mapped using a combination of field- and place-name evidence, old maps and detailed fieldwork. The documentary history for each park has been compiled, including, where available, details from manorial accounts, which provide an insight into park management in medieval times. All the data for each park is presented in a valuable gazetteer, together with the cartographic and field evidence which has been used to locate the parks in today's landscape. In addition, Anne Rowe has carried out detailed analysis of the parks and their owners and explains how the parks related to the physical and social geography of the county in medieval times. There was a marked difference in the numbers of parks in different parts of the county: the density of parks in the east was double that in the west. The underlying reasons for this pattern are explored, focusing in particular on the unusual relationship between the distribution of the parks and the distribution of woodland in the county at Domesday. Based on an enormous amount of original work, this meticulously researched book opens a window onto medieval Hertfordshire and illuminates a significant aspect of the county's landscape history. A second volume, Tudor and Early Stuart Parks of Hertfordshire (2019), is also published by University of Hertfordshire Press.

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William Ellis, who lived and farmed at Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire in the first half of the eighteenth century (d. 1759), is an important figure in English agricultural history. In his time the most prolific writer on agriculture in England, his many works were read not only at home but also in the American colonies and continental Europe. Ellis was essentially an agricultural journalist, then a relatively new occupation. He wrote about his own life as well as those of the ordinary people of Little Gaddesden and further afield – he travelled extensively throughout the southern half of England. Most of his copy was derived from conversations he had had with farmers, their wives and other rural folk, the sheer immediacy of his books outshining those of his rivals. Ellis’s style was discursive, particularly so in The Country Housewife’s Family Companion (1750). As well as providing a compendium of household management, cookery and medicine, Ellis delighted in relaying gossip. He included the activities of farmers, wives and maids, labourers, travellers and beggars, as well as the gentry and aristocracy, rich pickings for social historians. Ellis also used his books to advertise his business as a supplier of agricultural instruments, seeds, plants, trees and fowls, an innovative approach. The Swedish botanist Pehr Kalm visited Little Gaddesden in 1748 to inspect Ellis’s farming and the various farm implements he advertised for sale. The two men didn’t warm to each other, but Kalm’s independent observations add to what we know about Ellis. Piecing together the scant facts about Ellis’s early life, Malcolm Thick has uncovered new information on his time before he commenced farming, and unravelled some of the complexities of his two marriages. The book’s central focus is on Ellis’s agricultural writings, which provide a fascinating picture of rural life in the period and shed light on the evolution of English farming. This is the first book about Ellis for over sixty years and the first to consider him fully in the round – as a farmer, an active member of his community, an innovative salesman and a wonderfully curious mind.

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David Hey (1938–2016) was one of the leading local and regional historians of our age and the author of a number of highly regarded books on the practice of local history. His work on surnames was pioneering and he was amongst the first to identify the potential of DNA in historical studies. In this collection of essays in David’s memory, friends and colleagues celebrate his commitment to the landscape, economy and society of south Yorkshire – especially Sheffield – and Derbyshire, which together make up ‘Hey country’, the area in which he grew up and to which he returned to work. This lively volume will be of interest to anyone who shares David Hey’s curiosity for the people, economies and landscapes of the part of England he made his focus. At the same time the essays will prove to be of interest to all those concerned with the workings of English local society and economy. Covering a wide range of subjects and periods, they include accounts of the early English steel industry, Sheffield cutlers, Lord William Cavendish’s canny use of his stepson’s wardship, the lost woodlands of the Peak District, First World War food production in Derbyshire, south Yorkshire deer parks and a brief history of Little Londons. Fresh research into family and placename history contributes fascinating detail to the mix. The contributors are some of the key researchers in academic local history, including Alan Crosby, Nicola Verdon, John Broad, John Beckett, Ian D. Rotherham, Melvyn Jones, Dorian Gerhold and Peter Edwards. A tribute to David Hey by Charles Phythian-Adams opens the volume.

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Letchworth Settlement, an independent adult education centre, is one of the treasures of the world’s first garden city. Starting life in 1920 as Letchworth Adult Education Settlement, it soon became part of the wider Educational Settlement Association, following the example of Toynbee Hall in London, and is now one of few such institutions still in existence in 2020. In its early days, the Settlement embodied the ideals of the young garden city with its ethos of self-help. There was a strong belief that everyone was entitled to an education and to fulfil their potential; the unemployed in the town were regularly helped with free classes and meals. In 1925 the Settlement moved to the former premises of the Skittles Inn in Nevells Road, which it still calls home. Despite a lack of funds, the number of classes grew steadily and associated societies were formed, including the Settlement Players and the camera club (both still in existence) as well as a choir and orchestra and rambling and camping clubs. The building was listed grade II in 1979; in 1995 the then Letchworth Corporation bought the building and leased it back to the Settlement, ensuring a more secure future for an institution seen as an integral part of life in Letchworth. In this lively history, former Hertfordshire County Archivist Kate Thompson looks at the wider context in which the organisation flourished, as well as notable members of staff and key events in its century of sharing knowledge.

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Dr David Dymond is one of Britain’s most highly respected local historians. He is a Vice President of the British Association for Local History and of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, President of the Suffolk Records Society, and an honorary fellow of the University of East Anglia. The author of several valued books about the practice of local history, notably Researching and Writing History, his contribution to the study of local history generally, and in his adopted county of Suffolk in particular, has been immensely influential. The essays in this Festschrift are offered as a token of esteem and affection by colleagues, friends and students of David. They consist of new research on aspects of local history from the medieval period to the twentieth century, with a particular focus on Eastern England. Taken together, they illustrate David’s philosophy of local history (that it should be ‘wide ranging, inclusive, integrating and interdisciplinary’). In his introduction, Professor Mark Bailey pays tribute to the breadth and depth of David’s scholarship and to his passion for teaching. These essays, in turn, aim to reflect the values that have always characterised David’s approach: a focus on primary sources meticulously interrogated and a concern to avoid the pitfalls of parochialism by remaining sensitive to the wider influences upon communities. From papers exploring aspects of medieval religion, the contributors move on to medieval trade and industry in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire. Two studies of the structures of local elites provide fresh insights into communities at later periods, while the final selection of essays consider fascinating and wide-ranging aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century commerce, society and culture. The very varied contributions to this collection aptly reflect the breadth and depth of David Dymond’s own scholarship whilst offering a rich choice of material to anyone with an interest in local history.

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This book focuses on the period from the seventh to eleventh centuries that witnessed the rise and fall of Mercia, the great Midland kingdom, and, later, the formation of England. Specifically, it explores the relationship between the bishops of Lichfield and the multiple communities of their diocese. Andrew Sargent tackles the challenge posed by the evidential 'hole' at the heart of Mercia by synthesising different kinds of evidence - archaeological, textual, topographical and toponymical - to reconstruct the landscapes inhabited by these communities, which intersected at cathedrals and minsters and other less formal meeting-places. Most such communities were engaged in the construction of hierarchies, and Sargent assigns spiritual lordship a dominant role in this. Tracing the interconnections of these communities, he focuses on the development of the Church of Lichfield, an extensive episcopal community situated within a dynamic mesh of institutions and groups within and beyond the diocese, from the royal court to the smallest township. The regional elite combined spiritual and secular forms of lordship to advance and entrench their mutual interests, and the entanglement of royal and episcopal governance is one of the key focuses of Andrew Sargent's outstanding new research. How the bishops shaped and promoted spiritual discourse to establish their own authority within society is key. This is traced through the meagre textual sources, which hint at the bishops' involvement in the wider flow of ecclesiastical politics in Britain, and through the archaeological and landscape evidence for churches and minsters held not only by bishops, but also by kings and aristocrats within the diocese. Saints' cults offer a particularly effective medium through which to study these developments: St Chad, the Mercian bishop who established the see at Lichfield, became an influential spiritual patron for subsequent bishops of the diocese, but other lesser known saints also focused claims to spiritual authority on behalf of their own communities. Ultimately, Sargent takes issue with the dominance of the 'minster narrative' in much recent scholarship, proposing that episcopal communities be recognised as far more pro-active than is often credited, and that the notion of spiritual lordship offers a more effective way of framing the developments of the period, both ecclesiastical and lay.

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Dr David Dymond is one of Britain's most highly respected local historians. He is a Vice President of the British Association for Local History and of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, President of the Suffolk Records Society, and an honorary fellow of the University of East Anglia. The author of several valued books about the practice of local history, notably Researching and Writing History, his contribution to the study of local history generally, and in his adopted county of Suffolk in particular, has been immensely influential. The essays in this Festschrift are offered as a token of esteem and affection by colleagues, friends and students of David. They consist of new research on aspects of local history from the medieval period to the twentieth century, with a particular focus on Eastern England. Taken together, they illustrate David's philosophy of local history (that it should be 'wide ranging, inclusive, integrating and interdisciplinary'). In his introduction, Professor Mark Bailey pays tribute to the breadth and depth of David's scholarship and to his passion for teaching. These essays, in turn, aim to reflect the values that have always characterised David's approach: a focus on primary sources meticulously interrogated and a concern to avoid the pitfalls of parochialism by remaining sensitive to the wider influences upon communities. From papers exploring aspects of medieval religion, the contributors move on to medieval trade and industry in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire. Two studies of the structures of local elites provide fresh insights into communities at later periods, while the final selection of essays consider fascinating and wide-ranging aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century commerce, society and culture. The very varied contributions to this collection aptly reflect the breadth and depth of David Dymond's own scholarship whilst offering a rich choice of material to anyone with an interest in local history.

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This compelling new study forms part of a new wave of scholarship on the medieval rural environment in which the focus moves beyond purely socio-economic concerns to incorporate the lived experience of peasants. For too long, the principal intellectual approach has been to consider both subject and evidence from a modern, rationalist perspective and to afford greater importance to the social elite. New perspectives are needed. By re-evaluating the source material from the perspective of the peasant worldview, it is possible to build a far more detailed representation of rural peasant experience. Susan Kilby seeks to reconstruct the physical and socio-cultural environment of three contrasting English villages - Lakenheath in Suffolk, Castor in Northamptonshire and Elton in Huntingdonshire - between c. 1086 and c. 1348 and to use this as the basis for determining how peasants perceived their natural surroundings. In so doing she draws upon a vast array of sources including documents, material culture, place-names and family names, and the landscape itself. At the same time, she explores the approaches adopted by a wide variety of academic disciplines, including onomastics, anthropology, ethnography, landscape archaeology and historical geography. This highly interdisciplinary process reveals exciting insights into peasant mentalities. For example, cultural geographers’ understanding of the ways in which different groups ‘read’ their local landscape has profound implications for the ways in which we might interpret evidence left to us by medieval English peasant communities, while anthropological approaches to place-naming demonstrate the distinct possibility that there were similarities between the naming practices of First Nations people and medieval society. Both groups used key landscape referents and also used names as the means by which locally important history, folklore and legends were embedded within the landscape itself. Among many valuable insights, this study also reveals that, although uneducated in the formal sense, peasants understood aspects of contemporary scientific thought. In addition to enhancing academic understanding of the lived experience, this new approach augments our comprehension of subjects such as social status, peasant agency, peasants’ economic experiences and the construction of communal and individual memory. Susan Kilby’s groundbreaking study enables us to reclaim significant elements of the environment inhabited and traversed by English people over 700 years ago.

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The wars of the fourteenth-century English kings with France and Scotland resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of men involved in warfare on land and sea. This book draws upon new research to identify and analyze these soldiers at all social levels in the specific context of the county of Essex.

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Garden history is more than the study of individuals such as 'Capability Brown' who created estates for a wealthy élite. A new approach, which includes insights from geology and archaeology, the perspectives of social class and gender, the history of art and architecture, science, technology and literature, is changing our perspective so that we can see gardens and gardening within wider social, economic, political and cultural contexts. Landscapes were created, formed and interpreted by town dwellers, women and lesser-known gardeners and designers as well as the 'great men' of the past. Based on papers given at a conference at the University of Birmingham, and written by distinguished scholars who are also writing for a wide audience, these essays highlight the wealth of recent research into landscape and green spaces in the West Midlands. The book ranges from the Picturesque movement in Herefordshire to William Shenstone's unique ferme ornée at The Leasowes, near Halesowen and the aspirational gardens and allotments of the Quaker ironmasters at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. Other contributions celebrate women's entrepreneurial activity in the nursery trade, chart the uncovering and restoration of a hidden eighteenth-century landscape at Hagley in Worcestershire and explore the lost Vauxhall pleasure gardens in Birmingham, which were established as a commercial venture in the eighteenth century. An examination of Victorian public parks reveals how their aesthetics were shaped by architecture made from the products of manufacturing industry while a study of three modest suburban estates considers how local industrialists shaped the environment of south Birmingham. The relationships between health, medicine and green spaces are explored through an analysis of the role of 'therapeutic landscapes' in late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century Worcestershire. Enhanced with maps, plans and black-and-white and colour illustrations, this is a volume of important scholarship that places the West Midlands at the heart of landscape history.

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The title of this book is taken from Ebenezer Howard's visionary tract To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. Published in 1898 as a manifesto for social reform via the creation of Garden Cities, it proposed a new way of providing cheap and healthy homes, workplaces and green spaces in balance in cohesive new communities, underpinned by radical ideas about collective land ownership. While Howard's vision had international impact, in this book planning historian Stephen Ward largely honors the special place that Hertfordshire occupies on the peaceful path, beginning with the development of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden Cities.

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In this meticulous study of the impact of total war on the civilian population of Essex between 1939 and 1945, Paul Rusiecki examines how people coped with the immense stress caused by heavy bombing, the fear of invasion and other anxieties while so much was demanded of them by the authorities. The book brings into focus the social, economic, political, and religious strains caused by the war. Education was forced to adapt in the face of massive disruption and industry too; the contribution to victory made by firms that switched to war work is analyzed. A picture emerges through the records kept by individuals of how Essex people viewed wartime events both at home and much further afield—the successes and failures of their own government and the actions of both allies and enemies. The experience of war also encompasses aspects that are at odds with traditional views of wartime Britain and the so-called ""Dunkirk spirit."" Rusiecki recounts the hostility faced by conscientious objectors, as well as the undercurrents of political disaffection circulating by 1942 which produced a sensational by-election result at Maldon. The murkier aspects of the war in Essex—crime and a supposed crisis in morality—are also dealt with in depth. Faced with the most appalling circumstances, most nonetheless found ways of keeping their spirits up, whether that meant reading in air-raid shelters, continuing to flock to the theater and cinema, or playing football for their factory team. This is the story of how the people of Essex survived the most extraordinary challenges they had ever faced, ultimately emerging with a sense of having earned the right to eradicate the gross inequalities that had marred society for so long.

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English rural society underwent fundamental changes between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries with urbanization, commercialization and industrialization producing new challenges and opportunities for inhabitants of rural communities. However, our understanding of this period has been shaped by the compartmentalization of history into medieval and early-modern specialisms and by the debates surrounding the transition from feudalism to capitalism and landlord-tenant relations. Inspired by the classic works of Tawney and Postan, this collection of essays examines their relevance to historians today, distinguishing between their contrasting approaches to the pre-industrial economy and exploring the development of agriculture and rural industry; changes in land and property rights; and competition over resources in the English countryside.

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Skillfully written and complemented with photos, this biography is the first to honor British actress-manager Lena Ashwell. In a rapidly changing world, Ashwell was crucial to the advancement of women in English theater and in the formation of the National Theater. The book highlights the inspiring woman’s other valuable accomplishments as well, including her efforts to raise money during World War I for thousands of concert-party troop entertainments and regular theater performances she established throughout local London communities. From her first appearance on stage in 1891 to the end of her life, this is Lena Ashwell’s story.

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This book seeks to explore the changing nature of English society through a case study of countryside and town in southern England during the period from c.1380 to c.1520. It explores the influence of landscape and population on the agriculture of Wiltshire, the regional patterns of arable and pastoral farming, and the growing contrast between the large-scale mixed farming of the chalklands and the family farms of the claylands. It examines the changing situation of the rural tenant population as it reacted to the greater opportunities available in the land-market. During this period, Wiltshire became one of great cloth-producing counties of England (as reflected in its rising taxable wealth). Such economic expansion generated jobs both within the industry and beyond, stimulating the market for food, services and manufactured goods. Salisbury was one of greatest cities in the kingdom, and below this was a hierarchy of interesting lesser towns. But such growth generated its own problems: more and more people became dependent on the cloth trade and particularly on exporting cloth; if exports fell, as during the mid-fifteenth-century crisis, they suffered. As scholars are increasingly aware, the later Middle Ages was a period of considerable change, and this study contributes to debates about the nature of both change and continuity at a national level. It will also be of value to local historians interested in one of the most important periods in Wiltshire's history.

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Seeking to draw new conclusions about settlement distributions and population densities, patterns of wealth, underprivileged assistance, and land usage, this reference uses multiple criteria to subdivide England into regions. This unusual and probing study establishes the presence of an informal cultural frontier between two proposed societies, which would lie astride the Leicestershire–Lincolnshire border, in order to identify cultural differences and divides that are clearly visible in the English countryside. Taking the unique approach of stressing early-modern-period rural landscapes, this examination looks at the enduring social and economic links between the area’s population and its landscape.

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Exploring a range of topics, including Greek tragedy, Shakespearean theater, contemporary British plays, opera, and the theatricality of Parisian culture, this compilation provides new perspectives on the relationship between Eros and Death in a series of dramatic texts, theatrical practices, and cultural performances. Detailed and analytical, these informative essays demonstrate how changing attitudes towards sexuality and death—opposed but entangled passions—were reflected in theater throughout the course of history. Psychoanalytical and philosophical models are also referenced in this work that features essays from dramatists Dic Edwards, David Ian Rabey, and David Rudkin.

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"Mapping the Unseen: The Art of Ahmed Moustafa" is a short monograph on the work of artist Ahmed Moustafa.

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"Beholden: Reinhild Beuther" is a short monograph on the work of artist Reinhild Beuther.

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This book offers a fresh perspective on British history in the long nineteenth century through the lens of a study of Sevenoaks and the surrounding area of West Kent. It considers, in particular, how the risks faced by the people of this region, and the choices they made to try to mitigate them, shaped their lives and relationships. During a period of often dramatic change, the economic, social, political, religious and cultural interests of individuals were subject to different risk factors; the responses they made (and the reasons for those choices) provide valuable insights and enable the writing of highly nuanced local history. The authors pinpoint the fundamental risk factors affecting the lives of West Kent’s inhabitants (especially the poor): the struggle to obtain the four bare necessities of shelter, food, fuel and clothing, without which their survival was threatened. Other risks abounded too, from abysmal sanitary conditions and the dangers of giving birth, to industrial injuries and being a victim of crime. Secure work and strong family networks were essential to limiting risks – often forming part of the ‘makeshift economy’ – as well as charity, education, health insurance and access to medical care. For many, not all these options were available – or not until much later in the period. Choice was central to religious and political struggles. The examination of beliefs and values reveals the immense impact such issues had across West Kent society, and how and why it divided as a direct result. Finally, the authors consider the advent of motor vehicles, which combined both risk and choice in exciting but potentially dangerous ways. This innovative approach provides a fruitful new way of writing history and offers a model for future local history studies.

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Many of London’s Victorian buildings are built of coarse-textured yellow bricks. These are ‘London stocks’, produced in very large quantities all through the nineteenth century and notable for their ability to withstand the airborne pollutants of the Victorian city. Whether visible or, as is sometimes the case, hidden behind stonework or underground, they form a major part of the fabric of the capital. Until now, little has been written about how and where they were made and the people who made them. Peter Hounsell has written a detailed history of the industry which supplied these bricks to the London market, offering a fresh perspective on the social and economic history of the city. In it he reveals the workings of a complex network of finance and labour. From landowners who saw an opportunity to profit from the clay on their land, to entrepreneurs who sought to build a business as brick manufacturers, to those who actually made the bricks, the book considers the process in detail, placing it in the context of the supply-and-demand factors that affected the numbers of bricks produced and the costs involved in equipping and running a brickworks. Transport from the brickfields to the market was crucial and Dr Hounsell conducts a full survey of the different routes by which bricks were delivered to building sites - by road, by Thames barge or canal boat, and in the second half of the century by the new railways. The companies that made the bricks employed many thousands of men, women and children and their working lives, homes and culture are looked at here, as well as the journey towards better working conditions and wages. The decline of the handmade yellow stock was eventually brought about by the arrival of the machine-made Fletton brick that competed directly with it on price. Brickmaking in the vicinity of London finally disappeared after the Second World War. Although its demise has left little evidence in the landscape, this industry influenced the development of many parts of London and the home counties, and this book provides a valuable record of it in its heyday.

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Securing the long-term survival and status of the family has always been the principal concern of the English aristocracy and gentry. Central to that ambition has been the successful management of their landed estates, whilst failure in this regard could spell ruination for an entire family. In the sixteenth century, the task became more difficult as price inflation reduced the value of rents; improved management skills were called for. In Norfolk, estates began to change hands rapidly as the unaware or simply incompetent failed to grasp the issues, while the more astute and enterprising landowners capitalised on their neighbours’ misfortunes. When Sir Hamon Le Strange inherited his family’s ancient estate at Hunstanton in 1604 it was much depleted and heavily encumbered. The outlook was bleak: such circumstances often led to the disappearance of families as landowners. However, within a generation, he and his remarkable wife Alice had modernised the estate and secured the family’s future. After 700 years, the Le Stranges still survive and prosper on their estate at Hunstanton, making them the longest surviving gentry family in Norfolk. The first part of this book presents new research into the secret of their rare success. A key aspect of their strategy was a belief in the power (and economic value) of knowledge: Hamon and Alice wanted to ensure that their improvements would endure for posterity. To this end, they curated their knowledge through meticulous record-keeping and carefully handed it down to their successors. This behaviour, instilled in the family, not only facilitated on-going reforms, but helped future generations overcome the inevitable reversals and challenges they also faced. The second part of the book collects together four related papers from Elizabeth Griffiths’ research about the Le Stranges, Hobarts and Wyndhams, republished from the Agricultural History Review and edited from two Norfolk Record Society volumes. For anyone interested in early modern rural society and agriculture and the history of Norfolk gentry estates, this volume will be essential reading, offering as it does new perspectives on the history of estate management, notably the role of women, the relationship with local communities and sustainability in agriculture.

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David Hey (1938–2016) was one of the leading local and regional historians of our age and the author of a number of highly regarded books on the practice of local history. His work on surnames was pioneering and he was amongst the first to identify the potential of DNA in historical studies. In this collection of essays in David’s memory, friends and colleagues celebrate his commitment to the landscape, economy and society of south Yorkshire – especially Sheffield – and Derbyshire, which together make up ‘Hey country’, the area in which he grew up and to which he returned to work. This lively volume will be of interest to anyone who shares David Hey’s curiosity for the people, economies and landscapes of the part of England he made his focus. At the same time the essays will prove to be of interest to all those concerned with the workings of English local society and economy. Covering a wide range of subjects and periods, they include accounts of the early English steel industry, Sheffield cutlers, Lord William Cavendish’s canny use of his stepson’s wardship, the lost woodlands of the Peak District, First World War food production in Derbyshire, south Yorkshire deer parks and a brief history of Little Londons. Fresh research into family and placename history contributes fascinating detail to the mix. The contributors are some of the key researchers in academic local history, including Alan Crosby, Nicola Verdon, John Broad, John Beckett, Ian D. Rotherham, Melvyn Jones, Dorian Gerhold and Peter Edwards. A tribute to David Hey by Charles Phythian-Adams opens the volume.

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The decision to build a new army camp in the small market town of Colchester in 1856 was well received and helped to stimulate the local economy after a prolonged period of economic stagnation. Before long the Colchester garrison was one of the largest in the country and the town experienced an economic upturn as well as benefiting from the many social events organised by officers. But there was a downside: some of the soldiers' behaviour was highly disruptive and, since very few private soldiers were allowed to marry, prostitution flourished. As a result the number of cases of venereal disease soared. Having compiled a database of nearly 350 of Colchester's nineteenth-century prostitutes, the authors examine how they lived and operated and who their customers were. What were the routes into and out of prostitution and what was life like as a prostitute? Was it even seen by some as an acceptable way for girls and young women to boost inadequate earnings from more respectable work? How did prostitution intersect with the social life of the town, especially as this was played out in local beerhouses? This is also an investigation of how authority in its many guises - from policeman and solicitor to magistrate and lady reformer - dealt with prostitution and the many problems associated with it, bringing a great many vested interests into conflict with each other. Such large numbers of women could not be tidied away into a discreet red-light district but lived and worked all over the town. They gave the police considerable trouble, but it was routinely declared that nothing could be done about them. Prostitution itself was not illegal whilst efforts to tackle the women's criminal activity, such as soliciting, theft or assault, were largely ineffective. Under pressure from the army, Parliament passed the Contagious Diseases Acts, allowing prostitutes affected with venereal symptoms in garrison towns to be confined for treatment, but there was widespread opposition to these controversial laws. Bringing to bear considerations of class and gender, urban development, health and welfare, religion and moral reform, this is a wide-ranging, detailed and original study. As well as providing a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century Colchester, it will appeal to all those interested in the history of women's work, policing and society more widely.

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This detailed and original study of early-modern agrarian society in the Somerset Levels examines the small landholders in a group of sixteen contiguous parishes in the area known as Brent Marsh. These were farmers with lifehold tenures and a mixed agricultural production whose activities and outlook are shown to be very different from that of the small 'peasant' farmers of so many general histories. Patricia Croot challenges the idea that small farmers failed to contribute to the productivity and commercialization of the early-modern economy.

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Joan Thirsk was the leading English agrarian historian of the late 20th century. Perhaps best known for her research into regional farming, she also wrote much about rural industry, changing tastes and fashions, and innovations in the rural economy. This book is based on a conference held in her honor (following her death in 2013) that was intended not to look back but rather to identify Joan Thirsk's relevance for historians now, and to present new work that has been influenced and inspired by her.

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Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the sport of hunting was transformed: the principal prey changed from deer to fox, and the methods of pursuit were revolutionized. Questioning the traditional explanation of the hunting transition—namely that change in the landscape led to a decline of the deer population—this book explores the terrain of Northamptonshire during that time period and seeks alternative justifications. Arguing that the many changes that hunting underwent in England were directly related to the transformation of the hunting horse, this in-depth account demonstrates how the near-thoroughbred horse became the mount of choice for those who hunted in the shires. This book shows how, quite literally, the thrill of the chase drove the hunting transition.

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First published in 1944, Magdalen King-Hall's Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton is a historical novel set in late-seventeenth-century England. It tells the story of Barbara Skelton, a well-born young woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who finds escape from the tedium of her life by leading a double life as a highway robber. Rich in historical detail and high on melodrama, the novel follows Barbara's infamous career of robbery, adultery and murder, without painting her entirely as a monster. Indeed, the novel's status as a bestseller owes much to King-Hall's sympathetic depiction of the frustrations of domestic life for an ambitious, intelligent woman with no means of self-expression.

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