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“My freedom is a privilege nothing else can equal.” Venture Smith made his feelings clear after buying his freedom. He was a slave from 1739-1765. He was captured in a central part of West Africa when he was 10, suffered … Read More
Hull was one of the most blitzed cities in Britain in World War 11. The bombing was so sustained and severe that in 1941 the government sent a secretive team of scientists northwards to test whether the traumatised citizens were … Read More
The English Reformation in the national Church affected the lives of ordinary people throughout the country more than it did Henry V111’s way of life. He remained the ruler, and got his own way. In villages and some towns people … Read More
Have you ever been told that many villages were deserted in the Medieval period due to the Black Death? Have you read that there are about 3000 deserted villages in England? The story is a little more complex –and involves … Read More
Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, was stabbed to death in broad daylight on 28th April, 1192. He was king of the crusader kingdom by marriage, and had been unanimously elected on 20th April, 1192. Conrad was a respected warrior … Read More
“Long Shadows” were the effects of debilitating injuries and what was worse, amputations, suffered by men who had fought in World War 1. The cheerful approach of ‘Home by Christmas’ was drowned within a year in Flanders mud, or at … Read More
Were people 300 years ago like us in many ways? Look at this picture of a Coffee House, new and very popular in Queen Anne’s reign. Discussion ranged from trivial gossip to arguing for or against having the Tories or … Read More
Beverley. and East Yorkshire took part in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Surely not! We saw pictures of rebels from Kent and Essex following Wat Tyler into London. The people of 1381 is an innovative research project developed from several … Read More
The Second World War impacted on all aspects of children’s lives, from their home life and education to the games they played. Later in the post-war period new ideas emerged in medicine and psychology about child development and family life … Read More
Lasting memories of the American Civil War (1861-65) challenge the view that ’History is written by the victors’. War leaders’ statues, in both the South (the Confederacy) and the North, were revered as those showing the righteousness of their particular … Read More
