1708! QUEEN ANNE’S LONDON BROUGHT TO LIFE
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…
THE PEOPLE OF 1381: RIOTS IN BEVERLEY AND EAST YORKSHIRE
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…
POST-WAR CHILDHOOD AND THE WELFARE STATE, 1948-1989
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…
Why did American Civil War Memorials Raise such Bitterness?
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,…
THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST AND ITS POLITICS IN POST-COLD WAR EUROPE
The Eurovision Song Contest catches headline news. In the early days when families sat round their relatively new TV set it was a one night programme from a concert hall….
40 YEARS OF JORVIK VIKING CENTRE
Coppergate excavations at York were drawing visitors by 1980. This was an enormous site. Interest in Roman York and the medieval Minster were no longer the main places to visit….
Cricket in Yorkshire – How did it all begin?
This picture from Sheffield in1820 suggests cricket was well established. The team, the wickets, the crowd, the imposing Club House -just what was expected. However, this match at Sheffield was…
‘The Jogger, the Mugger and the Hipster’:
Urban Encounters in Late 20th Century Britain
Observers of 19th-century cities frequently wrote about ‘urban types’, the new kinds of human beings they found in these new conurbations, with their own distinctive physiognomies and folkways. This habit…
CONNECTING CORONATIONS:
the BAYEUX TAPESTRY and 2023
Harold 11 (Harold of Wessex) is crowned at Westminster in early 1066, the first picture of an English coronation, as recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry. The coronation of Charles III…
Art and Celebrity in the Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance saw the growth of a culture of celebrity and influence, in some ways very similar to trends in western society today. The High Renaissance of Rome in…