All articles in Society & Culture
22nd August, 2019 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The English village fête
Spring follows winter, summer follows spring and with it the English village green comes to life. On May 1st the village Maypole is bedecked with flowers and ribbons, the village children and, occasionally Morris dancers, dance around the pole and the May Queen is crowned. The Ma…
21st August, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Medicine’s anti-thalidomide heroine
Dr Frances Kelsey, a doctor who was born in Canada but subsequently gained United States citizenship, is one of the heroines of the history of medicine. In early September 1960, while Frances was working at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) she was given, as a…
14th August, 2019 in Military, Society & Culture, Women in History
Black women of World War One
With only a few exceptions, such as the Crimean war ‘doctress’ Mary Seacole, black women have been ‘written out’ of British history. This is true of the many books published about Britain and the First World War and yet it is possible to uncover life stories from this ‘hidden his…
26th July, 2019 in History, Natural World, Society & Culture
Pliny the Younger’s lawn
Although it is often assumed that lawns came into being in medieval times, their origins are actually far earlier, although whether the ‘flowery medes’ apparently favoured by the Persians and Mughals really constituted a grass lawn is most doubtful. What is certain is that the fi…
19th July, 2019 in Natural World, Society & Culture
Indonesia and the coconut
In 2014 Indonesia had a total of 3.6 million hectares of coconut plantations, more than 90 per cent of it farmed by smallholders working an average of just 1.5 hectares each. Copra and the oil derived from it still dominate the industry as they did a century ago, with scant resea…
5th July, 2019 in History, Local & Family History, Society & Culture
History matters in Ireland
At present Ireland is in the middle of what has been called the decade of centenaries. This relates to the period 1913-23 and includes anniversaries of the First World War, the 1916 Dublin Rising, the Anglo-Irish War, the founding of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, and…
11th June, 2019 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Fitzrovia: The other side of Oxford Street
What and where is Fitzrovia? Londoners know it as a busy and densely-packed quarter of the city tucked between Euston Road and Oxford Street, with Tottenham Court Road running along its eastern edge. ‘Fitzrovia’ is the modern upmarket label for an area which used to be any thing…
16th May, 2019 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Tracing history through the names of pubs and inns
Much has been written about the origin of pub names, and the way they reflect the changes in royal houses, from The White Hart of Richard II to The Bear and Ragged Staff of the Earl of Warwick. A keen local historian can also glean a wealth of information about the local area by…
1st April, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
The land of the ‘free’: Criminal transportation to America
Not many people know that between 1718 and 1775 over 52,000 convicts were transported from the British Isles to America, mainly to Maryland and Virginia, to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder. It is reckoned that transported convicts made up a quarter of the British immigran…
27th February, 2019 in History, Society & Culture
Five abolitionists you should know
The slave trade has existed since almost the dawn of mankind but its only in the last millennia that documentation has come to light showing that other voices in different time periods spoke out against the enslaving and trading of human beings. William Wilberforce is an obvious…
14th February, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
The deb of 1930: Margaret Whigham enters society
As with every rite of passage in Margaret Whigham’s young life, she strove to be the first of her contemporaries to officially come out into society. Headstrong, wilful and with disregard for her parents’ authority, she wrote in her memoirs: ‘My mother must have realised there wa…
13th February, 2019 in History, Society & Culture
From martyrdom to capitalism: A timeline of Valentine’s Day
As soon as Christmas is over (or sometimes even before!) our shops begin bursting with heart-shaped chocolates, red roses and Valentine’s Day cards with poems sweet enough to cause a cavity. But why is February 14 associated with romantic love, and how did Valentine’s Day as we k…