All articles in Society & Culture
1st May, 2017 in History, Society & Culture
Evil May Day: When Tudor London rioted against foreigners
The first day of May is commonly associated with dances around the Maypole and marches for worker’s rights. However, London in 1517 saw an entirely different turn of events, ones which would come to be known as ‘Evil May Day’, or ‘Ill May Day’. In the early 1500s London was a bus…
13th April, 2017 in Biography & Memoir, History, Society & Culture
Who was Abraham Lincoln?
Abraham Lincoln qualifies as a historical ‘giant’ not because of the ways his image and the stories about him have drawn so many to him, but quite simply because he was at the centre of events that shaped the modern world. His election to the presidency of the United States in 18…
31st March, 2017 in History, Society & Culture, Trivia & Gift
Six things you might not know about April Fools’ Day
April 1st – an annual festival of practical jokery, hoaxes and pranks under the guise of ‘April Fools’ Day’ or ‘All Fools’ Day’. Still popular today, it has been celebrated for centuries across different cultures although its exact origins remain a mystery. Here are six…
30th March, 2017 in History, Society & Culture
The price of a bouquet: Vincent van Gogh and the art market
In his ten years of working as an artist Vincent van Gogh created 900 paintings and over 1,000 drawings. In 1889 alone, during his stay at a psychiatric institution in Saint-Remy in France, he produced over 100 works, including the now-illustrious The Starry Night. The Starry Nig…
20th March, 2017 in History, Society & Culture
The Black Death: Human history’s biggest catastrophe?
The first outbreak of the Black Death in Europe killed millions (claims range between 25 to 50 percent of Europe’s population) and it remains one of the greatest catastrophes in human history. The Plague By 1340, medieval Europe was beset by a range of problems. Ploughing of the…
16th March, 2017 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The Irish Diaspora and St. Patrick’s Day
On March 17th, Ireland celebrates St. Patrick’s Day – but who exactly was its patron saint; and what is the significance of the ‘Irish diaspora’ that is frequently referred to? St. Patrick St. Patrick is one of the world’s most popular saints – and there are many legends ass…
10th March, 2017 in History, Local & Family History, Society & Culture
The March of the Blanketeers 1817
March 2017 marked two hundred years since the Manchester Radicals (better known as the ‘Blanketeers’) organised a demonstration with the intention of marching to London to petition the Prince Regent over the desperate state of the textile industry in Lancashire and the recent sus…
10th March, 2017 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Counting the United Kingdom: The census from 1086 to now
Every ten years since 1801 details of people living in the United Kingdom are collected by the government in order to gather demographic information, calculate resource allocation and monitor changes in the nation’s population. At first the census was merely a headcount, with alm…
8th March, 2017 in Society & Culture, Transport & Industry
Top tips for narrowboat life
With rising rents and huge deposits required for mortgages it’s perhaps no surprise that an increasing number of people are exploring the potential of a life afloat. Already, over 15,000 people live on our waterways, the equivalent of a town the size of Reigate, and the numbers a…
27th February, 2017 in History, Society & Culture
The Reichstag on fire
It was four to five degrees below zero in Berlin’s city centre on the evening of 27 February 1933; an icy easterly wind made it seem even colder. In every other way, however, this appeared to be an ordinary winter evening. There was nothing to suggest that the events of this nigh…
24th February, 2017 in Military, Society & Culture
Shelter at home in the Second World War
In the Second World War, the people of Britain found their homes in the front line. Cities became targets for bombs, and just as houses and flats were wrecked by fire and high explosive, so too were families broken, hopes dashed, loves lost. For people under daily and nightly str…
13th February, 2017 in Natural World, Society & Culture, Women in History
Birds of a feather: The female founders of the RSPB
Today, the RSPB is the UK’s largest nature conservation charity and the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe. But what many people do not know is that it started life over 125 years ago thanks to the courage and determination of two Victorian women – Emily William…