In View
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles
Post-Medieval & Industrial
How to restore a manor: Breathing life back into a Grade II*-listed Norfolk building
In 2014, archaeologist Warwick Rodwell and art restorer Diane Gibbs bought the Grade II*-listed manor house in Northwold, Norfolk, after it had been neglected for 60 years. With water pouring in and roofs, ceilings, and floors collapsing, they set about rehabilitating the house, and much has been learned in the process about the construction of the manor, the families who lived in it, and its place in the history of the parish, as Chris Catling reports.
The Coker Rope & Sail Trust
There were nine sailmakers in West Coker at the start of the 19th century, and the bleaching fields around the Somerset village were white with canvas sheets laid out in the sun. ‘Coker canvas’ became the generic name for the…
Historic Building Mythbusting: Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology
REVIEW BY KATE GILES Do secret tunnels connect the ruins of ancient castles, churches, and lost monasteries across England? Are spiral staircases designed to favour the right-handed defenders of castles against disadvantaged attackers? And what about the strange burn marks…
UK news in brief
Ireland’s new UNESCO World Heritage Site Northern Ireland has gained a second UNESCO World Heritage Site, after the Gracehill Moravian Church Settlement in County Antrim was awarded the status in July. The site is the best-preserved example of such a…
Hilary Wilson on… Egypt and how to see it in 1912
What was it like to visit Egypt as a tourist just before the First World War?
Orchards in England, a landscape history: A fruitful wander through the agriculture of the past
Orchards have not featured largely in studies of the historic environment, though there is a growing recognition of their ecological value. Yet orchards were once ubiquitous features of the landscape in many counties, whether in the form of a small plot attached to a farm, or as a large commercial orchard cultivated as the owner’s principal source of income. Making up for this omission is a new book by Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson that attempts, for the first time, to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of orchards in England from the Middle Ages to the present day, as Chris Catling reports.
Six Lives at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Carly Hilts visited a new exhibition aiming to restore individuality to six women often grouped merely as the ‘wives of Henry VIII’.
The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Lord Lisvane, former Clerk to the House of Commons and Chairman of the Royal College of Organists, sparked a lively correspondence in The Times earlier this year when he asked whether he was alone in deploring the popularity of ‘All…
Museum news
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
The Lost Paths
REVIEW BY JIM LEARY Jack Cornish is Head of Paths at the British walking charity Ramblers and, like me, an advocate of old and lost paths, the overgrown and the abandoned. The Lost Paths charts some of Cornish’s journeys along…
Inside the minds of 18th-century guards at Dover Castle
Research for a new experience that opened at Dover Castle this July has led to the discovery of a heavily graffitied door dating to the 1790s, revealing intriguing insights into the thoughts of the soldiers stationed there at that time.…
Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle: Digging into ancestral connections to the transatlantic slave trade
The discovery of an unsuspected family link to Christiansborg Castle, Ghana, led to a project examining a forgotten aspect of the transatlantic slave trade. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann introduces us to ‘autoarchaeology’.
War on Film – Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024)
TAYLOR DOWNING reviews the latest film releases.
CA 413 Letters – July
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Finds Tray – Doll
This unusual-looking doll was found by a mudlarker in a brook in Leicestershire earlier this year. A remarkable find, the lead- alloy female figure is the only complete example of such a doll currently recorded on the PAS database. The…
The Trevithick Society
The people of Cornwall are so proud of their great engineer, Richard Trevithick, that when the Cornish Engines Preservation Committee and the Cornish Waterwheel Preservation Society decided to merge in 1971, they named the new organisation the Trevithick Society (Kowethas…
An intrepid lady traveller: Amelia Edwards ventures A Thousand Miles up the Nile in 1873.
Towards the end of the 19th century, when wives were regarded as the property of their husbands and not expected to have a university education or an independent career, several remarkable women emerged as influential in the field of Egyptology.…
Go digging!
Following on from our coverage in CA 410 and 411, this selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects in Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.
CA 412 Letters – June
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Sheffield Castle excavations reveal undiscovered steelworks
A previously undocumented steelworks dating to the 19th century has been discovered in Sheffield as part of continuing excavations, which began in 2015 to uncover the ‘lost castle’ (CA 351). The steelworks would have formed one of three similar works…
York Station excavations yield Victorian and medieval finds
Excavations as part of a project to create a new entrance to York railway station have revealed the original Victorian paved approach to the station, as well as ditches littered with medieval rubbish. As part of the project, a new…
Dead Man’s Chest: exploring the archaeology of piracy
REVIEW BY SHANNON LEE DAWDY Dead Man’s Chest is a collection of essays and research reports by practising archaeologists and historians who have conducted work on shipwrecks, terrestrial sites, artefact collections, and archival sources. It is the third book in…
A wonder of the world: Wandering along London’s post-medieval waterfront
What can the combination of archaeology, documents, maps, and plans tell us about London’s port in the period between the Great Fire of 1666 and the shift of shipping activity downstream of the City, following the opening of the West India Dock in 1801? A new and highly readable publication brings together the evidence from four sites excavated by the Museum of London between 1974 and 1984, allowing us an insight into the area around London Bridge when it served as the focal point of London’s commercial waterfront. Chris Catling reports.
CA 411 Letters – May
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
The Milestone Society
This month we are revisiting the subject of the very first ‘Odd Socs’ column (CA 211): the Milestone Society. The original idea for ‘Odd Socs’ was to adopt a tongue-in-cheek approach to the heritage sector’s hundreds of voluntary societies, presenting…
Smallhythe Place: Romans, royal ships, and a rural retreat
Smallhythe Place, a National Trust property in Kent, is home to a picturesque timber-framed house with enigmatic origins, while the surrounding landscape preserves unique traces of a medieval shipbuilding centre that served several kings. Over the last three years, a team of more than 100 archaeologists have excavated 21 trenches to help bring the site’s story to light once more.
CA 410 Letters – April
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Finds Tray – Bridle boss
This is a bridle boss made of copper-alloy and dating to c.1620-1680. It was recently found by a metal-detectorist near Ringmer in Lewes, East Sussex. While heavily corroded, it is unusual in two respects. First, it is still attached to…
Preserving a Palmerston Fort
The Historic Buildings Team from Cotswold Archaeology has recently carried out a detailed recording of Fort Gilkicker in Gosport. This fort is part of the Victorian defences around the town’s harbour. It is one of a number of structures known…
Go digging!
With the summer digging season rapidly approaching, we are planning a series of spreads highlighting archaeological opportunities across Britain and Ireland. This month features projects ranging across East Anglia and East Sussex, Yorkshire and Northumberland, the Midlands, the Cotswolds, and London – please do get in touch if you would like to highlight your excavation to our readers in a future issue.
The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 years of history at Hampton Court
REVIEW BY DANIEL JACKSON Hampton Court Palace, nestled within a bend of the Thames 13 miles from the centre of London, has a fascinating history, during which it grew from a medieval agricultural estate to one of the greatest palaces…
Zimingzhong: The mechanical marvels where East meets West
A remarkable trade between Europe and China developed in the 1700s, when an emperor with a passion for science started collecting extravagant mechanical timepieces. The results are both beautiful to behold and steeped in a meeting of skills and cultures between East and West, as Jane Desborough told Matthew Symonds.
Back to the drawing board: HMS Captain
David Porter on Military History's doomed inventions.
Soldiers and Civilians, Transport and Provisions: Early Modern Military Logistics and Supply System during the British Civil Wars, 1638-1653
REVIEW BY DAVID FLINTHAM History knows many more armies ruined by want and disorder than by the efforts of their enemies, and I have witnessed how all the enterprises which were embarked on in my day were lacking for that…
Museum news
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.