Looking Back At History

Welcome to the first installation of Museums Worth Visiting - a blog series where I share with you museums around the UK that I think are worth visiting.   I recently took a trip to Powderham Castle located in the countryside near Exeter in Devon. The castle is unique in that it is not owned or looked after by your typical heritage organisations such as English Heritage or National Trust and instead is privately owned. Powderham Castle is owned by Courtenay family. The castle first came to be owned by the Courtenays when it came to them in the dowry of Maragaret du Bohun when she married Hugh de Courtenay, son of the first Courtenay Earl of Devon in 1325.  The castle has a fascinating and well-documented history which you can learn all about during a guided tour of the castle. All tour guides and staff that we met on our visit were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. I found it really great that staff included their pronouns on their name badges - not something I hav...

 AD - PR Product  My first ever museum job was in an aerospace museum and, as a result of that, I will always have a fascination with planes and aviation history. I was excited to read Robert Jeffrey's Scotland's Wings as I was keen to find out more about Scotland's aeronautical connections.  Jeffrey drew me in within the introduction by talking about famous Bristol planes the Brabazon and Britannia - planes that I already knew quite a lot about. From the outset it is clear that the author is an aviation enthusiast and holds an in-depth knowledge of the topic.  Throughout his book, Jeffrey discusses Scotland's pioneering work in the aviation industry from early wooden frame based aircraft to zeppelins and space shuttles. Having previously learned a great deal about how crucial the city of Bristol is to aviation and aerospace history, I found it really fascinating to learn about Scotland's connections within the industry. Jeffrey highlights key innovators and inventi...

  AD - PR Product.  John Lamshead's new book, The Fall of Roman Britain and Why We Speak English, is an interesting analysis of the abrupt fall of Roman Britain. His particular focus is how and why Britain was so unlike former European provinces of the Western Empire, such as in terms of language and religion. The Fall of Roman Britain uses data from historians, archaeologists, climatologists and biologists to determine why Britannia was so different to the other former European provinces and had seemed to have few Roman cultural influences. Lambshead  I found it incredibly interesting that Lambshead analysed this question through a range of different perspectives, considering both historical and scientific reasoning.   As mentioned in my  previous book review , Roman history isn't something that I have studied in great detail. With this in mind, I found Lambshead's writing style is both accessible and informative and easy to follow for those with a limited...

AD - PR Product.  Admittedly I don't know a great deal about Roman history. It's not something that was really studied in great detail throughout my education but definitely an area of history that I'm intrigued to discover more about which is why I was keen to read this book.  Simon Elliott's  Roman Britain's Pirate King: Carausius Constantitus Chlorus and the Fourth Roman Invasion tells the fascinating story of how Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Valerius Carausius usurped the western augustus (senior emperor) Maximian in 286 AD. This allowed him to establish a North Sea Empire in Gaul and Britain which lasted a little over a decade until 296 AD. Elliott analyses key events and aspects of the chronology of the Roman Empire which are pivotal to the story of Carausius' seizure of power and rule including the role of Roman coinage, the disappearance of the  Classis Britannia and also considers the impact of his rule on the Roman Empire as a whole. Elliott does an excel...

  March 8 marks International Women's Day-  a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. But how did it come about and when did we start to celebrate it?  The marking of International Women's Day dates back to the early 1900s, a time where radical ideas including women's rights grew in popularity. Around this time, strikes and marches for women's rights became an increasingly common occurrence particularly in Britain and America.   Clara Zetkin (left) & Rosa Luxemburg on their way  to the SPD Congress. Magdeburg, 1910 In 1909, the Socialist Party of America declared 28 February  National Women's Day and this was celebrated across the United States. This day was celebrated annually on the last Sunday of February until around 1913. A year later, Clara Zetkin, the leader of the Women's section of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutchschlands proposed the idea of an International Women's Day at the C...

A Victorian boot scraper in Exeter. Have you ever seen these around your town or city and wondered what they're for? You might have hypothesised of what they might be. Sometimes people think they're holes to put your milk bottles in whilst some parents tell their children they're doors to fairy or gnome homes. Whatever it is that you have theorised, did you ever actually find out what they're for? These contraptions can usually be found next to doorways in some towns and cities and are actually boot scrapers from the around Victorian era . Pre-Eighteenth Century, walking was largely considered something that only poor people did. Back in those days, roads and paths were not tarmacked or paved and instead were lined with mud and horse poop, among other debris, and therefore travelling by carriage was much more preferable. An example of a boot scraper found in Exeter. However around the mid-Nineteenth Century, popular attitudes towards walking began to change. The Romanti...

SS ATHENIA seen in Montreal Harbour - 1933 (National Archives of Canada Via Picryl ) Outbreak of War The SS Athenia was a transatlantic passenger liner built in 1923 in Scotland and often carried passengers, many of whom were emigrants, between the United Kingdom and the East coast of Canada. The ship weighed a heft 13,500 tons and was able to accommodate up to 1000 passengers. In 1939 many were in a particular hurry to get out of Europe in a hurry to escape the outbreak of war. On 1st September 1939, the same day that Germany declared war on Poland, the Athenia left Glasgow for Canada. It went on to pick up more passengers in Belfast and and Liverpool and proceeded into the Atlantic Ocean two days later. On the same day, Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany. The Attack on the Athenia Prior to the outbreak of war, approximately 18 U-boats, including the U-30 , had been ordered to take up position in British waters. They had been ordered to ensure interna...