As this blog comes to a natural close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what these 14 pieces of seemingly random history can tell us about the importance of arts and heritage. A question that is especially pertinent in these challenging times, as half-baked economic plans leave historic institutions on the brink of bankruptcy and the heritage sector faces redundancies on an unprecedented scale.
Secret Suffolk – Godric’s Hollow
The quintessentially English village of Lavenham has a proud history. Once among the twenty wealthiest settlements in England during medieval times, today it is a popular destination for people from across the country.
Talbot Village, Bournemouth
I have lived in the same house in Talbot Park all my life and a 5-minute walk from the small woodland of Talbot Village, established by the Talbot sisters in the mid-19th century.
Virginia Water Lake – A Green Escape connecting Egham and Windsor
Known as a popular walking spot for Royal Holloway Students, this might still be one of the most underappreciated places in the area – until lockdown happened and the people of Surrey and Berkshire rediscovered the park as their nearest green place for daily exercise. Windsor Great Park – under which name this specific place is best known - is Grade I listed but the only royal park not directly managed by The Royal Parks. This open space will treat its visitors with more surprising sites the further one ventures in, featuring an obelisk and a much-loved Canadian totem pole.
Upton Country Park: Poole, Dorset
Andrew Bogle was born in Jamaica in the early 1800s and was enslaved on the Hope Estate, a sugar plantation in St Andrew’s, Jamaica. When he was 25, Bogle was taken to England by the estate manager, Edward Tichborne, who intended to employ the former slave. He became Tichborne’s valet and accompanied him on his European honeymoon, and then lived at Upton House with the family. In 1836, he married another servant in Canford Magna church, a nurse named Elizabeth Young, and they had two sons. Unfortunately, their marriage was short-lived when Elizabeth died in 1845. She was buried in the churchyard in Hamworthy, Poole.
RAF Fersfield: Norfolk
During the Second World War, there were over thirty airbases located in Norfolk occupied by the US Eighth Air Force and a variety of Royal Air Force (RAF) units. These airbases were fulfilling different missions in the fight against Axis Powers. One of the most top-secret bases of the war was located just outside Fersfield, a village consisting of farm buildings, a church, and a tiny population. It was here that the brother of a future president lost his life while the RAF launched missions to help their covert intelligence operations in Europe.
Throop Mill: Bournemouth, Dorset
I’m perhaps showing my ignorance again, because it took me twenty-three years of living in the same spot of Bournemouth to discover this beauty spot just a short romp from my front door.
Kett’s Rebellion: Hethersett, Norfolk
During July of 1549, a group of peasants uprooted and destroyed fences put up by landlords around the area of Wymondham and Hethersett in Norfolk. They acted in defiance of the mass enclosures under Edward VI, the son of the recently deceased Henry VIII. One of the landlords targeted was Robert Kett, a man who would go on to join the group, creating a rebellion that would bring Norwich, one of England’s largest cities at the time, to its knees.
The Commonwealth War Grave: Bournemouth
Anyone who studied history at school will be familiar with the sight of a Commonwealth War Grave (CWG), pristine lines of white slabs dedicated to the hundreds upon thousands of lives lost in the First and Second World Wars. These sites are commonly found on the continent, informally marking out what was once the frontline of battle. I visited several myself in school, as part of the standard British curriculum, to learn about where many soldiers in the Twentieth Century fought and were ultimatley laid to rest. It took a global pandemic for me to realise that I needn't have boarded a Ferry across the English channel to see one of these mass-graves.
Hadleigh Castle: Southend-on-Sea
Hadleigh Castle is in my hometown just outside Southend-on-Sea in Essex, and finding it so out of place in a bookshop nearly 100 miles from home was a nostalgic reminder of the walks around the castle I’ve been on while growing up. I bought the engraving and took it home to show my mum.
Housebound Histories 