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More Branch News
Monday 4th April 2011
Monday 7th March 2011
Monday 7th February 2011
Monday 10th January 2011
Monday 29th November 2010
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Dr Stella Fletcher gave us an entertaining performance examining the memorialisation of Cardinal Wolsey through his representation in plays and films. She showed how these depictions represented the periods in which they were written as much if not more than Wolsey himself. |
Monday 13th September 2010:
A.G.M.; followed by Mr Stephen Etheridge‘Where the Brass Band is Beloved’: the Pennine Brass Band and the Working Class, a Study of Cultural and Regional Association c1840-1910
The business of the AGM was successfully completed.
Mr.Stephen Etheridge followed up his PhD researches at
the University of Huddersfield by presenting a paper on
the close relationship between brass bands and the industrial
working classes of the Lancashire and Yorkshire mill towns
and mining communities. He explained how, between the
1830s and the 1930s, it was the height of social ambition
among young (male) textile workers and coal miners to
learn to play a brass instrument well enough to join a
local but highly demanding professional-quality band.
It was a disciplined life of concert performances, competitive
festivals and strict uniform-wearing. Mr. Etheridge emphasised
how a successful band brought valuable publicity to a
textile firm or colliery where the band members worked,
and how the owners took great pride in the musical achievements
and were willing, therefore, to subsidise the costs of
training and providing uniforms for their musicians. Among
the many towns which fostered the growth of brass bands,
the Rossendale valley stood out for the the large number
of bands produced by one comparatively small area.
Monday 12th April 2010:
| There was a disappointing turn out for our social event ´Rhythms of Labour: Histories of Music in the Industrial Workplace´, given by Dr Emma Robertson of Sheffield Hallam University. Singing and whistling at work were common features of preindustrial labour. Yet with the onset of industrialisation, music was increasingly divorced from productive activity, largely due to the new factory discipline. Until the mid twentieth century, only a select number of managers saw the advantages of allowing their employees to work to musical accompaniment. This paper explored the fascinating fate of music in the industrial workplace. Dr Robertson used musical examples, recordings of oral testimony and photographs to illustrate her excellent talk, which was followed by light refreshments. Dr Robertson was featured talking about the subject
on BBC Radio 4´s ´Thinking Allowed´and
is Senior Lecturer in History at Sheffield Hallam
University, specialising in women's/ gender history
and labour history in twentieth-century Britain
and the Empire. She has a book with Manchester
University Press, entitled Chocolate, Women and
Empire: A Social and Cultural History, based largely
on her work on the Rowntree Company in York. The
'Rhythms of Labour' project is a collaborative
project with Professors Marek Korcysnski and Michael
Pickering (Loughborough University), with a book
and CD forthcoming in 2010. |
Monday 1st March 2010:
| Dr Rory Miller 'The Troubled Relationship Between Britain and Argentina'
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Monday 16th February 2010:
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The Bolton Branch of the Historical Association is again leading the way in providing the first branch podcast for the national H.A. website. An audience of about 60 people enjoyed the lecture ‘Spain 1808-Iraq 2003: Some Thoughts on the Use and Abuse of History’, given by Professor Charles Esdaile on Monday 1st February. The lecture was recorded and is now freely available to the public on the branch pages of the Historical Association website. This first follows the creation of the branch Facebook group last summer. Taking as his starting point cartoons
in the U.S. press that compared George Bush to Napoleon,
Professor Esdaile examined commentaries which presented
parallels between the two men's campaigns in 2003
and 1808. He argued that these apparent similarities
could be undermined at every turn, and that this
was an abuse of history. Charles Esdaile is Professor
in History at the University of Liverpool. He is
the author of many books and articles on the Napoleonic
period and, especially, the Peninsular War, and
is currently working on a study of the French occupation
of Andalucia in the period 1810-1812. |
Monday 11th January 2010:
Prof. Andrew Jotischky ‘Richard the Lionheart:
Crusading Revolutionary?’ This lecture was
cancelled due to the snowy weather.
Monday 30th November 2009:
Dr Kevin Bean (University of Liverpool Institute
of Irish Studies) 'The Origins of the Troubles?
Northern Ireland 1966-72' |
Monday 2nd November 2009:
| Dr Alexander Grant: ‘Richard III and Lancashire’
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Monday 5th October 2009:
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Dr Robert Poole: ‘The Peterloo Massacre: What Really Happened and How to Commemorate It’
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Monday 14th September 2009:
| The A.G.M. of the Bolton Branch was held at 7.30pm in the Upper Room of Bolton Parish Hall and was followed light refreshments and by Dr Max Jones providing a fascinating insight into ‘Captain Scott: the Explorer as Hero'. His lively examination of the story of Captain Scott and the changing way he has been viewed over the years was very well received.
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Sunday 14th June2009 :
| Horwich Heritage and History Fair Branch chairman David Clayton and secretary Jenni Hyde attended the Horwich Heritage and History Fair on behalf of the Bolton Branch, giving away programmes for the 2009-10 season and Historical Association pens and post-it notes, as well as selling books, magazines and ties for branch funds. The event was opened by Bolton Mayor, Cllr Norman Critchley, who said "What you are doing is vital for future generations," and stressed the importance of an understanding of history for everyone. The branch also took the opportunity to begin giving out questionnaires on behalf of the Institute of Historical Research History in Education Project. For more information see 'Forthcoming Events' and 'Links'.
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Monday 11th May 2009 :
‘Celebrating Local History’ - an event to celebrate the Historical Association’s Local History Month.
Our second fascinating local history meeting included
a presentation by Prof. Donald Read on his “wayward
Irish great-grandfather,” Peter Paton, the subject
of his article in a recent issue of ‘The Historian’.
Professor Read was a professor of history at the University
of Kent, retiring early to become company historian at
Reuters news agency, writing its history, The Power of
News. He spoke also about tying in local and family history,
which has grown in popularity over the last few years,
with national events and trends.
We were also very pleased that our branch members Ken
and Flo Wood have researched ‘Richard Hodgkinson
and the tragedy of his younger son’; Mr Wood spoke
to the branch about politics and powerbroking in the Atherton
and Leigh areas of Lancashire in the early 19th century,
and the effects it had on the life of Richard Hodgkinson
and his family.
Monday 20th April 2009:
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‘We Are The Women Left On The Shore’
by Scold’s Bridle. Followed by supper.
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Monday 2nd March 2009:
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Prof. Peter Gaunt: ‘Will the Real Oliver Cromwell Please Stand Up?’ Cromwell’s stature is beyond doubt, but there
is a large amount of mythology attached to him.
On the whole images in the century or so after restoration
were negative, as it would not do to praise a king
killer. However, even then his effective militaristic
foreign policy was praised. It’s not until
the nineteenth century that we see the pendulum
swing the other way, accelerated in the 1840s by
the work of Thomas Carlyle, who did something quite
new by gathering and interpreting Cromwell’s
surviving letters and speeches so that people could
make up their own minds. Since the mid-nineteenth
century the view of Cromwell has risen. To those
writing for and in a lower class idiom he was a
proto-socialist; for the middle class he was a self-made
man who had received promotion through merit; for
liberal and non-conformist Victorians he had established
liberty of conscience for Protestants and pushed
against the state. Throughout the twentieth century
coverage of Cromwell was mainly positive, though
in the 30s he was sometimes seen as a dictator and
this was not necessarily intended to be a condemnation.
The Marxists of the mid-twentieth century he’d
started well but hadn’t pushed through the
overturning of society and instead had bolstered
the existing social ordered. But still, even now
he’s seen as a genuine reformer with true
ambitions and goals and led to an enlightened political
reform. The exceptions tend to be those of Irish
extraction and those who see him as a ditherer.
Professor Gaunt wonders if his reputation has reached
his height and we’re about to see a swing
back. Peter Gaunt is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Chester. He has written and published widely on the mid seventeenth century, including on many aspects of the life, the military and political career and the achievements and legacy of Oliver Cromwell. He has written two biographies of Cromwell (Blackwell, 1996 and British Library Press, 2004), as well as The Cromwellian Gazetteer (Sutton, 1987). He is chairman of The Cromwell Association. Following the lecture the branch held its third annual 'bring and buy' history book sale, which was very successful. |
Monday 12th January 2009:
| Dr Zheng Yangwen: ‘The Opium War, 1839-42’
Dr Yangwen Zheng is lecturer in Imperial Modern
China at the Confuscius Institute of the University
of Manchester. In April 2007 she was a contributor
to Melvyn Bragg’s BBC Radio 4 programme
‘In Our Time’ on the subject of the
Opium Wars.
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A
vivacious and dynamic examination of the origins,
theatre and consequences of the first opium war,
which Dr Zheng argued was as much, if not more,
about the silver which had to be used to pay for
the tea which the rich British drank. Opium was
much the same for the Chinese: like tea it was
used first by the rich and upper classes and became
essential to the foreign culture. After discussing
the events of the war, she drew out the consequences
including the undermining of the authority of
the ruling (alien) court, the rise of nationalism
and communism, as well as the onset of the semi-colonial
era. Bolton Branch Members’ Publishing Success
Four members of the Bolton Branch of the Historical Association
have had research published during 2008.
A new book by Dr Glyn Redworth has shed light on the little
known life of what was probably the first female missionary
to Britain - in all its gory detail. The She-Apostle,
published by the Oxford University Press, is the biography
of Spaniard Luisa de Carvajal and was the subject of Dr
Redworth’s last visit to the branch in 2007, exposing
the suffering endured by Catholics who refused to attend
Church of England services under James I. One of Luisa’s
missions was to secretly rescue and then preserve the
remains of executed priests - who were hung, drawn and
quartered – and then send them as religious relics
to hardline Catholics on the continent. The book featured
in the Times, the Telegraph and on BBC Radio 4’s
‘PM’ programme, and was declared to be ‘a
literary coup’ by John Guy.
Dr Redworth is based at the School of Arts, Histories
and Cultures at the University of Manchester and he returns
to the branch on Monday December 1st with a controversial
look at the Short Reign of King Philip the Brief of England
(1554-1558). He will suggest that the marriage of Philip
I (II of Spain) to Mary Tudor is best seen as the result
of a plot devised by Brussels-based bureaucrats. Following
the lecture he will sign copies of The She-Apostle.
Phillimore published The Hayward Grammar School, Bolton: the First Decade, 1955-1965 by the Bolton Branch Chairman.
The heyday of state grammar schools in the 1940s, '50s
and '60s was a significant episode in the social and economic
progress of the UK. The Hayward Grammar School in Bolton,
planned in 1946, opened in 1955, closed in 1982, saw spectacular
developments in upward social mobility, and an effective
academic and 'cultural' challenge to established independent
schools. The fact that almost no official records of its
existence and qualities now remain, either in the present
successor school or in the Local Education Authority's
offices, has prompted David Clayton to produce, in effect,
an archive, a fascinating book detailing and assessing
the performance of many of its outstanding staff and pupils
in the first decade of its life, 1955-1965. There are
many telling mini-biographies.
The author, who taught at the school from 1959 to 1965,
emphasises not only academic successes but also the rich
extracurricular programme, the sport, the expeditions
at home and abroad, the drama, the music, the charity
work, the school clubs and societies. The research entailed
many absorbing hours of 'oral history' interviews and
consultations with former staff and pupils as well as
a 'trawling' of surviving school magazines provided by
ex-pupils. There were also several productive visits to
the National Archives at Kew.
The outcome is a book specifically preserving, 'for all time', experiences, personalities and achievements that would otherwise eventually be entirely forgotten. As the subsequent Head, for 17 years from 1984, of a large former grammar school in Burnley, David Clayton has been able to evaluate fairly the quality of the Hayward School's performance. He also convincingly explains why so many state grammar schools, in spite of their effectiveness, found themselves being closed in the twenty years following the Tony Crosland Circular 10/65 of 1965.
Sara Vernon’s publication Bolton Street Names - Their Meanings and Origins takes a fascinating trip around Bolton, a comprehensive etymological guide to its highways and byways. Featuring all the streets of Great Bolton and Little Bolton and illustrated with more than seventy photographs, this valuable work is sure to appeal both to those interested in the study of the English language and those wishing to discover more about Bolton’s intriguing past.
We are also pleased that member Nick Tyldesley has been involved in putting together Chains and Cotton, a pack of teaching materials aimed at Year 8 and Year 9 pupils. They are based around the narrative of James Watkins, an African slave who escaped from America and toured around the cotton towns of the North West in the early 1850s, particularly Bolton, telling the mill owners and workers about the horrors of slavery. The abolitionist cause was enthusiastically taken up.
The pack focuses on extracts from slave ship logs; the
growth of the cotton industry in the North West; James
Watkins’s journal; and artefacts pertaining to slavery
from the Bolton Museum collection. Pupils will be encouraged
to recreate an anti-slavery meeting. The materials can
be used in a variety of cross-curricular teaching programmes
in the spirit of the Key Stage 3 review. It has been produced
by the partnership between schools, Bolton Museum and
Bolton LA with support from the North West MLA and costs
£15.
For more information, please contact the branch secretary,
Jenni Hyde, on 0161 654 6197. secretary@boltonhistassoc.org.uk
Monday 1st December 2008:
Dr Glyn Redworth: ‘A Family at War? King Philip I of England 1554-1558’
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and
engaging lecture was followed by seasonal refreshments
provided by the Oxford University Press, and an
opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Dr Redworth’s
latest book The She-Apostle: the Extraordinary
Life and Death of Luisa de Carvajal.
Monday 3rd November 2008:
| Dr Till Geiger: ‘American Power and the Origins of the Cold War’ Through a series of cartoons Dr Geiger investigated the various attitudes to the historiography of the Cold War. The idea that American power is at the heart of the cold war goes against the way that in the west we’ve always been taught it was caused by the policies of Stalin. It’s seen through the prism of ideology. Dr Geiger pointed out that most of what has been written was written by the Americans. Traditionalists including American officials put forward the view that the USA’s proposals at the end of WWII would have allowed the whole world to work together on an equal basis. Instead the Russians refused to agree terms, so the Americans had to take a defensive position instead. The Traditional view is challenged by Revisionists who say the USA pressured others to accept the protection of American markets. Post-revisionists, whilst mainly agreeing with the Traditionalists, accepted that the revisionists had a point in that the Americans were trying to protect their own interests. He suggested there was no common ground between the USA and Russia because they didn’t understand each other at all. Dr Geiger argued that the story defies a simple explanation and operates on many levels. We have concentrated on the way governments attempt to govern. American power was preponderant in the post-war era, but it lacked coherence. There was a need for co-operation but it couldn’t be achieved by US unilateral action. Western Europe realised it relied on US aid so drifted towards co-operation. American power changed by realising its limitations. |
Monday 6th October 2008:
| Dr Kevin Bean: ‘A Catholic Constitution for a Catholic People? The 1937 Irish Constitution’
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Dr
Bean presented an interesting look at the forces
at work in the preparation of the 1937 Irish Constitution,
including the church. It was very much De Valera’s
work, and he knew that he couldn’t alienate
the church but there were also liberal influences.
Dr Bean also commented on later changes to the
constitution and the reasons behind them.Monday 8th September 2008:
| AGM;
wine and nibbles; followed by Dr Sarah Barber: ‘English
Folk - 1600 to the Present: Tradition, Change and
Retrospection in the Writing of History'
The Bolton Branch held its Annual General Meeting in its new venue of the Parish Hall, re-electing its officers and committee and reporting on its accounts and activities. Dr Barber’s multimedia presentation examined
the idea of English Liberties, pointing out that
a definition of folk needs to span 4 centuries.
She argued that things become ‘folk’
the more the line between the creator, the item
and its audience is blurred and that history provides
the writer or singer of a piece with a common background
to tie in with the audience. She suggested that
the voice of the people needs to be anonymous and
that any known voice is tying their cause in to
a vernacular voice. Folk is something that is barely
noticeable as it emerges from the landscape. Dr
Barber described the folk tradition as precise and
vague at same time, self consciously indefinable.
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