Our First Meeting of 2013...

Our first meeting of the New Year will take place on Tuesday 8th January, meeting at 10:30am in Marzano's cafe, located on the ground floor of the Forum (we gather at the reserved tables to the right of the serving counter). Once we have socialised etc we will be going up to the library's 'Training Room' to have a further look at the wonderful Norfolk Heritage Collection (their Wycliffite bible, that once belonged to Queen Anne Boleyn's uncle, is just one 'jewel' in this amazing archive). 

Please do join us!

PS Please note: Dave Tong would like to apologise to NCHC members for not being able to come and tell us some stories at our last gathering before Christmas. Unfortunately, a close family member was taken ill on the day and he left his house without his mobile. I am glad to report that his relative is currently in a stable condition. 

Norwich Heritage Newsletter

The Norwich Heritage Economic And Regeneration Trust's new e-newsletter is now available HERE

Christmas Tales and Historians Questions - Tuesday 8th January

We always meet at 10:30 in the Marzanos cafe, located in the Norwich Forum. Tables are reserved for our us to the right of the serving area. After half-an-hour socialising and talking history around our tables we, either, go to the 'Training Room' on the top floor of the library, or we go out and explore the city's many historic treasures. 

Christmas Tales...
For our final session before our Christmas break (we'll resume on Tuesday 8th January), Dave Tong (historian and professional storyteller) returns to regale our members with his fantastic Christmas tales. As ever, I'm sure he will be engaging, entertaining and informative. 

Historians Questions...
However, before we get to that, next Tuesday's session will see a change of approach from our recent talk orientated ones. Archive specialist, Liz Budd, is going to join us to answer our questions about how we would go about researching people, places, industries etc. What are the sources, and how can you access them? That kind of thing. This more interactive and informal session will also allow us to find out about each others interests, and we will be doing more of this format into the future...

Doing Different...
... Talking of which: yesterday, I had a conversation with BBC Producer, Gary Standley, about the possibility of club members getting involved with making some films about local historical places that mean something to them. We're resolved to make this happen, so, with that in mind, Gary will be coming to talk to us about this in the New Year. This is a great example of the way that we, in the Norwich Community History Club, "do different". 

Easy to reach history...
There is another point I'd like to make, and which I will repeat from time to time: our club is about making people feel comfortable and welcome (that's one of the reasons we always start by meeting in the Marzanos cafe). Part of this, is about facilitating access. Access doesn't just happen, there has to be an active will to make it work. For this reason, if anyone who attends doesn't understand something we've discussed, or wants to make a point, but is too intimidated by 'the crowd' to do so, please do feel able to come and talk to me. It might also be that you there are other barriers you are experiencing. If so, please discuss this with me. I will make myself available after our gathering for this purpose. We come in all 'shapes and sizes', and I aspire for our club to reflect that. (Oh, and by the way, I would once have been completely intimidated myself about joining a "HISTORY CLUB", assuming, as I would have, that they would be too posh and think themselves too clever for the likes of me - I had an inferiority complex masked by an aggressive mask back then!)

Also, we tend to think about access as purely about overcoming barriers, however, it is a far more positive process than that. For instance, not only do people with different experiences and backgrounds often ask different questions, they often ask seemingly simple questions that folk who are more formally 'schooled'/immersed don't think to ask. For instance, my friend, Jacques Kalume (a Congolese refugee - and an erudite and highly intelligent man), has stumped me on a number of occasions, such as when he asked me why the Duke of Edinburgh is not called a king (can anyone help us with that one?). In a wider sense, he also made a group, where I was tutor,really think about the value of our local historic heritage, when - amazed at the age of Norwich Cathedral - he explained that it was a wonder to him and his community that such a building could survive so long, as in the Democratic Republic of Congo a terrible civil war means that - to use Jacques' words at the time - "everything is smashed." In this context, the survival of archives, buildings etc should be savoured, celebrated and appreciated much more than we tend to do. 

Another example of this, is the way that people with dyslexia - perhaps because of the 'dyslexic gift' around their visual pattern recognition - seem to be really good at identifying, often seemingly incoherent, medieval graffiti. Indeed, his (then undiagnosed) dyslexia enabled Dave Tong to be excellent at reading old historic records when he was studying for his BA and MA in history at UEA...

Please click on image in order to enlarge:
An example of pre-modern handwriting from early
1600s, transcribed from the Norwich Mayor's Court Records:
"... Margaret Caly on Witson Tuesday [...] often tymes clapped her hand on
her backside and badd him [an official called, Christopher Gyles] kiss there"

I think you get my point - diversity is not just a positive exchange in itself, in our context, it also improves our thinking as historians. 

Finally...
On some other projects I'm involved with, other members like to get involved by, for instance, contributing to the project's blog. If you wish to write something to go on here, or post a photo perhaps - whatever - please let me know (I can make you a contributor, so you can post on here, just as I am doing now). You don't even have to be online to do so. I'm happy to transcribe what you've written, or scan images, on your behalf. Over time, I'm sure we'll develop a Social Media team of volunteers to make this more participatory and multi-voiced platform.  

See you next Tuesday!

~ Colin ~

Week 4: 'Norwich Before the Normans' - Sophie Cabot

Archaeologist, Sophie Cabot, delivered an excellent talk about the development of Norwich in the period before the Norman invasion in 1066. This survey, took us from the early development of the settlement along the banks of the river Wensum, beginning in the 6th-7th centuries, to the accelerated growth of the city during the period of Scandinavian (Viking) domination beginning in the 9th century. 

Given the immense changes since those times, most of the evidence for this relatively distant past is archaeological. Noting the many gaps, absences and, necessarily, scanty and skewed nature of the surviving evidence, Sophie nevertheless managed to help us picture the city's roots, routes and past. 

There was so much of interest to ponder, but one thing that - once again - struck me, was the importance of language in describing - or, in this instance, periodising - the past. I thought Sophie's explanation of the movement and migration of people from, initially, north-west mainland Europe to Eastern England, and the subsequent re-orientation towards Scandinavia was well made. Being in an area of the country that was dominated by 'Viking' settlement, means that Norfolk's history between the middle of the ninth century (800s) to the Norman Conquest (1066) should really be referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian period, rather than the much more commonly known, 'Anglo-Saxon'.

It is also true that Norfolk - despite the stereotypes - has always been subject to outside influences - hence my reference to 'routes' (above). There is an often neglected tendency for historians to underestimate the influence of geography - the effects that space/places exert.  Conversely, Human geographers often underplay the influence of history on the formation of places. This is one reason why I would love for someone like Tom Williamson (a Landscape historian who teaches at UEA) to get involved with us from time to time (in fact, I think I'll email him in a minute!). 

Listening, I made a note to self, thinking that one future session for the Club might be a generic one with an historian and an archaeologist talking about the way their chosen field generates knowledge of the past. Just a thought... If you think that would be of interest, let me know (and you can, of course, leave comments via this blog: easiest to sign in as 'Anon' - please note, all comments are moderated)

Anyway, Sophie definitely earned her round of applause at the end, and from the feedback I've received, left us wanting more.

Thanks Sophie!

Feedback on the day:
"A wealth of knowledge I would (otherwise) probably never find out about."
"Very interesting and informative. Thank you"
"Very interesting - learning a lot"

The Common Folk Will Yet Speak

A short piece, on another blog, about the discovery (yesterday) of this fascinating graffito at Norwich Cathedral

Medieval Graffiti - The Common Folk Will Yet Speak

Paws for Reflection

I'm interested in footprints - real and metaphorical. It always fascinates me when, through happenstance or circumstance, an otherwise transient moment is captured in time. A few years ago I was doing some doing some research on the fate of a family living next to Saint Peter Mancroft church during the plague of 1666. I was looking through the parish record, following the fate of a single  family (the Phipps') as they were decimated one-by-one. I noted with sadness when the - by now - familiar handwriting of the Churchwarden suddenly changed, and the previous incumbents name was added to the list of fatalities (noted by the abbreviation, 'pla'). Likewise, I was fortunate to be involved in an archaeological excavation in south Norfolk where an ancient butchery site, containing several mammoth skeletons had been discovered. It was so poignant to find the tip of an antler (used to pressure sharpen flint axes) that had last been held by another hominid c10,000 years previously - and that hand belonged to an living, breathing Neanderthal... 

And that takes me to the photograph above. This captures a moment in the brickyards at Sprowston in the late nineteenth century when a cat sprang up from a brick drying in the sun, leaving its impress for us to wonder at. The footprint is by the door of a relatives terraced house in north Norwich. History isn't just written in books. 

~ Colin ~

Norwich Before 1066 - Tues 11th Dec

Sophie in the limelight!

Next week we have Sophie Cabot, an archaeologist working for HEART, coming to speak to us about Norwich before 1066. Although there are occasional mentions of Norwich in documents, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, archaeology has played a vital part in helping us to picture the development of the city during this pre-Norman period.  Sophie is an excellent speaker and really knows her stuff, so come along, ask questions and enjoy. 

As ever, we will be meeting in Marzanos cafe (ground floor, Norwich Forum) at 10:30am (tables are reserved for our group, to the right of the service area). At around 11am we will go up to the Training Room in the Millennium Library to hear Sophie's talk. I'm excited to hear what she has to say!

Please note: our comments section is now live. You don't have to be signed up to Blogger to leave a comment; just click on the 'No Comments/Comments' link below each post, and select 'Anonymous'. All comments are moderated, but will be added to the blog. We'd love to have feedback/thoughts/responses from you. 

Week 3: The Medieval Graffiti Talk

Colin, talking about medieval graffiti

Thank you once again to everyone who made the effort to turn out on another cold day to meet and learn together. I gave a talk about Norfolk's recently discovered medieval graffiti, and about the work of the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey, that I volunteer for. As I think I conveyed, for me, the two main things that draw me to study this area are:
(i) the material we are finding is, generally, made by people outside of the elite in medieval society (a useful corrective)
(ii) there is something very special to me about knowing you are standing where someone one stood hundreds of years previously

Knowing, as I do, something about the composition of the group, it was really pleasing to me to recognise a diverse range of people in the group. I was talking to one man who attended earlier today, and he said that, ordinarily, he would never have had the confidence to join a history club. However, having made that first step, he is really enjoying it. Although I didn't announce his presence, we were also very fortunate to have a Professor Joel Rosenthal in the audience. Joel is a medieval historian from Stony Brook University in America, and was very interested in the innovative graffiti project, and has promised to email me lots of questions. 

For those who are interested in becoming more actively involved, I am currently trying to organise a training session at one of the city's churches in the New Year (hopefully, St Peter Mancroft). Volunteers who undertake this will then be 'equipped' to join the survey team at Norwich Cathedral - which, I promise, is going to be very interesting indeed. I will let you know about this once I have confirmation of the date. 

Selections from the session feedback:
"Wonderful and very clear to understand."
"It was good to hear about 'people's history'!"
"I could relate to some of the reasoning why people would draw graffiti in those times. We are not so different from those people..."

Best Wishes,
Colin

Please note: our comments section is now live. You don't have to be signed up to Blogger to leave a comment; just click on the 'No Comments/Comments' link below each post, and select 'Anonymous'. All comments are moderated, but will be added to the blog. We'd love to have feedback/thoughts/responses from you.