Archives for August 2010

I've just been listening to this afternoon's You & Yours and, thanks to its delightful pick & mix manner, I am now left both worrying about historic houses in Scotland and hankering for a Mojito and a cupcake after work.

It has also reminded me that a while ago we asked Peter White, today's presenter and apparent Mojito convert, to nominate an object for A History of the World. He chose his Perkins Brailler. Here he is explaining why:

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Here's another in our series of Curator's Picks, where we ask a curator to take a look at the objects that have been added to the site and pick out a few that catch their eye.

This week our curator is Clare Hunt, Keeper of Art for Southend Museums Service. She starts with an object from their own collection, and one which is particularly appropriate for a website accompanying a radio series.

The EKCO AD65 radio from our museum is a real source of wonder to me. Never mind it being a style icon of the classy art deco period, it also represents the innovation in materials and technology that EKCO always strived for.

The factory in Southend on Sea employed thousands of people in its heyday but most of them could never have afforded the top of the range AD65. No wonder - it is still one of the most sought after radios for museum and private collections alike.

And, if you are lucky enough to come across a working model, the sound is deliciously undigital ...is that a word? Perhaps not, but those who like the sound of vinyl records over CDs will understand completely!  

Radio is certainly something that the UK gave the world (via an Italian with a factory in Chelmsford) but her second choice is something that the British imported with envious greed. It's also another object that was once coveted by the wealthy but slowly became more affordable: fine china.

I have chosen this Chinese bottle vase for no better reason than a love of Chinese ceramics and their simple beauty. But I am also fascinated by the story of Chinese porcelain and the west's addiction to it.

Because the secret of how to make fine china was kept for so long, it was desperately bought up by western countries that were addicted to the fineness of the clay and the wonderful painted designs. In my opinion, you still can't beat a bit of good blue and white willow pattern!

After two expensive rarities, Clare has picked something which was brought to a BBC Somerset event that a working person could afford: a bonnet. In fact, it's the bonnet's humble origins that make it special.

I love to see costume that was worn by everyday, working people. Strangely enough, these are rarer in museums than the fancy clothes of the upper classes; loads of museums have a pair of Queen Victoria's stockings - just how many did she have exactly?

It never fails to amaze me the sheer amount of clothing that women wore all year round. This bonnet, made to keep the sun off the face and the back of the neck, must have been hot in the summer. Add that to the many layers of petticoats and corsets and yes, you would have fainted too.

And finally an intriguing object that may be an early draft of the famous map of the London Underground or may just predate the map all londoners rely on. Though as Clare points out, it's a map that isn't really a map.

I love maps (hate 'sat nav') and wish everyone was able to use them in order to appreciate their surroundings. The tube map, however, is a special case. It is easy to forget that it is actually a piece of iconic design.

This map of underground railways reminds us that the one we are so familiar with doesn't represent the distances between stations or their relationships to each other at all. You might not believe it when you see their confused faces, but it does make the tourists' lives a little easier.    

You don't have to seek out a tourist to see tube confusion in effect. Just look at me trying to figure out an alternative route any weekend when my usual line is suspended for engineering works.

Thanks to Clare for her pick of objects from the site. We'll have another Curator's Pick soon.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Yesterday, when writing about Dan Snow hiking through history, I somehow forgot to mention that earlier in the year we got him to add an object to A History of the World.

He chose a piece of shrapnel from the Battle of Stalingrad and we managed to grab him between interviews in the BBC Newsroom to tell us why.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

More Normans programmes last night. This week I caught up with Dan Snow on his Norman Walks. Not literally - I wasn't chasing him through the Monnow valley. That's in Wales. I'll admit that I'd never heard of it but the programme did remind me of a particularly happy holiday in Wales when I was a kid.

Or at least happy for me due to the sheer number of castles there were. Whether my parents have such rosy memories of a fortnight of constant rain while stuck in a tent with three children, I'm not so sure.

Fortunately for Dan Snow there were plenty of castles and no rain, though he had a fairly rugged looking waterproof with him just in case. What I didn't realise when I was eight, but which became obvious last night, is that all these motte and bailey castles weren't for brave villagers to hide in when the Vikings attacked (at the time I was ready to blame the Vikings for pretty much everything), they were for French noblemen to live in while they re-educated those villagers as to who was now running things around here.

These were stony statements of intent; a message to any troublesome local chieftains that there was no point in resisting the change in government that was marching up the valley towards them.

As Dan Snow pointed out, Grosmont, Skenfrith and White castles were the physical embodiment of the power of the Normans. This was emphasised by the fact that there was no pattern to where they were situated, except that each was placed where it would have maximum impact on the rebellious tribes.

But it also made me think about how the pace of an invasion has changed. When the Normans came to an area that they wanted to control they built a castle. Something which, I'm guessing, took a little while. It's like 'Shock & Awe' in slow motion - but with better architecture.

Overall though, Dan Snow uncovering history on foot has made me want to go visit my nearest castle. If you're feeling similarly inspired, then Hands on History have a selection of Norman Walks that you can follow yourself. To get a closer look at some Norman castles, then try the walks in Lewes, Heddingham or Carlisle.

The walks don't seem too strenuous and it looks to me like many of them provide ample opportunities to read up on your history in a café or teashop. The joy of a good walk is that there's always time for a little something on the way. I bet Dan had a biscuit or two in his backpack.

• Dan Snow's Norman Walks concludes Wednesday 22 Aug on BBC Two, and you can watch the first two episodes on BBC iPlayer.

• Hands on History have Norman activity packs and a Norman timeline available from their website.

What do you think? Add a comment 

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Domesday Book is the product of an extraordinary survey of England commissioned by King William the Conqueror in 1085. It in fact comprises two volumes, now preserved at the National Archives: Little Domesday Book, which covers Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex; and Great Domesday Book, which covers the rest of England south of the River Tees.

The survey was launched in an atmosphere of crisis in 1085. A Viking army commanded by King Cnut of Denmark in alliance with the count of Flanders was preparing to invade England. William's response was characteristically vigorous. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he mobilized the largest 'force of mounted men and infantry' ever seen England. Then, at Christmas, he assembled his advisers to a council at Gloucester.

There, he "had deep thought and very deep discussion with his council about this country - how it was occupied or with what sort of people." He then "sent his men over all England into every shire" to conduct a survey: "so very narrowly did he have it investigated, that there was no single hide of land, nor indeed (it is a shame to relate but it seemed no shame to him to do) one ox nor one cow nor one pig which was there left out, and not put down in his record; and all these records were brought to him afterwards."

The survey took place during the first few months of 1086. It was supervised by seven groups of commissioners, who swept around the country gathering information at intensely dramatic meetings of shire courts. Every landholder in the kingdom was required to submit evidence on oath before panels of jurors representing every town, village and administrative unit in the kingdom, in response to the same questions: Who held the land in 1066? Who holds it now? How many people lived there? What are its assets? What is its tax liability? What is it worth?


Each group of commissioners recorded the information they collected into separate reports, which were delivered to William, probably at Old Sarum in Wiltshire − where one of them, a manuscript known as Exon Domesday, is known to have been written.  According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, William travelled there on 1 August 1086, and "his councillors came to him, and all the people occupying land who were of any account over all England, no matter whose vassals they might be; and they all submitted to him and became his vassals, and swore oaths of allegiance to him." This astonishing event was almost certainly the climax to the Domesday survey.

In the months that followed, a single scribe distilled all the reports except Little Domesday Book into a single volume, now known as Great Domesday Book. During the lifetimes of William the Conqueror and his sons, royal officials described it using more politically correct language. They called it a "descriptio (survey) of all England", the "king's book", the "book of the Exchequer", and so on.

But writing in the late 1170s, Richard FitzNigel, then treasurer to King Henry II, explained that it was popularly known by a very different name: "The natives [i.e. Englishmen] call this book Domesdei that is, the day of judgment. This is a metaphor: for just as no judgment of that final severe and terrible trial can be evaded by any subterfuge, so when any controversy arises in the kingdom concerning the matters contained in the book, and recourse is made to the book, its word cannot be denied or set aside with impunity." Domesday Book's name is therefore a function of its awesome reputation among the English: it invokes the Day of Judgment described in the Book of Revelations.

No contemporary text explains why Domesday Book was made, so its purpose remains controversial. Every entry contains information relating to taxation so it could be a tax book; but if so, it was poorly designed, for the layout of the text would have made it hard to use for fiscal purposes. The book does, however, enable readers to identify the lands held by King William and his barons very quickly and precisely; so it is more likely to have been intended as an instrument of political control. The barons were prepared to yield this instrument to the king since it gave them what they wanted most following the greatest tenurial revolution in England's history − greater security of title to their lands.

Domesday Book is the earliest English historical document preserved by the government which created it. That makes it England's earliest bureaucratic instrument. But its importance extends well beyond the origins of English red tape. Domesday Book is the most complete survey of a pre-industrial society anywhere in the world. It enables us to reconstruct the politics, government, society and economy of eleventh-century England with greater precision than is possible for any almost other pre-modern polity. Given the extent to which our knowledge of our past depends upon it, Domesday Book is certainly one of the one of the most important − and arguably the most important - English historical document.

Stephen Baxter is Reader in Medieval History at King's College London and presents Domesday on Tuesday 10 Aug at 20:00 on BBC Two

• You can can find out who owned your town or village in 1066, or create maps of Anglo-Saxon estates throughout England, with the PASE Domesday project.
• The Domesday Book is on A History of the World courtesy of The National Archives and Exeter Cathedral Library have put the Exon Domesday on the website too. For more on the Normans and Norman objects see our Normans page.

  

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Was anyone listening to Round Britain Quiz today? If you were you will have heard this question: "Why might you find this piece of music in the same collection as Harry's pet owl, a home for rabbits and a Moray cathedral city?"

Ringing any bells? Perhaps this list may help you.



I think it may be the first time I have ever got maximum points on a Round Britain Quiz question. And the contestants themselves admitted they might have scored more points had been listening more carefully to A History of the World in 100 objects.

I'm hoping that sooner or later this project is going to pay off in the Mastermind general knowledge round too.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

So did you see the first episode of The Normans last night? Good wasn't it? Admittedly, my knowledge of this period is pretty much summed up by the phrase '1066 and all that'. Though there was an excited moment in the last 15 minutes where I could be heard exclaiming "Stamford Bridge! Stamford Bridge - I know about that! There was a huge Viking on a bridge killing Saxons for fun and then, um, there wasn't."

Anyway, I learnt lots of things last night. That the Normans were really Vikings living the high life in France and, most strikingly, that King Rollo was real and not just a cartoon from my childhood. A huge Viking, in fact, who walked everywhere because he was too large to ride a horse. That's the kind of fact that is guaranteed to stick in your head. As is the fact that, until he arrived in Sussex and claimed a more flattering soubriquet for posterity, William the Conqueror was known as William the Bastard.

Watching the tale of his conquest with an eye on objects, the one that I wish we had for the site was the Papal banner delivered to William on the eve of his invasion. There is an object that could tell the story of the power of the medieval church and the way even powerful rulers would jockey for position in the eyes of the Pope. I guess the banner no longer exists - indeed there seems to be a debate about whether it ever existed.

Talking of jockeys, the programme reminded me of how terrifying the sight of a knight charging on horseback must have been. I didn't know that it was the Normans who had first mastered the tactics of these medieval tanks.

Some Norman cavalry armour would be another great object to tell the story of the invasion. I'm not clear how heavily armoured they were though. We've got an example of much later Elizabethan armour on the site, but the mounted figures stitched out on the Bayeux Tapestry seem more lightly dressed.

If you enjoyed the programme, I suggest you also take a look at Inside the Medieval Mind, which was repeated last night on BBC  Four. There's more on knights and the church, including how Pope Urban II sparked the First Crusade. I was particularly captured by the incredible tombs of crusaders at Temple Church in London (home of the Knights Templar) with their beautifully carved, recumbent knights, eyes open waiting for their resurrection. I'm wondering if we could persuade them to put a couple on the site? Perhaps I should pop round one afternoon.

• For more on the Normans and Norman objects see our Normans page. Or find out more about the season of programmes on BBC Two and BBC Four.
• Take a look at Hands on History for activity packs and information about Norman walks.
  

What do you think? Add a comment

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

The story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, as least as seen from the Norman side, is depicted in this unique object, the Bayeux Tapestry. Although more than 900 years old, its images are still gripping. It is a coloured embroidery, 70 metres long, full of vivid action, and also much that is unexplained and enigmatic.

There are short running captions in Latin and a wealth of fantastic activity in the upper and lower margins. The heart of the story is the struggle between duke William of Normandy and Harold Godwinsoin to succeed Edward the Confessor as king of England.

It was clearly designed by an artist capable of detailed and close observation. For example, the Tapestry shows how Normans and English could be identified immediately by their haircuts. The English have shoulder-length hair and moustaches but no beards, while the Normans are clean-shaven and have their hair razor-cut dramatically high at the back.

In Anglo-Saxon England it was only the priests who were fully clean shaven. This explains the legendary story that, when King Harold's scouts first saw the Normans camped outside Hastings, they reported back that "they have sent an army of priests!"

William of Normandy never accepted that Harold was a rightful king. As one French chronicler put it, Harold was only a "pseudo-king". The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story from this point of view.

The first half of the Tapestry is devoted to a journey that Harold took to France, where William is shown treating him honourably and fairly, and Harold is depicted swearing an oath to William on holy relics. It can be assumed that this oath involved a promise to support William's claim to the kingship of England.

Not long after Harold's return to England, according to the story in the Tapestry, he perjures himself in a spectacular way, disregarding his oath and seizing the throne for himself.

Nature itself is disturbed by this wickedness. In February 1066, after Harold had been on the throne less than two months, a comet appeared in the sky (we now know this as Halley's comet). For the people of the Middle Ages, the appearance of a comet meant some great change was about to occur, perhaps the downfall of a regime. This was why, in this period, a comet was called "the terror of kings".

And Harold had reason to fear. The Tapestry shows Duke William making his preparations: building a fleet, gathering supplies, and mustering troops. William's fleet, with its dragon-headed ships reminding us of the Normans' Viking ancestry, is shown sailing the 70 miles to the Sussex coast.

Once landed, the Normans began as they meant to continue, building two castles within a fortnight, one at Pevensey, one at Hastings, and ravaging the surrounding countryside. The Tapestry shows a woman and her child fleeing a burning house. The Godwinson family had its origins in Sussex, so Harold had been challenged on his own ground.

The Tapestry's depiction of the Battle of Hastings is the fullest pictorial record of a medieval battle in existence. The English occupied the ridge, standing shoulder to shoulder, many armed with huge axes and protected by their large oval shields. They were on foot. English aristocrats certainly rode, and used horses to get to the scene of battle, but they were not trained in cavalry warfare.

Fighting began about nine o'clock on that October day. The first attack of the Normans was repulsed, and some of the English chased them down the hill. A rumour spread that duke William himself had been killed. As the Tapestry's illustration shows, he pulled off his helmet to reveal his face, and cried out, "I live, and with God's help will conquer yet!" His men rallied and killed the English who had followed them down.

Having seen what happened when the English broke ranks to pursue them, the Normans now tried the same thing on purpose, pretending to retreat in order to lure the English into a more vulnerable position, where the Norman cavalry could cut them down.

The battle went on all day. The Tapestry shows the confusion and desperation of the fighting. The captions identify Odo, bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror, deep in the battle. Because he was a bishop, he was forbidden to shed blood, so, instead of a sword or lance, he carries a huge club. That way he could break a few arms or heads without any bloodshed.

The caption above him explains what he is doing "Here bishop Odo, holding his club, encourages the boys". Many people think that it was Odo who ordered the Tapestry to be made, hence his prominent position in the story.

The decisive moment in the battle was the death of Harold. Two early accounts of the battle say that the king was struck in the eye by an arrow. There has been long debate about whether the image in the Tapestry shows such a scene.

The words "Here King Harold has been killed" run along the top of the Tapestry, but do they apply to the figure directly below or to the man on the right being cut down by a Norman horseman? And, indeed, is the arrow in the eye really an original feature of the Tapestry, or a piece of guesswork restoration from the long centuries between the creation of the Tapestry and modern times?

Intriguing though such questions are, what really mattered on 14 October 1066 was that the king - along with his two brothers - was dead. The English fled, pursued by the victorious Normans. Next day William set off on the march to London, where, on Christmas Day, he was crowned King of the English in Westminster Abbey, the glorious new church that had been the scene of Harold's coronation less than twelve months before. The end of the Tapestry is lost but a good guess is that its final scene was this triumphant coronation of the Conqueror.

Professor Robert Bartlett presents The Normans, starting on BBC Two 4 Aug at 21:00

• The image is from the replica of the Bayeux tapestry on display at the Museum of Reading, who have added the Reading tapestry to our site.
• For more on the Normans and Norman objects see our Normans page. Or find out more about the season of programmes on BBC Two and BBC Four.
  

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

You may have noticed there are quite a few museums putting objects from their collections on A History of the World. But I hadn't realised quite how many until someone told me that we have just been joined by our 500th museum.

That's pretty amazing in just six months - and it's certainly way beyond our expectations.

The project started out with the idea of Radio 4 and the British Museum working together on a radio programme. But once the idea of 100 objects was hit upon and it was decided that there should be a website for them, it seemed only natural to invite other museums to join in. After all there are incredible objects in museum collections across the UK - and not just in the big buildings in city centres.

We've got museums of all sizes on the site, from the National Museums of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and large regional museums like Manchester Museum to ones that focus on a particular subject such as the Walsall Leather Museum, the Museum of Speed, and the Bagpipe Museum. Many other kinds of heritage site have added objects from their collections too, such as HMS Trincomalee, Geevor Tin Mine and Hereford Cathedral, who have contributed the amazing Mappa Mundi.

New objects are being added every day. Some of the latest ones include 'Numoli' figures from Sierra Leone, a Roman child's leather shoe, a cash register and the Domesday Book.

So thank you to all the museums who have joined the project. We're looking forward to seeing more of your objects. And if you haven't joined in yet, there's still time. Anyone can add an object to the website - just take a look at our guide on how to do it.

• Almost 200 museums are now also running Relic trails, including the winner of this year's Art Fund prize, Ulster Museum. So if you're looking for something to keep the kids entertained in the holidays, then see if there's a Relic trail near you.

What do you think? Add a comment

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?