The changing role of woman in 20th-century Britain
Perhaps the most dramatic improvement in Britain’s way of life in the 20th century was the change in the place...
07/03/2014
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Coffee-houses in 17th century England
Coffee was one of the fancy new comestibles introduced to England in Stuart times. The first coffee-house was opened in...
26/01/2014
History of the game: “Tennis balls, my liege”
The insulting ‘treasure’ that France’s Dauphin sent to Henry V in Shakespeare’s play had long since played its part in...
07/01/2014
London homes in Shakespeare’s time
Thanks to decades of peace, English houses are no longer made for defence but for comfort. The newly rich may...
09/12/2013
Food and drink in the Middle Ages
The production, processing, and consumption of foodstuffs were a primary preoccupation of the medieval population. In the earlier unsettled period,...
17/11/2013
The Gypsies, from 10th to 20th century
The Gypsies, or Roma, are unique: they are the only nomadic people in recorded history who have not been either...
21/09/2013
Robert Owen’s social experiment at New Lanark
One of the Scotland’s great social reformers was a Welshman, Robert Owen, born in 1771. He would have been saddened...
01/09/2013
Shop till you drop in Tudor’s time
Elizabethans witnessed many improvements in daily life. One of those is the stockings knitting machine invented in 1589 by William...
17/08/2013
The Great Exhibition opened
The world’s first international exhibition of industry was opened on the 1st May 1851 by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. It...
24/07/2013
Punishing the poor
Poverty came close to being a crime in 16th and 17th century England. Once the needy sought help from the...
21/06/2013