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Begins TuesdayÌý18 October 2005 , 3.00-3.30 p.m |
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Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history. |
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Series 12 |
ProgrammeÌý11
27ÌýDecember 2005 |
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The Rolling of Drunken Duchesses
Making History listener Anna Scharf requested information about the ships that took German internees and prisoners of war from the UK to Canada during World War Two.
Estelle Lumb wrote from her home in Shipley to tell us that there were four sister ships owned by the Canadian Pacific Line - the Duchess of Bedford, Duchess of Atholl, Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of York. They were the largest passenger liners to sail up the St Lawrence as far as Montréal and worked mainly between there and Liverpool. They were known as the "rolling" or "drunken" Duchesses because of the flat-bottom designs which allowed them to navigate the St Lawrence River - in the stormy waters of the Atlantic this caused them to roll badly.
All four were requisitioned as troop ships in 1939. The Atholl was sunk in 1942 and the York in 1943.
Gene Timmins wrote to Making History to say that, as a 5 year old in 1930, she sailed on the Duchess of Richmond from Liverpool to Montreal when her father was promoted to a job in Canada. She remembers the voyage well and loved it - but her mother succumbed to seasickness thanks to the infamous roll.
Useful link
Ìý- further information and pictures
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The Origins of Race Walking
Brian Ficken, President of the Race Walking Association, gave Making History the following information.
Walking events, sometimes under a reasonable degree of scrutiny and sometimes not, really began to develop about the end of the 18th century and frequently featured professionals engaging in prodigious feats of 'pedestrianism' for considerable wagers. In 1773, for example, Foster Powell walked from London to York and back in six days for a wager of 1,000 guineas, and in 1808 a Captain Howe walked 346 miles in six days and then, a fortnight later, walked 83 miles in less than 24 hours for a 200 guinea wager. The validity of some of these early efforts must be questionable. James Watson must surely have been straining the concept of walking when he went from Whitechapel to Romford and back, 23 miles, in less than three hours, as must a Mr Rickets, who managed to get from Shoreditch to Ponders End (near Enfield in Middlesex) and back in an hour and 50 minutes, at a speed in excess of ten miles an hour!
The most famous of these walking feats was that of Captain Barclay (Robert Barclay Allardyce), an amateur runner and pugilist, who, in 1808Â-9, walked one mile in each of 1,000 consecutive miles on Newmarket Heath for 1,000 guineas.
Eventually, given the absence of any objective definition of 'walking', these events fell into disrepute and the activity - hardly worthy of description as a sport - declined. But in the 1860s, when athletics in general began to be organised on a formal basis, walking was on the scene again and the first Amateur Walking Championship, promoted by the Amateur Athletic Club, was held in 1866, when J.G. Chambers of Cambridge University won the 7-mile race in 59:32. The 7 miles continued to be contested until 1893, becoming the Amateur Athletic Association Championship in 1880, and track walks have, ever since, been included in the AAA Championships. The famous London to Brighton race was first held in 1886, promoted by the long-vanished Hairdressers' Athletic Club, and several other point-to-point events, now mostly abandoned because of traffic conditions, followed.
The early 20th century saw the firm establishment of race walking as a serious, well-regulated sport, some of the key dates being these:
1906: Race walking (at 1,500 metres and 3,000 metres) appeared in the Intercalated Olympic Games, with some controversy as the first two finishers in each race (the same men) were disqualified.
1907: The Southern Counties Road Walking Association was formed in London.
1908: The first Championship was held over 20 miles at Ruislip, the individual winner being Harold Ross of Tooting A.C. in 2:56:32, while the team prize went to Surrey Walking Club.
1908: In the London Olympic Games, George Larner, a Brighton policeman, won both the walks 3,500 metres in 14:55.0 and 10 miles in 1:15:57.4.
1911: The Southern Counties Road Walking Association became a national body. It subsequently took over from the AAA responsibility for track walking (in 1954) and from the women's organisations all responsibility for women's walking (in1980), thus becoming the first unified body in English athletics.
Where does the style come from?
It is the only way to allow people to walk at speed without running. Clearly some of the early 'walkers' were running if their times are to be believed. Race walking rules demand that a part of a walker's foot is on the ground at any one time - when you run there are times when nothing is touching the ground.
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Saxon Primary School
Gill Stephens, a governor at Saxon Primary School in Shepperton, contacted the programme to tell us how schoolchildren were being encouraged to take part in archaeological surveys to help them understand their Anglo-Saxon history. The scheme started after Gill was stopped from planting trees on the school playing-field by English Heritage who explained that it was a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Parents and teachers then discovered that a number of important digs had been carried out before the school was built, so it was decided that the children would do some more surveying in Gill's garden which borders the school field. The pupils were helped by local archaeologist Helene McNeil, Surrey Archaeological Unit and English Heritage.
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý