Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history.
Programme 6
6 November 2007
Iron Farming
Making History’s Nick Baker reported from Ypres in Belgium where farmland continues to offer up the gruesome reminders of the carnage during four years of fighting during the First World War.
As human survivors of the conflict dwindle in number, local historians and museum workers now regard these human and military remains that act as a silent witness to the war.
Further information
Crane Park and the Gunpowder Plot
Making History listener Alex Robb works for the London Wildlife Trust at its Crane Park nature reserve near Twickenham in South West London. The area was once occupied by the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills but, today, all that remains is a nineteenth century ‘shot tower’ where lead shot was made. Alex told the programme that, according to local legend, Guy Fawkes visited the Duke of Northumberland at nearby Syon House on the 4th November 1605.
Furthermore, the gunpowder mills at Crane Park supplied Fawkes and his treacherous band with the explosives that they needed to blow up the Houses of Parliament… Is there any truth in all this?
Making History consulted Wayne Cocroft of English Heritage and Professor Pauline Croft of Royal Holloway, University of London.
Wayne Cocroft explained that the gunpowder industry in England received a boost in the sixteenth century with the break with Rome. Until that time, much of the gunpowder needed by our armed forces had come from Europe. But, Catholic domination of those countries that could supply our needs forced the Crown to turn to domestic sources. Advances in armaments technology also strengthened the domestic industry. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, gunpowder mills were springing up along the River Thames and her tributaries.
Professor Croft explained that the industry was regulated by patent. However, these patents were easily obtained and it would have been relatively easy for potential buyers to source gunpowder. However, there is no written evidence which even suggests that Guy Fawkes used gunpowder from Crane Park
Further information:
Further Reading
Wayne Cocroft is the author of “Dangerous Energy” which is available from English Heritage.ISBN 978-1-85074-718-5; Product code 50149; Price £35; tel 01761 452966; email: ehsales@gillards.com
Edinburgh to London Walk
Terry Aspinall told Making History about taking part in and (he claims) winning a walk from Edinburgh to London walk in, he thinks, 1959. Terry now lives in Australia but his :
Fulford to Waltham Abbey Walk
Making History listener Chas Jones is fascinated by the Battle of Fulford in September. It was here that the Norwegian Vikings defeated the English Northern Earls and forced Harold Godwinson to march north for Tadcaster and then the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Chas wanted to know how long it would have taken the English messenger to travel south from Fulford to bring news to Harold of the defeat, so he decided to do the journey himself dressed as an Eleventh Century monk.
Making History also consulted the historian Dr Ann Williams to comment on the insight that Chas’s walk provides and discuss how Harold would then have journeyed from York to Battle in Sussex to face the Normans.
Further Reading
The Forgotten Battle of Fulford by Chares Jones. Tempus Publishing. ISBN: 9780752438108
The English and the Norman Conquest by Dr Ann Williams. The Boydell Press ISBN-10: 0851157084 ISBN-13: 978-0851157085
Vanessa has presentedscience and current affairs programmes for tv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for tv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
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PO Box 3096 Brighton
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Vanessa has presentedscience and current affairs programmes for tv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for tv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.