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Making History
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 Tuesday 3.00-3.30 p.m |
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Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener’s historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all ‘make’ history. |
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Programme 11 |
9ÌýDecemberÌý2008 |
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Vanessa Collingridge and the team explore themes from Britain’s past thanks to queries raised by listener’s own historical research.
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Who drained the Fens?
A Making History listener has found evidence that two Irish ancestors settled in Crowland near Peterborough in the 1630’s at the time when the drainage of the Fens was just about to begin. There is a suggestion that they may have been gifted land in return for their work on the drainage programme. Is this evidence of our first Irish navvies and, if not, who did all the spadework?
Making History’s Richard Daniel met up with social historian Dr Heather Falvey on the in west NorfolkÌý where she explained the work that was carried out in the 1630’s. Then they moved to theÌýÌýto see if there were any record for the labourers.
Useful websites
There are several websites that tell the story of the drainage of the Fens, particular the work in the 1630s by Vermuyden the Dutch engineer who was sponsored by the Earl of Bedford.Ìý
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Teaching the Eighteenth Century
Following a discussion in last week’s Making History ( 2/12/08) in which a contributor suggested that a lack of research in our universities held back the teaching of the eighteenth century in our schools, one or two institutions contacted the programme to tell us that they put great emphasis on this period.
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The Whaler Diana
A Making History listener has discovered that two of his ancestors were aboard a Hull whaler caught in the Arctic ice for 13 months in the 1860’s. Making History consulted the outgoing Keeper of Maritime History at Kingston upon Hull Museum, Arthur Credland.
Useful Links
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Cornish Wrecking
Did the sea-faring communities of Cornwall really lure ships on to the rocks using false lights? Making History consulted Dr Cathryn Pearce from the University of Alaska and the and
Cathyrn Pearce pointed out that most of the stories of false lights do not appear in primary sources until the mid-nineteenth century. She thinks that it is the romantic novelists of the Victorian period and the Methodist revival at this time that stokes up inaccurate stories about Cornish wreckers. She points out that local people have always salvaged material from wrecks and this is what many Cornish people understood by the term ‘wrecking’, however, the Methodists in particular need a ‘bogeyman’ and so-called ‘wreckers’ become such people. Records show that the Methodists used examples of people who were new to their faith who had, allegedly, once been ‘wreckers’, then turning over a new leaf and shunning their sinful past. There are also stories where the facts have been substantially changed throughout history, Cathryn points to one from the Scillies – seeÌý
Helen Doe also thinks that the actions of smugglers may well have been confused with those of ‘wreckers’. The former used lights on cliff-tops to signal to ships at sea and this is where the legend of ‘false-lights’ has come from.
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Contact ÌýMaking History |
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Use this link to email Vanessa Collingridge and the team: email Making History
Write to: Making History
±«Óãtv Radio 4
PO Box 3096
Brighton
BN1 1TU
Telephone: 08700 100 400
Making History is produced by Nick Patrick and is a Pier Production. |
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See AlsoThe ±«Óãtv is not responsible for the content of external sites |
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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