CENTRE FOR METROPOLITAN
HISTORY
EMAIL NEWSLETTER
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Issue No. 4 February 2004
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Email: ihrcmh@sas.ac.uk
ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the fourth issue of the Centre for Metropolitan History’s periodic
electronic newsletter. Our intention is to keep you informed about the latest
news from the Centre for Metropolitan History, other research centres and local
history societies, record offices and libraries which may be of interest. Each
item of news is brief but links are provided to sources where fuller information
is available.
The newsletter will only be sent to people who have asked to receive it. To
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issue, please email ihrcmh@sas.ac.uk.
Back issues will be available at www.history.ac.uk/cmh/newsletter.html
1. NEWS FROM THE CMH
- We are delighted to announce that the Economic and Social Research Council
has awarded funding for a new 18-month project based on the 'Views of Hosts'
returns which are housed at The National Archives (PRO E101). The 'Views
of Hosts' were the product of legislation of 1439 requiring that money made
by alien merchants from sales of imports was spent on English goods for export.
Each alien was assigned to a host who kept a record of his transactions, detailing
the names of his business contacts, goods bought and sold and their price.
Twice a year the host copied out his book entries and returned them to the
Exchequer. They provide unique qualitative and quantitative data for alien
trade and social networks, particularly in London, from a period when English
central and local government sought the social exclusion and economic restriction
of those who were not English by allegiance or birth. The data will be disseminated
to a wide audience in three complementary formats: an online transcript made
from the originals; a database to facilitate detailed analyses of customers,
suppliers, goods and prices; and a modern English translation will be published
by the London Record Society as a companion volume. The project will additionally
examine the social, political and economic context of the legislation, exploring
the mechanics of the system employed by the government in this early attempt
to identify and regulate the trading practices of non-English communities.
We look forward to welcoming Dr Helen Bradley to the CMH when she begins work
on the project on 1 April.
- We were very sorry to say goodbye to Dr Emilia Jamroziak ('Markets
and Fairs in Thirteenth-Century England' project) who left us at the end of
December to take up a Research Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh.
We wish her every success with her new appointment.
- Our new AHRB-funded project, People in Place: families, households and
housing in early modern London (www.history.ac.uk/cmh/projects.html#pip),
began on 1 October. Using the Cheapside parish of All Hallows Honey Lane as
a test bed for ways to integrate information about people and properties,
the London and Cambridge teams have designed a database structure which will
incorporate the principle sources (both concerning individuals and cross-sections
of the community) that the project will encounter. Work has begun on the gathering
of material from the parish registers, from a number of 17th century inhabitants
lists and from probate materials, and a method is being investigated to convert
information from the narrative format of the Cheapside Gazetteer into a format
suitable for inclusion in the database.
- The History of St Paul's Cathedral, edited by Derek Keene,
Arthur Burns and Andrew Saint, is nearing completion and is due to be published
by Yale University Press on 24 April 2004 - the feast of St Mellitus and the
diocese's 1400th anniversary. Over forty contributors have worked on the volume
which covers every aspect of the cathedral's history during this long period.
Lavishly illustrated and annotated, it will be on sale at all good bookshops
priced £65 (ISBN 0 300 09276 8). www.yalebooks.co.uk
- The 'Guilds: London...England...Europe' conference (31 October-1
November 2003) attracted a large and international audience. We were fortunate
to be able to hold our conference reception at the Merchant Taylors' Hall
in the City, which provided a very appropriate and convivial setting for the
evening. Plans in hand to publish the papers in book form in due course.
- The 2004 Leverhulme Lecture on Comparative Metropolitan History will
be given by Professor Peter Johanek (Institut fuer vergleichende Staedtegeschichte,
Muenster) on 5 May 2004 at 5.30 pm in the Chancellor's Hall, Senate House,
Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. The lecture will be on 'The idea of the metropolis
in medieval Europe: the case of the Holy Roman Empire'. All are welcome. Admission
free, no ticket required.
- The programme and booking information for the Metropolitan Folklore conference
to be held at the Institute of Historical Research on 19 May is now available
at www.history.ac.uk/cmh/folklore.html.
Organised by the CMH and the Folklore Society, papers will include: 'Belief
and ritual at the end of life: dying in late medieval England'; 'The context
of a witchcraft accusation: Sarah Morduck, Southwark, 1701'; and 'New Troy:
the origins of London from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Stow'.
- The response to the Call for Papers for the 'Metropolitan Catastrophes:
Scenarios, Experiences and Commemorations in the Era of Total War' conference
(Institute of Historical Research, 12-13 July 2004) was overwhelming, with
many outstanding papers being offered. Consequently, it has taken longer than
expected to put the programme together but this will be available shortly
at: www.history.ac.uk/cmh/war.html.
The conference should provide a very stimulating exploration of the cultural
imprint of military conflict on metropolises worldwide over a long time-span.
- A Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship, based in the CMH, is being
offered for research in any aspect of comparative metropolitan history from
the early medieval period onwards and with one element of the comparison situated
in Europe. Further details are at: www.history.ac.uk/cmh/student.html
It is with great sadness that we report the untimely death of Mr Gerry Martin.
Gerry was a most generous benefactor and enthusiastic supporter of the Centre,
especially of the 'Growth of the Skilled Workforce 1500-1750' Project (1992-1994
www.history.ac.uk/cmh/projects.html#growth),
and until recently served as one of the CMH's Patrons. He also funded the seminar
and conferences in global history at the IHR. A true philanthropist and an exceptional
gentleman, Gerry will be sorely missed.
2. NEWS FROM THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH (IHR)
- The IHR has organised a number of training courses which may be of
interest: 'Visual Sources for Historians' (Fridays, 27 February-26 March),
'Introduction to Methods & Sources for Gender and Women's History' (8-12
March), 'Introduction to Methods and Sources for Historical Research' (29
March-2 April), 'Databases for Historical Research' (9-12 February and 19-22
July), and 'Internet Sources for Historical Research' (27-28 April).
- The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded the Victoria County History
a grant of £3.56 million towards the 'England's Past for Everyone' project.
This will produce life-long learning materials in paperback and on-line, providing
over 1 million users with access to high-quality, engaging local history information.
This material will be researched and written by volunteer members of local
communities around England, working in partnership with professional historians
in the VCH counties. The future of the Middlesex Victoria County History,
however, is at present in serious doubt after the withdrawal of all local
authority funding at the end of March 2004. Further information on the Middlesex
and London VCH appeal is available at http://www.middlesexpast.net/
- The new editions of Grants for History: A Guide to Funding,
compiled by John R Davies with Jane Winters, and Teachers of History
(listing almost 3,000 people teaching history in UK universities and colleges
of higher education, with details of each individual's teaching area and research
interests. Contact details are also provided). Both volumes are available
now from the Institute Bookshop at £15 and £12 respectively. Catalogue
and ordering information available at: www.history.ac.uk/bookshop/
3. NEWS FROM OTHER CENTRES
- From 10 October 2003 the History Data Service became AHDS History,
one of the five centres of the Arts and Humanities Data Service. In addition
to providing researchers with advice and guidance on creating digital resources,
AHDS History manages and curates digital resources to ensure their long-term
preservation and dissemination. Its collection currently comprises over 600
separate data collections transcribed, scanned or compiled from original sources
from the seventh to the twentieth century. Access to the collection has been
facilitated by a new cross-subject catalogue. Further information about AHDS
History can be found at their new website: http://history.ahds.ac.uk
- A conference on 'Banking in Late-Medieval and Renaissance Europe' will
be held on 7-9 September 2004 at Queen Mary, University of London. Organised
by the Borromei Bank Research Project, the conference will survey work in
progress on banking and credit systems, international and local, in Europe
from c.1300 to c. 1550.
- Congratulations to Dr Andrea Tanner, a former research officer at
the CMH (Mortality in the Metropolis Project), who has been awarded a grant
of £51,585 from the Wellcome Trust for her on-going project on Great
Ormond Street Hospital based at the Centre for Local History Studies, Kingston
University. The project database currently contains over 54,000 entries representing
in-patients between 1852 and 1903. Andrea will be giving a paper at the Society
of Genealogists' Workshop on 'Records of the Poor' on Saturday 17 April
(further information at http://www.sog.org.uk/events/).
The Centre for Local History Studies is involved in plans to launch a new
Centre for Suburban Studies in the Spring, with a number of joint activities
on the subject of 'Suburbia' in the next academic year. For information on
the Centre log onto: http://localhistory.kingston.ac.uk
- The Centre of East Anglian Studies (CEAS) at the University of East
Anglia, has a new Director, Dr Steve Cherry, Senior Lecturer in Economic and
Social History in the School of History at the UEA. The History of Norwich,
edited by Carole Rawcliffe and Richard Wilson with Christine Clark, containing
32 chapters and totalling over 320,000 words will be published by Hambledon
in 2004 to mark the 600th anniversary of the award to the city of county status.
The CEAS Winter Lecture Series (each Thursday during February) is devoted
to aspects of the history of Norwich. For further information on this and
other activities of the CEAS see: http://www.uea.ac.uk/his/ceas/
- The Conference of Regional and Local Historians (CORAL) have just
published the proceedings of the 2002 Conference 'Rural and Urban Encounters
in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Regional Perspectives' (ISBN 0
9545069 9 5) at the discounted price of £5 inc. p&p to CORAL members.
CORAL's 2004 conference will take place on 2 September at the University of
Lincoln on 'The Nineteenth-Century Provincial Press'. CORAL's website is:
www.coral-historians.org.uk
- Cultural History and Tropes/Traps of Modernity, the next meeting
in the 'Conversations and Disputations: Discussions among Historians' series
sponsored by the IHR and the Raphael Samuel History Centre, University of
East London will be held at the IHR on 21 February 2004, 1.30 pm-4 pm.
4. MUSEUMS AND LOCAL STUDIES LIBRARIES
- Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre is currently hosting the
exhibition 'Architectural details on Hampstead Houses. Photographs by Bryan
Diamond' at Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA (Tel: 020
7974 6342; www.camden.gov.uk/localstudies;
closed Wednesday, Sunday) until 28 February 2004.
- The British Museum is holding a study day on 'The Enlightenment:
discovering the world in the 18th century' on 20 May 2004. For information
on this and other events, the museum's website is: www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/
- The Museum of London's 'Connected London' exhibition has just opened
and continues to 25 April. It takes a look at the telephone communication
revolution and its history over the past 125 years. '1920s: the decade that
changed London' continues until 18 July. (www.museumoflondon.org.uk/)
5. NEW ONLINE RESOURCES
- Pathe News has made their entire 3,500 hours of film archive, covering
news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970, available
online - www.britishpathe.com. The
site also includes 12 million still images. Viewing online is free of charge
and licences may be obtained for higher resolution copies.
- Henry Harben's long out-of-print Dictionary of London (1918),
is now available on British History Online (www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=3).
It provides historical notes of streets and buildings in the City of London,
including references to other relevant sources.
- A navigable, digitised version of John Rocque's map of London, Westminster
and Southwark, 1746 is accessible at www.motco.com/map/81002
- Sources from the London Metropolitan Archives form the basis of two
new sites: London Generations (www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/lma/london_generations.htm)
is a searchable database including Parish Registers of Baptism, Marriage and
Burial, Parish Poor Law Registers, Registers of Kensington, Chelsea, Shoreditch
and Hackney Boards of Guardians, Bishops' transcripts of parish registers
and other sources, London County Council School Registers and Electoral Registers
for the Counties of London and Middlesex. London Signatures (www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/wills/)
is a free, searchable index of 10,000 wills from the Archdeaconry Court of
Middlesex, covering 1609-1810. Digital copies of the wills can also be purchased.
- As noted in a previous issue of the newsletter, the New Opportunities
Fund Digitisation programme has funded the website Ten Generations
(www.tengenerations.org.uk).
This website draws on a broad range of material from each of the partners
(Camden Local Studies, Brent, Hackney, Islington and Westminster archives,
Bishopsgate Institute, London Transport Museum, the Royal Free Hospital NHS
Trust Archives and the University College London Hospitals (NHS) Trust Archives)
to create a social and cultural history of north London over 300 years. Users
can now search the site database and call up details and images of items and
explore aspects of London's history in a range of specially written 'learning
journeys. This site is part of the London Discovery portal (www.londondiscovery.org.uk)
which provides access to websites on 'the growth of suburbia in SE London',
'Unlocking London's architecture', 'Hidden Histories from Eastside Community
Heritage', 'Tudor Hackney', 'life in Kensington & Chelsea', 'Islington's
artefacts collection'.
- http://hospitalrecords.pro.gov.uk
is the result of a joint project by the Wellcome Trust and The National
Archives. It consists of a searchable database providing information on
the existence and location of the records of hospitals in the U.K. Over 2,800
entries are currently accessible.
- The European Visual Archive (EVA) is a searchable image resource
containing photographs dating from 1840 to the present drawn from the collections
of the London Metropolitan Archives and the Stadsarchief Antwerpen. The EVA
database currently contains 18,028 descriptsons of digitised photographs.
Log on to http://www.eva-eu.org/en/
5. NEW PUBLICATIONS
- The Bede Roll of the Parish Clerks' Company, ed. N. and V.
James, is due to be published by the London Record Society this month. The
volume is available to non-members of the LRS for £20 (plus postage).
Please contact the Hon. Secretary. The full list of LRS publications is at:
http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/lrs/LRSpubs.html
- The next issue of the London Journal (Vol 28 No. 2, 2003)
is due shortly. It will include articles on 'Policing and Public Order in
the City of London, 1784-1815', 'London Capital Convicts and the Reactions
of the Courts and Press, 1789', 'Lodging-house Keeping and the Accommodation
Business in Nineteenth-century London' and 'The London County Council's River
Steamboat Service'. As well as exhibition and book reviews, there will be
a conference report on 'City Merchants and the Arts' held at Guildhall, November
2003. Lists of contents, abstracts from recent issues, and information on
the London Journal is available at: www.history.ac.uk/cmh/londonjournal
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DISCLAIMER
The information in this newsletter is provided in good faith, however the Centre
for Metropolitan History cannot guarantee
the accuracy of the information and accepts no responsibility for any error
or misrepresentation.
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Centre for Metropolitan History
Institute of Historical Research
(School of Advanced Study, University of London)
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
website: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh