Search

This article examines the response of the English heritage sector, in particular Historic England, to the impact caused by the initial lockdown and restrictions introduced to protect lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. This response, headed by the Heritage Sector Response Group, relied on effective cross-sector working in order to both make the case for targeted support for the heritage sector to the UK Government and to provide advice and support for organisations during the lockdown and the limited reopening of the economy which followed. This included gathering intelligence in order to understand the impact of restrictions on the sector, which was used to swiftly develop emergency grant schemes funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England. The paper also considers the Historic England Heritage Online Debate around the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on the sector, which gathered case studies from across the sector to capture and share qualitative information. The paper then looks at other long term challenges facing the sector, such as climate change, and considers how a collaborative approach and lessons learned from the sector's response to the COVID-19 restrictions may provide models for building resilience for the future and developing solutions to other issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been promoted in the UK housing sector as a key strategy for meeting carbon reduction commitments by offsetting the use of the non-renewable grid energy with renewable energy. However, inhabitants are not changing their routine energy consumption practices to take advantage of off-grid day time solar energy and, in some cases, even shifting practices away from the initial intentions underlying the technology. This means that the necessary energy savings from new housing are not being achieved. In this paper, this is attributed to the variation in the provisioning of PV technology in new homes, as well as inhabitants' engagement with and know-how of PV technologies, subject to explicit rules and policies. The key contribution of this paper is to reveal how PV technologies and inhabitants interact within different socio-technological home contexts drawing on Practice theory and ethnographic methods applied to four housing developments in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies linking indoor environments and productivity have been conducted in controlled, static conditions often unrepresentative of the real world. This paper uses a case-study-based, real-world approach to empirically investigate the link between indoor environment and workplace productivity in a mechanically-ventilated office environment in southern England. Environmental parameters were monitored continuously. Transverse and longitudinal surveys recorded perceptions of the working environment and self-reported productivity. Performance tasks provided proxy measures of performance. Productivity was perceived to decrease when occupants perceived thermal discomfort and stuffy air. Correlations with perceived changes in productivity were stronger for perceived rather than measured environmental conditions, implying occupants' subjective feelings impacted perceived productivity more than objective environmental conditions. Task scores were 15% lower when conducted at CO2 levels above 800 ppm compared to below 800 ppm. Insights from the study can help to optimize indoor office environments and improve workplace productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the unusual opportunities for motoring leisure provided by the modernistic landscape of the Great West Road in the inter-war period. This suburban arterial road had become ribboned by new Americanized factories, which featured 'Californian' white elevations, floodlit at night. This modern roadscape, likened to the 'great white way of an exhibition' by John Betjeman, attracted leisure drivers who would cruise the new road, experiencing a sensation of displaced Americanization and modernity. Using David Nye's work on technological sublimity, this paper positions the Great West Road as a special space for driving as a new leisure experience, distancing this period from the exploration of the countryside that typified motoring in the previous decades. The paper uses material from motoring magazines, architectural sources and poetry to explain the nature of this sublimity through leisure driving. Not being California, the juxtaposition of wet British weather and this road could also provide a misty and mysterious driving experience. As the inter-war period drew to a close, some commentators saw this road as tawdry and vulgar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British Government announced large-scale reforms of England's planning policy in May 2010. The resultant National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was released in March 2012. Despite assurances from the Government that the principles governing the management of the historic environment through the planning system would remain largely intact, the policy reform process caused considerable concern and upheaval for historic environment interest groups, and prompted a great deal of activity to assure its interest. This paper sets the context for the historic environment sector's political engagement in England, with insights applicable to the place of heritage advocacy within the power webs of wider agencies of government. The paper examines the campaign led by the heritage charity, the National Trust, and contrasts its strategy with that practised by other bodies in the sector to evaluate the (in)effectiveness of advocacy strategies in the current political climate. The power dynamics and the intricacies of policy processes, as well as the strategies of historic environment agencies engaging with them, are considered. The study concludes that, although the NPPF release was eventually received as a reasonably positive outcome for the interests of the sector, it illustrates the lengths to which political advocates must now go in order to effect change and, conversely, shows how vulnerable we may be if we are not alert to the changing public policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In November 1645, Parliament coordinated the arrival of two armies before the Nottinghamshire town of Newark on Trent to besiege this major royalist garrison. To the north of the town was the Scottish army under the Earl of Leven and to the south English forces under the command of Colonel-General Poyntz of the Northern Association. Situated at the meeting of two great highways, and commanding the crossing nearest to the Humber on the river Trent, Newark had provided a major link between the king's headquarters at Oxford and the northern towns of Newcastle and York. Although the besieging armies were of comparable strength, the Scottish army alone was to generate extensive discontent and numerous petitions from parishes in the immediate vicinity of the town about the behaviour of its troops. Using both state papers and surviving local records, this paper seeks to explore the impact and logistics of both armies and examine whether the complaints against the Scots reflected major differences in their circumstances or was simply a coordination of local xenophobia by the parliamentarian gentry of the region seeking to influence wider political struggles at Westminster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is ventilation in traditional dwellings, specifically with reference to English Heritage's 'rule of thumb' for historic buildings, which is that it should be 'twice the normal level of ventilation'. Examination of the subject has taken place through a literature review and the empirical case studies of two groups of unimproved dwellings.' The paper considers the ventilation of traditional buildings using the breakdown on the subject offered by the Building Regulations document for new build dwellings in England and Wales - Approved Document F. Where occupancy patterns are available, as with the case study on Fitz Steps, Cumbria, the validity of the rule of thumb is questioned. The paper will also show that, for the dwellings studied as a whole, lower air permeability results than orthodoxy would suggest were recorded, with common infiltration points between properties. There was also some evidence of modern extensions being less airtight than the original dwelling. A wide variation in measured air flow relating to chimneys was noted, raising questions over the air flow figures for this type of dwelling used in SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) for the energy assessment of buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1908, London hosted the fourth Olympic Games. A centrepiece of the Olympics, still in a nascent form after their creation in 1896, was the marathon, a foot-race of approximately 40 km. The race was run from Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium at Shepherd's Bush in July 1908, and quickly became famous for its controversies, such as the judges' assistance that helped Dorando Pietri over the line, and the questionable amateur status of Canadian runner Tom Longboat. This paper will concentrate on the route of the race: on how it was planned by the Polytechnic Harriers, how it was managed on the day, how it contributed to the development of 'marathon fever' after the Olympics, and what it tells us about the growing suburban landscape of Edwardian London and its hinterlands. The paper will end with a survey of the route today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contract for the construction of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the cemetery of Holy Trinity, Southchurch, Essex, is probably the earliest surviving building contract in England. It dates from 1293 and recounts the instructions of Sir Peter de Southchurch for the construction of a large, freestanding chapel for his father's burial. The chapel does not survive, if it was ever built, and the contract has been almost entirely disregarded by scholars, including L. F. Salzman, with the exception of some local historians of the 1920s–40s. Its significance for our understanding of contracting for building work, gentry culture and the construction of detached chapels has been wholly overlooked. This paper includes a new transcription and translation of the document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes as its subject the gardens and gardening activities of the rural county gentry in early seventeenth-century England. Extant gardens from this period are extremely rare and current knowledge is largely limited to the well-documented, but unrepresentative, and extravagant showpieces of the nobility. However, close examination of manuscript collections, household accounts, and contemporary maps, plans and engravings has offered valuable insight into gardens at gentry level, providing new evidence about what was actually happening in the generality of such gardens during the period. Focusing here on the examples of two Midlands gentlemen, Sir Thomas Temple (1567-1636) and Sir Richard Leveson (1598-1661), who were both engaged in creating gardens during the early 1630s at their respective estates in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, it has been possible to add new facets to our fragmentary knowledge of gardens and gardening in the early modern period, as well as to give consideration to the idea that gardens were an appropriate way for a gentleman to demonstrate his standing in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent excavations at Beverley Minster contribute significant new information relating to the development of the minster from the later pre-conquest period until the 12th century, as well as some technical detail relating to the 14th-century nave. This paper provides a brief overview of later 19th- to 20th-century considerations of the minster's origins and development. Thereafter, the results of recent excavations are presented and the impact of these in re-shaping the history of the minster's development is then considered within the wider context of the minster as a whole. More specifically, evidence is presented for the existence of an early pre-conquest cemetery, perhaps focused on a church of an alignment slightly different from that of the present. The implication of further burials pre-dating a 12th-century nave is also examined. Evidence relating to a large 12th-century aisled nave is also presented and discussion given to the impact this nave had on the rebuilding of the eastern parts of the church after 1188 as well as to the origin of the eastern elements that preceded these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an edition of a stray duchy of Lancaster building account currently located in the archives of the Spalding Gentleman's Society and relating to building works at Pontefract castle. The roll contains what are referred to as 'the parcells' of account for the year 1406-07. Few such accounts survive for this period. Pontefract was an important centre under Henry IV, having housed the deposed Richard II until his death. The work being done at the castle was part of the rebuilding of the quarters of Robert Waterton, constable of Pontefract. Robert de Gamelston of Nottinghamshire is known from other sources as a quarryman and master mason, but this account extends the period for which he is known to have been active. Details of the quarries and of the work and wages of the masons, carpenters and smiths are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent, causes and nature of juvenile delinquency in Metropolitan London during and immediately after World War II. In response to a rising number of children and young persons being sentenced in the Metropolitan Juvenile Courts, magistrates and experts at the London Country Council favoured the continuation of a welfarist approach to delinquency that had operated before the war. War conditions reinforced the view that delinquency was the result of familial and social deprivation that eschewed retributive punishment. An increasing number of children and teenagers, mainly girls and often in need of care and protection, appeared before the Metropolitan Juvenile Courts. These delinquents were increasingly regarded in terms of welfare rather than as juridical subjects. However, this penal-welfarist practice, which embraced the rehabilitation of delinquents, was periodically challenged, as psychological treatment was regarded with suspicion, and the corporal punishment of boys gained in popularity in wartime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anglo-Saxon architecture was first securely identified in the early 19th century, after which its characteristics were progressively defined and discussed. At the beginning of the 20th century, Gerard Baldwin Brown assembled a corpus of the surviving structures, analysing their architectural styles and attempting to date them; this process was continued and refined by Harold Taylor, culminating in his three-volume opus (1965-78). Since then, many new discoveries have been made and detailed studies of individual buildings carried out, together with major excavations at Winchester, Wells, Gloucester, Jarrow, Wearmouth, Barton-upon-Humber and other locations. Research has also been directed towards the remains of painted decoration on stone and plaster, and on the small amount of carpentry surviving from the period. Consequently, the volume of evidence relating to Anglo-Saxon churches, their construction and decoration has increased enormously. In particular, there has been a growing realisation that these churches were not the 'rude structures' that they were dubbed by early antiquaries, but sophisticated in design and execution. Moreover, they were highly decorated internally, and probably externally too. This paper reviews some of the evidence gathered over the last forty years, mainly through archaeological investigation, both above and below ground. It concludes that we have hitherto underestimated the physical complexity and the architectonic and artistic qualities of Anglo-Saxon churches. It is now possible to reconstruct from ephemeral evidence a much greater understanding of the three-dimensional form and decoration of these buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two fragments of a figure of Christ crucified from South Cerney parish church comprise the sole survivor of a Romanesque wooden Rood with an English provenance. This paper argues that it is an example of a Triumphkreuz originally located at the chancel arch of South Cerney church and seeks to establish its relationship to both pre-Conquest monumental stone Rood sculpture and wooden Triumphkreuze in northern Europe and Scandinavia. The Triumphkreuz appears to have been a standard feature of the greater churches of Norman England, but how common it was in post-Conquest parish churches is less clear. While church dedications suggest that devotion to the Holy Cross was particularly strong in south-west England, late-11th- and 12th-century mural painting and sculpture of chancel arches in parish churches over a wide area exhibit a close connection with the Rood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If women in London in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries sought the perfect crime in which to participate, selecting receiving stolen goods provided excellent opportunities for profit and little chance of punishment. Low conviction rates, combined with the fact that no behaviour outside of gendered expectations was required in its commission, made dealing in stolen goods relatively easy for women in the metropolis. Although this particular offence has not been deeply analysed by historians of crime, its commission did alarm contemporaries, including members of the legal community and social commentators. This paper explores accusations against females in London for receiving, as well as the important roles that familial relationships and work played in their indictments for the crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses judicial records of the Sheriffs' Court of London and the royal Court of Common Pleas at Westminster to investigate whether the concept of a later medieval 'Golden Age' of female opportunity, as Caroline Barron has posited, is indicated by London's legal customs, as reflected in quantitative evidence of London women's court appearances and the types of cases in which they were litigants. It offers an introduction to economic and legal aspects of the 'Golden Age debate' and other quantitative investigations of women in later medieval courts; presents a comparative pre-plague to post-plague analysis of London women in the London Sheriffs' Court and royal Court of Common Pleas; and places trends regarding London women within a national context. It is concluded that women in London, as elsewhere in England, were less likely to act as litigants in the post-plague era, suggesting a general tightening up of patriarchal control over women's public activities that is inconsistent with a socially expressed 'Golden Age' of women in later medieval London. But, some evidence is presented that London women may nevertheless have enjoyed slightly enhanced economic opportunities in the fifteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first work to explore the cases of the small number of identifiable Jewish women tried for infanticide at the Central Criminal Court between 1890 and 1918. Although the Jewish population of London (and indeed Britain) was facing increasing anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the cases discussed here were treated with equivalent leniency to those of other women charged with newborn child murder and concealment of birth in this period. Despite the very different circumstances of each case, the defendants were able to fit the story of their crime into a highly recognizable script that dovetailed neatly with the dominant discourse of 'the infanticidal' shared by both popular and elite British society. In examining these trials, a forgotten aspect of Jewish metropolitan life is revealed, and new light is thrown on the complicated way in which ethnicity might - or might not - play out in criminal justice proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]