Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Community

Waterloo!  What’s in a Name?  To some people it’s a very famous song by Abba. To some London commuters it’s a part of their daily routine. To historians it’s a famous battle 203 years ago when the British army defeated the French at a place in Belgium. In case you are still wondering, it’s Waterloo,...

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All in the month of JUNE It was: 200 years ago, on 17th June 1818 that Charles Gounod was born.  This French composer is best known for the well-loved Ave Maria and his operas, notably Faust. 175 years ago, on 26th June 1843 that the Treaty of Nanking came into effect following the First Opium...

Diary of a Momentous Year:   June 1918 An interesting piece from the archives of the Church Times a few weeks ago vividly illustrates the way the war on the western front changed in 1918. For years the Church Army, like the Salvation Army, had run what they called ‘huts’, close behind the trenches, where soldiers...

Emmeline Pankhurst – leader of the suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragette movement, died 90 years ago, on 14th June 1928. Less than a month later, women were given equal voting rights with men. Born in Moss Side, Manchester, in 1858, she helped found the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903,...

Get on your bike! It seems that cycling is great for keeping old age at bay, and it also rejuvenates the immune system. A recent study has found that cyclists do better at preserving their muscle mass and strength with age, while maintaining stable levels of body fat and cholesterol.  The study was done at...

No need to cut the grass weekly How often should you cut your grass?  That depends on how much you want to help the bees.  It seems that the ideal ‘gap’ is two weeks.  This helps improve the habitat for the pollinating plants that need bees to survive.  Cutting the grass more often than every...

THE WAY I SEE IT – what is triggering the violence? The first four months of this year were full of news reports of stabbings, and even killings, among young people in north London. Almost all of the victims and perpetrators were teen-agers, some as young as thirteen. My grand-daughter, who teaches at a comprehensive...

The Windrush Exhibition – a tribute to the migrants This month (June) marks 70 years since the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks carrying hundreds of migrants from the Caribbean. The British Library opens its special Windrush Exhibition this month (1st June to 21st October).  Key exhibits in the Windrush Exhibition include ER Braithwaite’s original...

Tribute to Charles Rennie Mackintosh The architect, artist and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow 150 years ago, on 7th June 1868. He was prominent in the Arts and Crafts movement, and it has been said that his unique, innovative style changed the art world for ever. He is best known for a...

It was: 400 years ago, on 23rd May 1618, that the Thirty Years’ War (Central Europe, mainly present-day Germany) began.   One of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history.  Millions of people were killed.  Finally ended on 15th May 1648. 200 years ago, on 4th May 1818 that Britain and the Netherlands signed...

If, like me, you wonder how on earth people coped with the sheer horror of the carnage on the battlefields of the First World War, two pieces of writing suggest an answer. One, the poem ‘For the Fallen’, I wrote  about last month. In this article I would like to consider the poem, subsequently an...