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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 12 |
16ÌýDecemberÌý2008 |
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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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Second World War Defences
A listener living in Hertfordshire has found evidence of a Home Guard motor emplacement close to Hertford North station. Making History invited Nick Hewitt of the Imperial War Museum to take a look and he explained that this was part of a network of defences hurriedly built at the fall of France in May 1940 when the British realised that the Second World War wouldn’t be fought solely in Europe.
Nick Hewitt explained that pillboxes and tank traps were thrown up throughout Britain, particularly near ports and parts of the coast where an enemy landing was thought possible. The highest concentration was along the East Coast, East Anglia and the South East and there were three defensive circles around London. The Hertford gun emplacement was part of the line of defence called ‘Line A’
Useful links and references:
TheÌý co-ordinated theÌý which provides an excellent record and analysis of these defences.
- Devoted to British pillboxes and with plenty of photographs and useful links.
Pillboxes of Britain and Ireland by Mike Osbourne.
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1958 in Tiger Bay
1958 was the year in which racial tensions erupted in Notting Hill. But, what happened in older black communities such as Tiger Bay in Cardiff? Making History consulted Glen Jordan at the University of Glamorgan who is also the founder of the Butetown History and Arts Centre.
Tiger Bay had a very different history to Notting Hill. It was founded as an immigrant community serving Cardiff docks and over time single sailors married local girls creating what might be described as an indigenous mixed-race community. There were riots, particularly in 1919 when servicemen returned from the First World War to find that jobs and, occasionally, loved ones were gone. Notting Hill was the location where entire families settled and so integration was considerably more difficult particularly in the few years after Windrush.
Useful links and references
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- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales, HistoryÌý
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Wales, south eastÌý
- ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Butetown memoriesÌý
Ìý- Guardian Article on Glenn Jordan’s work |
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Ebenezer Scrooge
"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ..."
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol 1843.
Two listeners ask whether the character Scrooge was based on someone that once lived close to them.
Making History consulted Florian Schweizer at the Dickens Museum in London and he explained that although Dickens did indeed base his characters on real people, Scrooge wasn’t one of them. It seems that he is an amalgam of characters and grew in Dickens’ imagination after he read a government report on child poverty. The book was written in two months between October and December 1843 and published just a few days before Christmas that year.
Useful links and references:
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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
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 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 ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not responsible for the content of external sites |
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý