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EPE NEWS

WINTER 2008

Bringing local history to life


From the editor
In this issue
In this issue we are celebrating the We also have news of two book
launch of our Schools Learning Zone launches and some exciting archaeo- page one
at BETT 2009 in January. We have logical finds in both Herefordshire From the editor
included a two-page Schools Special and Oxfordshire. Our star of Meet Schools Learning Zone at BETT 2009
(p.5-6) which we hope will inspire the Team is new Web Manager, the launch of our school resources
teachers and other learning profes- Dima Nemchenko, and Odette
sionals to use our resources. Buchanan talks about her experi- page two
VCH Hampshire trials EPE toolkit
Visit us at BETT on Stand T50. ences as a Kent volunteer. volunteer toolkit gets project started
Local history takes centre stage in Derbs
Schools Learning Zone to be launched at BETT 2009 book launch and local history fair

the EPE school projects. Historical page three


research by EPE volunteers and Exciting discovery by Oxon team
professional historians has fed into ‘lost’ medieval church uncovered?
Exploring water meadows, Wiltshire © David McGirr

the school projects. The resulting Schools update


update from Skye Dillon
resources have been checked for
historical accuracy by VCH and page four
EPE editors and will also be tested Meet the team
and reviewed by a user group Dima Nemchenko, Web Manager
throughout 2009. The Exford aisle
research from Exmoor
The online resources are based on From the project manager
update from Catherine Cavanagh
our EPE school projects and will also
be arranged according to theme and pages five and six
Our exciting new resource, Schools Key Stage. Themes include Tudor Schools Special
Learning Zone (SLZ), will be history, farming, religious sites and Bringing local history to schools
launched in January at BETT 2009, Medieval history. The resources Case studies from our Bristol, Cornwall and
Olympia, London. will include lesson plans, historical Oxfordshire projects
material, activities and timelines. The page seven
BETT is the world’s largest material is linked to the National Volunteers unearth human bones
educational technology event and Curriculum, and will also explain discoveries at our Herefordshire dig
the perfect venue for promoting how the lessons can be used for New red book launched
our site. Our website will host cross-curricular learning. The SLZ New Yorkshire East Riding volume now available
free, downloadable resources for is intended to be used by teachers Volunteers inspire oral history project
teachers and interactive activities for and pupils across England and, being Exmoor farmers interviewed
pupils. Several resource packs will be case study based, offers inspiration page eight
available at the launch, and more will for similar learning outside the EPE Parham preview
be added over the coming year. counties. our next paperback revealed
Education on the road
The material is aimed at Key Stages Read more about our projects and the adventures of our E&S Manager
1-3 and has been written by the resources in the Schools Special Volunteer case study
educational professionals involved in (p.5-6) Odette Buchanan, Kent

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page one


EPE NEWS
VCH Hampshire trials EPE volunteer kit by Jean Morrin, VCH Hampshire
Established for nearly a year, the Palaeography is learnt at fortnightly
volunteer group aims to produce meetings of the wills group, when
new VCH Hampshire Red Books, seventeenth century wills and
The Hampshire volunteers hard at work

beginning with Basingstoke and its inventories are transcribed. Sarah


surrounding area. Draft text on Lewin of Hampshire Record Office
one of the parishes, Mapledurwell, has run palaeography sessions and
should be ready for the website by maps evenings for volunteers. A
March 2009 and a plan of work has few volunteers are individually
been devised for the research into researching the education of the
the town of Basingstoke. parish on which they are working.
VCH Hampshire has been using
elements of the EPE volunteer About 30 volunteers, many from Group walks of Basingstoke and the
toolkit to help set-up and manage the the Basingstoke Archaeological parishes were organised during the
their volunteer project. The toolkit and Historical Society, have summer which served to familiarize
has been developed to help support been researching census, trade all with the study area as well as
local volunteer activities. Documents directories, wills and inventories. A encouraging the group to share
include guidance on initial skills few of the volunteers have previous knowledge and get to know each
assessment and evaluation to research and publishing experience other.
celebration and legal issues. but most do not.

Local history takes centre stage in Derbyshire


institutions who had helped with Cllr Adrian Kitch, and proved a hit
The book is presented to Councillor Ken Walker

access to material. Professor John with exhibitors and guests. The EPE


Beckett, VCH Director, presented stand was prominent in the entrance
complimentary copies to the Lord foyer, and the book’s authors spoke
Lieutenant and local civic leaders. to visitors about the Bolsover
  book and our next project, on the
Guests included the Chair of the Hardwick estate.
County Council, Councillor Janet  
Hill;  Councillor Ken Walker, Chair of Throughout the day the exhibition
Bolsover District Council; the Mayor was stewarded by volunteers from
Two Derbyshire events helped and Chair of Old Bolsover Town the Derbyshire Victoria County
launch the latest EPE paperback, Council, Councillor Tom Rodda; and History Trust, who had organised
Bolsover: Castle, Town and Colliery. Councillor Steve Fritchley, Chair of the event.
  Scarcliffe Parish Council.
On 29 October over 90 guests   The fair, now a biennial favourite in
attended Bolsover’s Assembly Hall The central team were also on hand the local and family history calendar,
to mark the official launch. The to talk to guests about the project gives an opportunity for groups
event was overseen by Robert and the Explore website which to network and to promote their
Gent, Secretary to the Derbyshire provides free access to additional activities to members of the public.  
VCH Trust and Assistant Director material on Bolsover.
of Derbyshire County Council’s  
Cultural and Community Services. On Saturday 1 November over 45
John Bather, Lord Lieutenant of local, family history and heritage
Derbyshire launched the book, and organisations gathered for the
Staff and volunteers busy on the stand

paid tribute to the work of the VCH ‘Scarsdale Local History Fair’ in
and the EPE project in Derbyshire. Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel.
The authors, Philip Riden and  
Dudley Fowkes, thanked volunteers Largely sponsored by the EPE
for their input into the publication, project, the event was opened by
along with the numerous the Deputy Major of Chesterfield,

EPE News -Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page two


EPE NEWS
Oxfordshire update
teams, and volunteers from the on the Burford work, and details are
South Oxfordshire Archaeological on the EPE and VCH websites.
Barbara Allison presents 17th-century clothing

Group. As there is much work still to


be done a fuller account must wait For Henley, our Census and Probate
for a future EPE News: by then, we volunteer groups continue to make
may have firm dates for the burials. interesting discoveries. A recently
discovered will and inventory, for
Meanwhile, interest in Oxfordshire’s instance, have revealed an unknown
Burford project has mounted steadily 17th-century bowling green on
since the launch of our Burford the town’s edge, associated with a
At the time of writing the paperback in June. The Oxfordshire tavern where local gentlemen left
Oxfordshire team is in a state of Local History Association’s autumn their bowls for safe-keeping.
excitement following the discovery, meeting was dedicated entirely to
just a few days ago, of burials at a the project, with talks by the book’s The Oxfordshire schools project is
site near Henley, where we have authors and volunteer contributors also reaching fruition, with online
been pursuing the site of a ‘lost’ in the morning, and guided material being edited for web-
medieval church. walkabouts in the afternoon. Several mounting, and evaluation underway.
people took the opportunity to buy In the words of one of the teachers
VCH documentary work identified the book – one purchaser confessed involved, ‘I enjoyed all of it – but
the probable location some time that she’d had her local library’s I really liked seeing the students
ago, and the current investigation is copy so long she was embarrassed beaming with pride at all that they
the result of a collaboration between to renew it again! Several village have achieved’. See the Schools
the Oxfordshire VCH and EPE history groups have asked for talks Special (p.5 & 6)

New school projects for 2009


projects in Bristol, Cornwall, Exmoor,
Herefordshire, Kent, Oxfordshire,
Kent school pupils learn about maps and the impact of the papermaking industry

Sussex and Wiltshire. Dean Smart


has completed work on the Bristol
Diversity educational material, but will
continue to develop new material for
EPE in 2009 (a Bristol Multiethnic Trail
and an update of the Bristol Slavery
Trail).

School projects for County Durham


and Derbyshire are planned to run in
the spring term 2009. Living History
North East has started developing a
project for schools in Sunderland, based
on Victorian life in the city. Derbyshire
Most of our school projects are now projects, plus the positive feedback County Council has confirmed
complete; feedback and evaluation from the schools and partnering partnership (with the assistance of a
has been received from all involved organisations, shows that interacting History Advanced Skills Teacher) for a
in the projects. This information is with local history can be relevant, school project in Bolsover. This aims to
important for the development of cross-curricular and fun for children’s involve both Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils
new school projects, and overall learning. (ages 7 – 14), and will be based on the
evaluation of the EPE Learning theme of coal mining in the area.
Programme. Thanks to everyone Learning material has been received
involved so far, the success of the from the completed school

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page three


EPE NEWS
The Exford aisle
Meet the team
Dima Nemchenko - Web Manager

The aisle at St Mary Magdelene church, Exford


regular Usability Testing. Members of the
general public were asked to participate
in a fairly open-ended, one hour-long
session where they were asked to
Dima posing on his yacht

complete three simple tasks using the


EPE website at their own pace. Each
session was videoed with the consent
of the tester, and the results were
compiled and analysed to identify ten
I joined EPE in July as the new Web major action points. Work is now under
Manager, responsible for keeping the way on addressing these, after which we One of the finest pieces of church
national and county sites running, and in will once again hold a round of Usability architecture in the Exmoor study
charge of all development and additions Testing, and evaluate the results, as area is the arcade to the south aisle
to our web presence. I’ve had plenty part of a regular cycle of testing and of St Mary Magdalene church at
of challenging projects in the past 12 development. Exford. This aisle was planned by the
years working in the private sector, from parish in the 1530s, just before the
writing news and publications systems I am originally from Moscow, Russia Reformation.
for a media group in the Americas, to (then the Soviet Union), but due to a
supervising the e-Commerce websites long and convoluted life story I ended up
On 24 April 1532 George
of integrated transport providers, going to school and then University in
GoAhead Ltd, while working for Saatchi London, where I have ended up staying. Elsworthy, rector of Exford for nearly
& Saatchi in London. I am enjoying the I graduated from KCL in 1997 with a BSc ten years, made his will. He left the
challenge of running the web side of in Computer Science, and have since residue of his goods to the parish
things on EPE. worked both freelance and full-time as church of Exford provided that the
a Web Designer, Web Developer and parishioners made an aisle within ten
In September 2008 EPE ran the first Team Leader for various agencies in years. If not, the goods were to be
round of what we hope will become London. converted to other pious uses for
the good of his soul and the souls of
all the faithful departed. He clearly
From the project manager was a man of practical action who
This issue celebrates a key element the new year. So, be quick if you’re liked to get things done. He gave
of all our projects, and certainly one buying Christmas presents! 4s to St George’s church, Dunster,
of the most enjoyable - the EPE to pay for the glazing of the west
schools programme. It was good to see so many of you at window and all his books to Cleeve
the EPE party in October. The central Abbey on condition that, within one
The delivery of nine exciting projects team greatly enjoyed the subsequent year of his death, they made a library
so far is a testament to the enthusi- Bolsover book launch and I took and placed his books there for the
asm and hard work of teachers and the opportunity to explore more of use of the monks.
students, together with local educa- Derbyshire afterwards.
tion consultants. It has been ably It was not only the rector who was
managed by two successive educa- Our main focus in 2009 will be on eager to see the aisle completed.
tion and skills managers, and the further evaluation of the project, Blacksmith Richard Coppe made his
results will be made public on our planning for continuation, developing will a few months later giving four
websites throughout 2009. None our websites, publishing nine more sheep to the church and 4d to the
of this would have been possible volumes and completing two more sepulchre light. He also gave £3
without the underpinning historical schools projects. A number of events to the church provided the parish
research by volunteers and county will culminate in the EPE conference started the task of building the aisle
staff. in October 2009 to share the results within three years of his death.
of our work. Robert Crowcombe left a shilling for
More good news is that three of the aisle and other gifts to the church
the EPE paperbacks have almost It remains to wish you all a relaxing in the 1530s may have been for the
sold out, with reprints anticipated in Christmas and happy New Year. same purpose.

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page four


EPE SCHOOLS
Bringing local history to schools
involve volunteers in researching projects have already exceeded their
local history materials alongside target by involving over 300 children
professional historians, and by in historical activity across England.
developing a programme of Resources have been received from
Skye Dillon, Education & Skills Manager

practical and online material which all the completed projects, and are
encourages the creative use of local currently being edited for upload to
history in schools. The educational the Schools Learning Zone.
materials are outputs from exciting
projects run with schools in the
participating counties.

Welcome to our two-page Schools By February 2010, EPE will have


Special to mark the launch of the delivered 11 school projects to
Schools Learning Zone at BETT 2009. show how local history can support
work across the curriculum in both a
Our school projects form part of primary and secondary setting. With
the EPE Learning Programme, a focus on Key Stages 1 – 3 (ages
managed by the Education and 5 – 14), and in consultation with
Skills Manager, Skye Dillon. The teachers, local education authorities
EPE vision to support engagement and history advisors, the EPE school Our first school project took place at Wylye
with local history for life-long projects have worked with partners Valley School, Wiltshire. The six-week, cross
learners, young people and school including local museums, galleries curricular project explored developments
children is delivered through the in agriculture. Pupils took part in field trips
and archives, artists and schools, to local water meadows, created maps and
Learning Programme. EPE is to complete nine practical and built a life-size Iron Age hut.
achieving this through projects that innovative projects so far. These

Museum partnership provides new experiences for pupils


The students visited Henley five Although the students were key
times, including going to the weekly stage 3 in age, the activities were
market, the church, a train journey developed to support the teaching of
and a boat trip. They participated History, Geography, Art and English
in practical activities at the River at Key Stages 1 and 2, and aimed to
Exploring building materials and textures

& Rowing Museum during each bring the curriculum to life.


trip, designed to build on their
experiences outdoors. In addition, The project resulted in eight lesson
museum staff visited the school plans describing the weekly activities.
twice and the school visited Burford These included using the buildings
independently. to stimulate creative writing, creating
talking books composed of sound
The Oxfordshire school project was The students were encouraged poems, making wattle and daub and
developed with a class of students to use all their senses and to bricks; and designing stained glass
from Mabel Prichard School, an photograph and record their windows.
inner city SEN school in Oxford, in experiences. The students really
partnership with staff from the River enjoyed experiencing the ‘real thing’, The resulting EPE web-based
& Rowing Museum, Henley. The touching the flint and stone of the materials will include timelines
aim was to engage the students with church, making bricks, hearing the and illustrated walks around the
the history of Henley on Thames bustle and sounds of the market, and two towns, with accompanying
and Burford through the buildings capturing the excitement of a train worksheets for children.
and the materials from which they and boat journey something which
are made, in a cross-curricula none of them had ever experienced by Valerie Wardlaw & Jill Hutchinson,
approach. River and Rowing Museum, Henley
before.

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page five


EPE SCHOOLS
Testing times in Bristol by Dean Smart, EPE Education Consultant
The Bristol school materials focus through time, teachers have often
on multiethnic Bristol and diversity lacked personal subject knowledge,
through time, a key part of the new and textbooks have never quite got
History curriculum for 11-14 year this important area right or kept up
olds. Over the last two terms pupils with the latest scholarship.
have been trialling the materials with This makes EPE’s recent
the city’s Advanced Skills Teacher for

St Paul’s Carnival c.1990


groundbreaking book, Bristol Ethnic
History, Andy Steward. Minorities and the City 1000-2001
Andy, a teacher at Ashton Park in (by Madge Dresser and Peter
Bristol, believes that learning about Fleming), all the more important.
the diverse nature of the city in the It provided a starting point for
past is a surprise for many young the school materials and revealed straight when testing something and
Bristolians because most don’t many intriguing things about Bristol, it’s always good to see them get
realise the trading and strategic England and the constantly changing hooked by the History, outraged
importance of the city in the past, nature of communities. by the injustices of the past and
and are convinced that immigration hopeful for a ‘happy ending’. [The
is a recent trend. Young people used trial copies school materials are] engaging and
of the web materials and helped interesting stuff, as well as being
Although the National Curriculum us refine our draft materials . As an important tool for learning
has always required coverage of Andy says “you can usually rely about diversity as a constant element
the multiethnic nature of our islands on young people to give it to you in a world of change”

Cornwall resources used across the county by Coral Pepper, EPE Education Consultant
provided research material for trips to wayside crosses and church
The religious history project © Geoff Hitchens

their use. The unit supports the buildings. This transistion pack is
transition for pupils moving between now being used by schools around
primary and secondary schools. the county.
The pilot involved pupils of Mounts
Bay School who studied the
Jewish settlement in Penzance and
fishing in Mounts Bay. They made
presentations to governors, visitors
Cornwall is running two school and their peers.
projects. The first, completed with
Cornwall County Council project, Our Religious History schools’
‘Sense of Place’, is entitled ‘Comings project, culminating in a magnificent
and Goings; Mounts Bay’. It looks pilgrimage to St Michael’s Mount,
at the way the ports of Mousehole focused on the life of the saints and
and Newlyn have developed over early Christianity in the county. The Pupils of Ledbury Primary School,
time, and gives pupils the chance to content was agreed by the author Herefordshire, explored the lives of Tudor
share their own ideas for a port of of Cornwall and the Cross, Professor rich and poor. This included an architectural
the future. Nicholas Orme, and our partner on tour of the town, the oppportunity to view
original wills, write with quills and ink and
this project, Advanced Skills Teacher,
build with wattle and daub.
Working with ‘Sense of Place’ was John Welham.
timely as they had just launched a
transition pack based in Falmouth During the pilot, pupils of Camborne The Schools Learning Zone will be launched
and had been asked for something Science & Community College and in January 2009 and resources will be added
similar by a secondary school St Meriadoc Primary School studied throughout the year. Visit our website
in Penwith. The author of our the life of Cornish Saints, pilgrimages www.EnglandsPastforEveryone.org.uk/Schools or
Penwith book, Dr Joanna Mattingly, and local churches, making field email learning@epe.org.uk for further details.

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page six


EPE NEWS
Herefordshire volunteers unearth human bones New ‘red book’ launched
by Professor John Beckett, Director, VCH
that the Lodge was originally built
in the middle of a large medieval Sledmere House, on the Northern
graveyard. Wolds, was the extraordinary setting
for the launch of David and Susan
The dig was one of number which Neave’s volume in the East Riding
took place in Ledbury recently. series on East Buckrose, on 13
EPE volunteers received training November. Well over 100 people
Working on a Ledbury pit

from Chris Atkinson, Community crowded into the house, where


Archaeologist, Herefordshire the owner, Sir Tatton Sykes, was
Archaeology. our host. Richard Marriott, formerly
Lord Lieutenant, launched the book,
Another test pit at 20 Southend David Neave spoke eloquently
Volunteers working on a dig in revealed a lot of burnt material about the work that he and Susan
Ledbury have uncovered fragments and metal slag. Oral history, had done, and I was, as ever,it
of human bone, including part of a corroborated by research by the seems on these occasions, the
skull. volunteers in trade directory, census commercial break – offering copies
and parish records, revealed that at a discount for the evening, and
The discoveries were made at the King and Russell families traded the complete set at 35% off.
Abbots Lodge in the town, home of as blacksmiths on the site in the  
one of the Herefordshire volunteers. early nineteenth-century. Shards of Peter Clifford of Boydell & Brewer,
The house is adjacent to St Michael medieval pottery have also been aided by Kerry Whitston, then ran
and All Angels Church and it is found and have been sent for expert one of the most successful bookstalls
believed that the graveyard originally analysis. I can ever recall, partly I suspect
extended much further. It is possible because it had been cunningly placed
next to the queue for the tea and
Exmoor volunteers inspire oral history project cake which we all enjoyed following
Exmoor volunteers recorded the formalities. The Yorkshire Post
lambing shed - the only one of its type on Exmoor

had already run a major piece about


Mr Tucker outside his purpose built 19th-century

traditional farm buildings at 30


farmsteads across the moor. During the book, and the Hull Daily Mail
the course of this work they spoke took numerous photographs. We
to a number of owners who had a finally dispersed in the rain at about
fascinatingly detailed knowledge of six, but those who had not seen
how these buildings were used in inside the house before have vowed
the past. to return on another occasion.
 
As a direct result of the volunteers’ The launch was part-sponsored by
work it was decided that a selection were young alongside their fathers the University of Hull, our partners
of these individuals should be and grandfathers; but now of course in the East Riding project, and
interviewed in order to record the buildings are no longer used, Professor Glenn Burgess, Head of
their memories of the buildings in they have been made obsolete by Department, came to the launch.
particular, but also of the changing modern farming practices’. Richard Primmer represented the
pattern of farming life on Exmoor East Riding of Yorkshire Council,
against the backdrop of the buildings. The results of this pilot oral history the major funders. David and Susan
project will be archived in the Neave will now move on to finish
Jane Golding from English Heritage Somerset Record Office early in volume IX in the set, on Driffield.
has carried out the interviews and 2009. After that we hope to give
described the experience as ‘...an some training to volunteers to VCH Yorkshire East Riding VIII, East
amazing privilege. I have been able enable them to carry on the process Buckrose can be purchased from
to speak to farmers - some in their of interviewing and capturing these VCH publishers Boydell & Brewer.
80s - who remember working in unique memories. www.boydell.co.uk
these traditional buildings when they

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page seven


EPE NEWS
Parham preview Education on the road
Parham House, Sussex - subject of next EPE paperback

Skye’s workshop
It’s been a busy few months for
education events. In October Skye
attended the ‘Learning Outside
The next book in the EPE paperback legacy of papers, pictures and the Classroom’ conference hosted
series was profiled at an event architectural drawings. The book’s by the Department of Children,
hosted by the Society of Antiquaries author, Jayne Kirk has pieced these Schools and Families in Greenwich,
of London this month. together to uncover aspects of London. EPE is a supporter of the
Parham’s history that have never Learning Outside the Classroom
Due to be launched in Spring 2009, before been commited to paper. manifesto and is a member of the
Parham: an Elizabethan House and LOtC Heritage Sector Partnership.
its Restoration tells the story of the Jayne spoke about her experiences For further details on their work visit
house and the three families that researching the book, including www.lotc.org.uk
owned it for more than 400 years. crawling over the interior and
It has been transformed many times exterior of the roof, and the In November Skye delivered
according to the individual tastes, excitement of finding the original a workshop at the Geography
aspirations and personalities of those architect’s drawings in unexpected Association and History Association
who inherited it. Each generation places. Joint Primary Conference in Leeds.
has left its mark and an extraordinary Skye presented the EPE school
projects and provided guidance on
planning and running similar projects.
Volunteer case study: Odette Buchanan, Kent The conference papers will soon be
viewing. It took several goes and available online at
www.geography.org.uk/events/gahaconference
two very patient archivists before I
Odette Buchanan, Kent volunteer

had the hang of it.


This newsletter is distributed
And then - what joy! I was reading electronically to save resources. If you
1870s papers and I could visual- need a hard copy please contact us.
ize the people involved; what they
wore, how they spoke and the
things they got up to, from stealing Please send all enquiries and newsletter
I am a retired teacher, originally from
contributions to the editor
NW London. I am very proud of my cabbages and turnips, to imper-
melanie.hackett@sas.ac.uk
adopted county, and in the summer I sonating others to claim Dockyard
am a tour guide for the City of Roch- pensions.
ester Society and also a ‘Custodian’ at
Restoration House. When the project finished I was
very sad. I continued with my own
About three years ago we in the research but was overjoyed when
Society were asked if we would like the Medway Towns project was an-
to help with research for the EPE nounced. So, here I am again; a dab
Kent project. I was given the task of hand at threading film and wearer of
researching local newspapers. Now white gloves, to say nothing of how
came a steep learning curve: how my computer skills have improved in
to thread a film onto the spool for the unending research. © University of London

EPE News - Winter 2008 www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk page eight

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