Latest update on ‘Not 1066 and all that’
To prepare for the event on October 8th we have been trying to elaborate on our approach to history on the day – the emphasis being on how we have made history and ways of sharing this so that others can pursue their own interests rather than a conventional attention to ‘subject matter’ per se.
Local historians will describe the way their own projects came to light. They include Ann Kramer who discusses a project uncovering women’s pasts and then through writings and artwork presenting a pop-up exhibition at Hastings Museum while the Halton and Ore history group explain the relationship between their enthusiasm for their locality and their own memories. Radiator Arts bring the past into the present with their work on John Hancox the Hastings Hermit and their recent work with homeless people today in Hastings and St Leonards in equally creative ways.
Others bring their personal experience to bear on the relationship between local, national and personal histories. Thus Paula Radice explains about her own research on Quaker history, ‘Never before have the lives of “ordinary” people In the past been so accessible, and so able to show that all lives are, as Quakers would say, “unique, precious…”’ In similar vein John Siblon describes, ‘After my father died, I discovered in his papers, that my grandfather was a member of the British West Indies Regiment during the First World War who served in France and Italy. The memorial and monumental landscape that was created after the war does not appear to tell his story or those of colonial servicemen in general.’
We are particularly pleased that William Eiduks and Len Clarke, co-organisers of the Early Pestalozzi Children Project will talk about their aim of recovering the lost story of the children who came to this Sedlescombe community, north of Hastings, between 1959 and 1965.William and Len are two of the original resident children and will talk about how two novices, with nothing other than a passion for their story, came to undertake this oral history research project and how they are approaching it.
Rest assured that the interactive day – that includes puppet making or using family photographs – will not discuss Queen Victoria (or any other dead royal even William the Conqueror). I include the photo taken by fellow organiser Dee Daly of the statue of Queen Victoria in Warrior Square in St Leonard’s as the bullet hole damage might be of interest!
The day is free but booking is essential through eventbrite.
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