News
HISTORY NEWSLETTER MAY 2025
Next Lecture
The next talk is ‘Napoleon’s obsession: the invasion of England’ by Hugh Willing at 7.30 pm on Thursday 15 May, Wynne Room, Battle Memorial Hall. A video of the lecture will be circulated soon after on the Society’s private YouTube channel.
Date for the Diary : ‘James Burton: a zealous investigator in Egypt of its antiquities’ by Stephen Howard Gray at 7.30 pm on Thursday 19 June, Battle Memorial Hall. Full details of this year’s programme are available here.
Society Facebook Page
Don’t forget to check out the BDHS Facebook page. For those who are Facebook users, please find it at https://facebook.com/BattleHistorySociety or by searching for Battle and District Historical Society when logged into your Facebook account. Remember to like and follow the page to get notification of our posts.
Battle Museum
The Museum is now open for the season – why not pop in and see what is new? There are still vacancies for volunteers, so you are interested in volunteering this season, please make contact via the museum website http://www.battlemuseum.com.
History in the News
The Great Viking Survey: the University of Oslo has just launched a broad-ranging
global study to gauge public opinion on the Vikings and their history and legacy in
the present day. The on-line survey invites anyone, anywhere, over 18 to share their
thoughts on the iconic Vikings warrior figure, as well as the enduring legacy and
memory of the Vikings in the modern world. In doing so, researchers aim to will be
able to shine an unprecedented light on the means and mechanisms that allow
images and myths of the Vikings to be shaped and spread in the public sphere. The
survey is now live at https://vikingsurvey.org and remains open until 19 May 2025.
Military History Festival: a military festival that is the first of its kind in the UK will
take place from 26 to 28 September in Hereford. The festival will feature talks and
panel discussions about conflict, and the lessons history provides in a time of
geopolitical instability. Speakers include Antony Beevor, Ben Macintyre, Lord Daniel
Finkelstein and Sir Nicholas Soames. Full details are available at
https://militaryhistoryfestival.co.uk
Ancient carved wood: a 6,000-year-old piece of oak found in Boxford, Berkshire is
only the second wood carving to be discovered from the Mesolithic period in the
country. Experts have found that there is a 95% probability that the final ring formed
in the wood dates back to between 4640-4605 BC, the Middle Stone Age. At that
time, people were tending to live a more settled lifestyle and moving away from
hunting and gathering. The meanings behind the markings are unknown but they
are reminiscent of the decoration seen in early Neolithic pottery. It is currently on
display at the West Berkshire Museum in Newbury and it is hoped that the artefact
will be put on display at the Boxford Heritage Centre in the near future.
Roman lime kiln, grave and buildings found in dig: archaeologists say the finds
near Tenpin in Barnwood, Gloucester, may be the first found in a former Roman
settlement. The kiln would have been covered in earth and turf and used to make
quicklime, the key ingredient in building materials such as mortar and cement. The
buildings and the grave of a woman in her 40s, radiocarbon dated to AD226-336.
Cotswold Archaeology believes it had a relatively short working life having either
collapsed naturally or been dismantled.
Booth Museum: the popular natural history museum in Brighton is closing for a year
for essential improvements. It was founded in 1874 by naturalist Edward Thomas
Booth, beginning as a collection of more than 300 dioramas showcasing British birds
in their natural habitats. It is now home to a collection of 525,000 insects, 50,000
plants and 5,000 microscopic slides. Some of its oldest specimens include shells
from the bottom of a 55-million-year-old Mediterranean lagoon. The Booth will open
for monthly special event days which will offer behind the scenes access for visitors
to explore previously unseen collections.
Cheeseboard origins: the tradition of having a cheeseboard at the end of a meal
dates back at least to Tudor times according to historians studying the oldest English
book on cheese. The 16th century document, ‘A pamflyt compiled of Cheese,
contayninge the differences, nature, qualities and goodness of the same’ had been
unknown until it was bought at auction in 2023. It makes it clear that the general
view was that it was best to eat cheese at the end of the meal. The identity of the
book’s authors is unclear but three owners’ names show it circulated around a family
of Tudor courtiers called the Dudleys. Walter Bayley, whose name appears at the
end of the text, was physician to Elizabeth I.
Other history articles in the press: If any member spots an interesting history article, just email a scan of it to bdhs66@yahoo.co.uk and we’ll feature an edited version of it in the next Newsletter.
The Arts Society Rother Valley (ASRV)
Lectures in the programme include A piece of the Auction: Behind the scenes at an international auction house, David Devant, England’s Greatest Magician: All Done by Kindness, and The Two Gustavs: Mahler and Klimt.
For further details, please check the ASRV website https://www.theartssocietyrothervalley.org.uk or contact Pat Arrowsmith, Membership Secretary, on 07838 214675.
Online Archive Update – September 2021
Exciting news! We now have a great new resource available online. The original Battle Town Index, identified by advisers from the National Archives as potentially the most important item in our archive, was recorded on a series of Index cards. Members of our Society started the Index with the aim of recording information on the use and occupants of all the buildings in the town centre. Information, gleaned mainly from trade and other directories, was recorded up to the early 1990s. The online version of the Index has been edited so that beyond 1940 only information on businesses and a few private individuals reasonably assumed now dead have been included in the online version. This complies with the recommendations of the National Archives on publication of material which is covered by the Data Protection Act. It still, however, provides a wealth of information and is found in our online archive as a series of searchable .pdf files. Go to our archive page The Battle & District Historical Society Archives http://bdhsarchives.com and search for Battle Town Index to see the available .pdf files. When you have downloaded the file you can find the search function by clicking on the magnifying glass symbol and entering your search term.
Website news
The British Library is going to archive our website in the UK Web Archive and to make it publicly available via that route. The UK Web Archive was established in 2004 to capture and archive websites from the UK domain and across the web, responding to the challenge of a digital black hole in the nations memory. It contains specially selected websites that represent different aspects of UK heritage on the web, as well as important global events. We work closely with leading international institutions to collect and permanently preserve the web, and the open UK Web Archive can be seen at http://www.webarchive.org.uk/.
Also an on-line version of the BDHS Journal for 2019 has been added – see Previous BDHS Journals
Meet our new President
Our new President, Professor David Bates, gave his inaugural lecture entitled ‘Writing a Biography of William the Conqueror’ at a very well attended meeting on 16 January. His presentation was well received and afterwards David had the opportunity to meet many members of the Society and be photographed with all members of the BDHS Committee. He also gave another lecture – by Zoom on 15th October. This was about ‘New thoughts on the Bayeux Tapestry’.
Meeting with the new Dean of Battle
The new Dean of Battle, the Very Reverend Lee Duckett, together with his wife Ange, has been presented with some books from BDHS members Keith Foord and Tina Greene, which are concerned with the Church and the Battle Tapestry, currently on display there. BDHS hopes to develop some mutually beneficial projects based on the church’s archives and the use of the church environmental space for exhibitions etc..
The Dark Ages’ greatest Christmas relics were at Battle Abbey
The Guardian and other media have reported that a medieval manuscript listing Battle Abbey’s relics has been analysed and transcribed for the first time by English Heritage historian Michael Carter. It reveals that the relics were the most prestigious given to any abbey, more significant even than those at Westminster Abbey.
A report on this can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/dec/18/a-bit-of-manger-st-nicholass-bone-the-dark-ages-greatest-christmas-relics.Michael Carter’s paper can also be found in full using this reference: Carter, M: The Relics of Battle Abbey: A Fifteenth-Century Inventory at The Huntington Library, San Marino The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 8 (2019)
Video: The Battle of Hastings. No – the Battle of Battle!!
BDHS Members Michael Hodge, Alan Judd and Peter Greene, working in close cooperation with Natasha Williams of English Heritage, have produced a video explaining where the Battle of Hastings actually took place and why we have a town called Battle. The video has been released by Mirador Television and can be found via Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDe8uyKXL9Y
Amazing find by BDHS
In the process of changing over BDHS archivists Gina Doherty and David Sawyer unexpectedly turned up an old small parchment that appeared to originate from Abbot Richard Tovey of Battle Abbey in 1493. Christopher Whittick of ESRO confirmed its authenticity This is a ‘pass’ entitling the carrier to travel freely in England and quoting the old charter rights of the abbey. Gina has produced an excellent summary of this find which can be read in Section A3.4 of Collectanea. BDHS has also given a facsimile copy to Battle Abbey for future display.
L-R: Neil Clephane-Cameron, Keith Foord, George Kiloh, Gina Doherty, Natasha Williams (English Heritage) handing the parchment to Christopher Whittick (Vice-President of BDHS). Picture Peter Greene