Cumbria Branch Report 2007-2008

CUMBRIA BRANCH OF THE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

1 October 2008                                

Branch Report for 2007- 2008

Dear Cumbria Branch Members,

Here we are again at the end of 'summer' poised Janus-like, with one face looking backwards to survey our happy round of completed meetings and the other face turned towards the coming series of talks. Debbie Rushworth got us off to a thoughtful start last September by illustrating North Cumberland's connections with the Slave Trade until the 1830s.  We were shown evidence that it wasn't just the younger sons of the bigger houses that left for the West Indies to make their fortunes but ordinary farming lads like Barnes of Raughton Head who wanted to get out from the bottom of the heap.  Debbie had recently been granted a doctorate for her researches and we were pleased to hear all about it before Radio 3 in an Essay which covered ‘Britain's Hidden Slave Trade' on 16 October 2007, (copy of BBC tape available from the Branch Secretary).

Stuart Airlie of the University of Glasgow treated us in October 2007 to Medieval History on Film. The Cinema reaches a wide public and it influences many young people in their first meetings with the past. And the fruits of the big screen are dramatic, even in excerpts presented via a computer and projector. But we ought not to dismiss The Vikings or The 13^th Warrior too easily. These films also confront the same issues as scholars: authenticity and how best to represent the past in the present.

In January 2008, Professor Maggie Walsh of Nottingham University matched her fascinating tales of the Californian Gold Rush with a sound analysis of who struck it rich and how. This was fine, properly complicated stuff and I for one am grateful for the encouragement this talk gave to getting a copy of Isabel Allende's novel  Daughter of Fortune,(1999).

Cedric Bell who is not a historian but a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Marine Engineers took us to the southern hemisphere and the frontiers of our knowledge about the great Chinese Voyages of Exploration of 1421 in February 2008.  As well as sharing with us mysterious evidence from New Zealand, he suggested that these great voyagers may even have reached Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Our final gathering ‘last year' in March 2008 was a departure for us. Billed as a Members' Meeting it involved short 10-minute talks by ourselves on a favourite historical theme. This proved to be a delight. Bob Hopkinson got us going with an Historical Horror Story. David Renel refused to divulge anything of his Surprise beforehand and the wait was well worth it. John Crosby summarised and did justice to the Anabaptists. Peter Pickles shared some less well known aspects of Sundials in Cumbria and Martin Tweddle amused us greatly with a tale called Umbala about the military in Africa and Idi Amin. And Ken Mount, our former and long-time Honorary Secretary spoke of a Love of History and the Historical Association and reminded us why it continues to be well worth gathering to appreciate the past. A Sportline Giant Timer wasn't really needed to keep speakers to their time. But we look forward to another set of stories in the coming ‘year'.

Cumbria Branch soldiers on in the increasingly deepening economic gloom. This is in great part due to the selfless kindness of our speakers who put themselves out for us with only some expenses in return and a shared meal, plus a token of our appreciation. This is behaviour that is above and beyond the usual for our materialistic age. But we are also indebted to the generosity of our Chairman and to the determination of our Treasurer who has hitherto resisted calls for increasing the subscription for associate members. One enterprising initiative this year was the raffle of a new book on Robert Southey: Entire Man of Letters donated by Professor Bill Speck . Of course we are obliged to the occasional visitors who give a little and we mustn't forget HA HQ for their annual quota, without which we'd not survive either!

Another change for the coming round of meetings will take place on Saturday 18 April 2009 when we gather at 2:30 p.m. in Kendal Branch of Cumbria Record Office  for an extra meeting to enable members from the south of our county to attend. This initiative is thanks to Margaret J.Owen Senior Archivist and our flexible speaker Alexander Murray, Emeritus Fellow in History of University College Oxford who will talk on The Inquisition in Context.

Full members of the H.A. attached to the Cumbria Branch numbered 56 in July 2008 of whom 11 are corporate members as schools, colleges, the university and Cumbria Record Office.

NB Attendance at and table-top display of H.A. material for the Cumbria Secondary History Conference on 12 March 2008 at North Lakes Hotel by Ian Mason, Hon.Secretary, and Susan Dench,  Hon.Treasurer.

Ian C.Mason, FHA, Honorary Secretary of Cumbria Branch of the Historical Association