Oxfordshire Museums

We had a quick trip to Oxford last weekend and visited some great museums. The Oxfordshire Museum has fascinating displays on social history and a dinosaur garden.  On Sunday we went to the Didoot Railway Centre - it was a 'steam day' and we had several rides on steam trains.  This is a very interesting site - it was part of the Great Western Railway and has a broad gauge section of track and a replica broad gauge engine, the 'Firefly'.  There's a relic of Brunel's ill-fated atmospheric railway, and a small museum with memorabilia of railway workers.

Images: Dinosaur garden at the Oxfordshire Museum.  GWR engine 'Trojan' at the Didcot Railway Centre.

Coming Soon!

The proofs for The Children History Forgot arrived yesterday for checking, so I will be very busy for the next few days.  I'll do a big blog update later this week, hopefully, when I need a breather.

Nowhere To Go

News broke last week that Manchester City Council is axing all but one of its public toilets and reducing bin collections. The council pleads it has no option owing to the savage government cuts. Now the cleanliness ofour public streets in not just a matter of civic pride, but of public health. Before the 1850s, when the first public loos appeared in Britain, city streets were ‘temples of pollution’, as the Victorians coyly put it. Granted that cuts have to be made, are there really no other areas which can be slashed without inconveniencing the elderly, infirm and people with young children? Or, if they are expensive to run, why not charge more for using them? When we go on holiday to Scotland, there is a small charge to use the public toilets, but they are usually immaculate.

Also, the north-west of England, with its important history and heritage, is marketed as a tourist destination. It’s not a great way of welcoming foreign visitors to Manchester, is it? If tourists don’t understand they can make use of café facilities, they will have nowhere to go.


Images: A corporation dustcart and the arms of Manchester. Manchester Old and New Vol.I, Cassell & Co, c.1894.

Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day

I’ve really enjoyed watching Channel 4’s Rome Wasn't Built in a Day. For those of you who’ve missed it, English Heritage commissioned a Roman villa to be built at Wroxeter, home to some spectacular Roman remains. The catch was that the builders were only allowed to use techniques familiar to the Romans, so that the villa would be as authentic as possible. The builders are all great characters, and their wit and wisdom have made this a funny series as well as compulsive viewing for history buffs. It’s many years since I visited Wroxeter, but I must make a visit down there this summer and see the new villa in all its glory.

Images: Villa Otrang and Roman mosaic at Fliessem, Germany. © Sue Wilkes

Save Our Libraries 2

Check out the brilliant spoof Hitler video on the Use Libraries and Learn Stuff blog. Alan Gibbons is running a Campaign for the Book here.  The Public Libraries News site is also very interesting and has updates on proposed library closures.  Fortunately for us locally, apparently Cheshire West and Chester Council has no plans currently to close libraries.

Protecting Our Historic Sites

Britain's historic sites are not just at risk from vandalism or neglect, but are being stripped of any valuable materials they contain. Some people have no pride in or respect for our heritage. I can't help wondering whether this is owing to a lack of education - the history curriculum nowadays seems far more narrow in scope than when I went to school.

The Most Dangerous Job in the World?

I researched some really unhealthy jobs done by adults and children for The Children History Forgot, such as coal-mining, but this looks shockingly dangerous.