Dr Eleanor Straughton of Lancaster University has just sent us news of a plans for a Devon workshop on gathering unwritten history of common land.
From the flyer:
Common Stories: Researching the History of your local Common
A new 1-year project, entitled ‘Building Commons Knowledge’, based at the Universities of Lancaster and Newcastle aims to help communities to research and record the history of common land in their local area.
Historians Professor Angus Winchester and Dr Eleanor Straughton will be providing a free online ‘Commons History Toolkit’ to get people started, and will be holding a small number of free research workshops in Autumn 2012.
We are particularly interested in gathering commons histories from the South West of England, and one of our workshops will be held in Devon (venue/date to be confirmed).
The aim is to recapture something of the unwritten history of common land in England and Wales in the 20th century, to chronicle how commons were used and managed, to chart the changes which have taken place in living memory, and to record cultural events (sports, fairs etc) linked to common land. Local historians and commoners themselves are invited to work together to record oral testimonies and explore the documentary and landscape history of their commons. Findings submitted to the project will be posted online in a ‘Resource Bank’ accessible to all.
If you would like to know more about the project and be kept informed of the Devon workshop date/location, then please get in touch with Eleanor, History Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT; email: e.straughton@lancaster.ac.uk
RG
Common land history: autumn Devon workshop
