words & photos by Katie Isham. Between Southampton and Eastleigh sprawls much green space. But it’s disappearing. The grassland that was once rampant, is incrementally invaded by housing estates and development. It’d been a few years since visiting the fields I’d once discovered after seeking an alternate car park...
Heritage
Heritage: School reunions – the past is a foreign country
by Martin Brisland. Have you been to a school reunion? I recently attended a school 50 year reunion. For months, since I first heard about it I was apprehensive as I had not set foot inside since I left. Fifty years is a very long time, in fact the...
Heritage: the volunteers sharing the best of Southampton with visitors
by Martin Brisland. For more than ten years, a band of volunteers have been quietly promoting Southampton, by helping the passengers from cruise ships calling in for the day, mainly German – Aida and Mein Schiff, and Italian – MSC. They call themselves “The Cruise Welcome Team”. Jack Wilson,...
Suburban Safari: A New Year in Old Town
by Katie Isham. A new year seems apt for a visit to the Old Town area of our fair city. This part of our history is wonderful to visit any time, but during the dark winter days when moonlit moments outnumber the daylight hours, it’s an interesting time to...
Heritage: remembering when Christmas REALLY was cancelled
by Martin Brisland. Did you know that Christmas was cancelled in the mid 1600s? Oliver Cromwell, a statesman and general responsible for leading the parliamentary army against the Royalist forces during the English Civil War, took over England in 1645. He believed it was his mission to cleanse the...
Heritage: the punishment didn’t always fit the crime
by Martin Brisland. There is an old belief that the punishment should fit the crime. Yet, in the past, you could be hanged for 160 different crimes including chopping down a tree or poaching rabbits. William Shawyer was the last person to be publicly hung at the gallows on...
Heritage: Eleanor Coade, the remarkable Georgian businesswoman
by Martin Brisland. The statue on the south face of Southampton’s Bargate is of King George III (1738-1820). pictured top. His head is on the body of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, a common practice for statues at the time. It was based on Hadrian’s statue in the British Museum....
Knit the Walls community art project draws to a close with a month-long finale
After more than three million knitted stitches, thousands of hours of warm conversation and countless shared stories, as well as many hundreds of cups of tea and a lot of cake, the six-year ‘Knit the Walls’ community-focused art project will come to an end this November. Across the month,...
Heritage: Slavery and Southampton: an exhibition at SeaCity Museum, Southampton – reflections of a volunteer
by Liz Batten. Sometime just before the pandemic I’d offered to help do some research for an exhibition on slavery and Southampton, Sugar, Politics and Money for SeaCity Museum. I’d already been excited by David Olusoga’s documentaries on BBC TV, and the publicity surrounding the University College London database...
Heritage: Response to Sugar, Slavery and Southampton: Women’s Stories
by Jackie Landman. Claire Ballinger, Rose Wiles and Pauline Bisson were amongst the voluntary curators of new exhibition at SeaCity Museum, Southampton, Sugar, Politics and Money. They wrote about the exhibition for In Common and invited colleague Dr Jackie Landman, a visiting professor at the University of Southampton,...