BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.3.1//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:44@staffordshirehistory.org.uk DTSTART:20250506T183000Z DTEND:20250506T203000Z DTSTAMP:20250424T144243Z URL:https://www.staffordshirehistory.org.uk/events/knowing-where-you-stand -local-history-course/ SUMMARY:Knowing Where You Stand: Local History Course DESCRIPTION:Join us for the return of our popular local history course\, ru n over ten sessions and with access to original documents\, this is an ide al introduction for anyone wanting to develop their skills or knowledge.\n \nDates: Sessions run weekly on Tuesday evenings (6.30-8.30pm) at the Staf fordshire History Centre. Session dates are Weeks 1 to 3 from Tuesday 6 Ma y to Tuesday 20 May\, and Weeks 4 to 10 from Tuesday 3 June to Tuesday 15 July.\n\nCost: £100 for ten sessions - payment can be made online or in p erson.\n\nThis course covers modern history - a full session list will be provided.\n\nThe course is run in partnership between Staffordshire Archiv es &\; Heritage and the Keele University Centre for Local History and H eritage.\n\nTo book a place or for more information please email Sarah.Eng lish@staffordshire.gov.uk\n\nCourse Overview\n\nWe live in an age of infor mation\, in which the materials and resources needed to explore local hist ories have never been so accessible. Yet many people are unaware of the ri ches that lie close to their fingertips\, in local archives and online\, o r lack the confidence to make use of them. This course is intended to prom ote an awareness of the available sources and teach the skills needed to s tudy them.\n\nThe course covers over three hundred years of history\, from the later seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries (a period that can be described as the long revolution of modernity). Across this span of time\ , different kinds of source material offer us opportunities to explore the lives of those who came before us in varied localities across England. Th rough these sources\, we can try to understand their everyday worlds and t he cultural conditions that shaped their lives. We will examine urban and industrial lives\, the creation of new forms of community and infrastructu re\, and an increasing diversity of religious expression.\n\nEach weekly s ession will comprise an introductory lecture followed by a primary source workshop. We will look at various examples of sources held in the Stafford shire Archives and discuss the ways they can be used to produce local hist ories. The course will inspire a new confidence in the use of historic mat erial\, the planning of local history projects and the creation of new per spectives on the past.\n\nCouse Guide:\n\nKnowing Where You Stand: An Intr oduction to Local History\n\nThe Long Revolution of Modernity: 18th–20th Centuries\n\nIndicative Outline\n\n \n\nTransformations in the Rural Lan dscape (C17-C19)\n\nWe begin with important transformations in the histori c landscape\, that would shape local society over subsequent centuries. Th e period witnessed significant amounts of enclosure in the countryside\, n ow reinforced by parliamentary act. Historians claim that an ‘agricultur al revolution’ occurred.\n\nUrban Lives: Societies and Networks (C18)\n\ nTowns expanded in the 18th century as population grew\, and trade increas ed along with the communications routes to facilitate it. This session wil l look at the growth of new forms of urban community and the development o f new urban spaces such as the leisure town.\n\nWorkhouses and the Poor La w (C18-C20)\n\nWorkhouses emerged under the Old Law Poor\, but became cent ral to the organisation of the New Poor Law from the 1830s onwards. This s ession will explore these developments\, including the lives of those who inhabited the workhouses as both inmates and staff.\n\nModern Landscapes 1 (C19-20): Extraction\, Industry and Movement\n\nThe modern period is asso ciated with the Industrial Revolution in many people’s minds\, but was t his transformation\, and how did it actually affect people’s lives? This session takes a look at two important centres of this revolution in Staff ordshire – the Black Country and the Potteries – as well as the roads\ , canals and railways that were built to connect them to the rest of the c ountry.\n\n--HALF TERM BREAK--\n\nIndividual Lives: People and Institution s (C19-20)\n\nThe 19th and 20th centuries witnessed a significant increase in the intensity of national government at more local levels of society. The Reform Act of 1832 was followed by others over succeeding decades that gave increasing numbers of people a stake in national government\, while centrally directed institutions became more involved in local government t hrough\, for example\, Boards of Health and Rural and Urban District Counc ils. Meanwhile\, the national population becomes visible for the first tim e in the census returns compiled every decade from 1841.\n\nReligion/s ­( C18-20)\n\nFrom the 18th century new forms of dissenting religion (particu larly Methodism) emerged alongside the early protestant groups of the 16th and 17th centuries to create a far more varied religious landscape. Meanw hile\, restrictions around Catholicism were loosened in the 19th century a nd groups practising non-Christian religions became more socially visible in the 20th century. In 1851 an unparalleled religious census provided fin e-grained view of religious life across the country.\n\nModern Landscapes 2 (C19-20): The Warfare State\n\nMilitary installations had long formed im portant elements within the English landscape\, but the 18th and 19th cent uries witnessed an increasing variety and number\, such as militia barrack s\, training grounds and armaments factories. The mass warfare of the firs t and second world wars expanded the proportion of the population involved with the country’s military infrastructure\, as well as evolving new fo rms of communal memorial.\n\nEducation (C19-20)\n\nFormal education had lo ng been open to elite levels of society\, but from the 19th century provis ion was increasingly made for the poorer strata as well. This session look s at charitable foundations\, ‘National’ schools and life in the vario us forms of organised formal education promoted by central government in t he 20th century\, as revealed in sources such as school log books.\n\nAtom ization of the landscape (C20-21)\n\nThe historic landscape has experience d fundamental changes since the 1950s. A decline in industrial production has been mirrored by an increase in the ‘service’ economy\, while form al religious observation has declined and older forms of community have gi ven way to new. What does this mean for local history\, itself a significa nt product of these decades of transformation?\n\nPlanning a Local History Project\n\nWhat next? This final session considers the challenges of plan ning and undertaking a local history project\, seeking to put the work of the previous weeks into practice!\n\n \; LOCATION:Staffordshire History Centre\, Eastgate Street\, Stafford\, ST16 2 LZ\, United Kingdom X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Eastgate Street\, Stafford\ , ST16 2LZ\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Staffordshire Histo ry Centre:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR