As part of his practice research PhD at Portsmouth, Vin Adams has written a play about the events here in 1642, just before Charles I raised his standard in Nottingham. The play will be performed in The Square Tower in Old Portsmouth, itself part of the action of the play, and brings to life many figures of the time including Queen Henrietta Maria, John Pym, Sir William Waller and, of course, George Goring. For anyone interested in local history, this should be an interesting exploration of Portsmouth’s part in one of the battles that prefaced the Civil War. Vin has been working on the project with Fiona McCall, senior lecturer in early modern history at Portsmouth, and final year BA (Hons) History student Tom Austin.
Dashing and heroic on the field of battle and a complete disaster in his private life, Colonel George Goring has been given the Governorship of one of the most militarily important towns in the country: Portsmouth. Having played the King and Parliament off against each other to fund the refortification of the town, he finally reveals which side he’s on and gives his people little choice but to defend themselves against enormous odds. As the tower of St. Thomas’ Church is hit and Southsea Castle is taken, will Goring’s men be a match for the troops massing on Portsdown Hill? In her desperate attempts to raise armies to save her husband, will the Queen accept Goring’s offer of safe passage to the continent? And will Goring escape with his life or be forced to carry out his threat to blow up The Square Tower and everyone inside the town walls?
Based on contemporary accounts and using the vibrant dramatic style of the seventeenth century, Besieged brings to life the comedy and tragedy of a surprising moment in the history of Portsmouth.
Teo Dumitriu as Queen Henrietta MariaDanny Carter as Colonel GoringPat Howe as Sir William Waller
In this blog, the fourth in a series of posts looking at sites of historical interest in Portsmouth, Dr Katy Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the significant but often overlooked history of Wymering Manor, the oldest domestic building in the city of Portsmouth. Katy’s research specialisms focus on the religious and cultural history of early modern England, and specifically on the Catholic communities living under Protestant rule. This connects to her teaching at Levels 4 and 6 of the History curriculum, particularly specialist modules on religious identity in Elizabethan England.
For a place rich in heritage, Wymering Manor, on the outskirts of Portsmouth, is one of its often-overlooked gems.
Wymering Manor
This grade 2 listed building is the oldest domestic building in the city. It is a sixteenth century manor house (with earlier foundations), with an interesting and colourful history, but is rather ‘off the beaten track’ of Portsmouth’s visitor attractions. Wymering Manor provides a fascinating route into the changing history of the local area, the varied use and repurposing of historic buildings and their contents, and into contemporary issues relating to the conservation of public heritage. It also connects in different ways to the research interests of staff at the University of Portsmouth, including those within the History team.
Wymering Manor
In its current form, the house was built in the later sixteenth century, by the Bruning family. The Brunings were Catholics at a time when England’s identity was increasingly being wedded to Protestantism: whilst part of the elite social group, the Brunings would have been part of a religious minority. Since that time, the Manor has been home to a number of different inhabitants, including the vicar of the parish, who established an Anglican Religious order there in the nineteenth century; the British army during the Second World War, and, most recently, to countless numbers of visitors in its stint as a Youth Hostel. Located next door to the ancient parish church of Wymering, it has played an important part in the local community.
The fabric and contents of the house itself reflect its changing use over the centuries. It presents historians, architects and others with a number of puzzles, as it is not always clear when changes were made, by whom, and for what purpose! There is the intriguing question of possible priest holes: spaces were built into the fabric of Catholic houses to hide priests if the Protestant authorities carried out a search – but the dating of these at Wymering raise some interesting questions. Some of the internal structures and decorations also pose puzzles – how ‘original’ are some of the fireplaces for example – have they been moved from other locations in the house, or brought in as part of later ‘home improvements’ from other domestic settings?
Rear view of Wymering Manor
Wymering Manor is also associated with a number of ghost stories, providing us with another route into thinking about the ways in which Portsmouth and its surrounding areas, are thought about and remembered. A number of legends are associated with the building, and it is a popular location for paranormal investigations.
The Manor has survived, if precariously, whilst the community around it has changed as a result of the expansion of the urban area of Portsmouth. However, it has continued to have an impact on its local community. The house is now in the hands of the Wymering Manor Trust, who have taken on the significant challenge of preserving it for the use of future generations, and of providing a community hub for a range of different cultural and social events.
For further information on Wymering Manor click here.
For further examples of academic research on Catholic History: see the journal British Catholic History, edited by University of Portsmouth’s Dr Katy Gibbons.
For those interested in Portsmouth’s supernatural past visit the Darkfest site.
Some of Portsmouth’s historic fortifications are being uncovered in two trenches on the site of the new University of Portsmouth Sports Facility in Ravelin Park. The walls that have been revealed would have protected the naval port during the 17th century, a major period of development for the port. A gun platform or embrasure has now been uncovered by the archaeologists, AOC archaeology.
In this blog, Dr Fiona McCall, senior lecturer in early modern history at the University of Portsmouth, reports on a field trip undertaken as part of her Special Subject Module ‘Britain Divided: The impact of the Civil War 1637-1662’. Fiona teaches units on the British Civil Wars, and Crime, Sin and Punishment in early modern Britain, amongst others. Her current research project investigates religion in the English parish during the period of Godly rule of the 1640s and 1650s.
On the 18th October, as part of their special subject on the British Civil Wars, third year history students went on a walking tour of Old Portsmouth, taking in the house where the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated in the high street (shown here), St Thomas’s Cathedral, which had its tower flattened by Parliamentary cannon fired from Gosport, and the seventeenth-century bedroom in the Portsmouth Museum. The cathedral contains an elaborate funeral monument to the Duke, and behind the cathedral are some seventeenth-century houses. Two of the students here are writing dissertations related to seventeenth-century history, Tom Austin (centre) is working on the role of the navy at Portsmouth in the first Civil War, a topic which has been surprisingly under-researched. Although Charles I was interested in developing the navy, as seen by his controversial attempts to raise more ship money, most of the development of the dockyard had to wait until after the Restoration. This is the period Ian Atkins (fourth from the left) is studying, for a dissertation on Samuel Pepys’s naval innovations. If you are interested in reading more about Portsmouth’s role in the Civil Wars, see my previous post.
Dr Karl Bell, Reader in Cultural and Social History, discusses the launch of this year’s Portsmouth DarkFest. Karl researches ‘everything spooky’, and his second book was on the Victorian legend of Spring-Heeled Jack. He’s now working on a book on proto-science fiction ideas in British culture between c.1750-1900.
This weekend sees the return of Portsmouth DarkFest, an annual creative and cultural festival that explores the supernatural, the spooky and urban noir.
Now in its third year, the festival originally grew from my historical research into nineteenth-century ghost stories in Portsmouth. I was particularly interested in the power of folkloric stories and the way haunted locations can change our understanding of both the local environment and local histories. This led me to the Portsmouth Writers Hub and my challenging them to create a new body of folklore for the city; ghost and horror stories set in modern Portsmouth. The best were gathered together in an anthology entitled Dark City: Portsmouth Tales of Horror and Haunting. The first DarkFest festival grew from the launch of that book.
Since then I have led a collaboration between an ever-growing number of local artists and University of Portsmouth academics, creating a rich and varied programme of public events for the Halloween season. Over the years the festival has developed into an annual celebration of creative cultures in Portsmouth. Drawing upon shared themes taken from my Supernatural Cities research project (ghost stories, urban legends, crime, horror and dark histories), events now include contributions from a diverse range of multimedia artists, writers, musicians, performers and academics. The festival also involves working with a range of local businesses and cultural organisations, including Aspex Gallery, Southsea Castle, the Kings Theatre and Groundlings Theatre, and some great local coffee shops such as Hunter Gatherer.
This year’s programme will include creative writing and art workshops, public talks on subjects ranging from horror cinema to Spiritualism, theatrical plays and immersive zombie experiences, live music and storytelling, and open mic poetry performances. There is also a call for artists (of all types) to get involved in a future collaboration called Dark Side, Port Side.
Following the popularity of last year’s promotional videos on the festival’s Facebook page, this summer we ran a public workshop to create new videos for DarkFest 2018. (For more details see Eilis Phillips’ report). Everyone had lots of fun creating stories and videos from scratch, most of which feature DarkFest’s mysterious plague doctor character. These videos are now being rolled out as part of the festival promotion and the first can be seen here.
Both the Supernatural Cities research project and Portsmouth DarkFest seek to develop and explore the interconnections between academic and creative practices, and to encourage collaborations between the university, the city’s cultural organisations, and its local creatives. In coming together, we aim to enrich the local community and to enhance the city’s cultural self-esteem.
Portsmouth Darkfest provides an exciting opportunity for students to explore their creative sides. If you are a creative writer, filmmaker, musician, poet or performer, we can introduce you to the many like-minded creatives in the city, and perhaps even provide a way of showcasing your talents at a future DarkFest event. If interested, please feel free to contact me at karl.bell@port.ac.uk
This year DarkFest runs from 19th October – 11th November. All events are open to the public and many are free. For the full DarkFest 2018 programme click here. For regular updates on events you can follow the Supernatural Cities project on Twitter @imaginetheurban
Dr Robert James, Senior Lecturer in History at Portsmouth, has written a piece for Social History Exchange, a blog run by the Social History Society, to celebrate Libraries Week. In the blog Rob discusses how libraries have acted, and continue to act, as hubs for the local community. To read the blog, click here.
