Have you ever reflected upon the possibility of a chronology of recent history which is decentred from that of Europe and North America? Excitingly, we are doing just that! Our new seminar series: A Global History of the Present Time is a joint seminar series organised by the University of Portsmouth Francophone Africa Research Group, Institut d’histoire du temps présent, Paris (IHTP-CNRS) and EUME Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin. For our launch seminar taking place on Wednesday 29 January, Portsmouth’s own Dr Olivia Rutazibwa will be joined by Dr Reem Abou El Fadl from SOAS to encourage us to think about whether the end of the 1970s should be considered the […]
Author Archive | Fiona McCall
Volunteering with naval artefacts from World War I
Emily Burgess, a third year history student at Portsmouth, describes some of the things she has learned and some of the amazing artefacts she has got to work with on a daily basis in over a year spent working as a volunteer first for the National Museum of the Royal Navy and then for the Royal Marines Museum. She is now devising her own projects and events for the museum and has found the experience invaluable to her studies for her degree. During my first year at Portsmouth University I attended a history volunteer fair held in The Mary Rose Museum. It was there that I met my future supervisor […]
Local History on Stage
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 […]
Seventeenth-century fortifications found at University of Portsmouth archaeological dig
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. See the most recent article on the project in the University of Portsmouth News
Students tour seventeenth-century Portsmouth
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 […]
Portsmouth and the English Civil Wars
Dr Fiona McCall teaches a third year special subject on the British Civil Wars. Below she looks at events in Portsmouth which give it a good claim to be considered the place where the Civil War broke out. Hampshire saw considerable action during the First Civil War (1642-6), being sandwiched between the area of Parliamentary control in the South and East, and the South-West, which was controlled by the Royalists for most of the first war. One of the first major sieges took place here at Portsmouth, and one of the last, further north at Basing. Other notable actions occurred at Winchester, at Alton church, Cheriton, and just over the […]