Earlier in the year our Rob James participated in an outreach event hosted by Liberation Route Europe in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. LRE Foundation is an international network that brings together people and organisations who are dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the Second World War. At the event, Rob took part in a panel discussion outlining the benefits of the organisation and its new Hiking Trails project. The southern section of the UK Hiking Trail runs from London to the South coast, and one of Rob’s PhD researchers, (now Dr) Jayne Friend, was employed by the Foundation to provide material for the trail. Jayne identified many points of interest relating to the D-Day campaign in Britain, and when the trail is officially launched you’ll be able to follow in the footsteps of those who participated in the campaign. To read more about the outreach event, visit the LRE Foundation’s newsletter here. To find out more about the Hiking Trails project, and watch a video introducing the London to Portsmouth trail, follow this link.
The panel discussion, with our Rob James seated third from the left
In this blog Josh Wintle, who graduated with a History degree from Portsmouth last year (well done, Josh!), discusses a project he worked on in his second year with some of his fellow History students for the module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their project, the students looked into how academic historians take their work ‘out of the academy’ and into the public realm. Josh and his fellow students interviewed our Dr Rob James, who researches leisure history, to find out how he has tried to engage the wider public in the history he researches.
The aim of the interviews we conducted with some of our tutors was to assess the impact historians’ research has on the public . Our interviews focused on the social impact of the outreach programmes they had undertaken, and the impact technology had on their research. Our aim was to make our findings widely available through this blog, so we regarded the interviews as informal conversations. Our focus was on the importance of research that involved those outside of academia, so we wanted to produce a project that reflected and included this audience. Dr Robert James gave an array of detail regarding how and why historians interact with the public.
Our first point of focus was asking the historians we interviewed what led them to choose their area of research. It was a simple question that garnished a variety of answers. The responses varied from personal interest to choosing areas of study that they thought would have present day importance. Rob, for example, told us that he became interested in his research area because he wanted to challenge the scholarship regarding working-class cinema goers. Coming from a similar background himself, he disagreed with some historians who said that people viewing a film were passive and easily persuaded by what was presented to them.
A recurring theme throughout our interviews was exploring the rise of social history. Linked to this was the growth in people researching their own personal history and the history of those around them. Throughout Rob’s interview we discussed projects he’d worked on and I was intrigued to find out that he’d worked with a community group who wanted to uncover the impact of the Battle of Jutland on the people of Portsmouth, and also with Pompey History Society on the history of Portsmouth Football Club.
The highlight from this project for me was discovering the desire of many people not only to learn about the history of the area around them, but also feeling the need to inform their communities of what they found. With the Jutland project, Rob spoke about the passion of the U3A group he worked with to remember those from the city who had died during the battle. He says they felt a duty to honour the people who once made up the community of the city, and also wanted to inform others of their findings.
In fact, many of the projects undertaken by the historians we interviewed had aims focussed on informing the public of historical events that took place within the local area. The Jutland Project, along with Dr Mike Esbester’s work on railway health and safety, produced nationwide databases with the aim of making this research accessible to a much wider population. The aims of social outreach are also present in the work of Dr Melanie Basset, who is undertaking projects that aim to teach school children in Portsmouth about the historic ‘sailortown’ and what the area they lived in looked like historically. The interviews ultimately highlighted the interest of many groups to research and share the history of their local communities.
Another key topic during our discussions was the element of technology, and how the advances in this field has affected the study of history. The main topic of discussion this question brought up was the development of archives and the process of digitisation. This topic brought up a lot of positive opinions, with Rob agreeing that digital archives can provide access to a much wider audience, including those outside of the academic community. Digital archives have both advantages and disadvantages, though. Rob mentioned that the long process of digitisation is ultimately selective, does not include all documents, and cannot truly cover an entire time period as some documents are left out of the process. Another point that was mentioned by Rob that I previously had not thought about was the element of “Wifi poverty” and how digitisation excludes those without access to technology, or those who cannot use it, including when these archives are hidden behind a paywall.
During our interview with Rob, we also spoke about the Covid-19 pandemic and the benefits of online events. This has allowed Rob to take part in projects that he was unable to travel to due to the pandemic restrictions. His talk on cinema-going was able to go ahead thanks to the development of technology, and meant he was able to connect with a group of cinema enthusiasts who asked him if he’d talk with them.
The interviews we conducted with our tutors showed the importance of interacting with the public. The projects they worked on were led by public interest and ultimately, through the work that both parties undertook, the community as a whole gained a better understanding of their local history.
Recently, the internationally-renowned museum, The D-Day Story, published on their website a podcast recorded in 2022 by three second year History students, Amy Deighton, Jessie Rickman and Sam Marchetti. The students, who are now in the final year of their studies, worked with the museum’s archives as part of their assessment for the ‘Working with the Past’ module, coordinated by Mike Esbester. The second-year module encourages students to work with our local community partners where possible and produce work that has a benefit to them and the organisation they are working with. To hear the podcast, go to the D-Day Story website here.
In this blog, our Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the local history project he worked on with one of our local community partners, Pompey History Society, that culminated in the publication of a book which includes a chapter written by Rob and four of our History students, Sam Ewart, Maria Kopanska, Dan Ward and Jack Woolley. Rob’s research explores society’s leisure activities and feeds into a number of optional and specialist modules that he teaches in the second and third year.
‘POMPEY Champions of England’ front cover
On 26 October 2022, I attended the launch of the book POMPEY Champions of England: The sporting and social history of Portsmouth FC’s league title wins in 1949 & 1950, edited by the chair of Pompey History Society (PHS) Colin Farmery. The book launch, held at Portsmouth City Museum, was the culmination of the project ‘POMPEY: Champions of England’, run by PHS and generously funded by the Heritage Fund.
I have been involved with the project from its inception. Many years ago now, Colin Farmery contacted me and asked if I was willing to be on the steering committee of a project that intended to capture, through undertaking oral history interviews, the memories of fans who witnessed Portsmouth Football Club’s back-to-back title wins in the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to be involved in the project. It allowed me to be more closely involved with the history of the football club I’d supported for many years, and also provided me with an opportunity to get the University, and more importantly, our students, involved and working with a local community organisation.
Despite being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the project progressed well, and around 40 interviews were conducted and archived, leading to the production of a supplement of fan memories in the local newspaper The News, and the unveiling of a permanent exhibition at Fratton Park in late 2021.
Pompey: Champions of England exhibition at Fratton Park
The final aim of the project was to publish a book that placed the fans’ memories within the social and sporting context of the time they were visiting Fratton Park to watch Pompey achieve their incredible feat of consecutive title wins. The book was divided into the themes that had been drawn out from the testimonies of the supporters who were interviewed, and these included their memories of living in war-torn Portsmouth, the match-day experience, and the important role the football club played (and continues to play) in the local community. As editor, Colin Farmery had already commissioned a number of the chapters, but he approached me and asked if our students would like to be involved in writing a chapter on the theme of ‘Women and Football’. Of course, I said yes!
First page of the chapter written by Rob, Sam, Maria, Dan and Jack
Fortunately, one of our second year core modules, ‘Working with the Past’, is specifically designed to enable our students to work with the many local organisations who the History team are involved with. My colleagues and I work with the module’s coordinator, Mike Esbester, to offer students a suite of choices that allow them to gain valuable experience by working with these community partners.
One of the choices I put forward was the opportunity to work with Pompey History Society, and we recruited four students, Sam Ewart, Maria Kopanska, Dan Ward and Jack Woolley, to work with the organisation. Colin invited the students to Fratton Park so that he could introduce them to the aims of the project. He also gave them a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium, which included showing them the project’s permanent exhibition as well as a look at the Society’s archive. The task was set: the students were to be given access to all of the interviews that were conducted with female fans so that they could begin the research for their chapter.
History students visiting the exhibition at Fratton Park
For the project, four female fans – Joan Elder, Audrey Hawkins, Joan Phillips, and Maggie Thoyts – were interviewed. The students each took one of the testimonies, evaluated it, and wrote up a section for the chapter, which also coupled as part of their assessment for the module. I came back in at the end of the process and edited the students’ contributions so that the chapter ran along a thematic line, introducing additional contextual material to build a full picture of the women’s experience of being a female football fan in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Lady Mayor Maria Costa speaking at the book launch
So, there we have it, the book has been launched and the students are now published authors. That’s something to catch the eye of a prospective employer! Pompey History Society are thrilled with the work the students have done, and we are currently discussing what future projects our students could be involved with (I’m on the ‘125 Committee’ which is planning a series of activities to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the formation of Portsmouth Football Club in 1898). All in all, it’s been a great experience and I am so proud of our students’ achievements. Well done Dan, Jack, Maria, and Sam!
Colin Farmery, Sam Ewart and Rob James at the book launch
In this blog Dan Squire, who graduated with a History degree from Portsmouth in July (well done, Dan!), discusses a project he worked on last year with some of his fellow History students for the module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their project, the students looked into how academic historians take their work ‘out of the academy’ and into the public realm. Dan and his fellow students interviewed our Dr Mel Bassett, who researches the history of dockyard workers, to find out how she has tried to engage the wider public in the history she studies.
As part of our work for the module ‘Working with the Past’, I and a few of my fellow students interviewed Dr Melanie Bassett about how and why historians interact with the public. Mel gave us many insights into her personal experiences of interacting with the public, addressing the concerns many historians have when showcasing their work to the public. Mel spoke about tackling issues such as keeping the public engaged in historical discussions and the different methods that can be utilised to achieve this goal. Mel also went on to stress the importance of accessibility and how technology can play a significant role in facilitating a shift to a more connected historical dialogue between the public and historians.
Mel has employed various methods to capture the public’s interest by making History accessible and enjoyable for everyone involved. One outreach project that Mel was involved in, called Sickly Slums and Sailortowns, is an excellent representation of how historians can expand their audience. The project introduced children to their local history as they discovered what life was like for the port towns’ inhabitants. The workshop culminated in a tour around Portsea, finishing in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, giving participants a first-hand experience of their local history as they even got to sit in a hammock on board HMS Warrior! This outreach project offered a fantastic taster day into History with the primary aim of capturing the interest of the participants. Exposing History to children at an early age can only be a good thing. Not only will it give them more of an appreciation for the subject, it will also help them develop an understanding of the world they live in.
Mel encapsulated her attitude towards working with the wider public when she told us “It is a really exciting time to be a historian; being able to work in the public eye and showcase what it is we do.” Mel feels that historians have the ability to help people gain a sense of topical issues by giving context to events. This was particularly evident when Mel highlighted the importance of other aspects of her research, particularly relating to the British Empire and its implications on today’s society. Mel has examined how the Empire affected ideas of race and belonging within Britain, demonstrating how historians can help by using their research to answer the bigger questions that the public ask.
Making History accessibility is, Mel said, a major issue for historians who are looking to engage a wider audience. Mel spoke about the role that she had played in digitising part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy‘s collection, which involved creating online exhibitions to go on their website. Online exhibitions enable the public to view resources hidden away in the museum’s archives, which are often not on display in the museum due to a lack of physical space. This means that the public can have full access to all the possible exhibits that the museum has to offer.
Mel also discussed another side of accessibility: the need to understand that people do not always want to be lectured to; it is important, Mel said, to allow people to see the collections themselves and do things in their own time. Modern technology has also allowed more traditional written History to become more accessible. As well as writing longer academic-focused pieces, many historians now engage with the public by writing shorter, more reader-friendly posts. Therefore, the public can digest the information in a condensed way.
Mel also offered her thoughts on improving accessibility in the future, pinpointing the fact that we need to empower the wider public by giving them the tools they need to further their own research if they wanted to. This raises an interesting argument about online archives. Although theoretically they are now more accessible than ever due to them negating geographical restrictions, members of the public are often met with new restrictions in the form of paywalls on many sites, meaning online archives are only available to people who can afford to pursue their interest in history.
Finally, Mel spoke to us about her experience of working on the TV programme Britain’s Most Historic Towns. While being positive about the involvement of documentaries and TV shows in History, Mel also mentioned the dangers a historian can face working with the media. Mel was acutely aware of the fact that any time you offer your expertise or opinion, there is always the potential for someone to disagree. This highlighted the difficulty of expressing a view in a 10-minute segment on TV that has been built up through years of research and critical thinking. Mel went on to say that if historians were given longer to contribute, they could add more information to help contextualise their views and lower the chance of their point being misunderstood.
Overall, Mel was extremely positive about working with the wider community and says that making History more available to the public can on be a good thing. It is clear then, that Mel’s aim as a historian is to encourage the wider public to explore and engage with history more freely. Her research is a very important part of her job, she says, but so is helping to create a new generation of historians.
Recently, the internationally-renowned museum, The D-Day Story, published on their website a podcast recorded in 2021 by three second year History students, Joshua Bown, Angus Grieve and Shannen Smylie. The students worked with the museum’s archives as part of their assessment for the ‘Working with the Past’ module, coordinated by Mike Esbester. The second-year module encourages students to work with our local community partners where possible and produce work that has a benefit to them and the organisation they are working with. To hear the podcast, go to the D-Day Story website here.
