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Wymering Manor: Portsmouth’s oldest domestic building

By on November 22, 2018 in Public History, Research in Focus

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. […]

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Seventeenth-century fortifications found at University of Portsmouth archaeological dig

By on November 12, 2018 in News

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

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Students tour seventeenth-century Portsmouth

By on October 29, 2018 in Learning in Focus

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 […]

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A Festival of Dark Delights: Portsmouth DarkFest 2018

By on October 16, 2018 in Events, News

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 […]

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(Un)safe heritage?

By on August 31, 2018 in Learning in Focus, Public History

In this post, the third in our series of blogs looking at sites of historical interest in Portsmouth, Mike Esbester, Senior Lecturer in History at Portsmouth, explores what might be learnt from an apparently unexceptional piece of the city’s built environment. Mike’s research and teaching focus on the everyday, including ideas about mobility and accidents in modern Britain. Not far from my office, there’s yet another mundane object that for most of the time, most people don’t notice – for 140 years it was part of the background to life around Burnaby Road. For a week or so earlier this year, however, it became very noticeable – particularly its absence, […]

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