The Past brought to Life
On Sunday at 6,30pm I am doing my Wolf Hall Virtual Boat Trip and Walk for London Walks.
This is the podcast.
The Walk explores the Palaces along the Thames and then takes a walk around the City charting the life and deaths of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell, which are so vividly depicted in Hilary Mantel’s books in the Wolf Hall series.
I used to think that asking compensation for past wrongs was not a good idea, after all where would we draw the lines? Currently, we seem to draw that line in 1933.
Then I heard about the
Legacies of British Slave-ownership project – UCL
What this revealed was that the British Government borrowed money (from Rothschild which they only paid back recently) some £20m if I remember correctly.
We have the list of the beneficiaries of compensation for their loss of OWNERSHIP of human beings. So we, the people, funded compensation of exploiters of human misery.
£20m is perhaps £16 billion in today’s money.
So what would be so terrible about, we, the people, setting up a charitable fund with £16billion capital to fund, say, the removal of barriers to equal opportunity in Britain, the West Indies and Africa.
Funded by Government borrowing.
As to Statues. Case by Case examination of the issues, by citizens panel guided by expert opinions.
Options to include:
1. Removal to a museum display where contextual information can be clearly displayed.
2. Erection of new plinth with appropriate information
3. Creation of a new statue nearby to make a suitable display representing the issues
4. Resiting of statue with an explanatory panel.
5. Leaving in place with an explanatory panel.
6 Leaving as is
The discovery of a dismantled Stone Circle, the same size as the Aubrey Holes Circle at Stonehenge, near to the Quarry that modern science has identified as the source of the Bluestones at Stonehenge, has validated what Geoffrey of Monmouth said in the 12th Century.
That is that Stonehenge was second hand and was brought from the West. (OK he said Ireland and the newly discovered Henge is in West Wales, and everything else he said seems to be wrong). But at least it would seem Geoffrey didn’t just make up it all up, which is what I have been saying for many years.
Anyway the point of this post is to direct you to this article which is the definitive word on the new discovery by Mike Parker Pearson and his colleagues.
Do read it!
KEVIN FLUDE’S LONDON WALKS APRIL 2021 VIRTUAL WALKS SEASON
To Book follow this eventbrite link which gives access to all Kevin Flude’s Virtual tours.
ROMAN LONDON – ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL TOUR
Sunday 11th April 2021 6.30pm
The virtual walk looks at the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman Londinium
To book
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF ROMAN LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY VIRTUAL WALK
Sunday 18th April 2021 6.30pm
An exploration of what happened at the end of the Roman Period, and how the City became first deserted, and then a Saxon, German speaking English City.
To book
LONDON BEFORE LONDON – PREHISTORIC LONDON VIRTUAL COACH TOUR
Sunday 25th April 2021 6.30pm
An exploration of London before the foundation of Londinium
To book
Sunday 29th February 2021
The Walk creates a portrait of London in the early 16th Century. It has a particular emphasis on the life and times of Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More who feature in Wolf Hall, the novel by Hilary Mantel.
Listen to the Tour Podcast (6 min 55)
The Virtual Tour will start with a boat tour from Hampton Court, via Chelsea to the City, and then a Walk around the City.
More and Cromwell had much in common, both lawyers, commoners, who rose to be Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII and they both ended their career on the block at Tower Hill. But they found themselves on the other side of the gulf that suddenly opened with the religious ferment that accompanied Henry’s obsession with Anne Bolyen.
The Walk will include visits to the sites of More’s and Cromwell’s town houses and then walk through the market streets of Tudor London, to Cheapside and the Guildhall, St Pauls and outside the Walls to Smithfield where most of the religious executions took place. We visit Charter House where More took a break from the stress of public office, and whose Prior, Cromwell had hanged, drawn and quartered. We exit via the plaque pits, and finish off with a walk around the City Walls until we come to Tower Hill where both men ended their lives on the scaffold.
Saint or Sinner? What better place to ponder that question that the streets of Wolf Hall London?
To buy Tickets click here:
On Sunday 14th Feb 2021 at 6.30pm (GMT) I am doing a Virtual Walks for London Walks. Here is my podcast.
To book for the Walk, click here:
Sunday 11th April 2021 6.30pm
The virtual walk looks at the amazing archaeological discoveries of Roman Londinium
Archaeology has transformed our knowledge of Roman London and this walk takes us around the amazing archaeological discoveries and the stories they reveal.
We disembark at the Roman Waterfront by the Roman Bridge, and investigate the circumstances which lead to the foundation of London. Then we walk up the hill to the Roman Town Hall, past the houses of its wealthy citizens. At the Forum we look at the market and discuss Roman local politics. We proceed through the streets of Londinium, with its vivid and cosmopolitan street life and to the site of the excavation called ‘the Pompeii of the North’. Then we worship at the Temple of Mithras, and finish with Bread and Circus at the Roman Amphitheatre.
.This is a London Walks Guided Walk. Look at their web site for a list of other of their amazing walks
To Book:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roman-london-virtual-archaeology-walk-tickets-137340139053
Blunted your Axe chopping down a tree for the rafter of your aging Roundhouse?
Can’t find a craftsman and blaming Brexit? Well, here is a man you can go to: Dr James Dilley, recently profiled in London Archaeologist by Becky Wallover.
Here is the website to order your Axe, or indeed, a Roundhouse.
https://www.ancientcraft.co.uk/
Recent research has revealed the true story behind stained glass windows at Canterbury which had been reassembled wrongly.
The story is told here:
And if you cannot get through the pay wall here:
I am doing a Chaucer Walk on Sunday 31st 2021 at 6:30 which will feature the pilgrimage to Canterbury.
For more on Becket and London see my post here.