mytimemachine.co.uk: history feed

Trade Union Ancestors relaunched

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:20:58 +0100

The Trade Union Ancestors website has been given an overhaul. The home page now has a new look and lots more helpful information

Sixty Scottish Chartist names

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:19:00 +0100

In January 1842, delegates from all over Scotland gathered to discuss whether they should support the petition to Parliament drawn up by the National Charter Association. Chartist Ancestors names them and explains the significance of their decision.

Teetotal Chartists: a sober assessment

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:34:31 +0100

What attracted so many Chartists to total abstinence from alcohol, and why was it such a divisive issue? Find out here.

News from chartists.net

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:32:54 +0100

Keep up to date with the latest additions to Chartist Ancestors and with other developments in the study of Chartism.

Strike of the month: hairdressers down scissors (1918)

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:32:30 +0100

For nearly two months the hairdressing saloons of London's west end were closed down by striking staff seeking a shorter working week and better pay.

Mary Macarthur (1880-1921): union leader

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:31:19 +0100

One of the most important figures in early twentieth century trade unionism features in the "old stateswomen" slot on the Tribune History blog.

Chartism FAQs

Mon, 2 Jul 2007 13:22:12 +0100

Top 20 questions and answers about Chartism and the Chartist movement.

Chartist history on a plate

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:34:24 +0100

Why one piece of Chartist memorabilia was not entirely what it first appeared to be.

A history of the potters' unions

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:32:52 +0100

Staffordshire potters struggled throughout the 19th century to establish enduring trade unions. This is the story of the National Society of Pottery Workers and its successors

Chartism: a new history

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 11:42:36 +0100

Despite a great deal of interest in the subject, there has been no proper history of the Chartist movement from its birth in the late 1830s to its death 20 years later - at least until now...

500 Chartist names

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 11:40:14 +0100

The full list of names taken from Malcolm Chase's 2007 book Chartism: A New History

Industrial history needs a better deal

Fri, 1 Jun 2007 13:34:07 +0100

The Victorians saw industry as something to get excited about. But with attractions such as the SS Great Britain funded wholly from private sources, our own heritage bodies appear to disagree.

Eyewitnesses to the 19th century

Tue, 8 May 2007 14:40:52 +0100

What was life really like in Georgian and Victorian Britain? Find out from the people who were there

More trade union family trees

Tue, 8 May 2007 14:39:59 +0100

Trace the histories of the Transport and General Workers Union, Amicus, and the Rail Maritime and Transport Union

Teachers' unions family trees

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:00:11 +0100

Find out how the main teaching unions emerged from a series of mergers and amalgamations with Trade Union Ancestors website's unique family trees.

Chartist memorabilia

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:23:05 +0100

An online exhibition featuring Chartist membership cards and medallions.

History books for the summer

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:49:43 +0100

Holiday reading from the mytimemachine bookshop, featuring John Major on cricket, Peter Williams on the English seaside, Harry Patch on the last fighting Tommy, and much more

The chocolate-makers' strike

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:24:13 +0100

An 1890 strike by young women workers at an East End confectionary factory deserves to be as well known as the matchgirls' strike two years earlier.

Battle of Waterloo, 1815

Tue, 3 Apr 2007 11:08:57 +0100

A first-hand account of the fighting from Captain Gronow of the Grenadier Guards.

On a pub crawl with Karl Marx, 1850s

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:49:52 +0100

Wilhelm Liebknecht describes a night out with Marx involving much beer, a drunken pub brawl, vandalism and a police chase.

A nurse's Christmas on the Western Front, 1914

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:21:36 +0100

Katherine Luard spent the first Christmas Day of the first world war on a hospital train. She recalls transporting the sick and wounded, but still finding time to celebrate.

Jacobites seize Manchester, 1745

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:38:43 +0000

Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, takes Manchester on his March south. The diarist Elizabeth Byrom records his efforts to gather English supporters to the Jacobite cause.

John Arnott, Chartist, 1799-1868

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:39:28 +0000

John Arnott was a London shoemaker who became general secretary of the National Charter Association but died in poverty in the workhouse. This is the first known attempt to tell his life story.

Visit the bookshop

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:41:30 +0000

For the best in British history books and DVDs, try the mytimemachine.co.uk bookshop.

The Battle of the Somme, 1916

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:55:38 +0000

Private Walter Hutchinson left a vivid and frank diary record of the first few days of a battle which claimed nearly 20,000 British lives on its first day. Read his account of the events of 1-4 July 1916.

On board a slave ship, 1750s

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 15:14:43 +0000

Olaudah Equiano's account of life on board a slave ship helped fuel the growing abolitionist movement that came to fruition in 1807.

Edmund Stallwood, radical, 1810-66

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 12:39:43 +0000

A brief biography of Edmund Stallwood has been added to Chartist Ancestors. Stallwood entered radical politics as an early trade unionist, and became a key figure in Chartism.