The Amateur Historian Volume 6 Number 7 Spring 1965

By Local history in school

pp 218-222

An account of attempts to enliven history teaching in schools, by encouraging the use of local history in the school curriculum and by the appointment of a lecturer in local history at a Southampton teacher training institution.

[Hide]

By Northeast, Peter

pp 223-224

Account of the use of local history in the village school at Blewbury, Berkshire, in an area which is particularly rich in historical features and evidence; the author, when he taught there, used a range of techniques to develop local history studies, including compiling a school history and taking children on field visits.

[Hide]

By Moorsom, Norman

pp 225-227

The author, a teacher, shows how he used local history to stimulate and illustrate the teaching of general history. He recommends four main approaches: i) setting local historical studies within the context of national affairs; ii) introducing field work and site visits; iii) making a careful selection of interesting topics; and iv) emphasising family life and family history.

[Hide]

By Burgess, Frederick

pp 229-233

Study of inscriptions on, and the artistic and architectural styles of, headstones and tombs in churchyards and cemeteries. The article discusses the range of styles and suggests that the most important single influence is probably the social and financial standing of the person commemorated. Early examples were characteristically found in areas where stone was available and relatively cheap, and not until canal and later rail transport allowed longer-distance movement of materials did costs come down and relatively ordinary people begin to have headstones and gravestones. Carvers are shown to be men of some education, with literary and artistic skills, while the variety of quotations given in epitaphs is also noted as indicative of the same cultural attainment. It is argued that the growth of literacy encouraged the inclusions of biographical details and sometimes of accounts of events leading up to death. The author urges that local historians should study graveyards, especially since so many were, at the time of writing, being 'tidied up'.

[Hide]

By Marshall, J.D.

pp 233-234

In this brief comment Marshall responds to the criticisms made of his previous paper on the subject, and to the reproaches which he directed at the attitudes and perspectives of the 'Leicester School'. He suggests that his comments concerned specific issues rather than being directed against an entire body of scholars, but suggests that there is no solution to the problem of restricting study to artificial boundaries.

[Hide]

By McGuinness, Mary

pp 235-242

Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs) were the written results of enquiries made following the death of a tenant of royal lands. Inheritance was confirmed to the heirs of the tenant, on payment of an appropriate fine to the Crown. Royal officials were commissioned to make investigations into rightful inheritance and in doing so gathered information on the deceased, his lands and properties, tenurial circumstances, services and obligations. The principal objective was to safeguard the interests, revenues and estates of the Crown itself. In the article the form and content of IPMs are discussed, and methodologies for using them are suggested. A translated example is provided to illustrate the content of these documents.