History Shorts: snippets of local history

The Holywell Music Room, which opened in Holywell Street, Oxford in 1748, is usually described as Europe's first custom-built concert hall. That's some accolade in a continent that produced Bach, Handel, Mozart etc. There's an unproven tradition that Handel himself played here — it certainly hosted his music — and the venue is also said to have led to Haydn becoming popular.  So is the claim true? A lot rests on the phrase "custom-built" or "purpose-built". Of course there were many venues throughout Europe hosting musical performances, how could there not be. But these venues had other uses as well. Oxford's own Sheldonian Theatre, much larger than the Holywell Music Room and situated only a few hundred yards away, had opened in 1669 and hosted many concerts. Handel definitely did play there in 1733. But as the Sheldonian was built to host the public ceremonies of the University of Oxford, not just music events, it cannot be described as a custom-bu...

Ordnance Survey benchmarks are among the most significant features of Britain’s historic landscape. Whether carved into stone walls, bridges or buildings, or displayed in a metal plate, these marks formed the backbone of a national system for measuring height. More than 700,000 benchmarks were created across the country from the 1830s to the 1990s, though most are no longer in use. The Ordnance Survey was originally founded in the 18th century to record features and settlements for military purposes. As surveying techniques improved during the 19th century, accurate maps of different scales were developed and published. A consistent vertical reference system was needed. Surveyors had to know not just where places were, but how high they stood above sea level. To achieve this, Ordnance Survey established a network of benchmarks, named for the process of placing an angle iron into a horizontal mark to form a "bench" on which a levelling staff could rest while measuring height. ...

While the Red Lion and the Royal Oak are the most common pub names in Britain, with many hundreds of each, there is probably only one pub in the country called St Peter's Finger.  There are some places called Peters Finger (or Petersfinger) but the drinking establishment is found in the Dorset village of Lytchett Minster, and seems to have been there for well over two hundred years. Surprisingly though the origin of the name isn't entirely certain. Pub sign in 2023. Lytchett Minster is found four miles from Wareham and four miles from Poole. A settlement was recorded here in the Domesday book.  A helpful information board reveals that the village church has no dedication, describing this as unusual but not unique. Parish records date back to 1554 and its font also dates to the 16th century. About 100 yards away from the church is St Peter's Finger pub. A phrase on the pub wall suggests that St Peter's Finger is a thief's finger, and that the pub was previously a den...

Britain and Ireland aren't short of fascinating monuments from prehistory but Stonehenge surely leads the way when it comes to media interest in the period, from TV documentaries to newspaper articles. It also continues to attract the interest of researchers around the world keen to uncover new insights into the 5000-year-old landmark. What's more there's still plenty to learn. Two linked recent bits of Stonehenge research led by Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, have caught my eye. A Curtin team headed a  Nature  study published in August 2024 that revealed the monument's so-called Altar Stone, long believe to originate from Wales, probably hailed from Scotland. The six-tonne stone lies recumbent, mostly buried by a fallen monolith. Photo: AnirMitra / Pixabay It's a fantastic achievement to have a first-author paper in Nature at any stage of an academic career so huge kudos to then PhD researcher Anthony Clarke from Curtin's School of Earth and Pl...

News from the wires, our occasional series on recent history and archaeology research... Example of Mesolithic pot used in the study. Credit: Lara González Carreteri (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Thousands of years ago, European communities used a variety of plant and animal products to create elaborate meals, according to a study by Lara González Carretero of the University of York and colleagues. A common technique for interpreting the diets of ancient cultures involves analysing fatty residues in ancient pottery. This method is limited because it mostly provides insights only into animal remains. In this study in PLoS One , the authors combined multiple techniques, including microscopic examination and chemical analysis, to identify the remains of plants that were eaten by ancient European hunter-gatherers. Researchers examined organic remains found in 58 pieces of pottery uncovered at 13 archaeological sites across Northern and Eastern Europe dating betwee...

A striking monument built in the 1830s commemorated the son of a king and served as a tourist attraction. Inside, 168 narrow steps led upwards to a viewing gallery overlooking St James's Park and beyond. But why did it close before the end of the century? And what about rumours that its doorway now leads down underground to secret tunnels linking either Buckingham Palace or to Whitehall? For several decades in the 19th century, visitors to the Duke of York Column in London could ascend to the top for sweeping views across St James’s Park and Whitehall. Today the door at its base is closed, the viewing gallery long out of use. The column commemorates Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, second son of George III and heir presumptive, who died on 5 January 1827. Formerly Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, and sometimes linked to the “Grand Old Duke of York” nursery rhyme, he oversaw significant military reforms during his career. The Duke’s reputation was complicated and he...