We always meet at 10:30 in the Marzanos cafe, located in the Norwich Forum. Tables are reserved for our us to the right of the serving area. After half-an-hour socialising and talking history around our tables we, either, go to the 'Training Room' on the top floor of the library, or we go out and explore the city's many historic treasures.
Christmas Tales...
For our final session before our Christmas break (we'll resume on Tuesday 8th January), Dave Tong (historian and professional storyteller) returns to regale our members with his fantastic Christmas tales. As ever, I'm sure he will be engaging, entertaining and informative.
Historians Questions...
However, before we get to that, next Tuesday's session will see a change of approach from our recent talk orientated ones. Archive specialist, Liz Budd, is going to join us to answer our questions about how we would go about researching people, places, industries etc. What are the sources, and how can you access them? That kind of thing. This more interactive and informal session will also allow us to find out about each others interests, and we will be doing more of this format into the future...
Doing Different...
... Talking of which: yesterday, I had a conversation with BBC Producer, Gary Standley, about the possibility of club members getting involved with making some films about local historical places that mean something to them. We're resolved to make this happen, so, with that in mind, Gary will be coming to talk to us about this in the New Year. This is a great example of the way that we, in the Norwich Community History Club, "do different".
Easy to reach history...
There is another point I'd like to make, and which I will repeat from time to time: our club is about making people feel comfortable and welcome (that's one of the reasons we always start by meeting in the Marzanos cafe). Part of this, is about facilitating access. Access doesn't just happen, there has to be an active will to make it work. For this reason, if anyone who attends doesn't understand something we've discussed, or wants to make a point, but is too intimidated by 'the crowd' to do so, please do feel able to come and talk to me. It might also be that you there are other barriers you are experiencing. If so, please discuss this with me. I will make myself available after our gathering for this purpose. We come in all 'shapes and sizes', and I aspire for our club to reflect that. (Oh, and by the way, I would once have been completely intimidated myself about joining a "HISTORY CLUB", assuming, as I would have, that they would be too posh and think themselves too clever for the likes of me - I had an inferiority complex masked by an aggressive mask back then!)
Also, we tend to think about access as purely about overcoming barriers, however, it is a far more positive process than that. For instance, not only do people with different experiences and backgrounds often ask different questions, they often ask seemingly simple questions that folk who are more formally 'schooled'/immersed don't think to ask. For instance, my friend, Jacques Kalume (a Congolese refugee - and an erudite and highly intelligent man), has stumped me on a number of occasions, such as when he asked me why the Duke of Edinburgh is not called a king (can anyone help us with that one?). In a wider sense, he also made a group, where I was tutor,really think about the value of our local historic heritage, when - amazed at the age of Norwich Cathedral - he explained that it was a wonder to him and his community that such a building could survive so long, as in the Democratic Republic of Congo a terrible civil war means that - to use Jacques' words at the time - "everything is smashed." In this context, the survival of archives, buildings etc should be savoured, celebrated and appreciated much more than we tend to do.
Another example of this, is the way that people with dyslexia - perhaps because of the 'dyslexic gift' around their visual pattern recognition - seem to be really good at identifying, often seemingly incoherent, medieval graffiti. Indeed, his (then undiagnosed) dyslexia enabled Dave Tong to be excellent at reading old historic records when he was studying for his BA and MA in history at UEA...
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| Please click on image in order to enlarge: An example of pre-modern handwriting from early 1600s, transcribed from the Norwich Mayor's Court Records: "... Margaret Caly on Witson Tuesday [...] often tymes clapped her hand on her backside and badd him [an official called, Christopher Gyles] kiss there" |
I think you get my point - diversity is not just a positive exchange in itself, in our context, it also improves our thinking as historians.
Finally...
On some other projects I'm involved with, other members like to get involved by, for instance, contributing to the project's blog. If you wish to write something to go on here, or post a photo perhaps - whatever - please let me know (I can make you a contributor, so you can post on here, just as I am doing now). You don't even have to be online to do so. I'm happy to transcribe what you've written, or scan images, on your behalf. Over time, I'm sure we'll develop a Social Media team of volunteers to make this more participatory and multi-voiced platform.
See you next Tuesday!
~ Colin ~
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