Escape Into History — Newsletter #3
A warm welcome to all subscribers.
Autumn is definitely upon us in this part of the northern hemisphere, a time of the year to stay cosy and read. If you haven’t yet had time to peruse this fledgling publication online, make yourself comfy with a brew of choice and dip into the menu:
Prehistory ~~~ Saxon / Viking ~~~ Medieval / Tudor
If you are catching this Newsletter by accident, do sign up at the bottom of this missive to get a round-up of new history stories from the United Kingdom and its near neighbours. The notifications won’t land more than every 4–6 weeks, so there’s no chance of your inbox being swamped.
There are three new stories since my last update:
Medieval/Tudor : 800 Years a Barn
Most people have heard of the Knights Templar religious-military order operating in the Holy Land at the time of the Crusades. Few understand the far-reaching contributions to the modernisation of agriculture and urban commerce its fund-raising operations across Europe initiated.
It was a delight to visit Cressing Temple during a summer research project, and walk round the two en-or-mous barns dating from the 1200s. Those roofs, tiled from first raising, weigh 55 tons. Read more here.
Prehistory : The Stonehenge Sacred Landscape — a series
I’ve been lucky enough to visit some of the sites associated with that most iconic of Neolithic monuments, Stonehenge, and I’m gathering information for a short series of stories.
The first uploaded, as might be expected, is an Overview. As with any modern construction enterprise, the Stones and their alignment is a mere culmination of a net of organisation and planning spread across years, and in this case hundreds of miles.
The second in the series looks at the homes these people built and how they were furnished 680 miles north, off the coast of Scotland, on the Orkney Isles — Homes Set In Stone.
Due to lack of wood, the people of what is now referred to as the village of Skara Brae, used splitable flagstone, not just to make their family shelters, but furnish them with box-beds, shelving systems, and oh so much we recognise from our own homes.
Currently being researched, and next to be uploaded, is a story which focuses on Durrington Walls, a Neolithic conurbation within a massive henge, a mere two miles from Stonehenge. If you think conurbation is a bit of hype on my part, the information coming out of recent archaeological digs turns everything we thought we knew about Stone Age people on its head.
There’ll be more next time. Enjoy!
Linda Acaster
Escape Into History
