Category: History Blog

The Swanley History Group’s monthly talk for April was about the history of seaside resorts in Britain. They had a guest speaker who spoke about the seaside resorts and he brought in a number of photos, paintings and postcards to show us what holidays at the seaside used to look like at an earlier time in history. The images he brought showed beaches, beach huts and piers with adverts to encourage people to visit the seaside from the nineteenth century. There were also a few postcards from the early twentieth century. There was a particular focus on resorts in Kent, including Margate, Westgate, Broadstairs and more. To encourage people to visit Kent, the railway companies worked together to advertise the resorts with posters as in the 1830s, visitors could take…

History is filled with all sorts of historical figures who have had lasting impacts on different aspects of history and life as we know it, however, when it comes down to who the most influential historical figure is, I would say it is Edward Jenner. Edward Jenner was a doctor during the late 18th century. At the time, smallpox was a common disease and it was widely feared. It killed up to 33% of those who came into contact with it and there was very little that could be done to treat or prevent it. Something that Jenner would come to notice was that milkmaids who were in close contact with cows rarely developed smallpox. This observation helped him come up with the theory that humans could be protected from…

Today I watched an episode of the great series, "The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook". At school I have been studying Britain during the 80s, so watching this was a fun way to learn more about the time period I'm studying at the moment. The episode I just watched was episode 2, "Under Pressure". This episode was about some of the different pressures that Britain faced during the 80s such as the invasion of the Falkland Islands, the introduction of the home computer, the controversy surrounding "video nasties", the threat of Aids, the threat of the IRA and the Americanisation of British popular culture. I decided to watch the documentary with my parents which was funny because they actually grew up in the 80s! There also seems to be a lot…

Recently I was reading about how Russians had supposedly influenced the Brexit vote and the US election. There are lots of conflicting stories about this and it got me thinking about fake news. Fake news is a type of journalism consisting of deliberate misinformation. The idea is that it is written to mislead readers in order to damage someone or something’s reputation or for someone to gain politically or financially. Fake news is often written to invoke feelings of outrage in readers. By doing this, readers will likely form strong opinions about something and will do what the author of the article wants them to do. Fake news is a big issue at the moment thanks to controversies surrounding Donald Trump, but people seem to forget that fake news isn’t…

Welcome I have created this site to collect together useful facts and thoughts about history. Over time I may develop the site to be more interactive. Feel free to comment on anything you think I should include or improve. Andrew