History · herstory · ourstory
Eastcheap, London, in Hugh Alley’s Caveat – the markets of London in 1598, Folger library Ms V. a. 318, edited by Ian Archer, Caroline Barron, and Vanessa Harding, London Topographical Society, 1988.
I’m writing this blog because I’ve always loved history, and being a sociable person, I love talking about it, the men and women of the past and how we are connected with them. I did History at university when I left school, a part-time evening Master’s out of interest as a working adult, and then eight years of a part-time PhD course. I had a wonderful time doing research – reading manuscripts written by people from hundreds of years ago was a fabulous experience, the feeling of connection was fantastic. What gripped me most were not the minority elites but the experiences and practices of ordinary life, how they were illumined and led by peoples’ thinking and values, or coloured by their own historical reality, of politics, religion, and so on. The fun for me is seeing how people were the same but different. The universals of enjoying nature, getting through life, daily events, having babies, going to work, what made them tick . . . the more I learn from documents, from their own writings and drawings, from the material objects they left for us to find, and from their words and phrases we still use, the more I find myself thinking of them as I go about my own life. History is all around us and I love it – it’s about everyone. So here are my thoughts connecting the people of the olden days with nowadays; it is a highly informed yet personal interaction with the past, which is why I have called it ‘Sheila’s history’. It’s my way of relating daily life with history; it comes without trying and it makes me happy. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
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